In the unholy romance between Africans and Expatriates from Europe, Asia and America, which culminated into colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, African playwrights, observed and portrayed Expatriates in their actions, and interaction with Africans. These Expatriates, claimed to have come as agents of civilization, beacons of light, civil administrators, missionaries, merchants and law enforcement agents. In spite of these claims, literary artists, especially playwrights, presented on stage their perception of the personalities of Expatriates, roles and actual influences in Africa. In the three plays selected for this study: The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, I Will Mary When I Want and Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, African playwrights perceived and depicted Expatriates, especially in East and South Africa as Exploiters, high-handed administrators, false religious leaders, exploitative and collaborative missionaries, apartheid initiators and sustainers, imperialists, colonialists and agents of impoverishment. From the inception to the end of the plays, no single work of mercy, or developmental attributes was credited to the Expatriates. The study cumulatively reveals that Expatriates in East and South Africa came to Africa on selfish grounds because the playwrights revealed that they (Expatriates) came to Africa with the Holy Bible in their left hands and Guns in their right hands. Significantly, the two objects served as instruments of colonization, oppression and deprivation.


The paper aims to measure the extent of international diversification achieved by Indian companies in the recent time period. The study also investigates the nature of international diversification of companies during their transition beyond national boundaries. This evaluation of the firm's nature and extent of internationalization is further extended to cover the period of COVID-19 as well. The Jacquemin and Berry Entropy Approach (1979) is applied to operationalize the firm's international diversification. It facilitates the measurement of both inter-region and intra-region diversification. World Bank Geographical Region Classification Framework (2018) has been used to facilitate the applicability of the approach applied. Results indicate that Indian companies were inclined to grow beyond their home territories. However, the extent of international diversification is low as 'Internationally Low Diversification (ILD)' reveals to be the most popular strategy amongst Indian companies. Nature depicts a preference for relatedness than unrelatedness for overseas expansion as firms prefer intra-region expansion as compared to moving inter-region. Stagnation and halt are witnessed in the global expansion of companies in the period of the pandemic. The present study is novel as it comprehensively evaluates the international growth strategies preferred by Indian companies in the pre-pandemic and the pandemic period.


Flame offer potential for synthesis of carbon nanotubes in large quantities at significantly lower cost than that of other methods currently available. Catalyst can decide the produces category, structure, capability, etc. This study aimed to examine catalyst for carbon nanotubes synthesis. In this experimental, oxy-acetylene flame is used as the source of heat, and CO as the source of carbon. Nebulized Fe(CO)5 as catalyst gets straight, uniform, and long tubes while coated iron-aluminum compound as catalyst gets nanoparticles coated tubes, although these tubes are thin, long, and straight. Coated Fe(CO)5 as catalyst only can gets curly and short tubes, directly introduced into synthetic chamber gets particles, and Fe2O3 powder as catalyst mainly gets curly tubes. Although the tubes which iron-aluminum compound as catalyst are high capability, they must be purified before use while Fe(CO)5 as catalyst can gets smooth tubes.


Background: In 2003, the Government of Zambia in collaboration with implementing partners in immunisation introduced the Reaching Every District (RED) strategy to improve immunization coverage. The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the RED strategy in Lusaka district.
Methods: A questionnaire was administered among health centres in charge of all governmental health clinics in Lusaka districts (N = 27). RED implementation was quantified by calculating a RED implementation score (IS) for each of the RED components on a scale of 0 (low implementation score) to 5 (high implementation score).
Results: The mean overall RED implementation score was 3.5. The RED component of linking services with community and re-establishing outreach were the two weakest components.
Conclusions and recommendations: This evaluation showed that there are a number of elements of the RED strategy which are well implemented; however, some elements need further improvements. There is need for more research on the implementation of the RED strategy in Zambia in order to identify bottlenecks for improving immunization coverage at larger scale and a wider participation.


Abstract Background: Although breast cancer prevention should begin in youth, many young women are not aware of the modifiable lifestyle risk factors for the disease. Purpose: The purposes of this study were to examine the breast cancerrelated knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs of young women; to determine whether knowledge about lifestyle risks was related to risk-reducing behaviors; and to determine whether value expectancy constructs could predict risk-reducing behaviors. Method: Surveys assessing knowledge, behaviors, beliefs, and demographics were administered to 522 college women. Results: The majority of the participants lacked knowledge about the lifestyle risk factors for breast cancer, and knowledge and beliefs were unrelated to their behaviors. Discussion: The results of the study have implications for health educators, health care providers, and researchers who provide young women with the information and skills to engage in behaviors that may protect them against breast cancer. Translation to Health Education Practice: Young women need to understand that engaging in certain behaviors can lower their risk of breast cancer. Health educators need to incorporate breast cancer risk reduction into their educational efforts with young women.


Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a highly lethal cancer. Previously, we identify head and neck cancer initiating cells (HN-CICs), which are highly tumorigenic and resistant to conventional therapy. Therefore, development of drug candidates that effectively target HN-CICs would benefit future head and neck cancer therapy. In this study, we first successfully screened for an active component, named YMGKI-1, from natural products of Antrodia cinnamomea Mycelia (ACM), which can target the stemness properties of HNSCC. Treatment of YMGKI-1 significantly downregulated the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity, one of the characteristics of CIC in HNSCC cells. Additionally, the tumorigenic properties of HNSCC cells were attenuated by YMGKI-1 treatment in vivo. Further, the stemness properties of HN-CICs, which are responsible for the malignancy of HNSCC, were also diminished by YMGKI-1 treatment. Strikingly, YMGKI-1 also effectively suppressed the cell viability of HN-CICs but not normal stem cells. Finally, YMGKI-1 induces the cell death of HN-CICs by dysregulating the exaggerated autophagic signaling pathways. Together, our results indicate that YMGKI-1 successfully lessens stemness properties and tumorigenicity of HN-CICs. These findings provide a new drug candidate from purified components of ACM as an alternative therapy for head and neck cancer in the future.


