OntoLex-Lemon is a collection of RDF vocabularies for specifying the verbalization of ontologies in natural language. Beyond its original scope, OntoLex-Lemon, as well as its predecessor Monnet lemon, found application in the Linguistic Linked Open Data cloud to represent and interlink language resources on the Semantic Web. Unfortunately, generic ontology and RDF editors were considered inconvenient to use with OntoLex-Lemon because of its complex design patterns and other peculiarities, including indirection, reification and subtle integrity constraints. This perception led to the development of dedicated editors, trading the flexibility of RDF in combining different models (and the features already available in existing RDF editors) for a more direct and streamlined editing of OntoLex-Lemon patterns. In this paper, we investigate on the benefits gained by extending an already existing RDF editor, VocBench 3, with capabilities closely tailored to OntoLex-Lemon and on the challenges that such extension implies. The outcome of such investigation is twofold: a vertical assessment of a new editor for OntoLex-Lemon and, in the broader scope of RDF editor design, a new perspective on which flexibility and extensibility characteristics an editor should meet in order to cover new core modeling vocabularies, for which OntoLex-Lemon represents a use case.


Background: Thrombotic complications are common in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.
The aim of the study: to measure tissue factor (TF) and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) levels in hemodialysis patients and to elucidate their role with thrombotic episodes.
Methods: 61 patients on hemodialysis as well as 19 healthy persons were included. The patients were reclassified into high and low groups according to the 90th and 10th percentile of controls of both TF and TFPI respectively to predict if higher than the 90th percentile of TF or lower than 10th percentile of TFPI were associated with thrombotic complications or not. All participants subjected to complete hemogram, measurement of TF and TFPI by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.
Results: TF and TFPI were significantly higher in patients than control group (p<0.001and <0.05 respectively). Six patients showed at least one thrombotic episode (9.8%). TF was significantly increased (p<0.001) between the groups of patients who experienced or not thrombotic episodes. TFPI showed no significant differences in patients with or without thrombosis.TF was significantly associated with thrombosis when using multiple regression analysis, whereas TFPI was not. Patients above the 90th percentile of TF were significantly correlated with thrombosis (r=0. 4). Whereas, Patients below the 10th percentile of TFPI were not.
Conclusion: TF and TFPI increase in hemodialysis patients. TF is higher in hemodialysis patients with thrombosis whereas TFPI is not. TF above the 90th percentile is significantly correlated with thrombosis. TFPI below the 10th percentile is not. TF could be a contributor to thrombosis in hemodialysis patients.


Standard accounts of twentieth century Russian emigration often describe stages of adaptation for those in exile: first, an effort to maintain continuity with pre-revolutionary Russia, followed by attempts to adopt cultural models of their new countries, and finishing with varying degrees of self-definition and integration. Studies of the Russian diaspora have largely, however, confined themselves to artistic texts. This dissertation rethinks standard models of Russian diasporic culture through the lens of philosophy and intellectual history in Europe more broadly. It examines the work of the philosopher Alexandre Kojeve as a thematic bridge, connecting the philosophical activity of Russian emigres (such as Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdiaev, and Lev Karsavin) with major figures in French and German intellectual history (Jacques Lacan, Georges Bataille, Carl Schmitt, among others). Although Kojeve began his career in Russian philosophical circles (in Moscow, then emigre Paris), he only emerged as a respected philosophical figure after having "denationalized" his philosophical practice. This denationalization notably took place in his influential seminars on Hegel, held in Paris from 1933 to 1939. The dissertation traces Kojeve's transferal of ideas from the Russian tradition to a French, philosophically "universalized" one. The first chapter discusses the shift within consecutive generations of emigre Russian philosophers from religiously inflected work to atheist philosophy. The second chapter identifies the origins of Kojeve's theorization of desire in Russian philosophical debates on love in the fin-de-siecle period. The third chapter examines Kojeve's philosophy through political theory, examining his influence in debates on political conflict and the end of history on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The last chapter "returns" the philosopher to post-Soviet Russia and examines citation of Kojeve amongst contemporary Russian philosophers writing today. The dissertation concludes by arguing for a new understanding of Russian philosophy within a transnational exchange of texts and ideas. In particular, it signals to more liminal figures of Russian philosophy, including Kojeve and his colleague Alexandre Koyre, as those who introduced problematics germane to Russian thought into broader, pan-European philosophy, thereby disrupting the habit of thinking of Russian intellectual history within an essentialized national context.


In recent years, fault detection has become a crucial issue in semiconductor manufacturing. Indeed, it is necessary to constantly improve equipment productivity. Rapid detection of abnormal behavior is one of the primary objectives. Statistical methods such as control charts are the most widely used approaches for fault detection. Due to the number of variables and the possible correlations between them, these control charts need to be multivariate. Among them, the most popular is probably the Hotelling T2 rule. However, this rule only makes sense when the variables are Gaussian, which is rarely true in practice. A possible alternative is to use nonparametric control charts, such as the k-nearest neighbor detection rule by He and Wang, in 2007, only constructed from the learning sample and without assumption on the variables distribution. This approach consists in evaluating the distance of an observation to its nearest neighbors in the learning sample constituted of observations under control. A fault is declared if this distance is too large. In this paper, a new adaptive Mahalanobis distance, which takes into account the local structure of dependence of the variables, is proposed. Simulation trials are performed to study the benefit of the new distance against the Euclidean distance. The method is applied on the photolithography step of the manufacture of an integrated circuit.


The author provides an overview of the 2012 American Control Conference (ACC). The ACC is the annual conference of the American Automatic Control Council (AACC), the US national member organization (NMO) of the International Federation of Automatic Control, Montreal, PQ, (IFAC). AACC is an association of the control-related groups of eight member societies: AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers), ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), IEEE, ISA (International Society of Automation), SCS (Society for Computer Simulation), and SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics). ACC 2012 also benefited from the support of IFAC, the Canadian NMO for IFAC. ACC 2012 featured an intensive program of regular, invited, and tutorial technical sessions; preconference workshops; special sessions over lunch and in the evenings; and social events with excellent food, unlimited drinks, and music performed by professionals as well as conference attendees.


S. eubayanus, the wild, cold-tolerant parent of hybrid lager-brewing yeasts, has a complex and understudied natural history. The exploration of this diversity can be used both to develop new brewing applications and to enlighten our understanding of the dynamics of yeast evolution in the wild. Here, we integrate whole genome sequence and phenotypic data of 200 S. eubayanus strains, the largest collection to date. S. eubayanus has a multilayered population structure, consisting of two major populations that are further structured into six subpopulations. Four of these subpopulations are found exclusively in the Patagonian region of South America; one is found predominantly in Patagonia and sparsely in Oceania and North America; and one is specific to the Holarctic ecozone. S. eubayanus is most abundant and genetically diverse in Patagonia, where some locations harbor more genetic diversity than is found outside of South America. All but one subpopulation shows isolation-by-distance, and gene flow between subpopulations is low. However, there are strong signals of ancient and recent outcrossing, including two admixed lineages, one that is sympatric with and one that is mostly isolated from its parental populations. Despite S. eubayanus' extensive genetic diversity, it has relatively little phenotypic diversity, and all subpopulations performed similarly under most conditions tested. Using our extensive biogeographical data, we constructed a robust model that predicted all known and a handful of additional regions of the globe that are climatically suitable for S. eubayanus, including Europe. We conclude that this industrially relevant species has rich wild diversity with many factors contributing to its complex distribution and biology.


Magnetic components have been and will continue to be an essential element in power conversion and management circuits. Due to this pivotal role, magnetic components have seen continuous efforts to develop materials, winding structures, and manufacturing and assembly techniques toward the never ending goals of high efficiency, smaller size, and automated manufacturing. The authors present an up-to-date view as well as an outlook for the future covering the technologies that have enabled the advanced in magnetic components for power electronics in telecommunications. Finally, they also provide their view on emerging technologies in this field in line with broader developments in the telecommunications, electronics and semiconductor industries.


Traditional approaches to identifying and classifying subcultures (such as class and demographics) are limited in their applicability online. Social media provide an abundant source of insight into subcultures, but the irregular and natural presentation of data often defies systematic analysis and traditional tools. To identify and understand subcultures this study uses appraisal  method to analyse comments in public Facebook discussions. It focuses on a contentious issue in Australian society, the culling of kangaroos. The findings are consistent with existing theories about wildlife attitudes and subcultures, suggesting credibility in the sample and findings. Two main groups were identified, referred to here as Cullers , who favour culling and reflect a more general attitude of human dominance over wildlife, and Guardians , who oppose culling and reflect a more general attitude of mutuality in rights and relations for humans and other species. The study supports previous research assertions that attitudes and values are integral to the development of subcultures. The appraisal method provided valuable insight into the complexity of attitudes within the two main groups. The analysis using attitudes helped to reveal economic, environmental, patriotic and rights influences on positions taken by subcultures, and suggests merit in future research using appraisal to identify and account for ' sub-subcultures '.


Abstract Public libraries and development organizations share many common goals that make them strong potential partners in the Global South. In spite of these commonalities, libraries are often overlooked as development partners. This is unfortunate because these partnerships could allow librarians to more fully and effectively participate in the development of their communities. This paper explores strategies that libraries might employ to make themselves more visible to development organizations. It does so through analysis of interviews with practitioners who have funded or implemented development projects across countries in Africa. We find that these practitioners are open to working more with libraries, but that it will take a lot of work on the part of public libraries to accomplish broad shifts in perception amongst development agencies. Collecting and openly sharing data on the output and impact of public libraries is a first step in this work, but these efforts must also be augmented through increased marketing and networking by libraries. Libraries need to build internal capacity to use data to drive advocacy efforts and attract funding from development donors.


