There has been a dramatic rise in preterm births in developed countries owing to changes in clinical practices and greater use of assisted reproductive techniques. However, few studies have examined the growth and outcomes of preterm infants according to the type of feeding (with fortified breast milk or formula). The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of breast milk feedings and formula on the growth and short-term outcomes of preterm infants in Hong Kong. In a single-center retrospective cohort study, we included 642 preterm infants at gestational age <37 weeks with birth weights <2200 g. According to World Health Organization criteria, 466 were classified as low birth weight (LBW) infants (≥1500 g and <2200 g) and 176 were classified as very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (<1500 g). The mothers of approximately 80% of VLBW infants and 60% LBW infants initiated breast milk feeding. When compared with no breast milk intake, LBW infants that received breast milk were significantly more likely to have growth z-scores closer to the median of the reference population on admission and experienced slower weight gain from birth to discharge. When breast milk was categorized by percent of total enteral intake, significant differences were seen among LBW infants, with lower percentages of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) status at discharge with increased proportions of breast milk intake. Our results suggest that LBW infants fed breast milk had better growth z-scores and lower SGA status at discharge compared with those predominately fed preterm formula.


Providing care for older adults is a challenging task, particularly when close family members are involved: instead of spending quality time with the other person, caregiving relationships often focus on daily needs of the older adult, leaving little room for persons to communicate outside the caregiving context. In this paper, we examine the design of interactive technologies to support caregiving relationships through play. We present an exploratory study where ten caregiving dyads played cooperative motion-based video games, and follow up with two case studies to analyze how video game play affects older adults and family caregivers. Our results show that playing games generally represents an enjoyable activity for older adults and caregivers that can be integrated into the caregiving context. Based on our findings, we highlight design opportunities, and outline core challenges that need to be addressed to design accessible games that provide positive shared experiences for a wide range of caregiving dyads.


From Marco Polo to Richard Nixon, narratives of the encounter between Chinese and Westerners have been defining texts of European cultures and their descendants. Successive but sporadic reports from travellers, missionaries, diplomats, traders and others have provided a model of an alternative way of arranging people, of organizing their lives, of thinking about the state of being human; one that described a government that was, or at least was represented as being, as authoritative as anything at home, with military power that could challenge any other, and with cultural achievements as profound. Traditionally labelled "inscrutable", China nonetheless possessed a written literature, an esteemed bureaucracy, technological achievements, complex financial systems, codes and courts of law, and religions that had texts, buildings and hierarchies of priests. In other words, though not like us at all, they were exactly like us.


Abstract The present meta-analysis investigates gender differences in the 24 VIA character strengths. Based on a literature search on quantitative studies that assessed character strengths, 65 samples consisting of both published and unpublished data were included (total N = 1,189,924). A random-effects model yielded significant gender differences for 17 of the 24 character strengths, although only four of these differences showed at least small effects: Females scored higher than males in appreciation of beauty and excellence, kindness, love, and gratitude. Thus, males and females were mostly similar in their character strengths. The size of the gender differences did not vary with nationality (i.e. the US, Switzerland, Germany, and Israel), while age and type of measure were significant moderators for 13-14 character strengths. The most pronounced differences emerged between children/adolescents and the VIA-Youth in comparison to adults and the VIA-IS as well as the short measures.


In recent years, voice-controlled personal assistants have revolutionized the interaction with smart devices and mobile applications. The collected data are then used by system providers to train language models (LMs). Each spoken message reveals personal information, hence removing private information from the input sentences is necessary. Our data sanitization process relies on recognizing and replacing named entities by other words from the same class. However, this may harm LM training because privacy-transformed data is unlikely to match the test distribution. This paper aims to fill the gap by focusing on the adaptation of LMs initially trained on privacy-transformed sentences using a small amount of original untransformed data. To do so, we combine class-based LMs, which provide an effective approach to overcome data sparsity in the context of n-gram LMs, and neural LMs, which handle longer contexts and can yield better predictions. Our experiments show that training an LM on privacy-transformed data result in a relative 11% word error rate (WER) increase compared to training on the original untransformed data, and adapting that model on a limited amount of original untransformed data leads to a relative 8% WER improvement over the model trained solely on privacy-transformed data.


Abstract Technological advances and decreasing costs have led to the rise of increasingly dense genotyping data, making feasible the identification of potential causal markers. Custom genotyping chips, which combine medium-density genotypes with a custom genotype panel, can capitalize on these candidates to potentially yield improved accuracy and interpretability in genomic prediction. A particularly promising model to this end is BayesR, which divides markers into four effect size classes. BayesR has been shown to yield accurate predictions and promise for quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping in real data applications, but an extensive benchmarking in simulated data is currently lacking. Based on a set of real genotypes, we generated simulated data under a variety of genetic architectures and phenotype heritabilities, and we evaluated the impact of excluding or including causal markers among the genotypes. We define several statistical criteria for QTL mapping, including several based on sliding windows to account for linkage disequilibrium (LD). We compare and contrast these statistics and their ability to accurately prioritize known causal markers. Overall, we confirm the strong predictive performance for BayesR in moderately to highly heritable traits, particularly for 50k custom data. In cases of low heritability or weak LD with the causal marker in 50k genotypes, QTL mapping is a challenge, regardless of the criterion used. BayesR is a promising approach to simultaneously obtain accurate predictions and interpretable classifications of SNPs into effect size classes. We illustrated the performance of BayesR in a variety of simulation scenarios, and compared the advantages and limitations of each.


Although charge resonance enhanced ionization (CREI) be an ubiquitous effect in molecules in strong laser fields, the associated electron emission remains difficult to deal with. The main reason relies on the fact that CREI is part of an overall multielectron ionization, where the initial steps of single and dissociative ionization of neutral species dominate the electron spectrum. Using the rescattered electrons, we show that it is possible to address the electron signal from CREI without any contribution from other electron signals. The electrons from CREI are preferentially emitted when the molecular axis is parallel to the laser electric field as expected from its electronic dynamics. Acetylene is chosen for demonstration purpose because single ionization, which is not related to CREI, is more pronounced when the C2H2 molecular axis is perpendicular to the laser electric field.


The team effectiveness is the most important phenomenon whenever the team work is performed, in the small projects either within the organizations or any other projects like, special assignments, Building dams, roads and many other which requires a team work. It is the most important thing for any team work to complete the assign task with the efficiency and the effectiveness. So it is the most important thing to find out which factors has the most importance in any sort of small projects to achieve the effectiveness. For this researcher has collected the responses from the experts which are having 10 plus experiences in the project management and have completed many projects which requires a team work. The collected responses therefore check with the help of expert choice, analytical hierarchical process (AHP), so that the important factors can be sort out and the weightage suggest which factor to focus most and what to focus after that so on. The team effectiveness model has been adopted and on the basis of that it has been checked which dimension and in that which sub dimension is the most important factor within the team work for creating the effectiveness. For achieving this task the Bi-polar questionnaire has been used and collected data from the experts.


We generated a library of ~1000 Drosophila stocks in which we inserted a construct in the intron of genes allowing expression of GAL4 under control of endogenous promoters while arresting transcription with a polyadenylation signal 3' of the GAL4. This allows numerous applications. First, ~90% of insertions in essential genes cause a severe loss-of-function phenotype, an effective way to mutagenize genes. Interestingly, 12/14 chromosomes engineered through CRISPR do not carry second-site lethal mutations. Second, 26/36 (70%) of lethal insertions tested are rescued with a single UAS-cDNA construct. Third, loss-of-function phenotypes associated with many GAL4 insertions can be reverted by excision with UAS-flippase. Fourth, GAL4 driven UAS-GFP/RFP reports tissue and cell-type specificity of gene expression with high sensitivity. We report the expression of hundreds of genes not previously reported. Finally, inserted cassettes can be replaced with GFP or any DNA. These stocks comprise a powerful resource for assessing gene function.


This paper adopted statistical and econometric methods to analyze the relationship between the indicators of public libraries, including the total collection of books, total number of circulation, volume of books borrow, total expenses, acquisition expenditures of books and technological innovation. The results indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between them and two indicators: newly acquired collections and the total collection of books, play an especially important role. According to the empirical analysis, this validates that public library services have facilitated the development of scientific and technological innovation


Carcinoma in men, especially retired farmers, has been frequently seen by us in the past few years. These patients, men with large, well developed bodies of the "frontiersman" type, usually gave a history of having retired from the farm in good health, a few years previously, to enjoy a well deserved rest. On the other hand we have often talked with farmers, who for one reason or another still shouldered the responsibilities of the farm, who were well and working hard though sixty, seventy, or even eighty years of age. This observation brought us to consider muscular activity in relation to carcinoma. There have been no deaths from carcinoma among the Turn Teachers (1) in the past thirty years. Thirty deaths from all causes occurred in this period, and we should expect at least three deaths from carcinoma. The Turn Teachers are of necessity active in a muscular sense. While the list is not large, the exception to the rule is interesting. We have repeatedly noted that patients, clinically diagnosed as precancerous, improved in a most satisfactory manner on a prescription for increased daily exercise, as rope skipping for women, golf and brisk daily walks for men. Muscular activity stimulates metabolism and retards the approach of senescence and decay. The tuberculosis problem has been greatly simplified by the recognition of the value of rest, sunshine, wholesome food and fresh air. We believe that the carcinoma problem may also be simplified by the recognition of the value of muscular activity in those periods of life most affected by carcinoma, those periods of life when we are prone to "let down" and check our pace. If muscular activity has an intimate relationship to carcinoma, the value of it will be most apparent in prophylaxsis, the field which to date promises the most in the attack on this malady.