Using factory-level data for Japan's manufacturing sector, we estimate the relationship between the unit values of gross output and factor intensities. We find a significant and positive relationship between the unit value of a product and its white-collar labor intensity, which supports the assumption widely used in theoretical models that commodities with higher prices are of higher quality and more human capital-intensive. However, the relationship between the unit value of a product and its capital intensity is not always positive, and is significantly negative in some sectors. Using the results of the relationship between unit values and factor intensities, we also estimate the factor contents of Japan's trade, taking account of differences in the unit values of exports and imports. We find that the number of non-production workers and the capital stock embodied in Japan's net exports are under-estimated when differences in unit values are not taken into account.


ABSTRACT Wynja, V.; Demers, A.-M.; Laforest, S.; Lacelle, M.; Pasher, J.; Duffe, J.; Chaudhary, B.; Wang, H., and Giles, T., 2015. Mapping coastal information across Canada's northern regions based on low-altitude helicopter videography in support of environmental emergency preparedness efforts. In the face of increasing economic opportunities in Canada's northern regions, the need to improve our state of preparedness for oil spill–related emergencies is critical. While significant efforts have been put toward documenting baseline coastal information across Canada's southern regions, there is a large information gap regarding Arctic shorelines. Baseline coastal information, such as shoreline form, substrate, and vegetation type, is required for prioritizing operations, coordinating onsite spill response activities (i.e. Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique [SCAT]), and providing information for wildlife and ecosystem management. Georeferenced high-definition videography was collected during the summers of 2010 to 2012 along coastlines within six study sites across the Canadian Arctic. Detailed information describing the upper intertidal, supratidal, and backshore zones was extracted from the video and entered into a geospatial database using a data collection form. This information was used to delimit and map alongshore segments in the upper intertidal zone. Almost 15,000 km of northern shorelines were mapped, including 25 shoreline types based on the upper intertidal zone. This information will feed into a larger ongoing project focused on Arctic coastal ecosystems and oil spill response planning should the need arise.


RATIONALE
Associations between oligomeric isocyanate exposure, sensitization, and respiratory disease have received little attention, despite the extensive use of isocyanate oligomers.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate exposure-response relationships of respiratory symptoms and sensitization in a large population occupationally exposed to isocyanate oligomers during spray painting.

METHODS
The prevalence of respiratory symptoms and sensitization was assessed in 581 workers in the spray-painting industry. Personal exposure was estimated by combining personal task-based inhalatory exposure measurements and time activity information. Specific IgE and IgG to hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) were assessed in serum by ImmunoCAP assay and enzyme immunoassays using vapor and liquid phase HDI-human serum albumin (HDI-HSA) and HSA conjugates prepared with oligomeric HDI.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Respiratory symptoms were more prevalent in exposed workers than among comparison office workers. Log-linear exposure-response associations were found for asthmalike symptoms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-like symptoms, and work-related chest tightness (prevalence ratios for an interquartile range increase in exposure of 1.2, 1.3 and 2.0, respectively; P </= 0.05). The prevalence of specific IgE sensitization was low (up to 4.2% in spray painters). Nevertheless, IgE to N100 (oligomeric HDI)-HSA was associated with exposure and work-related chest tightness. The prevalence of specific IgG was higher (2-50.4%) and strongly associated with exposure.

CONCLUSIONS
The results provide evidence of exposure-response relationships for both work-related and non-work-related respiratory symptoms and specific sensitization in a population exposed to oligomers of HDI. Specific IgE was found in only a minority of symptomatic individuals. Specific IgG seems to be merely an indicator of exposure.


The objective of this study was to understand and analyze how rural women redefine their needs when facing the imposition of social programs designed to satisfy basic feminine needs, promote the advancement of poor women, and develop their families' welfare. The analysis stems from the analogy of the container, where the needs are fluids that take the shape of the recipient that contains them, and the container lid is the social programs. The study was performed with women from two communities that produce native maize in Estado de Mexico and who have been subjects of social programs, at the same time that they have experienced the consequences of the elimination of state supports for subsistence production. The results show that these programs sustain the reproduction roles traditionally assigned to rural women, although in face of the changes brought on by globalization processes in their daily lives, the existence of small leaks from the container is specified, which translate into fugitive needs, defying the definition of the State over basic feminine needs.