The introduction of network time protocols such as NTP (at a coarse granularity) and IEEE 1588 (at a fine granularity) gives a relatively consistent global notion of time that has the potential to significantly change how we design distributed real-time systems. In [4], we present a programming model called PTIDES (Programming Temporally Integrated Distributed Embedded Systems) that uses discrete-event (DE) models as programming specifications for distributed real-time systems and describe an execution model that permits out of order processing of events without sacrificing determinacy and without requiring backtracking. In this paper, we present an interesting networked camera application programmed using PTIDES and show how the execution model in [4] can be used to meet real-time constrains in the system.


The band offsets between crystalline and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) are key parameters governing the charge transport in modern silicon heterojunction solar cells. They are an important input for macroscopic simulators that are used to further optimize the solar cell. Past experimental studies, using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and capacitance-voltage measurements, have yielded conflicting results on the band offset. Here, we present a computational study on the band offsets. It is based on atomistic models and density-functional theory (DFT). The amorphous part of the interface is obtained by relatively long DFT first-principles molecular-dynamics runs at an elevated temperature on 30 statistically independent samples. In order to obtain a realistic conduction-band position the electronic structure of the interface is calculated with a hybrid functional. We find a slight asymmetry in the band offsets, where the offset in the valence band (0.29 eV) is larger than in the conduction band (0.17 eV). Our results are in agreement with the latest XPS measurements that report a valence-band offset of 0.3 eV.


This book majorly addresses the challenges faced by youth in accessing and utilising antenatal and delivery care services in Bukiyi Sub-County, Sironko District-Uganda. The book also examined the determinants and status of antenatal and delivery care services in the sub-county. A deep and analytical insight of literature is used to establish existing gaps in Reproductive Health. The findings are anchored on Aday and Andersen's Generic Health Utilisation Model.


An updated and extended version of the Intermediate Energy Activation File IEAF-2001 is currently under development. It will contain neutron-induced activation and transmutation cross sections for target nuclides Z = 1 to 84 and neutron energies up to 1 GeV. Below 150 MeV, the cross section data are evaluated on the basis of nuclear model calculations making use of experimental data whenever available. Above 150 MeV to 1 GeV, the evaluation is based on intranuclear cascade model calculations. This work describes the evaluation and preparation of the data in the upper energy region 150 MeV to 1 GeV. The analysis and identification of best models and tools for the cross section calculation was performed using all experimental data for nucleon induced reactions available up-to-date in EXFOR. Intranuclear cascade models used for comparison are all those included in MCNPX and CASCADE/INPE codes. A thorough comparative analysis of model calculations for more than 4000 experimental points corresponding to approximately 1000 reactions on target nuclei with atomic numbers from 6 to 83 was performed using different statistical and correlation criteria. The models giving the best agreement with experimental data in each target nuclei mass range were identified and used for subsequent calculation of neutron-induced cross sections for 684 nuclei in the energy range 150 MeV–1 GeV. The resulting cross section data were processed in the ENDF-6 data format making use of the MT = 5 (neutron, anything) option with the excitation functions stored in files section MF = 3 and the product nuclide vectors in MF = 6 (LAW = 0) to allow processing of the data with the NJOY code.


There ́s a deficiency in the application of the operational parameters on the pasteurized process for the food canning, resulting in products of low nutritional quality, this problematic leads to the need to establish optimization methods in the thermal treatment process. The research establishes the mathematical model as optimization method in the processing of semi-solids products analyzing at tomato puree in glass and tin container, under the following operation parameters: temperature and total solids concentration. The results and the behavior of the heating curve in the inside product are compared, and concluded that the lethal effects in both type containers secure the microbial inactivation and the minim nutritional degradation from the food components, and is greater that canned in glass container respect at tin container, this ́s because the thermal transfer constant and the material nature in the container.


Preterm labor or parturition Prematurus is labor that occurs at age less than 37 weeks of pregnancy is calculated from the first day of last period. Data in hospitals Arifin Achmad Pekanbaru data obtained in 2010 obtained data on the number of labor as much as 2400 cases, with 190 cases of preterm labor (7.91%), in 2011 the number of births as 2287 cases with 279 cases of preterm labor (12%) and in the period January-April 2012 Number 780 cases of preterm labor (11.5%). The purpose of research is knowing the relationship of the complications of pregnancy, a history of preterm labor, anemia, age and parity with preterm labor. Type of research is a case-control study. The population in this study were all mothers giving birth at hospitals Arifin achmad Pekanbaru. Size of the sample consisted of 245 cases and 245 controls. Data analysis was performed by univariate, bivariate and multivariate Logistic Regression method Ganda. The results is a complication of pregnancy (95% CI: 4.09 to 9.21), age (95% CI: 1.58 to 3.69), and parity (95% CI: 1.05 to 2.36) associated with preterm labor. The conclusion that the dominant variables associated with the incidence of preterm birth is a complication of pregnancy and no variable counfounding. Advice to pregnant women who experience pregnancy complications during their pregnancy on a regular basis at least four times during pregnancy and high parity mothers are advised to use contraception; To health professionals to classify the status of patients at risk to facilitate the provision of IEC.


Aim To evaluate outcomes of patients with oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) with levator function (LF) ≥10mm who underwent primary bilateral silicone frontalis suspension. Methods 31 patients with OPMD satisfied the following inclusion criteria: LF ≥10 mm; no previous eyelid surgery; and pre-operative measurements, silcone frontalis suspension and post-operative measurements performed by a single individual. The following data were collected: age; gender; pre-operative margin reflex distance (MRD), palpebral fissure height (PF), and LF; post-operative MRD, PF and lagophthalmos; follow-up; and complications. Results Mean age at surgery was 61.5±5.8 years. Pre-operative measurements for MRD, PF and LF were −0.05±0.82 mm (OD), −0.13±0.91 mm (OS); 5.2±1.2 mm (OD), 5.2±1.3 mm (OS); 11.6±1.3 mm (OD), and 11.7±1.3 mm (OS), respectively. Post-operative measurements for MRD and PF were 2.23±0.97 mm (OD), 2.10±1.09 mm (OS), 7.9±1.4 mm (OD), and 7.7±1.6 mm (OS), respectively (all p<0.0001). The mean follow-up period was 22.8±22.4 months. There was no sling (infection or extrusion) or ophthalmic (significant corneal compromise) complication after the surgery. Six patients (19%) underwent early (within 3 months) tightening of their slings for under correction. Three patients (10%) underwent late (>39 months) tightening of their frontalis slings for recurrent ptosis after their initial surgery. Conclusions Primary bilateral silicone frontalis suspension for good LF ptosis secondary to OPMD appears to be an effective, safe treatment which gives symmetrical upper lid elevation. Early sling adjustment may be required to attain optimal eyelid height and late tightening for expectant loosening of the sling is safe and effective.


This study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of Babesia ovis around Afyon between June and September 2000. During this period, blood samples were collected to obtain serum samples from total of 204 Akkaraman sheep in different age groups in 9 different localities. During sampling, peripheral blood smears were prepared from the punctured ear of each animal. Ticks were also collected from the animals sampled. The sera were tested for the presence of antibodies to B. ovis by ELISA. The blood smears were stained with 5% Giemsa stain solution and were examined microscopically. Antibodies against B. ovis were detected in 106 of the 204 sheep (51.96%) using ELISA. Under microscopic examination, B. ovis was detected in 1 of the 204 sheep (0.49%). Of the 62 adult ticks examined, 41 were male and 20 were female. During this period, 1 nymph was also collected from the sampled animals. The adult ticks were identified as Rhipicephalus bursa, R. sanguineus and R. turanicus. The nymph was identified as Hyalomma sp. The collected ticks were not examined for the presence of Babesia vermicules.


OBJECTIVE:Previous studies have suggested that ineffective esophageal motility (IEM) may be a marker for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), particularly supraesophageal reflux disease. We evaluated the relationship between esophageal acid exposure and esophageal body motility in patients undergoing both esophageal manometry and 24-h pH metry in the absence of antisecretory therapy.METHODS:We conducted a retrospective database review of 84 patients (mean age 47 yr, 46% male) evaluated in our GI physiology laboratory. The indication for testing was recorded and characterized as esophageal or supraesophageal. Abnormal esophageal acid exposure was defined as a distal esophageal pH <4 for more than 4.2% of the total monitoring time (>6.3% upright, >1.2% supine) or a proximal esophageal acid exposure time of greater than 1.1% total (>1.3% upright, 0% supine). IEM was defined as more than two of 10 ineffective peristaltic waves.RESULTS:Seventy-two patients had esophageal-presenting symptoms, and 12 had supraesophageal symptoms. The prevalence of abnormal esophageal acid exposure was similar in patients with esophageal and supraesophageal symptoms (69% vs 92%, p= 0.17). Abnormal motility was identified in 26 patients (31%). IEM was the most common motility disturbance (77%, 20 patients). The frequency of motility disorders was similar in patients with and without abnormal esophageal acid exposure (30% vs 35%, p= 0.79), in patients with esophageal or supraesophageal symptoms (32% vs 25%, p= 0.75, for all patients; 30% vs 27%, p= 1.00, for patients with abnormal esophageal acid exposure), and among upright, supine, and combined refluxers (33%, 9%, and 35%, p= 0.26).CONCLUSIONS:IEM does not stand alone as a significant marker for the presence of GERD in general or supraesophageal reflux disease in particular.