Urinary incontinence (UI) in older adult patients poses a risk for complications and hospitalization. The aim of this quality improvement project was to develop and implement a protocol to promote continence in older adults with UI. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 26 participants, 80 years of age or older, in a midsize suburban home care agency. All participants were diagnosed with UI as documented in the Outcomes and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). OASIS question M1610 was used to identify patients with UI status, and M1650 was used, to identify UI frequency. The outcomes for these questions were assessed to examine change over time in UI status and frequency. Eligible patients completed a 3-day bladder diary, then patient education was conducted on UI, risk factors, bladder training, pelvic floor exercises, and hydration/nutrition parameters. Patients then completed 3-day bladder diaries postintervention. At pretest, 100% of the participants were incontinent. At posttest, 24 participants (92.3%) were incontinent. The results suggest that the median frequency of UI declined overtime from 2 (range: 1-4) at pretest to 1 (range: 0-4) at posttest. This decline was statistically significant (z = -3.83; p < .001). Future studies should examine changes in the UI complications and hospitalization rates.


were rated to enable highly diagnostic confidence (82.9%), and produce better image quality for the near field image (94.3%), the far field image (88.6%), and overall (94.3%). Conclusions: The current study described an objective method of comparing image quality acquired using different sonographic technologies. Ultrasound transducer incorporated with PureWave Crystal technology produces significantly better image quality for diagnostic purpose.


'This is essential reading for social marketing practitioners, researchers and students. the book describes a comprehensive range of behavior change theories of relevance to social marketing and is complemented with illustrative case ...


This paper describes the steps taken to create the scoring criteria aimed at measuring the quality of maps produced by teams participating in the RoboCup Rescue Virtual Robots competition. Since metrics have already been developed by a few research groups, we start by highlighting the most popular solutions to this problem, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. Having put the difficulty of creating map benchmarks into perspective, we present our map benchmark suite, appropriate for Urban Search and Rescue missions, along with examples taken from former competitions.


Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research often indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new original survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this paper examines differences in tenure and promotion among racialized and female faculty  and investigates the extent to which explanations of human capital theory and cultural or identity taxation account for these disparities. Logistic regression confirms that controlling for human capital and cultural or identity taxation washes away the differences between male and female faculty for achieving both tenure and promotion. However, differences for racialized faculty remain, thereby offering evidence of discrimination in the academic system.


As the pace of large corporate mergers has increased recently, so too have the reports of concerns by civic leaders about the negative effects of mergers on communities losing corporate headquarters, including a loss of civic leadership, philanthropy, jobs, and investment. Such adverse social consequences of mergers are not presently relevant to antitrust analysis, which dismisses so-called noneconomic values in favor of narrow efficiency or consumer welfare objectives. Yet it is widely accepted, although generally ignored, that preserving local control of business, and other supposedly noneconomic values, were the predominant concern of Congress in restricting mergers under the federal antitrust laws. In a challenge to current antitrust discourse, this Article maintains that the loss of local control should be restored as a factor in merger policy. A review of the legislative history of the 1950 Celler-Kefauver amendments to section 7 of the Clayton Act shows that Congress sought to preserve local control of business because it believed that distantly controlled firms were, in today's parlance, less socially responsible than local firms. The Article demonstrates that Congress's historic concern is borne out to a significant extent by modern social science literature. Empirical studies indicate that communities often (but not invariably) face significant social costs from mergers when a major corporate headquarters is lost and control of a firm is transferred from locally based managers to distant or absentee managers, a process referred to as delocalization. Moreover, the loss of corporate headquarters may impair overall social welfare and efficiency, thus suggesting that restoring local control as a consideration in merger analysis is consistent with modern welfare economics. The Article develops a doctrinal argument for considering the loss of local control as a noncompetitive factor that would militate against mergers with uncertain competitive effects, outlines various alternatives for incorporating this factor into antitrust merger review, and also offers a proposal for considering the loss of local control as an adverse factor in the analysis of bank mergers under federal banking law.


With a specific online article as point of departure, this article1 investigates the phenomenon of "bad behaviour" on the part of socalled "celebrities" online. It focuses on the article in question to be able to show what is at stake, namely, the fact that ordinary people are affected by celebrities' online actions, specifically in the form of either confusion regarding their own behaviour, or by imitating the actions concerned. This is followed by raising questions regarding online behaviour and "normalisation" and exploring these through the work of relevant authors such as Goffman (2006), Maisonneuve (1995), Huizinga (2007) and others, with a view to make sense of the fact that even supposedly shocking behaviour on the part of celebrities seems to be judged in terms of different criteria compared to everyday actions on the part of ordinary people. The role of advanced electronic technology in affecting people's behaviour is also noted, before turning to Plato and (particularly) Aristotle's notion of mimesis (imitation) to be able to understand what might be termed the "celebrity effect". The related question of identification with the images of celebrities is also briefly examined before concluding with a reference to Boorstin's (1992) famous account of a "celebrity".


We study information sharing in a Cournot duopoly with isoelastic demand function, when the elasticity is uncertain. This is one of the first attempts to analyze the role of nonlinearity in such a framework. We found important results about the profitability of sharing informations when marginal costs are high and/or the variance between elasticity values is low. From the point of view of welfare considerations, not sharing information seems to be the best scenario.


This thesis develops the notion of the bioenergy transition as the long-term transformation of biomass from a local resource into a global commodity. An historical assessment is combined with interdisciplinary analysis that focuses especially on liquid biofuels and highlights the environmentally innovative case of bioethanol. The bioenergy transition is investigated from several different perspectives: technical-economic, socio-economic, socio-technical and political-economic. Linkages across different levels from household to global are analysed in relation to the effectiveness of bioenergy policies. In addition to studies at household and national levels, a North-South perspective is taken by including two major regions: the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The relation of EU biofuels policy to international climate and trade regimes is assessed to show how regional-global linkages affect policy design and implementation.Household bioenergy markets in developing countries are poorly articulated and difficult to link to other sectors; a detailed choice model in Ethiopia showed that product-specific factors should be evaluated to inform design of programmes and policies. Municipal and sub-national markets for bioenergy have been successfully linked to national policies to coordinate supply and demand in Brazil and Sweden. Regional market development for biofuels has great potential in southern Africa but regional-national linkages currently remain unexploited. National level efforts remain quite important in terms of energy security and environmental innovation, as evidenced in Brazil, Malawi and Sweden. Biofuels sustainability criteria in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU-RED) were evaluated in relation to the international climate and trade regimes and were found to shift some costs onto developing countries. One of the mechanisms for assuring biofuels sustainability is bilateral agreements, which remain untested but potentially effective.Cross-level linkages were often unexploited in the cases studied; national approaches cannot easily capture complementarities across sectors and scales in biophysical and economic terms. Linking biofuels markets across different levels from household to global through regional development policies and specialised governance mechanisms could help to steer the bioenergy transition towards sustainability.


Three new and different businesses will emerge Many traditional industry players will have to close or sell large portions of their current business No one has yet discovered the electric equivalent of call waiting, but they will Market forces unleashed by deregulation are starting to reshape the US electric utility industry. As with banking and telecommunications before it, the sector is set to be transformed. Mergers and massive consolidation will take place. New competitors will emerge to redefine the economics and competitive dynamics of the business, just as MCI did in telecom, and Fidelity in banking. Some traditional players, like ATT others will dwindle, vanish, or be subsumed. The winners will create substantial value for their shareholders. This vertically integrated industry is about to fragment into three separate but linked businesses - generation, wires, and power services - plus a dispatch function [ILLUSTRATION FOR EXHIBIT 1 OMITTED]. Each will have its own players and distinctive competitive dynamics. Generation will be a cost-based commodity business. Wires, combining transmission and distribution functions, will consist of regulated open access networks. Power services, encompassing wholesale and retail commodity sales and including other energy and nonenergy products, will be provided by a third set of competitors. The dispatch function, responsible for scheduling, grid control, and price settlements, will be fulfilled by an independent regulated entity. Tremendous value is at stake as the industry evolves into these three businesses. The delivered cost of electricity can be expected to fall by 10 to 20 percent, depending on the outcome of regulatory decisions on the recovery of uneconomic supply costs (so-called "stranded costs") and performance-based rate-making. Individual customer savings will vary widely, since future prices will reflect the real (rather than average) cost of service according to geography, load profile, and willingness to suffer interruptions in supply. Regulators may try to protect residential and small commercial customers, but economics will win out in the market-driven world of the future. All told, investor-owned utilities (IOUs) could collectively lose nearly $30 billion annually - about 15 percent of today's industry revenues, and over 100 percent of the after tax profits of all utilities combined. Fortunately, the value created through restructuring and growth into new businesses could exceed this value at risk by as much as $15 billion. This suggests that if it is managed well, industry restructuring could benefit both participants and their customers. Each of the three businesses - generation, wires, and power services - offers different opportunities for value creation, and each has a unique risk profile. Equally important, the factors that will separate the winners from the losers will also vary from one business to another. Generation Despite fears of billions of dollars of stranded investments, changes in the generation industry could offset the shareholder value at risk. Generation is well on its way to becoming a highly competitive, regionally based commodity business. The new competitive regions will be defined by transmission limitations and are likely to be very large - far bigger than current reliability councils. Bilateral and spot markets will exist in parallel. In each region, supply and demand dynamics will follow long cycles, causing prices to waiver between replacement and marginal costs. This typical commodity pricing pattern will produce unattractive average returns for many participants, with a great deal of variability between players. Our analysis of plant assets indicates that just under half of all utility supply portfolios are uncompetitive, owing to a combination of high costs and low capacity value. …