Signaling pathways initiated by inflammatory cytokines enable nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) to translocate to the nucleus so as to activate target genes transcriptionally. NF-κB--specifically the RelA subunit--has been associated with prosurvival responses mediated through the activation of antiapoptotic genes and NF-κB inhibition has been scrutinized for potential use in cancer therapy (see Preview by Miyamoto). NF-κB is also activated by cytotoxic stimuli; however, the effects of cytotoxic activators on NF-κB are incompletely understood. Noting reports of proapoptotic effects of NF-κB, Campbell et al. investigated the effects of NF-κB activation by ultraviolet light (UV-C) and DNA-damaging drugs used in chemotherapy. Treatment of U-2 OS human osteosarcoma cells with UV-C or with daunorubicin and doxorubicin (which inhibit topoisomerase II) stimulated DNA binding of a RelA-containing NF-κB heterodimer but inhibited activity of NF-κB-dependent gene reporters. In contrast, etoposide, which also inhibits topoisomerase II, stimulated NF-κB-dependent transcriptional activity. UV-C and daunorubicin decreased mRNA and protein levels from endogenous antiapoptotic genes regulated by NF-κB. Moreover, UV-C and daunorubicin inhibited NF-κB-dependent transcriptional activity elicited by tumor necrosis factor α. Experiments comparing wild-type mouse embryo fibroblasts with those from mice lacking RelA indicated that RelA was required for repression of Bcl-xL by UV-C and daunorubicin, as did experiments using RNA interference in U-2 OS cells. UV-C and daunorubicin increased RelA association with histone deacetylases and decreased histone H3 acetylation at the Bcl-xL promoter. Thus, the pro- or antisurvival effects of NF-κB appear to depend on how it is activated and (based on comparisons with previous research) may be critically dependent on cellular context. K. J. Campbell, S. Rocha, N. D. Perkins, Active repression of antiapoptotic gene expression by RelA(p65) NF-κB. Mol. Cell 13, 853-865 (2004). [Online Journal] S. Miyamoto, RelA life and death decisions. Mol. Cell 13, 763-764 (2004). [Online Journal]


This intervention examines the recent militia take-over and occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon.  There is no consensus on how to place the group.  Some commentators suggest the group is white supremacist.  Others argue that it is animated by its members' Mormon faith.  Still others emphasize the group's grievances with the Bureau of Land Management.  I argue here that the Oregon militia's politics cannot be understood with reference to one single identity position.  I use recent work in geography on the role of white supremacy and settler colonialism as a jumping off point for this argument.  While I agree that the logics of white settler colonialism are present in the Oregon standoff, I argue that we also need to focus on the anti-government rhetoric through which they are funneled and expressed.  This rhetoric provides a veneer of legitimacy to the movement by obscuring the race and class based interests that underpin the movement's goals.  It also allows the movement's ideas to have greater resonance in and reverberate across the political mainstream in these anti-government times.


The significant progress on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has facilitated realistic single-object image generation based on language input. However, complex-scene generation (with various interactions among multiple objects) still suffers from messy layouts and object distortions, due to diverse configurations in layouts and appearances. Prior methods are mostly object-driven and ignore their inter-relations that play a significant role in complex-scene images. This work explores relationship-aware complex-scene image generation, where multiple objects are inter-related as a scene graph. With the help of relationships, we propose three major updates in the generation framework. First, reasonable spatial layouts are inferred by jointly considering the semantics and relationships among objects. Compared to standard location regression, we show relative scales and distances serve a more reliable target. Second, since the relations between objects have significantly influenced an object's appearance, we design a relation-guided generator to generate objects reflecting their relationships. Third, a novel scene graph discriminator is proposed to guarantee the consistency between the generated image and the input scene graph. Our method tends to synthesize plausible layouts and objects, respecting the interplay of multiple objects in an image. Experimental results on Visual Genome and HICO-DET datasets show that our proposed method significantly outperforms prior arts in terms of IS and FID metrics. Based on our user study and visual inspection, our method is more effective in generating logical layout and appearance for complex-scenes.


The Acarids described in the present paper comprised a small collection made by Dr. L. v. d. Hammen of the Leiden Museum during a visit to Biak Island, Netherlands New Guinea in 1953. The mites were found inhabiting the Cladophora socialis and Red Algae on the stones in the intertidal zone near the Royal Netherlands Naval Base on the south coast of the Island, and were sorted out from a large collection of other small arthropods obtained from a large sample of algae by means of a modified Tullgren apparatus. The actual biotope in which they occured is very fully described in Dr. v. d.
Hammen's recent paper 1) in which he describes a new genus and species of Oribatid mite from a single specimen.
The rest of the Acarids, Dr. v. d. Hammen has very kindly passed on to me for study and I am very grateful for the compliment of being asked to undertake the description of the various species present in the collection.
Besides the small Trombidiid Platytrombidium maritimum sp. nov. contained in the collection were three new species of Mesostigmata, Cyrtolaelaps hammeni sp. nov., Leioseius littorale sp. nov., and Periseius littorale gen. et sp. nov., and two specimens of Hyadesia vietsi sp. nov. These five species are described herein.
Suborder MESOSTIGMATA G. Canest., 1819 Superfamily PARASITOIDEA Banks, 1915 Family RHODACARIDAE Oudemans, 1902 Rhodacarinae A. C. Oudemans, 1902, Tijdschr. Ent, 45: 48.
Rhodacaridae G. O. Evans, 1957, J. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., 43(29): 221.
Genus Cyrtolaelaps Berl., 1887 Cyrtolaelaps A. Berlese, 1887, A.M.S., fasc. 44(5); nec Berl., 1892, A.M.S., Meso-


2 Abstract: The nutritional potential of the fruits of Black Olive (Canarium schweinfurthii Linn) were assessed by determining proximate and elemental composition. Anti-nutrient factors were also assessed. Results indicate crude fat of the fruit as 64.04%, protein 6.39%, fibre 16.37%, carbohydrate 3.85%, respectively. Mineral analysis revealed the order P>N>Mg>I>K in the fruits. Phosphorus and sodium levels were 1.74 and 1.369 mg/100 g, respectively. The result of anti-nutritional factor revealed high tannins (240 mg/100 g), phytic acid 162 and 26 mg/100 g oxalate which is relatively low. These results suggest that Canarium schweinfurthii variety with thick mesocarp is nutritive despite the presence of some anti-nutritive components like oxalate in very low levels. The final products will contain even less.