Traumatic degloving injuries of the mandible are rare intraoral soft tissue traumas. A simple review of the medical literature shows that no article up to this date has reported the prevalence of the degloving injuries of the mandible. Moreover, the highest incidence of mandibular degloving injuries is reported in children and young adults. In this article, the author describes the mandibular degloving injury, characterized by the separation of periosteum and soft tissues of the anterior buccal side of the mandible, and the bone suture technique. This article outlines that a correct diagnostic assessment and appropriate treatment plan can reduce the complications after mandibular degloving injuries.


M. PURCELL (D. P. G. Bolton and K. W. Cross) introduced by K. W. Cross. London. 'Upper airway obstruction in the infant'. Nasal airway resistance in the infant has interested us for these reasons. (1) Some babies can undergo severe upper airway obstruction without showing any appropriate response (Cross and Lewis, 1971). (2) Babies will not breathe normally through their mouths (the 50% survivors in cases of posterior choanal atresia are those who cry to ventilate their lungs). Investigation of babies referred to us has shown that airway resistance may be increased tenfold above normal with only minor signs-such as mild rib recession. An oral airway was found to reduce the work of breathing enormously, and we were able to calculate the fall of resistance using a plethysmographic technique. It was characteristically reduced to a third or less of that when nose breathing. This resistance was still high compared with normal values, and improvements in the design and placing of the airway are under review. It was striking that the discomfort of the airway was well tolerated only when the improvement in resistance was clearly demonstrable. That we had 5 infants referred to us in the first month after announcing our interest suggests that this is a widespread problem.


The aim of this article is to analyse the feeling of national identity of the Ryukyuans and the way in which this problem is presented in selected Okinawan prose: short stories Officer Ukuma by Ikemiyagi Sekiho and Mothers, Women by Nakandakari Hatsu. Inhabitants of Ryukyu Kingdom, incorporated by Japan only in 1879, were both culturally and ethnically different from the Japanese. Problems originating from their double, Japanese-Okinawan identity are presented in the first of the stories. The main topic of Mothers, Women, written fifty years later, are traumatic wartime memories of the heroines and their influence on both the Okinawans' everyday life and their attitude towards the inhabitants of Japan proper (hondo).


Abstract Increased traffic speeds and axle loads on modern railways enhance rail track degradation. To eliminate track failure due to rail defects, a condition monitoring system requires methods for the early detection of defects which grow in service. Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring is the only non-destructive technique which might be applied online to study the defect growth under traffic loading. However, a high level of traffic noise and a limited signal from crack growth, especially at low crack growth rates, significantly complicate the AE signal analysis. In the present work, the AE monitoring of rail steel fatigue was carried out in a 'noisy' laboratory environment using different methods of signal analysis. Signal parameters of AE for machine noise, sample deformation and crack growth were identified. The crack growth related AE signature was found to be dependent on fracture mode.


This paper reports on progress made in the first year of an eight year research p r o j e c t w h i c h a i m s t o build/grow/evolve (at electronic speeds) an artificial brain which contains a billion neurons inside a Cellular Automata Machine (CAM). This paper introduces the CAM-Brain c o n c e p t , d i s c u s s e s s o m e implementation issues, and justifies how it should be possible to build artificial brains containing a billion neurons by the year 2001. If successful, the CAM-Brain research project should provide a powerful, if not revolutionary, new tool for the study of behavior, because the project intends to evolve a CAM-Brain which is capable of controlling roughly 1000 "behaviors" in a robot kitten. Since it is unlikely that all these behaviors will be evolved in one step, the CAM-Brain Project will need to focus its attention upon the issue of "incremental evolution," i.e., how does one add neural modules to an already functional nervous system, so as to increase its functionality.


Epidemics of marine pathogens can spread at extremely rapid rates. For example, herpes virus spread through pilchard populations in Australia at a rate in excess of 10 000 km year(-1), and morbillivirus infections in seals and dolphins have spread at more than 3000 km year(-1). In terrestrial environments, only the epidemics of myxomatosis and calicivirus in Australian rabbits and West Nile Virus in birds in North America have rates of spread in excess of 1000 km year(-1). The rapid rates of spread of these epidemics has been attributed to flying insect vectors, but flying vectors have not been proposed for any marine pathogen. The most likely explanation for the relatively rapid spread of marine pathogens is the lack of barriers to dispersal in some parts of the ocean, and the potential for long-term survival of pathogens outside the host. These findings caution that pathogens may pose a particularly severe problem in the ocean. There is a need to develop epidemic models capable of generating these high rates of spread and obtain more estimates of disease spread rate.


The optimization problem of estimate a vector x such that minimize ∥Ax∥ subject to ∥x∥ = 1, where A is a m×n matrix, is frequently found in computer vision. The solution of this problem is the right singular vector associated to the the smallest singular value. This problem must be solved very fast, for example, in real time applications as augmented reality environments are. It is show in this work that the old procedure to calculate directly the smallest singular value and to use one inverse iteration to calculate its associated singular vector is a faster procedure, compared with the state of the art algorithms to calculate the SVD, with relatively small square matrices.


Policymakers, consumer advocate groups, and researchers agree that consumers need to increase their proenvironmental behaviors if a decent standard of living is to be ensured for future generations. Despite high levels of environmental concern, consumers still refrain from large-scale adoption of proenvironmental behaviors. Social marketers agree that a change in attitudes is not enough to stimulate the necessary behavioral change and are looking for ways to help consumers overcome the costs (e.g., price premiums, inconvenience) that are often associated with proenvironmental behaviors. Currently, consumers often see proenvironmental behavior as a trade-off between short-term personal benefits and longer term collective benefits. The authors contribute to the social marketing literature on proenvironmental behavior by introducing the concept of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS), which centers on the use of intrinsic motivation to stimulate a personal sense of responsibility for the environment. The findings, based on a survey and three experiments, show that the stimulation of consumers' affinity with future generations (AFGs) and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) can help to promote CENS, which in turn raises proenvironmental behaviors. However, this research also shows that increasing levels of AFGs can backfire and result in lower levels of CENS, if consumers experience low levels of PCE.


The 3 authors of Pediatric Clinical Electromyography , Jones, Bolton, and Harper, are well known in the field. Jones is the director of the Pediatric Electromyography (EMG) Laboratory at Children's Hospital in Boston, Mass, and has extensive experience in pediatric EMG. This book is the first text dedicated entirely to pediatric electrodiagnosis. It is both well written and a joy to read. The book is divided into 9 chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the approach of pediatric EMG. It is particularly useful to those trained in adult EMG but who are frequently asked to perform electrodiagnostic tests in pediatric populations. The issue of premedication and anesthesia for EMG is adequately addressed. The importance of the section on "Maturation Factors in Pediatric Nerve Conduction Studies" cannot be overemphasized. Tables 1 through 19 at the end of chapter 1, which contain the normal data for the pediatric population, are extremely useful.


Progress in the management of diabetes mellitus is turning attention toward comorbidities and conditions such as periodontal diseases. This article aims to present the evidence linking diabetes and periodontal disease. The potential effects of modifying factors of inflammatory origin on diabetic control are also discussed. Increased prevalence, extent, and severity of gingivitis and periodontitis are correlated with diabetes. Moreover, many plausible mechanisms have been exemplified to explain the effect of diabetes on the periodontium. While inflammation plays an important role in periodontal diseases, evidence in the medical literature also supports the role of inflammation as an important component in the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications. Research suggests that periodontal disease has a large amount of inflammatory components that can negatively affect the metabolic control of diabetes. Conversely, treatment of periodontal disease and decrease in oral inflammation have a positive effect on the diabetic control. Diabetic patients who have periodontal disease have two chronic conditions - diabetes and periodontal disease, each of which can impact the other and require regular professional evaluations, patient education, and consistent educational reinforcement by healthcare providers both medical and dental.


The research objective was to examine the effect of labor discipline and motivation to work on teacher performance and job satisfaction as the mediation, studies on teacher high schools in the district of Jepara. Samples used in these researches as much as 191 people with the sampling technique is proportional random sampling gives equal opportunities are limitless for each element of the population to be selected into the sample taken by a proportional amount. Analysis using multiple linear regression test. The research results can be summarized as follows: Discipline of work has no effect on job satisfaction. Work motivation positive and significant effect on job satisfaction, work discipline and significant positive effect on performance, motive does not affect the performance of work, job satisfaction has a positive effect on performance, job satisfaction as a mediating variable is not able to explain the effect on the performance of work discipline and work motivation. Keyword: Discipline of work, work motivation, job satisfaction and performance


The paper focuses its attention on changes of employee's motivation in the crisis conditions and in the context of recession. The research, developed in 2009, used a questionnaire: its first part was grounded on F. Herzberg's theory, who, as known, distinguished between Hygiene factors and motivation ones, in order to put in evidence what factors influence satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The second part of the questionnaire aimed at the determination of the employees' attitude to the equity of reward accomplished and their respective potential actions. The research has been realized in one of the biggest Lithuanian telecommunication companies. After the description of the research methodology and of its results, the paper presents some conclusions in order to the central questions. Exactly, the comparative analysis of the research results enables the following conclusions about employees' motivation changes in the situation of crisis. In the conditions of recession, the employee motivation has a tendency to increase and job dissatisfaction to decrease on average, as well as according to individual factors distinguished in F. Herzberg theory. Moreover, the number of non-influential factors has also decreased, and the employees are more inclined to attribute them to motivating.