Reactively dealing with self-collisions is an important requirement on multidegree-of-freedom robots in unstructured and dynamic environments. Classical methods to integrate respective algorithms into task hierarchies cause substantial problems: Either these unilateral safety constraints are permanently active, unnecessarily locking DOF for other tasks, or they get activated online and result in a discontinuous control law. We propose a new, reactive self-collision avoidance algorithm for highly complex robotic systems with a large number of DOF. In particular, configuration-dependent damping is imposed to dissipate undesired kinetic energy in a well-directed manner. Moreover, we merge the algorithm with a novel method to incorporate these unilateral constraints into a dynamic task hierarchy. Our approach both allows us to specifically limit the force/torque derivative to comply with physical constraints of the real robot and to prevent discontinuities in the control law while activating/deactivating the constraints. No redundancy is wasted. No comparable algorithms have been developed and implemented on a torque-controlled robot with such a level of complexity so far. The implementation of our generic solution on the multi-DOF humanoid Justin clearly validates the performance and demonstrates the real-time applicability of our synthetic approach. The proposed method can be used to contribute to whole-body controllers.


It is well known that fusion plasma operations can be limited in standard scenarios at high β by resistive instabilities, called neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs), which degrade the plasma confinement leading to a loss of plasma energy, and in some cases to disruption. The avoidance of their onset is a very important issue that has been largely investigated in many tokamaks. In particular, it has been shown that these modes, shaped as magnetic islands, can be triggered by finite seed perturbations associated with long sawtooth crashes. The control of the sawtooth periods is then a key step in the physics of plasma confinement in fusion devices: the shortening of these periods can reduce any triggered large seed island below the NTMs' growth threshold allowing maximum β values and high plasma performances to be achieved. A powerful tool for sawtooth control is the use of high localized electron cyclotron heating (ECH) and current drive (ECCD), capable of modifying the plasma current density and effecting the sawtooth period. Modulated ECH and ECCD have been used as triggers of sawtooth crashes to test conditions for an a priori constant sawtooth period. In the FTU high magnetic field compact tokamak (R0 = 0.93 m, a = 0.3 m, B0 = 4–8 T) similar experiments have been performed with an ECRH system of four gyrotrons operating at 140 GHz and delivering 0.5 MW each. Repetitive pulses of EC power from 1 to 2 gyrotrons up to 0.8 MW for 500 ms have been used to investigate the sensitivity of sawtooth periods during long and short EC switching on and off phases in view of a real time EC control system soon to be working in FTU. A new type of locking of the sawtooth periods to the EC modulation has been observed for deposition inside the q = 1 radius for EC on phase smaller than the ohmic period. In this paper, sawtooth period shortening and locking by ECH and co-ECCD inside the q = 1 radius is investigated and reproduced by numeric simulations.


.............................................................................................................................. i Declaration by author ....................................................................................................... iv Publications during candidature ...................................................................................... v Publications included in this thesis ............................................................................... vii Contributions by others to the thesis .............................................................................. x Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... xii


An underground mining ventilation testing facility (VTF) was designed and constructed at the HySA facility at the North-West University, South Africa. The purpose was to evaluate risks associated with different hydrogen storage technologies in a confined environment. The work included initial calculations of hydrogen movement in specific spaces and the development of simulation tools to compare these modelled results with experimental work. For this purpose, hydrogen sensors that could accurately measure hydrogen concentrations during a controlled hydrogen leak at the VTF were required. Hazardous hydrogen sensors capable of measuring >4% hydrogen are not readily available commercially. Typically, hydrogen sensors rated for hazardous environments are designed for safety actions (e.g., activating emergency measures when hydrogen is detected) at concentrations of 8%. (Measuring concentrations higher than this is not required for commercial use, hence there is no market for such sensors.) At the VTF, it is necessary to be able to measure hydrogen concentrations >4% in order to obtain information on the flammable hydrogen concentrations at specified distances and orientations around a controlled hydrogen leak. Initial experimental work was conducted at low pressures, resulting in very low hydrogen concentrations. Commercial available original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hydrogen sensors were capable of measuring 0.2% hydrogen, which, for the low pressures and gas flows here, proved sufficient to enable us to make sensible conclusions. However, higher pressures and gas flows are essential in practical use, hence higher concentrations of hydrogen need to be measured. A custom sensor was developed by HySA, while commercial sensors (OEM) were investigated. This work reports on the testing and evaluation of several hydrogen sensors. Results of initial ventilation tests are presented.


The republication of Karl Korsch's Karl Marx (1938) makes available to a new generation of readers the most concise account of Karl Marx's thought by one of the major figures of twentieth-century Western Marxism.


Adherence is very important for performance of water-base UV varnish and has directly effect on the quality of the coating and the following process. The samples of water-base UV varnish were prepared by different pre-polymers and monomers. The effect of volume shrinkage and wet-ability on the adhesion of water-base UV varnish is studied through a series of experiments. The results show that the volume shrinkage has apparent effect on the adhesion, the smaller the volume shrinkage is, the better adhesion of water-base UV varnish is; the volume shrinkage is increasing with the increasing of the numbers of the functional groups; wet-ability is necessary for the varnish which can adhere to the substrate and has no directly effect on the adherence.


The Black Soldier Fly (BSF) Hermetia illucens is a cosmopolitan fly heavily used by industrial companies to reduce biowaste and produce protein and fat for poultry and aquaculture feed. However, the natural history and the genetic diversity of the BSF is poorly known. In this study, we analysed 677 CO1 sequences derived from samples found all over the five continents leading us to the discovery of 52 haplotypes including 10 major haplotypes. We refined the definition of these haplotypes by sequencing 59 mitochondrial genomes. We could derive an estimate of the separation events of the different haplotypes at more than two million years for the oldest branches. This worldwide cryptic genetic and genomic diversity is mirrored at local scale in France in which we found five major haplotypes sometimes in sympatry. Our data resolve the phylogenetic relationships between the major lineages and give insights into the dispersal and the numbers of BSF neo-introduction at global and local scales. Our results indicate that the genetic and genomic diversity of commercial BSF stock is very low and these brood stock participated in the dissemination of the BSF in the wild. Taken together these results call for a better understanding of the genomic diversity of the BSF to unravel possible specific adaptations of the different lineages for industrial needs and to initiate the selection process.


Male rats implanted with chronic electrodes into the postero-lateral hypothalamic site were tested for self-stimulation behaviour. Rats exhibiting steady self-stimulation behaviour were observed during mating tests with an oestrus female. During these tests the hypothalamus of male rats was stimulated. Results show that no stimulus-bound sexual behaviour was observed. Nevertheless, correlations were found between the rewarding value of the cerebral stimulation and the specific sexual components of mating behaviour. These results are interpreted with the hypothesis of a balancing effect between the reward elicited by direct stimulation of the brain and reward acquired by the presence of an oestrus female.


In order to certify performance and safety, feedback control requires precise characterization of sensor errors. In this paper, we provide guarantees on such feedback systems when sensors are characterized by solving a supervised learning problem. We show a uniform error bound on nonparametric kernel regression under a dynamically-achievable dense sampling scheme. This allows for a finite-time convergence rate on the sub-optimality of using the regressor in closed-loop for waypoint tracking. We demonstrate our results in simulation with simplified unmanned aerial vehicle and autonomous driving examples.


This policy brief examines the con- text, development and future of the human rights regime in the Americas —a region where people in many states have suffered brutal repression on a massive scale. It argues that the changing nature of human rights violations in Latin America demands a refocusing of international and domestic policies, building state capacity and improving the implementation of judicial reforms. The significant progress achieved in protection of civil and political rights should inspire and guide strategies to promote economic, social and cultural rights.


Recent research has shown that effective dialogue management can be achieved through the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework. However past research on POMDP-based dialogue systems usually assumed the parameters of the decision process were known a priori. The main contribution of this paper is to present a Bayesian reinforcement learning framework for learning the POMDP parameters online from data, in a decision-theoretic manner. We discuss various approximations and assumptions which can be leveraged to ensure computational tractability, and apply these techniques to learning observation models for several simulated spoken dialogue domains.