In this review, we describe measurements and applications of interest to the analytical community that makes use of simple nanopipettes. Fabricated by applying heat during the separation of a glass capillary, nanopipettes provide a route for nanoscale studies of ion transport and for development of chemical and biochemical sensors. When mounted on a translation stage, nanopipettes also enable unique modes of imaging and material deposition. These facets of nanopipette research, as well as some of the unique properties of nanopipettes, will be discussed.


In the last years, the attention of heat transfer equipments manufacturers turned toward helically coiled-tube heat exchangers, especially with regards to applications for viscous and/or particulate products. The recent progress achieved in numerical simulation motivated many research groups to develop numerical models for this kind of apparatuses. These models, intended both to improve the knowledge of the fundamental heat transfer mechanisms in curved geometries and to support the industrial design of this kind of apparatuses, are usually validated throughout the comparison with either theoretical or experimental evidences by considering average heat transfer performances. However, this approach doesn't guarantee that the validated models are able to reproduce local effects in details, which are so important in this kind of non-standard geometries. In the present paper a numerical model of convective heat transfer in coiled tubes for laminar flow regime was formulated and discussed. Its goodness was checked throughout the comparison with the latest experimental outcomes of Bozzoli et al. [1] in terms of convective heat flux distribution along the boundary of the duct, by ensuring the effectiveness of the model also in the description of local behaviours. Although the present paper reports only preliminary results of this simulation/validation process, it could be of interest for the research community because it proposes a novel approach that could be useful to validate many numerical models for nonstandard geometries.


Cage coordinates are a powerful means to define 2D deformation fields from sparse control points. We introduce Conformal polynomial Coordinates for closed polyhedral cages, enabling segments to be transformed into polynomial curves of any order. Extending classical 2D Green coordinates, our coordinates result in conformal harmonic deformations that are cage-aware. We demonstrate the usefulness of our technique on a variety of 2D deformation scenarios where curves allow artists to perform intuitive deformations with few input parameters. Our method combines the texture preservation property of conformal deformations together with the expressiveness offered by Bezier controls.


Do the rising commodity prices we have seen in recent years reflect basic supply-and-demand developments in various commodity markets, or are they the fi rst signs of inflation? In practice, it's not always easy to tell the difference - for the public or policymakers - but fundamentally different they are. Central banks can do nothing about relative commodity price pressures, since central banks do not produce commodities. Likewise, commodity-price shocks do not impair the ability of central banks to control inflation in principle, but they can greatly complicate the task.


In many sports, such as for example, in diving, figure skating and ski jumping, subjective assessment is essential in evaluating the performance. Judges usually score the performance according to a complicated setup of rules but uses quite simple rating scales. The Borg CR Scales®, commonly used for perceptual scaling of a variety of modalities and symptoms, may also be used for performance evaluation. The Borg CR100 Scale®, is a general intensity scale from 0 to 100, "Maximal". For diving, "Maximal" was anchored in a "perfect dive". Five judges used the Borg CR100 scale together with the traditional scale for 4 men and 6 women who partook in the semi-finals in the Swedish Championships in diving, 2012. Judges were consistent in their way of using the scales, as can be seen from individual correlations with the contest results. Strong significant correlations were obtained between the traditional scale and the Borg CR100 scale® (r = 0.80) and for both scales with the contest results (0.63 and 0.62). With the Borg CR100 scale® several dives were assessed with a more precise differentiation between the dives. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 by the two individual dives no. 281 and 350. Since the CR100 is more finely graded, the scale gives a better flexibility in the judgments. Because the Borg CR scales can be used for self appraisal of for example perceived exertion, perceived difficulty, and motivation, the results in this study opens up an interesting field of possible comparisons in the study of performance enhancement and in the training of elite athletes.


Error correction coding based on soft-input decoding can significantly improve the reliability of flash memories. Such soft-input decoding algorithms require reliability information about the state of the memory cell. This work proposes a channel model for soft-input decoding that considers the asymmetric error characteristic of multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) memories. Based on this model, an estimation method for the channel state information is devised which avoids additional pilot data for channel estimation. Furthermore, the proposed method supports page-wise read operations.


This paper presents work in progress on a project to develop a process for integrating human reliability analysis (HRA) into the design process used in nuclear power plant modernization and upgrade projects. Human factors, probabilistic risk, and human-system interface design experts were interviewed, resulting in six principles for the use of HRA in design. These principles are: (i) early implementation, (ii) tailored methods, (iii) scalable methods, (iv) better use of qualitative information, (v) HRA design criteria, and (vi) better HRA sensitivity to human-machine interface issues. Future efforts will center on adapting HRA techniques to meet these principles and implementing HRA as part of a plant upgrade process.


Both healthy aging and Alzheimer disease (AD) are characterized by concurrent alterations in several biological factors. However, generative brain models of aging and AD are limited in incorporating the measures of these biological factors at different spatial resolutions. Here, we propose a personalized bottom-up spatiotemporal brain model which accounts for the direct interplay between hundreds of RNA transcripts and multiple macroscopic neuroimaging modalities (PET, MRI). In normal elderly and AD participants, the model identifies top genes modulating tau and amyloid-{beta} burdens, vascular flow, glucose metabolism, functional activity, and atrophy to drive cognitive decline. The results also revealed that AD and healthy aging share specific biological mechanisms, even though AD is a separate entity with considerably more altered pathways. Overall, this personalized model offers novel insights into the multiscale alterations in the elderly brain, with important implications for identifying effective genetic targets for extending healthy aging and treating AD progression.