Abstract. The increase in global mean temperatures resulting from climate change has wide reaching consequences for the earth's ecosystems and other natural systems. Many studies have been devoted to evaluating the distribution and effects of these changes. We go a step further and propose the use of the heat index, a measure of the temperature as perceived by humans, to evaluate global changes. The heat index, which is computed from temperature and relative humidity, is more important than temperature for the health of humans and animals. Even in cases where the heat index does not reach dangerous levels from a health perspective, it has been shown to be an important factor in worker productivity and thus in economic productivity. We compute the heat index from dew point temperature and absolute temperature 2 m above ground from the ERA-Interim reanalysis data set for the years 1979–2013. The described data set provides global heat index aggregated to daily minima, means and maxima per day ( doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.841057 ). This paper examines these data, as well as showing aggregations to monthly and yearly values. Furthermore, the data are spatially aggregated to the level of countries after being weighted by population density in order to facilitate the analysis of its impact on human health and productivity. The resulting data deliver insights into the spatiotemporal development of near-ground heat index during the course of the past three decades. It is shown that the impact of changing heat index is unevenly distributed through space and time, affecting some areas differently than others. The data can serve as a basis for evaluating and understanding the evolution of heat index in the course of climate change, as well as its impact on human health and productivity.


OBJECTIVES
This U.K.-based study aimed to investigate qualified clinical psychologists' perceptions of the value and usefulness of the learning activities experienced during their training in clinical psychology.

DESIGN
Members (N = 357) of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the British Psychological Society (BPS) completed a self-report questionnaire about their training as clinical psychologists.

RESULTS
The results indicate that most clinical psychologists believe that they learnt mainly through doing and by observing others' clinical practice. They also highlight the importance of the learning relationship and the value of personal therapy for learning.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings point to the need for more training of trainers, especially clinical supervisors. They also draw attention to the need for more research to establish which learning activities contribute most / least to trainees' developing competence.


Rock cutting is developing area in mining and tunnelling sectors. In order to open an excavation inside or surface of the rock masses, they should be dig up to open engineered volume. Beside the conventional blasting methods result in total breakage of the selected parts of rock masses, rock cutting machineries are used in some engineering projects which they have cutting bits to trim the rock masses into small chips. Drag bits is one of the bit types which researchers are analysed for its design parameters for different rock masses. When rock bit cutting performances are under consideration, laboratory cutting test are performed and rocks are cut for different bit dimensions to evaluate its design parameters. In these researches cutting traces are photographed for test file data. It was realised here and analyzed some of these images for their colour properties. Different coloured sectors were determined along the selected cutting trace images which were compared also with the cutting force records of the related cutting tests. The colour distribution and colour difference areas of the trace images were then analysed with the cutting actions and rock mass features. The resultant enhanced coloured images and cutting forces fluctuation data obtained during cutting tests of drag bits showed that colour analysed can also be the indicators of cutting performance if they are carefully appraised.


The investigation could not, of course, cover all industries, plants, and workers, but the samples taken have been generous. The data for manufacturing relate to 1,53~,000 workers (June 1936) employed by 1,886 plants in 25 principal industries. Data for public utilities cover 33,600 workers in 500 plants. Other statistics relate to workers employed on all Class I railways, to workers in 15 building trades in 23 cities, and to agricultural laborers. The most important series of statistics given are average hourly earnings, average weekly earnings, and average hours per week per wage earner. Indexes (19~3= 100) have been constructed for all the above data as well as for real hourly and weekly earnings, employment, total man hours worked, and pay rolls. Since 185 of the 197 pages of this volume


Resources for students and faculty in Augsburg's Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing. Get help with writing Craft Papers and access to publishers, plus sources for Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Playwriting, Poetry, and Screenwriting.


Combining two rotations into one is described in detail in the book Advanced Dynamics by Shuh Jing Ying. The solutions are available, and are verified as presented in the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference. The repeated use of the combination of two rotations into one allows the combination of many rotations into one. This is especially useful when time is of the essence, such as for a guided missile shooting enemy's missile in the mid-air. So this is a very important subject. However when carefully looking into details, it is discovered that there are three possible solutions. One is verified to be the true solution the other two are discussed, proof not to be the solution.  A numerical example is given to illustrate the situation. Details are given in this paper.


An off‐axial gas jet has been developed that has the potential to extend the laser's effectiveness by improving the rate at which parts can be machined, producing high‐quality surfaces, enhancing the cutting thickness, and adding to the range of materials that can be machined. In laser cutting, an erosion front (liquid–gas region) forms at the momentary end of the cut. Laser heating, exothermic reactions and shear force between the gas flow and the molten layer dictate the material removal rates. The principle of the off‐axial gas jet is to provide straight, nonturbulent flow to the cutting erosion front, causing further oxidation reactions and transferring momentum to the molten slag and dross, thereby improving the cutting speed and the quality of cut. The design features of the off‐axial nozzle including the shape, size, gas impinging angle with respect to the erosion front, gas pressure and velocity at the nozzle exit, and the distance between the nozzle and the laser beam are described. Successful te...


The security of computer networks has been in the focus of research for years. While several sophisticated systems had been developed in the area of Intrusion Detection, new challenges arised. Pattern matching systems are not able to cope with high bandwidth (10 Gbps +) when analyzing the whole payload. Furthermore, new attack schemes arise by increasingly complex software and systems. New approaches like Network Behavior Analyses (NBA) Systems show promise for being able to cope with the new threats. These systems evaluate statistical flow data generated from the traffic of the monitored network. While originally designed for optimising traffic handling and accounting in the network, flow data appeared to be powerful for intrusion detection. NBA Systems based on machine learning techniques are able to evaluate these data and to recognize anomalies in the network. However, these systems suffer from a long-lasting learning phase and are susceptible to manipulations during that time. To overcome these shortcomings, we are introducing a fast-learning modular neural network based on pre-processed components. For the development of the new system, the possible attacks on NBA systems have to be investigated and understood in depth.


SYNOPSIs The casual arterial blood pressure of 411 patients with Parkinson's disease was compared with that of a representative sample of the general population. The patients were also divided into various sub-groups, and comparisons of blood pressure were made between them. The results provided no support for the widely held belief that blood pressure tends to be low in patients with Parkinson's disease.


The purpose of this study was to examine preservice music educators' attitudes toward popular music in the music classroom. On a survey instrument designed by the investigators, participants (N = 82) rated (a) the effectiveness of popular music in addressing the National Standards for Music Education, (b) the appropriateness of popular music in various age-groups and music classroom settings, (c) their overall attitudes toward the use of popular music in the classroom, and (d) their perceived preparation to teach popular music based on their preservice coursework. Results suggest that the participants find popular music to be more appropriate for older students than for younger students and appropriate only in certain classroom settings. Attitudes toward popular music varied within the sample, and participants responded that their preservice training to teach popular music was minimal.


Insulin vs Sulfonylureas for Second-Line Diabetes Treatment To the Editor Dr Roumie and colleagues1 reported that compared with sulfonylureas the addition of insulin to metformin to improve glycemic control was associated with an increased risk of a composite of nonfatal cardiovascular outcomes and all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. Although the results presented require verification in carefully designed clinical trials, we have some concerns about the current analyses. Roumie et al1 stated that subgroup analyses stratifying by age were consistent with the primary analysis. However, eFigure 3 showed that the hazard ratio (HR) for cardiovascular events or death was 1.14 (95% CI, 0.82-1.59) for patients younger than 65 years, whereas for those aged 65 years or older, the HR was 1.51 (95% CI, 1.19-1.92). For the composite death outcome, the HR was 1.28 (95% CI, 0.85-1.97) for patients younger than 65 years, whereas for those aged 65 years or older, the HR was 1.66 (95% CI, 1.29-2.14). Contrary to the conclusion made by the authors, the results suggest that insulin added to metformin is safe among patients younger than 65 years but appears to be hazardous in older patients with diabetes. Part of the explanation may be differences in types of insulin used and hypoglycemia by age group. Of the patients in the metformin plus insulin group, 47% used long-acting agents only; 22%, both longand short-acting agents; 17%, premixed insulin; and 11%, short-acting agents only. Although premixed insulin use in older adults can increase the risk of hypoglycemia compared with long-acting analogs,2 even the choice of regular or analog insulin can influence the frequency of hypoglycemic episodes when multiple injections are used.3 Thus, the type of insulin chosen for older patients with diabetes should be taken into consideration in such database analyses. In addition, below a hemoglobin A1c level of 8%, the risk of treatment-induced hypoglycemia increases.4 Because mean achieved hemoglobin A1c levels were 7% among sulfonylurea users and 6.9% among insulin users in this study, missing hypoglycemia data are of concern. Even though Roumie et al1 used an extensive database, they were unable to obtain data on hypoglycemia frequency, especially the number of severe events requiring hospital admission. Such information is essential for appropriate interpretation of the study. Although sulfonylurea drugs can also increase the risk hypoglycemia of among older patients, comparative data are still required.