In the world of Korean shamanism, there is a particular god, called taegam, which is allegedly famous for its love of money and its abundance of greed for material wealth. During the shamanic ritual of chaesu-kut, the rites for good fortune and luck, this god is popularly worshipped as the Deity of Wealth and is typically symbolized by money placed all over its face and spirit costumes. Nonetheless, as money has the two sides of heads and tails, taegam also has two very different faces—so-taegam and taegam. This article explores the ambiguity of the two taegam gods, focusing on the symbolic action of money-offerings and how its meaning is taken from the perspective of the ritual actors, in the hope of shedding light on the place of Korea's traditional popular religion of shamanism in today's transformed urban landscape. By discussing the semantics of "money is the filial child" (a remark made by so-taegam) and "money is the enemy" (as remarked by taegam), statements I often heard during my fieldwork in Seoul, I suggest that the ambivalent symbolic nature of taegam should be seen as an indispensible vehicle for understanding ritual life, as well as everyday life, of urban Korean people since it is closely related to both normative orientations and the contradictory aspects of the material culture of contemporary urbanites inhabiting the borderless, globalized, and fluctuating modern capitalist market. This conclusion is reached partly with reference to existing sociological theories of money and anthropological inquiries into the ambivalent aspects of taegam.


To study the time course of changes in the growth and development in children, the indices of physical and biological development were studied in 1935 children aged 3 to 7 years who went to the preschoolchildren's establishments in Kransnoyarsk in 1989-1990 and 1999-2000. There were increases in the number of children with intrauterine hypotrophy and in that of preschoolchildren with retarded biological development. In the pattern of disharmonious variants of physical development there was a rise in the proportion of obese children and a reduction in that of lean children. These trends suggest that there are negative changes in the growth and development of children in Kransnoyarsk.


Replication of information across a server cluster provides a promising way to support popular Web sites. However a Web server cluster requires some mechanism for directing requests to the best server. One common approach is to use the Domain Name Server (DNS) as a centralized schedule. However address caching mechanisms and the non-uniformity of the load from different client domains complicate the load balancing issue and make existing scheduling algorithms for traditional distributed systems not applicable to Web server clusters. We consider the theoretical DNS policies that require some system state information. We extend them to realistic situations where state information needs to be estimated with low computation and communication overhead. We show that by incorporating these estimators into the DNS policies, load balancing improves substantially, even if the DNS control is limited to a small portion of client requests.


Pancreatoduodenal resection (PDR) represents one of the most demanding procedures which is required in patients with a tumoral lesion at this level. The aim of the present article was to report the results of 272 patients submitted to such surgical procedures. All patients were divided into two groups: the main group, for whom the optimized decompression algorithm was used (n=112) and the control group, for whom preparation for PDR was carried out according to generally accepted standards (n=160). Upon admission to the hospital, the total bilirubin level in the main group was 274.6±5.9 µmol/l while in the control group this level was 270.4±4.6 µmol/l. PDR was performed in 272 of the patients. Whipple's terminolateral anastomosis was performed in 38/160 (23.7%) of patients in the control group; termino-terminal anastomosis according to Shalimov-Kopchak's method was imposed in 40/160 (25.0%) patients of the control group. Pancreatojejunoanastomosis with the imposition of a ductomucosal anastomosis was performed in 128 patients in total with 73 cases in the main group and in 55 cases in the control one. Pancreatogastroanastomosis with plunging of the pancreatic stump into the stomach stump was performed in 35 patients in total with 19 patients in the main group and 16 in the control group. Pancreatogastroanastomosis with plunging of the pancreatic stump into the 'stomach sleeve' was performed in 32 patients in total with 20 patients in the main group and 12 in the control group. The mortality rate in the main group was 6.3% (7 patients), and in the control group, 11.9% (19 patients). In conclusion, biliary decompression may improve the postoperative outcomes after pancreatic resection.


As a new way of stabilizing the housing for the urban poor, the Korean government proposed 'Dagagu' Housing Purchase and Pubic Rental Program (DPPRP) and implemented a pilot program in 2004. The purpose of this study is to fine out whether DPPRP can be an alternative measure to solve the housing problems facing the urban poor. Physical aspects and community conditions of 'Dagagu' housing purchased by the government will be evaluated. The changes in the tenants' perception of the quality of housing after moving in the current dwellings will be studied. 46 households were temporarily selected, who moved in the purchased public rental housing in 5 districts (DPPRP pilot area). And among them, 32 households were designated as the final subjects, which could do the interview. The surveyors made door-to-door visits to tenant's houses and conducted in-depth interview by using a questionnaire The effects of 'Dagagu' Housing Purchase and Public Rental Program can be summarized according to housing environment aspects and economic aspects as follows: After moving in the public rental housing, the respondents saw improvements in overall housing environment and were satisfied with the current housing. According to a survey on the rental fee before and after moving in public rental housing, the rental fee of the latter has greatly declined. Given that the quality of previous housing is inferior to the current housing, the lessened rental burden is very meaningful.


Biomedical research is rapidly transforming our understanding of health and disease, with major implications for medical practice. But the science education of physicians has not kept pace with these advances. Today, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute release a report that addresses this issue.* The analysis, by a committee of U.S. undergraduate and medical school faculty that we co-chaired, comes 6 years after the U.S. National Academies report BIO 2010, which noted that undergraduate premedical course requirements and the content of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) constrain innovation in undergraduate science education.


How did literary aestheticism emerge in Victorian England, with its competing models of religious doubt and visions of secularisation? For Lyons, the aestheticism developed and progressively revised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) and Walter Pater (1839-1894) illuminates the contradictory impulses of modern secularism: on the one hand, a desire to cast itself as a form of neutrality or disinterestedness; on the other, a desire to affirm 'this world' as the place of human flourishing or even enchantment. The standard narrative of a 'crisis of faith' does not do justice to the fissured, uncertain quality of Victorian visions of secularisation. Precisely because it had the status of a confusing hypothesis rather than a self-evident reality, it provoked not only dread and melancholia, but also forms of fantasy. Within this context Lyons gives a fundamentally new account of the aims and nature of Victorian aestheticism, taking as a focus its deceptively simple claim that art is for art's sake first of all.


Ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a major cause of acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease, which consists of cellular damage and renal dysfunction. AKI is a major complication that is of particular concern after cardiac surgery and to a lesser degree following organ transplantation in the immediate post-transplantation period, leading to delayed graft function. Because effective therapies are still unavailable, several recent studies have explored the potential benefit of hypoxic preconditioning (HPC) on IRI. HPC refers to the acquisition of increased organ tolerance to subsequent ischaemic or severe hypoxic injury, and experimental evidences suggest a potential benefit of HPC. There are three experimental forms of HPC, and, for better clarity, we named them as follows: physical HPC, HPC via treated-cell administration and stabilised hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α HPC, or mimicked HPC. The purpose of this review is to present the latest developments in the literature on HPC in the context of renal IRI in pre-clinical models. The data we compiled suggest that preconditional activation of hypoxia pathways protects against renal IRI, suggesting that HPC could be used in the treatment of renal IRI in transplantation.


Modeling the dynamic fluid behavior of low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF) at the reservoir scale is a challenge that requires a coarse-grid simulation to enable prediction in a feasible time scale. However, evidence shows that using low-resolution models will result in a considerable mismatch compared with an equivalent fine-scale model with the potential of strong, numerically induced pulses and other dispersion-related effects. This work examines two new upscaling methods that have been applied to improve the accuracy of predictions in a heterogeneous reservoir where viscous crossflow takes place.We apply two approaches to upscaling to bring the flow prediction closer to being exact. In the first method, we shift the effective-salinity range for the coarse model using algorithms that we have developed to correct for numerical dispersion and associated effects. The second upscaling method uses appropriately derived pseudorelative permeability curves. The shape of these new curves is designed using a modified fractional-flow analysis of LSWF that captures the relationship between dispersion and the waterfront velocities. This second approach removes the need for explicit simulation of salinity transport to model oil displacement. We applied these approaches in layered models and for permeability distributed as a correlated random field.Upscaling by shifting the effective-salinity range of the coarse-grid model gave a good match to the fine-scale scenario, while considerable mismatch was observed for upscaling of the absolute permeability alone. For highly coarsened models, this method of upscaling reduced the appearance of numerically induced pulses. On the other hand, upscaling by using a single (pseudo)relative permeability produced more robust results with a very promising match to the fine-scale scenario. These methods of upscaling showed promising results when they were used to scale up fully communicating and noncommunicating layers as well as models with randomly correlated permeability.Unlike documented methods in the literature, these newly derived methods take into account the substantial effects of numerical dispersion and effective concentration on fluid dynamics using mathematical tools. The methods could be applied for other models where the phase mobilities change as a result of an injected solute, such as surfactant flooding and alkaline flooding. Usually these models use two sets of relative permeability and switch from one to another as a function of the concentration of the solute.