The syntheses, crystal structures and magnetochemical characterization are reported for two new Fe complexes [Fe18O6(OH)8(pdm)10(pdmH)4(H2O)4](ClO4)10 (3) and [Fe9O4(OH)2(O2CMe)10(pdm)(pdmH)4](NO3) (4). They were synthesized from the use of the potentially O,N,O tridentate chelate, 2,6-pyridinedimethanol (pdmH2), in the presence or absence of carboxylate groups. Octadecanuclear complex 3 was obtained during reactivity studies on previously-reported [Fe8O3(OEt)(pdm)4(pdmH)4(EtOH)2](ClO4)5 (2), the latter undergoing hydrolysis to 3 on recrystallization from undried MeCN. The reaction of pdmH2 with preformed [Fe3O(O2CMe)6(py)3](NO3) in CH2Cl2 gave enneanuclear complex 4. Both complexes 3 and 4 are unprecedented structural types. The core of 3 comprises a central [Fe4O6] defective-dicubane attached on either side to a [Fe7O11] unit, which can be described as two [Fe4(m4-O)] tetrahedra fused at a common Fe atom. The core of 4 can be considered as four vertex-fused triangular [Fe3(m3-O)] units. Variable-temperature (T) and -field (H) solid-state dc and ac magnetization (M) studies were carried out on complexes 3 and 4 in the 1.8–300 K range. Analysis of the obtained data revealed that complexes 3 and 4 possess an S = 4 and S = 5/2 ground state spin, respectively.


A determination of the dynamical evolution of the asteroid belt is difficult because the asteroid belt has evolved since the time of asteroid formation through mechanisms that include: (1) catastrophic collisions, (2) rotational disruption, (3) chaotic orbital evolution, and (4) orbital evolution driven by Yarkovsky radiation forces. The time-scales of these loss mechanisms are uncertain and there is a need for more observational constraints. In the inner main belt (IMB), the mean size of the non-family asteroids increases with increasing inclination. Here, we use that observation to show that all IMB asteroids originate from either the known families or from ghost families, that is, old families with dispersed orbital elements. We estimate that the average age of the asteroids in the ghost families is a factor of 1/3 less than the Yarkovsky orbital evolution time-scale. However, this orbital evolution time-scale is a long-term average that must allow for the collisional evolution of the asteroids and for stochastic changes in their spin directions. By applying these constraints on the orbital evolution time-scales to the evolution of the size-frequency distribution of the Vesta asteroid family, we estimate that the age of this family is greater than 1.3 Gyr and could be comparable with the age of the Solar system. By estimating the number of ghost families, we calculate that the number of asteroids that are the root sources of the meteorites and the near-Earth asteroids that originate from the IMB is about 20.


Abstract Force-balance calculations on Byrd Glacier, East Antarctica, reveal large spatial variations in the along-flow component of driving stress with corresponding sticky spots that are stationary over time. On the large scale, flow resistance is partitioned between basal (~80%) and lateral (~20%) drag. Ice flow is due mostly to basal sliding and concentrated vertical shear in the basal ice layers, indicating the bed is at or close to the pressure-melting temperature. There is a significant component of driving stress in the across-flow direction resulting in nonzero basal drag in that direction. This is an unrealistic result and we propose that there are spatial variations of bed features resulting in small-scale flow disturbances. The grounding line of Byrd Glacier is located in a region where the bed slopes upward. Nevertheless, despite a 10% increase in ice discharge between December 2005 and February 2007, following drainage of two subglacial lakes in the catchment area, the position of the grounding line has not retreated significantly and the glacier has decelerated since then. During the speed-up event, partitioning of flow resistance did not change, suggesting the increase in velocity was caused by a temporary decrease in basal effective pressure.


A railplug is a new type of ignitor for SI engines. A model for optimizing energy deposition in a railplug ignition system is developed. The model is experimentally validated using a low voltage railplug ignition circuit. The effect of various ignition circuit parameters on the energy deposition and its rate are discussed. Durability of railplugs is an important factor in railplug circuit design. As for all spark ignitors, durability of a railplug decreases as energy deposition is increased. Therefore recommendations are made to minimize wear and increase durability, while depositing sufficient energy to attain ignition, using a railplug.


Objective: To measure the circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in normal eyes of Nigerian adults using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study of normal eyes of Nigerian adults between July and September 2016 at the eye clinic of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. Sociodemographic data, clinical history, and examination findings were obtained. Dipstick urinalysis and blood pressure measurements were performed. Circumpapillary RNFL thickness was measured with the Topcon 3D OCT-1 Maestro version 8.30 (Topcon Medical Systems, Inc., Oakland, NJ, USA), using the 3D optic nerve head analysis. Data were analyzed using the International Business Machine (IBM) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics, version 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and the level of significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. Results: The study included 120 participants (240 eyes) with an age range of 18 to 53 years and a mean age of 34.06 ± 7.64 years. There were 59 (49.17%) males and 61 (50.83%) females. The average RNFL thickness in the right and left eyes was 112.26 ± 9.6 and 110.53 ± 9.14 μm, respectively. The average RNFL thickness for the Igbo ethnic group was 117.5 ± 7.69 and 115.04 ± 7.18 μm in the right and left eyes, respectively. The mean RNFL thickness for the inferior, superior, nasal, and temporal quadrants was 148.92 ± 15.77, 142.59 ± 16.48, 85.3 ± 15.39, and 71.89 ± 9.35 μm in the right eyes and 149.28 ± 16.03, 141.69 ± 13.33, 81.82 ± 13.59, and 68.8 ± 10.17 μm in the left eyes, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed the normal circumpapillary RNFL thickness values in Nigerian adults using SD-OCT. There were variations based on ethnicity that suggest it may be important to use ethnic-specific benchmarks when interpreting OCT results for the management of glaucoma.


Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are already being used and their proliferation is inevitable. AVs have the potential to fundamentally alter transportation systems by averting deadly crashes, providing critical mobility to the elderly and disabled, increasing road capacity, saving fuel, and lowering emissions (Fagnant and Kockelman 2015). Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation regarding AVs1, and the governors of four other states have signed executive orders about AVs2 (National Conference of State Legislatures 2017). In 2017 there were 33 states that had introduced AV legislation, up from 20 in 2016 (National Conference of State Legislatures 2017). As of June 2, 2017, there were 31 companies that had received permits from the California DMV to test autonomous vehicles, and the list is getting longer each month (California Department of Motor Vehicles 2017). In Berlin, Deutsche Bahn, Germany's largest train and bus operator, is testing a driverless twelve-passenger shuttle bus (Scott 2017). Over 20 pilot or existing AV public transport programs have taken place in Europe. And the most recent AV testing permit recipient in California is a private shuttle bus operator — Bauer's Intelligent Transportation (California Department of Motor Vehicles 2017).
Much has been written about the technical challenges of integrating autonomous vehicles into traffic patterns, but to date, there has been little consideration of the significant secondary impacts that AVs present. This project aims to fill that gap. AVs have the potential to transform cities — but whether the impact is positive or not depends on how the AVs are used. If AVs use clean fuels, are used for shared rides, and become an on-demand service rather than an owned product, cities and society may benefit. Consumer-owned cars are inefficient and underused assets — most are used for less than one hour per day (OECD 2015), sitting idle for about 95 of their life, and about 10 percent of the average American's budget goes to the cost of purchasing and fueling private vehicles (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016). AVs will impact land use planning, transit use, government revenues, and may exacerbate societal inequality by reducing the viability of existing public transportation services.
The goal of this white paper is to consider the impact of AVs on municipal budgets. AVs create a "potential rat's nest of a budgeting challenge" (Fung 2016). This paper seeks to begin the process of untangling that rat's nest, and provide the foundation for future phases of the project that will consider potential additional revenue sources to fund the infrastructure changes that may come from the integration of AVs as well as land use planning implications.


In the Platte River Valley of central Nebraska, USA, riparian grasslands (also known as wet meadows) have been severely impacted by a reduction in river flows, causing lower ground-water levels and altered seasonal hydroperiods. The potential impacts of these hydrologic changes, as well as the environmental factors that influence wet meadow soil invertebrate communities, are not well understood. An understanding of the ecological processes that influence these invertebrate communities is crucial for maintaining and restoring wet meadows along the Platte River. Our objectives were to describe the soil invertebrate community of wet meadows throughout the growing season and to examine the relative roles of abiotic factors in determining patterns in invertebrate community structure. We conducted the study in 12 wet meadows along the Platte River during 1999 and 2000. We identified 73 invertebrate taxa; 39 were considered soil inhabitants. Total biomass was primarily composed of earthworms, Scarabaeidae, Isopoda, and Elateridae, with earthworms and Scarabaeidae accounting for > 82%. Differences in river flow and precipitation patterns influenced some soil invertebrates. Earthworms and Scarabaeidae declined dramatically from 1999 (wet year) to 2000 (dry year). The topographic gradient created by the ridge-swale complex affected several soil invertebrate taxa; Scarabaeidae, Diplopoda, and Lepidoptera biomasses were greatest on drier ridges, while Tipulidae and Isopoda biomasses were greatest in wetter sloughs. Responses of earthworm taxa to the topographic gradient were variable, but generally, greater biomasses occurred on ridges and mid-elevations. Water-table depth and soil moisture were the most important variables influencing wet meadow soil invertebrates. Because these communities are linked to the hydrologic processes of the Platte River, future alterations of wet meadow hydrology could shift the distribution patterns of many of these invertebrates and possibly eliminate more moisture-tolerant taxa. To maintain wet meadows and their biotic communities, flow management should focus on regaining as much as possible of the former hydrograph through properly timed flows that provide an adequate hydrologie regime for wet meadows. In addition, restoration of wet meadows will depend on restoring the natural topography of wet meadows.