Digested tissue specimens and corrosion casts of rat soleus and tibialis anterior muscles were employed for this Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) study. The shape, morphology, and position of pericytes were compared to corresponding imprints on the cast surfaces. Pericytes, observed in digested tissue specimens, showed a typical morphological pattern: a central body with two primary processes that run along the capillary in opposite directions. From these primary processes, secondary ones arise and often encircle the vessel almost completely. On the surface of corrosion casts, roundish imprints were found in the microvascular tree at the same level where digested tissue specimens showed the presence of pericyte bodies. Along and around the cast surface, shallow grooves reproduced the course of the primary and secondary processes. The peculiar tridimensional arrangement of pericytes at the level of capillary bifurcations underlines their role in red cell flow regulation. However, if the mechanical linkage of the pericytes to the endothelium and their contractability is taken into account, additional roles of these perivascular cells may be hypothesized.


Web forums are frequently used as platforms for the exchange of information and opinions, as well as propaganda dissemination. But online content can be misused when the information being distributed, such as radical opinions, is unsolicited or inappropriate. However, radical opinion is highly hidden and distributed in Web forums, while non-radical content is unspecific and topically more diverse. It is costly and time consuming to label a large amount of radical content (positive examples) and non-radical content (negative examples) for training classification systems. Nevertheless, it is easy to obtain large volumes of unlabeled content in Web forums. In this paper, we propose and develop a topic-sensitive partially supervised learning approach to address the difficulties in radical opinion identification in hate group Web forums. Specifically, we design a labeling heuristic to extract high quality positive examples and negative examples from unlabeled datasets. The empirical evaluation results from two large hate group Web forums suggest that our proposed approach generally outperforms the benchmark techniques and exhibits more stable performance than its counterparts.


: Under observation were over 3 500 patients, subjected to gastric resection for the complicated ulcerous disease. In the early postoperative period hemorrhage was observed in 42 patients, including bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract--in 23, in free abdominal cavity--in 19. In cases, when early profuse bleeding following gastric resection would not respond to intensive conservative measures, then urgent relaparotomy with the aim of haemostasis, replenishment of blood loss and correction of the internal medium seem to be indicated. Bleeding from forcibly remained low duodenal ulcer in Billroth-II gastrectomy can be arrested by means of duodenotomy and suturing of the ulcer bottom with U-shape sutures. For establishing in early diagnosis of hemorrhage into the abdomen its drainage after gastric resection with a rubber strip, brought out through a separate incision in the anterior abdominal wall in the right subcostal space, seems to be rather effective.


This thesis argues that recent cultural-theoretical research on narrative temporality, empathy and affect can be usefully brought to bear upon one other in order to interrogate the ethics of reading neo-Victorian literature. I present neo-Victorian literature as a genre defined by its contemporary exploitation of, and experimentation with, 'empathetic narrative' (Sylvia Adamson, 2001) and, in contrast with the historical preoccupation of much neo-Victorian criticism, focus instead on what is distinctive about the ways in which readers of these texts are positioned. In so doing, I open the texts up to the work of a wide range of literary, cultural, philosophical and psychoanalytic theorists including Lauren Berlant, Amy Coplan, Mark Currie, Marshall W. Gregory, Suzanne Keen, Melanie Klein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Silvan Tomkins. In contrast to the popular understanding of neoVictorianism as a genre that seeks to explore the afterlife of the Victorians, my focus is on the wide-ranging ethical and political implications of its 'empathetic narrative', both with respect to the representation of intra-diegetic characters and the text-reader relationship. The authors I use to explore these ideas include Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Michael Cox, Jane Harris and Sarah Waters whose texts complicate and unsettle reader-pleasure by making empathy into an uncomfortable and ethically challenging experience. Despite these discomforts, the thesis combines empathy studies, ethical criticism, affect studies and the philosophical interrogation of temporality in order to provide a future-orientated, reparative and politically meaningful way of reading neo-Victorian literature. Each chapter brings in an approach to empathy from disciplines as various as psychology (Heinz Kohut), phenomenology (Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein and Dan Zahavi) and aesthetics (Robert Vischer, Harry Francis Mallgrave and Eleftherios Ikonomou) in recognition of its contested meaning and significance. By considering the concept of empathy in relation to the affective landscape of neo-Victorian texts, this thesis thus shifts the study of neo-Victorianism from a postmodern critique of historiographic metafiction to an ethical interrogation of the reader-text relationship. This is with the aim of breathing new life into the debates associated with the genre and demonstrating new ways of reading and valuing the texts.


There is a global effort to eliminate the amount of the chemicals used in the production technology, by the introduction of biological and ecological substances. One of the possible solutions is the allelophaty, the use of a chemical interactions between plants. The substances with allelochemical potential are very diverse and are involved in many metabolic processes. These substances belong to different classes of secondary metabolites: phenols, terpenes, alkaloids and can be present in different plants organs.The aim of this paper is to establish an interface between the biochemical study and morphological study of the plants, emphasizing the structural and functional changes that the allelophatic biochemical interactions between plants can induce. The tolerance of Lolium perenne was assessed by the seedlings growing and by the externalization of the morphological characters, after the extracts application that contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids and ergot alkaloids obtained from the aerial part of Dactylis glomerata, Poa pratensis and Festuca rubra plants. The idea of the influence of some chemical substances eliminated in the environment by organisms on other neighboring organisms, was released when the results of some physiologists researchers led to the conclusion that the action of these metabolites is beneficial or not to the neighboring, receivers organisms. Based on the opinion that the plants from a vegetal community associate by the virtue of some " affinities" or "chemical tolerances," it was established an experience in which it was followed the extracts effect on the growth and development of Lolium perenne plants. The determination of the growing and development of the plants treated with extracts was made by biometrization and the applied extract doses were : 10ml/pot, 40ml/pot and 80ml/pot every 7 days. The biometric measurements were performed for the main sprout length, the number of leaves / sprout and the sprouts number. As regarding the influence of the extracts with alkaloids content on the growth and development of perennial ryegrass, the experience has shown that as the amount and the concentration of alkaloids increase, it affects in a negative way the growth and the development of Lolium perenne species.


BACKGROUND
Obesity is a risk factor for loss of kidney function in the general population, but it is unknown whether it proceeds to affect residual kidney function when patients require dialysis. Our aim was to study the effects of body mass index (BMI) on decline in kidney function and risk to develop anuria after initiation of dialysis therapy.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
1,271 incident dialysis patients from 38 centers in The Netherlands participating in the Netherlands Cooperative Study on the Adequacy of Dialysis (NECOSAD) between 1997 and 2006.

PREDICTOR
BMI assessed at 3 months after the initiation of dialysis therapy (baseline) and categorized into 4 groups: less than 20, 20 or greater to 25, 25 or greater to 30, and 30 or greater kg/m(2).

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
The decrease in measured glomerular filtration rate (mGFR) was determined by means of linear mixed models and adjusted for age, sex, primary kidney disease, dialysis modality, smoking, cardiovascular disease, and normalized protein nitrogen appearance and additionally for proteinuria, blood pressure, and baseline mGFR. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate hazard ratios for the development of anuria.

RESULTS
Patients had a mean age of 59 +/- 15 years, BMI of 24.8 +/- 4.1 kg/m(2), and mGFR of 4.7 +/- 3.3 mL/min. During 18 months of follow-up, the decrease in mGFR in patients with normal weight was 1.2 mL/min/y (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7 to 1.6). Compared with those values, adjusted losses of mGFR were 0.4 mL/min/y (95% CI, 0.02 to 0.8) greater for overweight and 1.2 mL/min/y (95% CI, 0.5 to 1.8) greater for obese patients. In contrast, the decrease in underweight patients was 0.6 mL/min/y (-0.1 to 1.3) less. Anuria occurred in 297 patients; the risk was similar among BMI groups after adjustment for confounders and baseline diuresis.

LIMITATIONS
Patients with missing BMI or mGFR values at baseline were excluded.

CONCLUSION
Obesity is a strong risk factor for the decline in kidney function after initiation of dialysis therapy. Whether obese dialysis patients might benefit from a healthy weight reduction needs to be studied further.


With the wide popularity of distributed and cloud computing a new major concern arise with respect to how green such technologies are. This paper is concerned with providing services over the cloud that are energy-aware. To achieve this goal this paper presents a novel extended service oriented architecture and a novel formal service model. The architecture and the service model extend traditional service oriented architectures to be support context information and mainly location information.


This paper provides the first empirical evidence about the tariff passthrough in world-wide trade. Specifically, we estimate the effects of tariff reduction on import prices for our tariff line-level data in 46 importing countries in 2007- 2011. The estimation results show that the average pass-through rate for tariff reduction by regional trade agreements (RTAs) is higher than that for reduction by the most favoured nation rates. Namely, most of the tariff rent goes to the importer in the case of multilateral trade liberalization and to the exporter in the case of trade liberalization by RTAs. We also find that product differentiation has an impact of a substantial magnitude on the tariff pass-through for RTAs. The difference in income level of country pairs affects much the tariff pass-through for RTAs. Bargaining over prices between the importer and exporter might explain these results because the use of RTAs requires exporters to incur some costs for certifying the products' origin.