Training and technical assistance efforts for community based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships have the potential to improve outcomes in both scientific rigor and collaboration. Successful competition for regional or national funding for CBPR represents a critical step in this trajectory. To this end, a collaboration funded through this NIEHS award has developed and implemented an intensive training program (Community Based Research Infrastructure to Better Science [CRIBS]) to build capacity among community-academic teams to conduct CBPR into disparities in breast cancer and/or environmental causes of breast cancer. The program includes face-to-face training; online training; mock grant review; and technical assistance (TA); and skill-building in creating CBPR partnerships; understanding the science of the environmental causes of and disparities in breast cancer; creating a pathway from vision to project; and writing successful grant applications. Participants in the training included 31 individuals in 12 partnerships with at least one community and one academic member in each. Fifty-five percent of participants identified as belonging to an ethnic or racial minority group; 81% identified as female; 58% identified as community partners; the mean age was 49.76 years old (median = 52; range = 23 to 71). Partnerships came from twelve locations across California. TA efforts began in the second month of F2F trainings and included: a) four, monthly, tailored, in-person consultations of up to 1.5 hrs in length; b) review of an 8-page concept paper prepared by each team; c) four, monthly, tailored one-hour phone consultations. TA was provided by CRIBS staff and representatives from national funding organizations with expertise in scientific and collaborative aspects of breast cancer research, as well as by experts in the field of CBPR, disparities, and the environment. Over time, improved clarity and specificity were evident in the research questions formulated across partnerships. Implications of tailored, technical assistance for partnerships embarking on CBPR in disparities are discussed.

Citation Format: Senaida Fernandez, Marj Plumb, Catherine Thomsen, Braun Susan, Heather Sarantis, Juliana van Olphen, Emily Galpern, Marion Kavanaugh-Lynch. Technical assistance as part of capacity building for collaborative research in breast cancer, the environment, and/or disparities. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2012 Oct 27-30; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B05.


Sensitivity experiments of direct radiative forcing (RF) caused by mineral dust (MD) for the optical and physical properties of MD, surface albedo, solar zenith angle, and cloud cover were conducted using the Streamer-based Radiative Transfer Model for ADEC Sciences (SRTMAS). The atmospheric and dust profiles were simulated with a chemical transport model at four locations: the sea off Japan, the desert in Tarim Basin, the Sahara Desert, and snow in Siberia. The optimum calculation condition to estimate RF was also tested for the effect of the number of streams used in SRTMAS on the accuracy of RF by MD and the influence of all aerosols other than MD on RF by MD or all aerosols. When several types of aerosols are contained in the atmosphere, the test results showed that the RF by MD should not be calculated from the difference in net radiation between MD-only case and an aerosol-free case, but the difference in net radiation between a case containing all aerosols and a case containing all aerosols except MD. The experiment results by this method confirmed that the sensitivity of instantaneous RF in the shortwave (SW) region at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) to the refractive index strongly depends on surface albedo. Namely, the effect of the difference in the MD model on instantaneous RF is significant over high albedo surfaces and is relatively small over the sea. This is because the multiple reflection between the atmosphere (dust) and surface enhances light absorption by dust particles over high albedo surfaces. Over desert surfaces, the instantaneous RF in SW at TOA produced both positive and negative values within the possible refractive index range of MD. The diurnally averaged RF in SW at TOA also produced both positive and negative values in the possible range of desert albedo. The effect of the spectral distribution of surface albedo on RFs in SW for the TOA, surface, and atmosphere was examined for various surfaces. It was found that for small dust particles with an effective radius of less than 0.6 μm, RFs by MD changed depending on the difference in surface type even if the broadband albedo was the same. This is due to the contrast of spectral distribution between albedo and the extinction coefficient of MD. The vertical positional relationship of cloud cover to dust layer was also very important for RF at TOA in all spectral regions over desert and sea surfaces. However, the effect of cloud cover was generally small over snow surface because cloud albedo was close to the underlying snow albedo.


Mental Health and Environment , by Lord Taylor and Sidney Chave, is one of a number of studies published in the last decade dealing with the epidemiology of mental illness. 1-5 Since there are not yet conclusive data concerning the definite diagnosis of various types of mental illnesses in different cultures, the determination of prevalence and incidence of such illnesses is necessarily incomplete. Comparison of different studies is made even more difficult by the real lack of comparable categories for analyzing the data. In order to get any view of current thinking, each of several studies must be examined; thus, one can seek to gain some small insight into the pattern of a total fabric which is still being woven. In this context, examination of Lord Taylor's work reveals several advantages, and to this reviewer, at least, one major disadvantage. The clarity of the presentation of epidemiologic material is impressive. A


Abstract 2020 Elsevier Ltd Increasing world population and consequent increase in fossil fuels consumption emerge the necessity of looking for new sources of energy; resources that are clean, cheap, and renewable. Hydrogen is known as a clean and renewable fuel in various approaches; so, finding clean ways of hydrogen production can be considered as an appropriate solution for climate changes and global warming. In this study, a conceptual design of solar-driven high-temperature steam electrolyzer system is presented, and its performance is investigated thermodynamically using a real-time simulator in-house code. Evaluation of the effects of inlet parameters on the system performance is performed and the system real-time performance is calculated on design day at two different sites. Results show that the proposed system is able to separate 98% of existed hydrogen in the feed water and produce pure hydrogen with the rate of 1.2 g/s with overall energy and exergy efficiencies of 21.5% and 22.5% respectively. In addition, the main exergy destructor item is reported as the solar collector with 36.4% exergy degradation of inlet exergy. Based on the results, it was deduced that the most effective parameters on heat absorption are direct normal irradiance and incidence angle while relative humidity has no major effect. Furthermore, the designed system produced 52.43kg and 26.45kg hydrogen on the design day at Sterling and Babol Noshirvani University of Technology sites. The mean annual hydrogen production for these sites were estimated 4.98 and 3.93 tons, respectively.


This project focuses on the creation of an Android app for location based push commercials, which henceforth will be called an offers app. The idea of the app is the following: Users are allowed to chose which ac- tors they want to subscribe to, and they only receive offers from that actor when entering one of their physical stores. Actor meaning any business with a storefront in this setting. The hypothesis was that if you let users chose who they get ads from, and only get them when entering a physical store, they would give users such a good user experience that they would be willing to download and use an app which only purpose is to give offers. To achieve this the author has usability tested prototypes of the of- fers app and interviewed subjects about it. After doing this and landing on a fitting design a questionnaire was given to acquaintances of the author through social media in order to collect some measurement on how people perceive the app. Google Locationing Application Programming Interface (API) was field tested in order to determine if it was suited for tracking and triggering ads when users enters a storefront of an subscribed actor. Other tracking technologies were also looked at in order to find a tracking technology that fit the purpose of the app. From the usability testing, interviewing and questionnaire we have found a solution people are willing to try, and seemingly have a quite positive feeling about. From field testing we have found that Google Locationing API is not suited for detecting when the user enters an actors storefront. The research of alternative tracking technologies and solutions suggests that Ibeacons using Bluetooth Low Energy would be a fitting technology for tracking when users enter stores.


Abstract A 35 year-old woman has suffered from faintness with cardiovascular failure at the end of a sclerotherapy session for varix management. The injected product was Aeloxisclerol ( DCI lauromacrogal 400). The death came up very quickly. The autopsy didn't reveal any traumatic lesion . The anaphylactic choc could be ruled out. Macroscopically, the heart showed a right ventricular dilatation. The toxicological analysis didn't reveal any medicinal substances. Histology showed the presence of lipid degeneration of all the right-ventricle wall The discussion is carried out on the role played by this previous health-state on the onset of death, and also on the incidence of sclerotherapy using this product. and the onset of death. We are carrying out this discussion by taking in mind the nature of the product injected and the information available in the literature concerning the lipid degeneration of cardiac muscle. Quickly after this case, the AFSSAPS ( The French Agency for Sanitary Security of Health Products) has emitted an written alert which correlates with the requirements of principles of precaution although it is not founded on the totality of investigation results done for this medicolegal case.


Tunas (family Scombridae) are the most abundant fish species caught by purse seine, ring net, and handline landed in the fish port markets of General Santos City. In this study, an assessment of tuna fisheries was conducted from January 2013 to December 2017. A total of six fish classifications, seven families, four genera, and seven species were observed from Market 1, Market 2, and Market 3 landing sites in the General Santos Fish Port Complex. On average, tuna catches contributed about 89% of the annual catch production and showed an increasing trend throughout the five years. The four genera of tunas were Katsuwonus (53.7%), Thunnus (25.9%), Auxis (8.4%), and Euthynnus (0.5%). The composition of tuna species comprised of oceanic tunas (Katsuwonus pelamis, Thunnus albacares, Thunnus obesus) and neritic tunas (Auxis rochei, Auxis thazard, Euthynnus affinis). Katsuwonus pelamis was the most dominant among the scombrid species with 53.66% relative abundance, followed by Thunnus albacares with 24.03%. Mainly, mature tuna sizes were observed using handline, which caught oceanic tunas ranging from 105 cm to 170 cm. Other gears, purse seine and ring net, caught immature sizes of most neritic tunas. Thus, tunas were caught throughout the year, and two peak seasons were observed from May to June and October to December during the five-year study period. The study's results on relative abundance, size composition, seasonality, and length-frequency distribution provide analysis and information that help implement fisheries management of tuna stocks in Region 12 and high seas pocket. Thus, this paper needs further investigations on catch per unit effort (CPUE), reproductive biology, and the value chain of the landed tuna catches to determine their significance to the economy of General Santos City.