Background Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the cornerstone of conventional treatment in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In case of insufficient response, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) inhibitors are available. Still little is known about concomitant NSAID use. Objectives To investigate the longitudinal association between disease activity and NSAID use in established AS patients. Methods The present analysis is part of the GLAS cohort, an ongoing longitudinal observational axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) cohort study in daily clinical practice. During 52 weeks of follow-up, NSAID use was recorded prospectively. The ASAS-NSAID index was calculated using the dosage and frequency assessed retrospectively from clinical records. Disease activity was assessed using ASDAS, BASDAI, and serum CRP levels. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) was used to evaluate NSAID use in relation to assessments of disease activity over time. NSAID use was analyzed using 4 parameters: NSAID use (yes/no), ASAS-NSAID index, low on demand use (index ≥10 versus <10), and high use (index ≥90 versus <90). Analyses were stratified for treatment regimen: patients starting TNF-α inhibitors and patients on conventional treatment. Results Of the 393 included AS patients, 67% were male, mean age was 44±13 years, median symptom duration 15 years (IQR 8–24), and 79% were HLA-B27 positive. In total, 254 (66%) patients started TNF-α inhibitors and 139 (34%) patients received conventional treatment. Patient characteristics were comparable between both groups, except higher disease activity, more often peripheral arthritis, and worse physical functioning in patients starting TNF-α inhibitors. NSAID use and disease activity reduced significantly after starting TNF-α inhibitors and remained low and stable during follow-up. In the conventional treatment group, disease activity was low and NSAID remained stable at all visits. GEE analysis over time showed that NSAID use was significantly associated with disease activity (Table 1). In the TNF-α inhibitor group, a significant association of all NSAID parameters with ASDAS was found: NSAID use yes vs. no, ASAS-NSAID index, index ≥10 vs. <10, and index ≥90 vs. <90. Comparable results were found for BASDAI and CRP. The association between NSAID use and ASDAS remained significant in the 217 patients who used TNF-α inhibitors more than 80% of the follow-up time and when analyzing only 12 to 52 weeks of follow-up to exclude the initial effect of TNF-α inhibitors, although the regression coefficients were lower in these last analyses. In the conventional treatment group, a significant but less prominent association of NSAID parameters with ASDAS was found: NSAID use yes vs. no, index ≥10 vs. <10, and index ≥90 vs. <90. BASDAI was only significantly associated with on demand NSAID use. For CRP, no significant associations with NSAID use were found. Conclusions In this observational cohort of established AS patients, NSAID use over time was significantly associated with ASDAS, which was most pronounced for patients treated with TNF-α inhibitors. Acknowledgements The GLAS cohort was supported by an unrestricted grant from Pfizer. Pfizer had no role in the design, conduct, interpretation, or publication of this study. Disclosure of Interest None declared


We present a stochastic traffic engineering framework for optimizing bandwidth provisioning and route selection in networks. The objective is to maximize revenue from serving demands, which are uncertain and specified by probability distributions. We consider heterogenous demands with different unit revenues and uncertainties. Based on mean-risk analysis, the optimization model enables a carrier to maximize mean revenue and contain the risk that the revenue falls below an acceptable level. Our framework is intended for off-line traffic engineering design, which takes a centralized view of network topology, link capacity, and demand. We obtain conditions under which the optimization problem is an instance of convex programming and therefore efficiently solvable. We also study the properties of the solution and show that it asymptotically meets the stochastic efficiency criterion. We derive properties of the optimal solution for the special case of Gaussian distributions of demands. We focus on the impact of demand uncertainty on various aspects of traffic engineering, such as link utilization, bandwidth provisioning and total revenue. The carrier's tolerance to risk is shown to have a strong influence on traffic engineering and revenue management decisions. We develop the efficient frontier, which is the entire set of Pareto optimal pairs of mean revenue and revenue risk, to aid the carrier in selecting an appropriate operating point.


We study error bounds for linear programming decoding of regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. For memoryless binary-input output-symmetric channels, we prove bounds on the word error probability that are inverse doubly exponential in the girth of the factor graph. For memoryless binary-input AWGN channel, we prove lower bounds on the threshold for regular LDPC codes whose factor graphs have logarithmic girth under LP-decoding. Specifically, we prove a lower bound of σ = 0.735 (upper bound of [(Eb)/(N0)]=2.67 dB) on the threshold of (3, 6)-regular LDPC codes whose factor graphs have logarithmic girth. Our proof is an extension of a recent paper of Arora, Daskalakis, and Steurer [STOC 2009] who presented a novel probabilistic analysis of LP decoding over a binary symmetric channel. Their analysis is based on the primal LP representation and has an explicit connection to message passing algorithms. We extend this analysis to any MBIOS channel.


The CALIBRATE project was initiated by the EU with the goal of expanding the use of ICT in education by increasing the amount of available learning resources via resource exchange. Although CAS/DGS can be used to easily create high quality learning resources which are also easily adaptable across national boundaries, such resources are difficult to find at CALIBRATE portals. We believe that this is due to CAS/DGS still being rather exotic to most of the people as well as with the common problem of finding existing appropriate resources. A possible solution is for CALIBRATE portals to properly equip existing and forthcoming CAS/DGS resources with suitable metadata and to provide some integration with CAS/DGS tools, enabling both beginners and power users to create and exchange CAS/DGS resources.


Abstract: To study the clinical and hematologic features of pernicious anemia in Chinese, we describe 181 Chinese with megaloblastic anemia and low serum cobalamin, in association with either classic Schilling test results (82 patients) or the presence of serum antibody to intrinsic factor (99 patients), encountered in a regional hospital in Hong Kong from May 1994 to May 2005. The median age was 75 years (range, 32-95 yr) and the male to female ratio was 1:1.5. The chief presenting feature was anemia, and fewer than 10% of patients presented predominantly with neurologic deficit. Gastric biopsies of 109 patients showed glandular atrophy in 73, endocrine cell hyperplasia in 5, polyps in 14, adenocarcinoma in 1, and chronic gastritis in the rest. Gastric adenocarcinoma occurred in 1.7% of patients after a median follow-up of 35 months (range, 0.5-132 mo). Diabetes mellitus occurred in 24% of patients and thyroid disease in 7%. No specific ABO blood group was associated with pernicious anemia. Serum antibody to intrinsic factor (73%) occurred more frequently than serum antibody to gastric parietal cell (65%) (p = 0.353). The frequency of serum antibody to gastric parietal cell was higher in male (78%) than in female patients (53%) (p = 0.018). Pernicious anemia is a major cause of megaloblastic anemia in Chinese. Abbreviations: Hb = hemoglobin; GPC = gastric parietal cell; IF = intrinsic factor; MCV = mean corpuscular volume; PA = pernicious anemia.