Author(s): Edwards, Jordan Wesley | Advisor(s): Furlong, Michael | Abstract: The present research focused on understanding the roles of coping strategy (avoidant, problem solving, and support seeking) and trauma history in predicting Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and life satisfaction. Exposure to traumatic events is common in the general population, and lifetime prevalence rates for PTSD are relatively high and are estimated at 8.7% among adults in the United States. Although the psychological impact of highly stressful events can be considerable, the development of PTSD profoundly affects the individual's overall quality of life. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the relation between coping strategy, trauma history, PTSD symptoms, and life satisfaction. To decrease measurement error, latent variables were created for PTSD symptoms and life satisfaction. Both the main effects and interactions associated with coping strategy and trauma history were investigated. Three separate SEM models were constructed to investigate avoidant, problem solving, and support seeking coping strategies, which have been shown to be temporally stable traits. To investigate the hypothesized model in a non-clinical sample, completed data from 326 participants were analyzed. Two separate subsamples were targeted and included community members and college students. Community members were approached at a large shopping center and college students were approached on campus. All participants received an incentive, which included gift certificates, cash, or course credit immediately after completion of the research assessments. Bivariate analyses failed to support two separate subsamples in terms of demographics, coping strategies, or trauma history; therefore, one combined sample was used for analyses. The demographics of the combined sample were much more similar to the demographics associated with college students than community members. Overall, 80.1% of participants reported at least one exposure to a wide variety of traumatic events. Hypotheses regarding coping strategies in this sample, which was largely comprised of college students, were not supported. Both problem solving and support seeking coping strategies failed to significantly predict PTSD symptoms. Even more surprising was that in this sample avoidant coping actually predicted a decrease in PTSD symptoms. Results indicated that participants who experienced high levels of traumatic events benefited from a greater reduction in PTSD symptoms compared to those who had experienced low levels of traumatic events. In all three coping strategies, an increased trauma history predicted a significant increase in PTSD symptoms, and an increase in PTSD symptoms predicted an even greater decrease in life satisfaction. In addition, an increase in trauma history actually predicted a small increase in life satisfaction when not mediated by PTSD symptoms. This indicated that in this sample exposure to traumatic events slightly increased life satisfaction when individuals did not experience adverse affects associated with the exposure. Also unexpected was the finding that avoidant coping predicted a slight increase in life satisfaction while support seeking predicted a slight decrease in life satisfaction.


Although bioengineering has been actively studied at postgraduate level for many years in the UK and Europe, it has only been offered very recently at undergraduate level as an independent discipline. In such cases, it is normally taught as an integrated subject throughout the whole period of study. This approach enables the basic principles of mathematics, physics and engineering to be presented in a biomedical context but without compromising the rigour with which they are taught. Currently such undergraduate courses are only being taught to relatively small numbers of students. Their popularity is growing rapidly and they are attracting very bright students and many more women than have entered the traditional engineering disciplines.


First, I agree that the primary purpose of medicine is to relieve human suffering. But to accomplish that end, a physician has to assess the patient's condition and determine the best mode of therapy appropriate for the patient. Because Mrs D. was ignorant of her diagnosis of cancer, she was unable to know which course of therapy was best. Surely, most physicians would agree that Mrs D. would have had a better chance of a favorable outcome if she had consented to early surgical removal of her ulcerated stomach cancer! Second, one of the reasons I wrote about Mrs D. was to bring to light the ever-present "cancer phobia" that exists in this country. One can never treat or cure cancer without first knowing about cancer. Mrs D. didn't know about her cancer, because her family decided she couldn't deal with that knowledge and defended that decision by proclaiming that


Water management plans require comprehensive knowledge of physical processes and principles controlling water resources. These mechanisms, subject to limitations, can interact in complex ways, which makes it challenging to design guidelines to achieve optimum water resources use, taking into account economic, social and environmental factors. The relationship between rivers and aquifers defines different forms of interaction between superficial water and groundwater. These processes have great relevance in inland water management and protection against pollution, as well as dependent ecosystems. Under the current legislative framework in Europe, i.e., the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) and the Groundwater Directive 2006/118/EC, calculation of flow direction and exchange rates between groundwater bodies and associated surface systems are key aspects of river basin management plans. This paper examines conditioning factors of exchange processes, related basic physical principles, and criteria for establishing different conceptual models, providing a typology for systematic classification of groundwater–surface water interactions.


Athletic preinjury function is typically determined via subjective recall; however, obtaining preinjury function before injury occurs should be attempted in order to establish an individual baseline for postinjury comparison. The purpose of this study was to obtain preinjury baseline values for the Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI) and Foot and Ankle Disability Index sport version (FADISP), single-leg hop for distance, and Star Excursion Balance Test anterior reach and determine if athletes returned to those values following ankle injury. Out of 41 qualifying injuries, FADI/FADISP scores were significantly reduced at initial injury compared with baseline and all other time points (p < .001) but recovered by discharge. Single-leg hop and Star Excursion Balance Test recovered to baseline values by the discharge time point (p ≥ .98). Subjective and objective preinjury function can be reestablished by discharge from supervised treatment following low-grade ankle injury and maintained for at least 6 months following the cessation of treatment. However, testing metrics should be reviewed on an individual athlete basis, because group data may mask individual patient needs.


Performance evaluation of increasingly complex human-made systems requires the use of simulation models. However, these systems are difficult to describe and capture by succinct mathematical models. The purpose of this book is to address the difficulties of the optimization of complex systems via simulation models or other computation-intensive models involving possible stochastic effects and discrete choices. This book establishes distinct advantages of the "softer" ordinal approach for search-based type problems, analyzes its general properties, and shows the many orders of magnitude improvement in computational efficiency that is possible.


Because of the COVID-19, the tourism industry has been greatly affected, especially the occupancy rate of hotel companies. This study analyzes the effects of customer engagement and service evaluation on brand trust and customer behavioral intention based on 437 valid questionnaires from Chinese economy hotel companies using SPSS and AMOS. The components of customer engagement are subdivided into five dimensions: identification, enthusiasm, attention, absorption and interaction, and the impact of these five dimensions on brand trust in the COVID- 19 is investigated. Finally, it verifies the influence of trust on customers' word-of-mouth (WOM) intention and customers' reuse intention. The results of this study not only enrich the research on customer engagement and service evaluation in marketing circles but also give some advice to hotel companies in the COVID-19 customer engagement and service evaluation that can enhance the trust of enterprises and promote the behavior intention of customers, which has certain practical reference value.


A multichip module (MCM) package which uses integral immersion cooling to transfer heat from the chips to a final heat transfer medium outside the package was constructed. The package is a miniature immersion-cooled system with a pin-fin condenser which can be operated in either the submerged or vapor-space condensing mode. Sixteen chips were bonded on a 57 mm/sup 2/ alumina substrate carrying copper/polyimide thin film interconnect. Tests of the thermal performance of the system show that it is capable of handling over 160 W power with chip thermal resistances as low as 2 K-cm/sup 2//W provided by the immersion cooled portion of the thermal path. Tests performed with the module fully powered and with subsets of the chips powered indicate that the heat transfer coefficient is similar in all partially powered modes. Data taken with condenser temperatures ranging from 20 to 50 degrees C were used to obtain a performance map delineating the heat transfer regimes in the module and the limits imposed by critical heat flux and condenser performance.<<ETX>>


Criminal prosecution has been used with increasing frequency recently in connection with a variety of business failures and other financial offenses. Indeed, it appears that there are few such offenses that cannot be prosecuted criminally even though they also give rise to civil remedies. While some such offenses seem to be quite serious frauds, others seem to be as minor as getting the accounting rules wrong. Thus, the question addressed in this essay is how to define a business crime and what should be the proper role of criminal prosecution in connection with business offenses. I start with the proposition that we should criminalize conduct only when lesser remedies do not work to deter the offense. I then describe the array of private civil remedies available, ranging from simple compensatory damages to punitive damages to class actions and derivative actions and find that there are few business offenses that cannot be well addressed by these devices. I conclude that as a general matter private civil remedies are much more efficient at addressing business and financial crimes. The expansion of criminal prosecution may be due to some extent to problems with the way civil remedies work in practice, but for the most part it is difficult to explain except as a result of failure to understand the role of criminal law and to define financial crimes with any precision.


Antisera to diploid, trisomic and triploid embryonic fibroblast-like cells were obtained after hyperimmunization of rabbits. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis with these antisera revealed up to 9 water-soluble antigens in embryonic cells, which were present in skin fibroblasts from adult donors as well. Trisomic and triploid strains did not differ from the diploid ones by the spectrum of water-soluble antigens. The content of the number of antigens (especially of cathode fractions) in trisomic cells was significantly low as compared with those in control diploid cells, whereas in triploid ones it differed slightly. All the strains were characterized by the presence of proteins immunologically identical to alpha-globulin of human serum.


Rock failure analysis is an important research in investigating the behavior of rocks, especially its failure process. And a rock sample, which contains pre-existing cracks, is a typical sample to investigate the rock failure behavior which under tension or compression, because almost all the natural materials exist micro-flaws more or less. This mode is closed to the natural material character. By using Rock Failure Process Analysis code, RFPA2D, we present a numerical simulation and similar materials experiment on rock samples with two pre-existing cracks in uniaxial compression were conducted to investigate the initiation, propagation, coalescence of cracks and failure mechanism of rock. Numerical simulations visually reproduce the process of crack initiation, propagation and coalescence in rock, which are well tallied with experiments in laboratory.