This study examines distinctive economic reform measures pursued in post-independent Zambia and ethical problems which plagued the reform process. The study begins with a review of the philosophy of Zambian Humanism, the ideology which guided Zambia's early reform initiatives. Specific reform measures pursued within the framework of humanism focused on: increased state control of the economy; indigenization of the public and private sectors, accelerated development of the rural sector, and use of a series of policy measures to curb domestic exploitation. Beginning in the mid-1980s, deepening economic crisis forced the government to retract most humanist-based reform measures in favor of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) induced reforms within the framework of structural adjustment and economic liberalization. Post-Humanism reform initiatives built on previous World Bank and IMF formulated framework, but stalled due in part to increase in ethical misbehavior in higher levels of government.


Ewes of the domestic sheep ( Ovis aries ) display selective maternal investment by restricting care to their own offspring and rejecting alien young. This trait relies on individual recognition processes between ewes and lambs. Whereas identification at the udder is only olfactory, distance recognition is performed through visual and acoustic cues. We studied the effectiveness and modalities of mutual acoustic recognition between ewes and lambs by spectrographic analysis of their vocal signatures and by playbacks of modified calls in the field. Our results show that ewes and their lambs can recognize each other based solely on their calls. The coding of identity within the vocal signatures, previously unknown in sheep, is similar in lamb and ewe: it uses the mean frequency and the spectral energy distribution of the call, namely the timbre of the call. These results point out a simple signature system in sheep that uses only the frequency domain. This engenders a signal with low information content, as opposed to some highly social birds and mammal species that may integrate information both in the temporal and spectral domains. The simplicity of this system is linked to the roles played by vision and olfaction that corroborate the information brought by the vocal signature.


For some time, the use of monetary and fiscal policies to smooth business cycle fluctuations has taken a back seat to longer term objectives of restoring price stability and fiscal balance. More recently, however, weaker economic performance in some of the world's economies, most notably in Japan and the United States, has led to renewed interest in the use of short-run stabilization policy. ; This year the bank's economic policy symposium, "Rethinking Stabilization Policy," explored the potential scope for stabilization policy in this new environment. The papers presented at the symposium and the ensuing discussion focused on a number of key issues including: reasons for the renewed interest in stabilization policy, the effectiveness and limitations of stabilization policy, and whether the use of short-run stabilization policy conflicts with the pursuit of longer term macroeconomic objectives. ; The articles included in this special issue of the Economic Review provide perspectives on stabilization policy from five prominent central bank officials: Alan Greenspan, Otmar Issing, Guillermo Ortiz, Yukata Yamaguchi, and David Dodge. As these articles suggest, policymakers in different countries clearly share a common set of core values that guide policy. At the same time, monetary policy decisions must also be tailored to the unique circumstances of individual countries. Viewed individually, each of these presentations is highly interesting and informative. Taken together, they provide a broad perspective on the challenges facing policymakers in a changing economic environment.


Second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) have largely replaced conventional antipsychotics as first-line therapy for the treatment of schizophrenia in the United States. While recent evidence suggests similar efficacy with low-dose conventional antipsychotics, much of the advantage favoring SGAs comes from the fact that there are less extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) at effective doses with these drugs. As a medication class, and with the exception of clozapine, the SGAs overall are very similar with regard to efficacy, yet are heterogeneous with respect to receptor binding and structure-activity as well as their side effect liabilities. This paper will review the clinical psychopharmacology of the SGAs, as well as adverse events associated with these drugs. Because certain side effects may be associated with a higher likelihood for nonadherence with treatment, more detailed data for each of the SGAs with regard to EPS, weight gain and metabolic abnormalities, and sexual dysfunction is presented.


The software industry is the core of information industry. It is an important foundation for the country's economic development and national security. The training of personnel is the key to software industry development. Most of computer major students' practice ability still falls short of the requirements of the employer after four years of university study. This shows that there is a gap between practice teaching process management and reality demand. This article points out a key problem existing in the practice teaching process of China colleges and universities and proposes our countermeasures.


A high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the estimation of doxazosin in human plasma. It employs a simple and rapid method of sample preparation. Doxazosin and an internal standard (prazosin) were chromatographed as ion pairs with heptane sulphonic acid. Sample preparation involved liquid-liquid extraction with diethyl ether, evaporation of the organic layer, reconstitution of the residue into mobile phase and injection of 20 μl into the chromatograph. Chromatography was performed using ODS C 1 8 , 5μ reverse-phase column with fluorescence detection. Mobile phase consisted of heptane sulphonic acid buffer and methanol. At a flow rate of 1.2 ml/min, one analysis was completed in less than 10 min.The method was sensitive and reproducible with accurate detection as low as 0.1 ng/ml in plasma. The method was linear for doxazosin concentrations in the range of 0.5-30 ng/ml (r 2 = 0.9976). Recoveries for the same drug concentrations from spiked human plasma ranged from 90-95% (n=5). The mean RSD values for interday and intraday assay reproducibility (n=5) were 4.47% and 4.52% respectively. Peak area ratios were fit to a least squares linear regression algorithm with a 2/x weighting. LOD and LOQ of the method were found to be 0.1 ng/ml and 0.5 nglml, respectively.


Distributed query processing is an effective means for processing large amounts of data. To abstract from the technicalities of distributed systems, algorithms for operator placement automatically distribute sequential data queries over the available processing units. However, current algorithms for operator placement focus on performance and ignore privacy concerns that arise when handling sensitive data. We present a new methodology for privacy-aware operator placement that both prevents leakage of sensitive information and improves performance. Crucially, our approach is based on an information-flow type system for data queries to reason about the sensitivity of query subcomputations. Our solution unfolds in two phases. First, placement space reduction generates deployment candidates based on privacy constraints using a syntax-directed transformation driven by the information-flow type system. Second, constraint solving selects the best placement among the candidates based on a cost model that maximizes performance. We verify that our algorithm preserves the sequential behavior of queries and prevents leakage of sensitive data. We implemented the type system and placement algorithm for a new query language SecQL and demonstrate significant performance improvements in benchmarks.


People with disability face considerable difficulty participating fully in work and the wider community, due in part to poor schooling outcomes. To enable students with disability to meet their potential, the governments provide extra funding to schools to help them meet their special learning needs. Such funding includes extra funding for meeting diverse student needs under formula-based block grant arrangements, funding for specific programs and funding that is targeted at the individual level. In this study, we take a first-step in examining outcomes from targeted funding, over and above outcomes from other funding sources, in mainstream public schools in Victoria under the Program for Student with Disability (PSD). We use information on disability and child development in the first year of school from the Australian Education and Development Census (AEDC), linked to Year 3 NAPLAN and information on PSD receipt from Year 1 to Year 3. We find that only around 17% of mainstream public-school students with disability who are in the bottom quarter of the state developmentally receive ongoing targeted funding under the PSD between 2012 and 2015. Using multivariate regression and rich administrative student data to control for differences between students with disability who do and do not receive targeted funding, we find that the receipt of PSD is strongly associated with being exempt from sitting NAPLAN, which obstructs any proper examination of the educational outcomes from funding. These results raise the prospect of extending existing funding according to developmental need, but caution that any such change should be accompanied with measures that ensure funding outcomes can be assessed.


Abstract The research question of this paper is how institutional conditions affected policy and planning processes for wind energy implementation. This is studied from the perspective of building institutional capacity in order to start policy learning. Implementation in the Netherlands has been ponderous, due to an emphasis on centralised policy-making, and an underestimation of issues of spatial and environmental planning and problems of local acceptance. Over time, little support has been mobilised for wind power developments, and resistance has increased. Nevertheless, as an unintended consequence of liberalisation, locally owned wind projects have accelerated implementation achievements in recent years.


Assessment and enhancement of joint position sense is an inexact science at best. Anew method of evaluating and improving this sense using motion-tracking technology that incorporates computer visualization graphics was examined. Injured and healthy subjects were evaluated for their abilities to determine shoulder joint position, after abduction, in two tasks. The first was active reproduction of a passively placed angle. The second was visual reproduction of such an angle. A training protocol was added to determine the effectiveness of proprioceptive training in conjunction with 3-D visualization techniques. The primary findings were (a) a significant difference (p = .05) in the level of joint position sense in injured vs. healthy subjects; (b) significantly less accurate reproduction of larger shoulder abduction vs. the smaller movement in the active reproduction task; (c) significantly greater ability to accurately reproduce angles actively vs. visually; and (d) that proprioception training using 3-D v...


Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and the more recent framework for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) are two resource management strategies that were introduced in part for their cobenefits, including forest protection, employment opportunities, and added income for forest adjacent communities. In this paper we examine the early implementation of PFM in Tanzania's Kilwa District, led and promoted by the nongovernmental organisation Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative (MCDI). This organisation has also recently received support to design a REDD+ project that could potentially realise additional financial benefits for local communities through the sale of carbon offsets in PFM-supported villages. We explore the ways in which MCDI has established a PFM scheme in four villages, how it has supported the emergence of more robust local governance structures, and what villagers perceive to have been the main outcomes and pitfalls of PFM to date. MCDI has managed to reduce many of the challenges that have characterised PFM schemes in other contexts, such as conflicts arising from forest governance restructuring, elite capture, and illegitimate benefit sharing, but has been less successful in addressing some aspects related to participation, such as involving village hamlets and women more effectively in decision making due to spatial configuration of landscapes and settlements and to existing cultural norms. These insights suggest that well-implemented PFM can provide a solid foundation for REDD+ implementation but that full realisation of REDD+'s equitable benefit-sharing principle, particularly at the intracommunity level, may take time and will be dependent upon prevailing local cultural norms.


Background:
 Recent evidence emphasizes the importance of T lymphocytes of differing subtypes in ischemic cell death mechanisms. RTL, composed of partial major histocompatibility complex (MHC) ClassIImolecules covalently bound to myelin peptides, is currently under clinical study for multiple sclerosis. We have shown that RTL is effective in male mice treated with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) by inhibiting early accumulation of inflammatory cells. We now show for the first time that post-treatment improves functional outcomes and that efficacy is present in females.

 Methods:
 HLA-DR2 transgenic female mice (17-20g) were subjected to 60 min MCAO (isoflurane). Cortical laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) was continuously monitored and only animals with LDF of below 40% of baseline during MCAO were included in study. Mice were treated with RTL1000 RTL 1000 (HLA-DR2 moiety linked to human MOG-35-55 peptide) (0.1mL, 1mg/mL sq) (RTL) or vehicle (VEH) at 3h, 24h, 48h, 72h after reperfusion. Mice were recovered for 96h or 2 weeks post-injury for measurement of histology (TTC staining) or behavioral testing respectively. Sham operated females received either vehicle or RTL and identical testing paradigms.

 Results:
 All sham mice showed no evidence of infarction or behavioral deficit. Mortality rate and general health score were similar between MCAO groups. RTL mice sustained smaller infarcts as compared to VEH group (% of contralateral structure): Total hemisphere: 13.9 ±4.1 % RTL (n=15) vs. 28.3 ±3.0% (p < 0.05) in VEH (n=15); cortex: 19.9 ±6.3 % in RTL vs. 44.2 ±5.0% (p < 0.05) in VEH; striatum 24.2 ±6.8% in RTL vs. 52.4 ± 4.7% (p < 0.05) in VEH. Histological protection was profound; 6 out of 15 in MCAO-RTL group showed no measurable infarction at 96 hours. Using a standard cylinder test repeated at 3, 7 and 14 days post MCAO, we observed that RTL strongly improved functional recovery as compared to MCAO-VEH group (RTL vs. VEH: day 3, p=0.02, day 7 p=0.00 and day 14 p=0.00). By 7days, animal performance in the RTL group was not different from shams. In contrast, recovery in the VEH group remained poor at all time points.

 Conclusion:
 RTL1000 offers strong protection after ischemic injury in females, including prolonged improvement of functional outcomes.


The poor water solubility of drugs is major problem for drug formulation. To date, nanoscale systems for drug delivery have gained much interest as a way to improve the solubility problems. The reduction of drug particles into the sub-micron range leads to a significant increase in the dissolution rate and therefore enhances bioavailability. Nanosuspensions are promising candidates that can be used for enhancing the dissolution of poorly water soluble drugs. Nanosuspensions contain submicron colloidal dispersion of pharmaceutical active ingredient particles in a liquid phase stabilized by surfactants. Production of drugs as nanosuspensions has been developed for drug delivery systems as an oral formulation and non-oral administration. This review describes the methods of nanosuspension production, formulation, evaluation and applications in pharmaceutical drug delivery as well as the marketed products.


This paper presents a novel BP-based image retrieval (BPBIR) system, which is based on the observation that the images users need are often similar to a set of images with the same conception instead of one query image and the assumption that there is a nonlinear relationship between different features. If users aren't satisfied with the retrieved results, relevance feedback method is used to enhance the performance of the proposed system by changing the weights of the BP neural networks. In addition, we discuss some divisional methods to give rough information on the spatial color composition. Finally, we compare the performance of the proposed system with other systems. Experimental results show the efficacy of the proposed system.


Ten breeding pairs of Willie Wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys were sedentary and territorial (average territory size 0.85 ha) from 16 September-6 December 1990, at the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season, an important part of the Willie Wagtail breeding season in Papua New Guinea. Nine of 15 nests found were built over water; they were 1-14 m above ground or water. Most were cup-shaped, easy to find but difficult to climb to. Both parents built the nest. During laying eggs were incubated 70- 80% of the time, mostly by the female. Later, the eggs were incubated for 90% of the daytime and female sitting dominance was not so clear. One-day-old nestlings were brooded most of the day; this decreased as the nestlings grew and after day 7 became minimal. During the first three days of nestling life the male shared brooding; his share decreased later. Both parents equally fed the nestlings. Visits with food per hour varied from 5-26, and increased with nestling age. Males and females foraged in the same places, within 1-200 m of the nest, usually not more than 70 m away. Patterns of post-natal growth in the Willie Wagtail are similar to those of other passerines. Eight different hunting techniques were distinguished. Parent birds spent most of their time at the nest which they defended rather than concealed. Peak singing activity was just before sunrise.


Objective: Computed microtomography was used to evaluate the capacity of debris removal from simulated lateral canals, in conventional irrigation, passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI), continuous passive irrigation (CUI), Endoactivator and EasyClean, for both types of motion (continuous and reciprocating). Material and Methods: Sixty acrylic incisors with 3 simulated lateral canals per tooth (cervical, middle and apical third) were instrumented with Reciproc 40/06 and then filled with dentin debris. The teeth were scanned and divided into 6 groups (n = 10) according to the irrigation protocol: G1 - conventional, G2 - PUI, G3 - CUI, G4 - Endoactivator, G5 - EasyClean continuous rotation and G6 - EasyClean reciprocating. After the irrigation protocols, the samples were scanned again. The initial and final volume images were analyzed and the percentage of debris removal were found for each group in all levels. Results: There were significant differences between the initial and final volume of debris after the protocols, with the exception of conventional irrigation group in the apical and cervical thirds, EasyClean reciprocating in the middle and cervical thirds, and CUI in the middle third. In the analysis between the groups: in the apical third, Endoactivator and PUI removed more debris than CUI (p < 0.05); in the middle and cervical thirds, PUI was more efficient than conventional irrigation, EasyClean reciprocating and CUI (p < 0.05). Conclusion: No method completely removed the debris. PUI was the method that showed greater effectiveness in cleaning the lateral canals.KeywordsRoot canal therapy; Microct; Dentin; Ultrasonic therapy.


This exploratory case study research describes the integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into the teaching and learning of English, mathematics and science in an elementary school in Singapore. The school in this case study research is one of the first primary-level future schools that was set up under the FutureSchools@Singapore program in 2008. The school has implemented a successful one-to-one program (i.e. one-to-one computer to student ratio) for all its students. The use of blogs, communication applications (e.g. online chats and email), online educational games, online learning management systems, online searches for information and educational related videos were commonly used to integrate ICT into the teaching and learning of the various subjects mentioned above. A total of 221 (Primary 3 and 4) and 466 (Primary 3, 4 and 5) students participated in an ICT usage survey conducted in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Three interesting phenomena were observed through the descriptive statistics. First, it was observed that the ICT usage rates for the various subjects (i.e. English, mathematics and science) peaked at the primary 4 level when the computer ownership program was introduced and declined in primary 5. Second, descriptive statistical analysis suggested the use of blogs, communication applications, online educational games and Internet searches, were more frequently used, as compared to the learning management systems and the use of videos, in the students' learning of English, mathematics and science. Thirdly, ICT usage rates were also different for the different classes of Primary 5. Follow-up interviews with teachers and student open-ended survey responses were also analysed. The triangulated findings seemed to suggest that blogs were frequently used and acted as gateways to other online software applications. The findings also once again pointed to the importance of the sociocultural context – school leadership, curriculum planning and assessment, technological infrastructure and teachers' practices – in ICT usage and integration in schools.


Although modern man had developed long before the migration from Africa began ∼ 55,000 years ago, no agricultural societies developed until about ∼ 10,000 years ago. But in the next 5000 years, agricultures developed in several unrelated regions of the world. It was not a chance occurrence that new agricultures independently appeared in the same 5000 years. The question is what inhibited agriculture worldwide for 44,000 years and what changed ∼ 10,000 years ago? We suggest that a major factor influencing the development of agricultural societies was climate stability . From the experience of several independent cultures, we estimate that the development of agriculture needed about 2000 years of climate free from significant climate variations on time scales of a few centuries.


 Abstract — The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of radon remedial action in a school on the Ischia island, South Italy, affected by indoor radon concentration higher than the value of 500 Bq/m 3 . This value is the limit imposed by the Italian legislation, to above which corrective actions in schools are necessary. Before the application of remedial action, indoor radon concentrations were measured in 9 rooms of the school. The measurements were performed with LR-115 passive alpha detectors (SSNTDs) and E-Perm. The remedial action was conducted in one of the office affected by high radon concentration using a Radonstop paint applied after the construction of a concrete slab under the floor. The effect of remedial action was the reduction of the concentration of radon of 41% and moreover it has demonstrated to be durable over time. The chosen method is cheap and easy to apply and it could be designed for various types of building. This method can be applied to new and existing buildings that show high dose values.