. The metastases sites of advanced breast cancer contain vast majority of tissues and organs, which most common are bones, lungs, liver, brain and distant lymph nodes. We report a woman with unusual extensive subcutaneous metastases of breast cancer in her abdomen, back and back of the neck. The patient was diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer and had been treated 4 months earlier with modified radical mastectomy and three cycles of chemotherapy. Later she presented painless multiple small tubercules on the abdomen wall, back and back of the neck. She sought treatment in our department to perform a 18FDG PET-CT scan, confirming the multiple subcutaneous tubercules. Histopathological studies supported that the tubercules were rare subcutaneous metastatic of breast origin. The patient underwent another two cycles of chemotherapy and evaluation of cura-tive effect was stability.


Although the field of datacenter computing is arguably still in its relative infancy, a sizable body of work from both academia and industry is already available and some consistent technological trends have begun to emerge. This special issue presents a small sample of the work underway by researchers and professionals in this new field. The selection of articles presented reflects the key role that hardware-software codesign plays in the development of effective datacenter-scale computer systems.


Gender effect of HIV on Neuropsychological functioning Introduction It has been established that HIV enters the central nervous system (CNS) early after infection and eventually results in both structural and functional brain changes in about 30–50% of cases (Shaw et al. 1985). Even in their milder forms these changes may have significant effects on day-to-day functioning (Antinori et al. 2007). Objective This study examines neuropsychological differences, especially gender difference, between HIV seropostive (HIV+) patients being followed in a University of Zambia clinic and demographically comparable seronegative (HIV-) controls recruited in the same setting. Materials and Methods 38 HIV+ subjects on antiviral treatment and 42 HIV- participants with similar age education and gender. They were all administered a standardised neurocognitive test battery that has been found sensitive to HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND) in the USA and internationally (e.g., in China, India, Romania and Cameroon). Results The test battery was found to be applicable to a Zambian population. A clear HIV effect was seen with a medium to high overall effect size (Cohen's d = 0.74). However, it was only the female seropostive group who showed this effect of HIV. Conclusion HIV can result in neuropsychological deficits in Zambia, where the clade C of the virus dominates. It is suggested that the HIV infected women are more at risk for developing cognitive deficits than men, possibly because of gender related social, financial and healthcare disadvantages.


TikTok has been criticized for its low privacy standards, but little is known about how its adolescent users protect their privacy. Based on interviews with 54 adolescents in Switzerland, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of young TikTok users' privacy management practices related to the creation of videos. The data were explored using the COM-B model, an established behavioral analysis framework adapted for sociotechnical privacy research. Our overall findings are in line with previous research on other social networks: adolescents are aware of privacy related to their online social connections (social privacy) and perform conscious privacy management. However, we also identified new patterns related to the central role of algorithmic recommendations potentially relevant for other social networks. Adolescents are aware that TikTok's special algorithm, combined with the app's high prevalence among their peers, could easily put them in the spotlight. Some adolescents also reduce TikTok, which was originally conceived as a social network, to its extensive audio-visual capabilities and share TikToks via more private channels (e.g., Snapchat) to manage audiences and avoid identification by peers. Young users also find other creative ways to protect their privacy such as identifying stalkers or maintaining multiple user accounts with different privacy settings to establish granular audience management. Based on our findings, we propose various concrete measures to develop interventions that protect the privacy of adolescents on TikTok.


Vertical flux of oxygen in lakes can play an important role in regulating the severity of hypoxia. Direct measurement of oxygen flux has remained hard due to lack of sufficient data. In this research, we focus on measuring vertical oxygen flux in a small hypoxic Canadian Shield lake using Fick's Law = −K dDO⁄dz, where is the vertical turbulent diffusivity and () the vertical concentration of dissolved oxygen. To compute oxygen flux, a fast-response temperature and optical oxygen logger was attached to a temperature microstructure profiler and casts were obtained throughout the summer stratification period. The profiles were synchronized by aligning the temperature channels from the two instruments. To solve Fick's Law, was obtained from the microstructure data using a buoyancy Reynolds number parameterization and ⁄ was obtained from the oxygen logger. The results show negligible oxygen flux through the thermocline (  3 × 10-4 gm-2d-1) during the summer stratification period, in comparison to the oxygen sinks in the hypolimnion (sediment oxygen demand and respiration).


Lucy O'Brien argues that a satisfactory account of first-person reference and self-knowledge needs to concentrate on our nature as agents. She considers two main questions. First, what account of first-person reference can we give that respects the guaranteed nature of such reference? Second, what account can we give of our knowledge of our mental and physical actions? Clearly written, with rigorous discussion of rival views, this book will be of interest to anyone working in the philosophy of mind and action.


Isolates of Mycobacterium avium complex from five patients on longterm (3-5 yrs) anti-mycobacterial drug treatment were collected during the early and late phase of disease, and studied in vitro for their susceptibility to anti-mycobacterial drugs and drug-combinations. All isolates were resistant or moderately resistant to ethambutol, rifampicin and streptomycin when given singly; however, all strains isolated early in the disease were susceptible to the combination of ethambutol with either rifampicin or streptomycin. All late isolates had developed resistance to one or both of these combinations. Three of the patients died within a year after the last isolation of M. avium complex, and the two remaining patients still have severe chronic disease. It is concluded that the susceptibility of M. avium strains to combinations of drugs should be monitored during the course of treatment, in order to guide the selection of effective drug-combinations throughout the infection.


This article will consider the case study of Quebec's Bill 94 (An Act to establish guidelines governing accommodation requests within the Administration and certain institutions), introduced in March 2010, one of many recent bans imposed on the wearing of the niqab in the West. Citing the importance of "the right to gender equality and the principle of religious neutrality of the State," Bill 94 emphasizes the necessity of "un visage decouvert" or "naked face" when giving or receiving a broad range of public services in Quebec, including all government services, childcare centres, hospitals, and health and social service agencies. According to section 6 of the Act, "If an accommodation involves an adaptation of that practice and reasons of security, communication or identification warrant it, the accommodation must be denied." While quasi-neutral, this bill clearly has a disproportionate impact on religious women who wear the niqab. In fact, as a direct result of the legislation, Muslim women will likely disappear from the public sphere and be restricted to the private home where they might effectively be dependent on male family members to navigate the "market place" on their behalf. Borrowing from Charles Taylor's A Secular Age, this paper will consider the distributive consequences of the niqab ban, a critical juncture of "religion-state relations" in which belief is more and more relegated to the private sphere in Quebec. The article will use Bill 94 to explore this peculiar manifestation of "secularism" with the concurrent existence of "governance feminism" — how the privatization of belief goes hand in hand and is perversely reinforced by a colonial discourse on gender equality, leaving some already marginalized women out of the public gaze. Is this legislated demand for a "naked face" truly the logical outcome of a successful feminist movement (as some have asserted) or is this erasure of religious women in fact the latest veil of patriarchy?


We propose the class-specified topic model (CSTM) to deal with the tasks of text classification and class-specific text summarization. The model assumes that in addition to a set of latent topics that are shared across classes, there is a set of class-specific latent topics for each class. Each document is a probabilistic mixture of the class-specific topics associated with its class and the shared topics. Each class-specific or shared topic has its own probability distribution over a given dictionary. We develop a Bayesian inference of CSTM in the semisupervised scenario, with the supervised scenario as a special case. We analyze in detail the 20 Newsgroups dataset, a benchmark dataset for text classification, and demonstrate that CSTM has better performance than a two-stage approach based on latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), several existing supervised extensions of LDA, and an L penalized logistic regression. The favorable performance of CSTM is also demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations and an analysis of the Reuters dataset.


Cell migration, proliferation, and attachment are critical processes for both normal tissue growth, and the development of malignant disease.  The G12/13 class of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins and their interaction with cadherin cell adhesion proteins has been implicated in the regulation of these processes.  The two members of the G12/13 class, Ga12 and Ga13 are structurally similar, sharing 67% amino acid homology, but show only partial overlap in effector signaling. 1 Previous work demonstrated that Ga12 binds an acidic 11 amino acid region of the cytoplasmic C-terminal domain of epithelial (E)-cadherin, a membrane spanning cell adhesion protein responsible for adherens junction formation. This interaction was shown to cause cell disassociation and cell migration, 2 a hallmark of metastasis. While this region of E-cadherin was implicated in this binding event, the interacting residues and affinities of Ga12 and Ga13 with E-cadherin and other cadherin family members have yet to be elucidated.  Here, epitope tagged mutants of Ga12 and chimeric constructs of Ga12 and Ga13 were used to examine binding affinities of these proteins with several members of the cadherin family.  Interestingly, the activated form of Ga12 had a higher affinity for all cadherins tested when compared to Ga13, suggesting Ga12 may play a larger role in the regulation of these cell adhesion proteins.  Pursuant to previous investigations, six sextet cassette mutants of eGFP tagged activated Ga12 QL spanning the switch region I were utilized to examine binding to E-cadherin and VE-cadherin, which surprisingly failed to uncouple interaction.  The E-cadherin deletion mutant that lacks the 11 amino acid region and had been demonstrated to disrupt binding of Ga12 2 was tested alongside Ga13 and strikingly showed strong binding to Ga12 QL but abrogated binding to Ga13 QL .  These data show that a potentially different activational conformation exists between Ga12 QL and Ga13 QL , but that both G proteins bind a common region of the cytoplasmic domain of E-cadherin.