When treating systolic hypertension we do not know the optimum blood pressure which leads to the reduction of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular and total mortality. The results of the ACCORD study, when comparing intensive treatment of systolic blood pressure < 120 mm Hg and standard treatment < 140 mm Hg, did not lead to affecting the primary target for patients with diabetes mellitus. In the autumn last year the SPRINT study was presented and published, showing favourable impact on the combined primary target, which involved myocardial infarction, other acute coronary syndromes, stroke, heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes during intensive treatment of systolic blood pressure, i.e. < 120 mm Hg, but on the other hand with a statistically significant incidence of secondary effects (hypotension, syncope, renal impairment or failure).Key words: target values - hypotension - cardiovascular events - systolic blood pressure.


The presented paper solved the question of national economy modeling with emphasis on gross domestic product. The modeling was based especially on industry-oriented indicators and applied to Czech Republic. The multiple linear regression analysis was used as the main research method. The main objective of this paper was to specify the relationship between dependent variable (gross domestic product) and a set of independent variables (nine chosen indicators) that subsequently enables the value estimation of the dependent variable and prediction of its future values. This represents also the key result of the investigation.


Steganography is the art of hiding information in ways that prevent detection. Steganography is a technique to hide secret information in some other data (we call it a vessel) without leaving any apparent evidence of data alteration. All of the traditional steganographic techniques have limited information-hiding capacity. They can hide only 10 to 15 % of the data amounts of the vessel. This is because the principle of those techniques was either to replace a special part of the frequency components of the vessel image, or to replace all the least significant bits of a multivalued image with the secret information. New steganography uses an image as the vessel data, and we embed secret information in the bit-planes of the vessel. This technique makes use of the characteristics of the human vision system whereby a human cannot perceive any shape information in a very complicated binary pattern. We can replace all of the "noise-like" regions in the bit-planes of the vessel image with secret data without deteriorating the image quality. We termed our steganography "BPCS-Steganography," which stands for Bit-Plane Complexity Segmentation Steganography.We have discussed here two techniques, 1.Web based BPCS, 2.Improved BPCS.


East End Renewal: The 291 Gallery in Hackney Exciting things happen when you mix the architecture of a nineteenth-century church with the needs of a modern art gallery. 291 is just such a place: a new gallery and with a restaurant and bar which has opened in a deconsecrated neo-gothic church in East London. Visiting 291 was a challenge: what does this clean, bright space say about the way the Church uses its own architectural inheritance? 291 is in a rather bleak neighbourhood. Although it is within easy walking distance of the financial centre, it is a world away. Hackney is one of those parts of London which suffered terribly at the hands of the Luftwaffe, only to be brutalised again by the city planners after the war. Many parts of the borough are interesting, but the urban fabric has been, it seems, irremediably torn. 291, in its beautifully refurbished building, is an exciting attempt to re-knit the urban fabric. In some sense, it does with art, food and drink what the Anglo-Catholics were trying to do in the nineteenth century-to create new institutions in the East End which would rival anything in the more posh quarters of London. 291 has shown a deep respect for the building, combined with a refreshing lack of reverence. This building is treated as the lovely find it is, but it is not enshrined like a fly in amber, as though it were a jewel of its kind. It is not. Instead, it is a handsome and generously proportioned building, decently built. There's been no attempt to turn back the clock, to 'restore' it to some former glory. The building has been reborn in a new guise, cleaned out and allowed to shine again, in a new form. I say a lack of reverence because they have not retained any fittings but those which suit their needs. The exterior, of that grey-yellow brick so plentiful in London, has been scrubbed clean. The main entrance, a simple flat-lintel door, is perfectly modern. When you enter, you are immediately aware that this is a living space, a modern space. The entrance foyer is painted white, with a clean, modern reception desk. Ahead, in the former north aisle of the church, stands the bar. To the left, a door admits you to the nave. What a sight the nave is. Devoid of pews, completely cleaned out, it stands as a pure architectural statement. Both side aisles have been walled off, creating a blind arcade down each side of the nave. The clerestory windows are filled with clear glass in diamond panes, and the room is filled with constantly changing natural light. The roof is a lovely and understated wooden affair, which seems quite opulent against the white purity of the walls and the warm yellow stone. The chancel is raised, but cleared of furniture, and a large screen has been erected across the whole front of the liturgical east end of the church to allow for video presentations. I had a peek behind the screen: the altar and the altarpiece are still there. This is a gaudy thing. The altar was at some stage painted gold; the reredos is a garish blue. It does not represent a shining moment in the history of church furnishing, and is, in fact, best left covered. As you walk around this space, you become aware of little details. In the sedilia sits a small fragment of a statue, rescued from the exterior. It becomes a precious object, interesting in its brokenness and its patina of grime. There is also the memorial brass of the first vicar-a Victorian gentleman, fitted out in his priestly vestments, holding a chalice. The inscription informs us that he is `George Hervey, priest', with an MA from Clare College in Cambridge. How incongruously he now lies at rest in this setting. But then, I thought, looking at it, he is probably no more incongruous now than he was in the late nineteenth century: a graduate of Cambridge with High Church notions, labouring amongst the working poor of the East End. The main bar is a more decorative space than the cleared-out nave. …


Abstract Objective/context To describe a distinctive clinical and radiographic pattern of myelopathy following intrathecal chemotherapy. Myelopathy is a rare complication of intrathecal chemotherapy used in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We present a 42-year-old female with T-cell ALL who developed a myelopathy primarily involving the dorsal columns. Method Case report and literature review. Findings Within 24 hours of an injection of intrathecal methotrexate, cytarabine, and hydrocortisone, the patient developed ascending lower limb numbness and balance difficulties progressing to the inability to ambulate. Clinical examination showed profound loss of lower limb proprioception and light touch sensation below T5, mild proximal limb weakness, but preserved pinprick and temperature sensation with intact bowel and bladder function. Initial thoracic and lumbar spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1 week revealed no abnormalities. However, repeat imaging at 6 weeks showed abnormal signal in the posterior cord with sparing of the anterior and lateral columns, diffusely involving the lower cervical cord through the conus medullaris. Dermatomal somatosensory-evoked potential (DSEP) conduction abnormalities were consistent with thoracic myelopathy. An empiric trial of high-dose intravenous corticosteroids during inpatient rehabilitation more than 6 weeks later produced no significant clinical improvement. Conclusion/clinical relevance Preferential and persistent dorsal column myelopathy is a distinctive clinical and radiographic presentation of a rare complication of intrathecal chemotherapy. The MRI abnormalities were initially absent, but evolved to consist of multi-level spinal cord T2 and STIR hyperintensity with regional gadolinium enhancement. DSEPs more accurately reflected the clinical level of spinal cord dysfunction.


This preliminary study explored how many representations of standard videos, animations/comics, and 360 videos are being used in mathematics methods courses to teach future teachers. Drawing on knowledge from prior studies on standard videos, this study aimed to address the gaps in literature to encompass other representations that are being utilized and obtained. Analyses show that standard videos are the primary medium being used to teach future teachers in math methods, followed by animations/comics, and then 360 videos. Findings suggest that teacher educators are more likely to use a medium that they are more familiar with than a medium with greater perceived usefulness. Further, findings indicate that teacher educators perceived usefulness and frequency of use as not related to their level of familiarity with all representation types, suggesting more factors are at play.


Background & Aim: Metabolic syndrome is one of the risk factors of cardiovascular disease. Depression increases the risk of metabolic syndrome in the general population. The aim of this study was determining the association between depression and the metabolic syndrome in elderlies with cardiovascular disease. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 elderlies with cardiovascular disease hospitalized in Saqqez's Imam Khomeini's hospital in 2013 with convenience sampling. To evaluate depression, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and to assess metabolic syndrome, ATP3 index were used. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent T test and Chi square using PASW. The significant level for all the tests was 0.05. Results: The results showed that 61 percent of the patients have experienced the symptoms of depression and 46 percent of them had metabolic syndrome. The chance for metabolic syndrome in women was 2/4 times more than men (95% CI:1/3-4/2, OR=2/4, p=0/003). There was no significant relationship between metabolic syndrome and depression (p=0/198). Among the components of metabolic syndrome; only systolic blood pressure was associated with depression (P=0/002), so that the chance for high systolic blood pressure in depressed elderlies was 2.5 time more than those without depression (95% CI: 1/4-4/5, OR=2/5, P=0/003). Conclusion: Given the high frequency of depression and metabolic syndrome in elderlies with cardiovascular disease, more attention should be paid on the simultaneous occurrence of these two problems .


The study examines the extent to which the management of human resources by the administrators influence lecturers' job satisfaction in tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, Nigeria. The ex-post-facto research design was used for the study. The population of the study was 2286 lecturers from nine (9) tertiary institutions from the two states out of which 600 lecturers were randomly sampled from six (6) tertiary institutions in the two states. The statistical analysis used to test the only one hypothesis in the study was one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), at .05 alpha level of significance. The study revealed that administrators' human resources management effectiveness has a significant influence on lecturers' job satisfaction with respect to workload, professional status, opportunity for academic publication and administrators' staff relationship. It was therefore recommended among other things that administrators of tertiary institution should ensure that the number of lecturers employed meet the required student-teacher ratio by the National Universities Commission (NUC) for improved performance and job satisfaction.