Although rail transport is considered as energy efficient and environmental friendly mode of transport there are many hindrances towards increased use of rail for freight transport. The two main hindrances identified in Sweden are priority of passenger over freight rail transport and the fact that rail network has almost reached its capacity. Therefore the purpose of the paper is to evaluate potential improvements in the freight rail transport related to different areas of capacity utilization on a case of a rail company in Sweden. For this qualitative study the data is collected through interviews with the company's employees, both on operational and management level, as well as with Swedish Transport Authority. Analysed improvement areas with focus on capacity utilization include optimization of the maximum capacity of each train on a specific route and the formation of more even freight flow with limited variation both during a day as well as during a week. The findings show that operations could be significantly improved if the following suggestions are taken into consideration; focus on local planning, creation of anchor blocks, establishment of customers priority system and repositioning of the main shunting yard.


Neurons of the dorsal horn integrate and relay sensory information and arise during development in the dorsal spinal cord, the alar plate. Class A and B neurons emerge in the dorsal and ventral alar plate, differ in their dependence on roof plate signals for specification, and settle in the deep and superficial dorsal horn, respectively. We show here that the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) gene Olig3 is expressed in progenitor cells that generate class A (dI1-dI3) neurons and that Olig3 is an important factor in the development of these neuronal cell types. In Olig3 mutant mice, the development of class A neurons is impaired; dI1 neurons are generated in reduced numbers, whereas dI2 and dI3 neurons are misspecified and assume the identity of class B neurons. Conversely, Olig3 represses the emergence of class B neurons in the chick spinal cord. We conclude that Olig3 expression distinguishes the two major classes of progenitors in the dorsal spinal cord and determines the distinct specification program of class A neurons.


Objective: A method for simultaneous determination of chlordiazepoxide in rat plasma using liquid-liquid extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is described. Methods: The analytes were separated employing a LC-18 column (250mm×4.6mm,5µm) at ambient temperature using methanol and water (60 : 40 v/v) as a mobile phase at a flow rate 1.2 ml/min. Ultra violet (UV) detection was carried out at 254 nm. Employing liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), the best conditions were achieved with the extraction of 0.5 ml plasma using 7.5 ml deionized water, 0.5ml of 0.1M NaOH and 2.5 ml diethyl ether, the mixture was shaken for 15 min, centrifuged, and an aliquot of the ether phase evaporated off in a water bath at 30 °C. The residue was reconstituted with the mobile phase 50 µl followed by HPLC analysis. Results and conclution: This method was validated for specificity and linearity with excellent correlation coefficient (r=0.99) showed their suitable applicability in order to examine chlordiazepoxide in rat plasma.


The Neocognitron, inspired by the mammalian visual system, is a complex neural network with numerous parameters and weights which should be trained in order to utilise it for pattern recognition. However, it is not easy to optimise these parameters and weights by gradient decent algorithms. We present a staged training approach using evolutionary algorithms. The experiments demonstrate that evolutionary algorithms can successfully train the Neocognitron to perform image recognition on real world problems.


Spin off companies refer to firms created by university laboratories, the generation of this type of companies has a pull effect through the diffusion, imitation and innovation of the company even at long-term for economic development. In order to generate this type of business, an articulated set of legislative, cultural and financing, instruments are required. In addition, various actors must be involved; aligned to achieve local development. The ability of universities to create spin off companies depends on their background and favorable regional conditions. This research aims to identify the main challenges during spawn university spin off companies in Mexico, thus, it is necessary explore the consequences and analyze key factors of entrepreneurial university scheme, at the end of this paper illustrates Mexico's outlook and the conclusions. There are four major challenges that universities faces: first, the lack of clear and effective internal regulations and paperwork processes for intellectual property management and proper commercialization strategies for technological developments; second, is not hiring specialists for Technology Transfer Offices  at Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and Public Research Centres (PRC) to generate capabilities; third, inherent complexities of business training and entrepreneurship education, to enhance management competences and business venture, and fourth, decision-maker authority at HEIs and PRCs must develops an enabling environment as governance mechanisms that support and prioritize such processes,  so that could be translated into punctual actions with concrete results.


Diverse and varied crop genetic resources are necessary (though not sufficient) for adequate food production in a rapidly changing world. Since the scientific community first raised public concern several decades ago, modern cultivars have been viewed as the cause of declining diversity in the world's crop genetic resources. This paper tests the hypothesis of increasing genetic uniformity in modern spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars from 1965, a year which marks the release of some of the first modern semidwarf cultivars carrying Rht1 and Rht2 genes in the developing world. Results from previously published studies are summarized. Preliminary molecular analyses, and new analyses of cultivar numbers, areas, ages, and genealogies are presented. An estimated 77% of the spring bread wheat area in the developing world today is sown to CIMMYT-related wheats, but this does not imply that they are genetically uniform. The hypothesis of increasing genetic uniformity is tested by assessing changes in the diversity of leading progenitors over three decades, in terms of several dimensions of diversity. Latent dimensions include genetic distance and genealogies. Apparent dimensions include performance with respect to yield potential, maintenance and stability across management (input use), and growing environments. The data are not consistent with the view that the genetic diversity of modern semidwarf wheat grown in the developing world has decreased over time. Moreover, since national programs in developing countries cross CIMMYT lines with their own materials before releasing them, the genetic diversity in their cultivars is at least as great as that present among CIMMYT lines.


Perturbation testing is an approach to software testing which focuses on faults within arithmetic expressions appearing throughout a program. This approach is expanded to permit analysis of individual test points rather than entire paths, and to concentrate on domain errors. Faults are modeled as perturbing functions drawn from a vector space of potential faults and added to the correct form of an arithmetic expression. Sensitivity measures are derived which limit the possible size of those faults that would go undetected after the execution of a given test set. These measures open up an interesting view of testing, in which attempts are made to reduce the volume of possible faults which, were they present in the program being tested, would have escaped detection on all tests performed so far. The combination of these measures with standard optimization techniques yields a novel test-data-generation method called arithmetic fault detection. >


Objective To assess the effects of proteinate complex zinc (PC-Zn) on growth performance, antioxidative function, trace element concentrations and immune function in weaned piglets. Methods Three hundred newly weaned barrows (Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire), 28 days of age, were randomly allotted to 3 dietary groups of 5 replicate pens per group for 4 weeks of feeding. Experimental diets were: i) zinc deficient diet (ZnD, 24 mg/kg Zn supplementation from ZnSO4), ii) inorganic Zn diet supplemented with 120 mg/kg of Zn from Zn sulfate (ZnSO4), and iii) organic Zn diet supplemented with 120 mg/kg of Zn from PC-Zn. The body weight of pigs were recorded at the beginning, at the middle and at the end of the experiment, and the amount of feed supplied each day was recorded. Five barrows from each dietary treatment group were selected to be anesthetized and euthanized at the end of the trial to determine the Zn, Cu, Fe, and Mn concentrations, the hepatic metallothionein content, the levels of methane dicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA), Mn, and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the spleen, the levels of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-γ, CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T lymphocyte. Results The accumulation of Zn in the spleen, levels of SOD, GSH-Px, IL-4, IL-10, the proportions of CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocyte, and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocyte were increased by organic Zn supplementation compared to ZnD, while the levels of MDA, IFN-γ, and proportion of CD8+ T lymphocyte were lowered. Conclusion These findings indicate that Zn can improve the antioxidant potential and immune functions of weaned piglets.


Introduction Several characteristics associated with increased risk for Parkinson's disease (PD) have been identified, including specific genotypes and various non-motor symptoms. Characterizing non-motor features, such as cognitive abilities, among individuals considered at-risk for PD is essential to improving prediction of future neurodegeneration. Methods Participants belonging to the following cohorts of the Parkinson Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) study were included: de novo PD with dopamine transporter binding deficit (n = 423), idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD, n = 39), hyposmia (n = 26) and non-PD mutation carrier (NMC; Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) G2019S (n = 88) and glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene (n = 38) mutations)). Inclusion criteria enriched the RBD and hyposmia cohorts, but not the NMC cohort, with individuals with dopamine transporter binding deficit. Baseline neuropsychological performance was compared, and analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education, and depression. Results The RBD cohort performed significantly worse than the hyposmia and NMC cohorts on Symbol Digit Modality Test (mean (SD) 32.4 (9.16) vs. 41.8 (9.98), p = 0.002 and vs. 45.2 (10.9), p<0.001) and Judgment of Line Orientation (11.3 (2.36) vs.12.9 (1.87), p = 0.004 and vs. 12.9 (1.87), p<0.001). The RBD cohort also performed worse than the hyposmia cohort on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (25.5 (4.13) vs. 27.3 (1.71), p = 0.02). Hyposmics did not differ from PD or NMC cohorts on any cognitive test score. Conclusion Among individuals across a spectrum of risk for PD, cognitive function is worse among those with the characteristic most strongly associated with future risk of PD or dementia with Lewy bodies, namely RBD.


ZnO nanorod arrays were prepared using a chemical solution route on fluorine-doped SnO2 conductive glass pre-coated by a thin ZnO seed layer. Morphology, crystal structure and growth direction of the nanorod arrays were characterized by SEM and XRD respectively. The SEM results demonstrated that ordered arrays of ZnO nanorods grew vertically on the substrate. XRD measurement revealed the ZnO nanorods were grown along the [002] direction of the ZnO crystallites. Under optimal condition, ZnO nanorods with the average length about 6-7 μm and the diameters about 10nm at the tip and 150 nm at the base were obtained. The optical properties of ZnO nanorod arrays were characterized by transmittance spectra and photoluminescence measurement at room temperature.