BACKGROUND
Timeliness and quality of hospital discharge summaries are crucial for patient safety and efficient health service provision after discharge.

METHODS
We audited receipt rates, timeliness and the quality of discharge summaries for 49 admissions among 38 patients in an urban general practice. For missing discharge summaries, a hospital medical record search was performed.

RESULTS
Discharge summaries were received for 92% of identified admissions; 73% were received within three days and 55% before the first post-discharge visit to the general practitioner (GP). Administrative information and clinical content, including diagnosis, treatment and follow-up plans, were well reported. However, information regarding tests, referrals and discharge medication was often missing; 57% of summaries were entirely typed and 13% had legibility issues.

DISCUSSION
Completion rates were good but utility was compromised by delays, content omissions and formatting. Digital searching enables extraction of information from rich existing datasets contained in GP records for accurate measurement of discharge summary receipt rate and timing.


. This note shows that the matrix forms of several one-parameter distribution families satisfy a hierarchical low-rank structure. Such families of distributions include binomial, Poisson, and χ 2 distributions. The proof is based on a uniform relative bound of a related divergence function. Numerical results are provided to confirm the theoretical findings.


Many product development initiatives are planned on the basis of the supposed capability to generate customer satisfaction. However, market and technology conditions can undergo several transformations during the execution of product innovation projects and jeopardise the basic assumptions taken at the beginning of the design cycle. Among changing factors, the observed alternation of radical and incremental transformations of product architectures is viable to influence the success chances of new products. Such an aspect is taken into account in the decision support tool described in the paper, which can be employed to select the most beneficial alternatives in a set of different product ideas.


Selected ion flow tube-mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) has recently gained interest as an alternative method to traditional GC-MS for the detection of targeted volatile sample compounds, due to its ease of use, its speed and sensitivity, and its potential for real-time quantification. The feasibility of this technique was demonstrated using the case of the production of ethanol during sourdough fermentation. The potential of SIFT-MS as an online monitoring device for food fermentations was further demonstrated by the detection of acetoin in certain sourdough fermentations. This allowed discrimination between sourdough fermentation processes and illustrated the importance of real-time monitoring of food fermentations.


Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian women and early detection dramatically increases a woman's chance of survival. Until recently, womens' ages were considered the single most influential risk factor for developing breast cancer. Today, the density of fibroglandular tissue within the breast is considered just as important a risk factor as age. Because of this, accuracy and consistency while estimating tissue density is paramount. Currently, radiologists use the BI-RADS classification system to place mammographic images into one of four different categories. However, inter-observer variance has been shown to be as high as 30% and the methodology can be highly subjective. Many computer vision algorithms have been developed to automatically quantify breast density but only a few of these algorithms take advantage of the latest digital mammographic imaging technology. One algorithm, specifically designed to use digital mammography images, is explored in detail. Its ability to quantify and classify fibroglandular breast tissue is demonstrated and its accuracy is shown to be consistent with experienced radiologists. Finally, a modification to dramatically improve the running time is shown to have minimal effect on the overall accuracy of the algorithm.


Competitive organisations must be able to locate, capture, store, share and leverage not only data and information but also the knowledge of the firm. However, if the majority of information needed for decision-making exists in the minds of employees, a system is needed to capture and codify this knowledge. The paper addresses this within the context of how decision support systems, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology can aid the transformation process of knowledge. The emergence of new technologies has increased the ability of organisations to share knowledge, not just internally, but with external stakeholders. E-knowledge networks allow their participants to create, share and utilise strategic knowledge to improve operational and strategic efficiency and effectiveness. The proposed e-knowledge network will evaluate and deploy these technologies to enable inter-organisational knowledge sharing. In addition, the implications of inter-organisational knowledge sharing on the supply chain are considered for business process improvement.


Present study was carried out to find prevalence of MRSA in healthy individual of second stage students, college of pharmacy/Baghdad University. A total of 74 student selected between age 18-23 years old were included in this study, nasal swabs collected and subjected to many diagnostic standard bacteriological identification methods. Culture, colonial morphology, Gram stain,  mannitol fermentation, coagulase ,gelatinasetest, DNAase, MR/VP and antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed on tryptic soy agar by modified Kirby-Bauer muller hinton disc diffusion method and the result show that out of 74 nasal swabs,67(90.5%) were MRSA positive isolates, 21(31.4%) of them were mannitol ferment and 46(68.6%) non mannitol fermenter, among these isolates 33(44.6%)male and 41(55.4%) female, there was no significant sex difference in the prevalence of Staph. aureus, while show decrease in prevalence with age group,(54%),(27%),(9.5%) alternatively, MRSA positive isolates indicated relatively high rate of resistance to antibiotics, so to vancomycin 3(4.5%),ciprofloxacin 4(6%) , tetracyclin 9(13.5%) ,gentamycin  6(9%),  erythromycin 15(22.5%) and keflex 20(30%). This study show a  high  prevalence  of  MRSA  carriage  in  young  adult  college  student (healthy people) that indicating  the spread of MRSA in the community which consider high risk of spreading infections also we isolate  non  mannitol  fermenter  (MRSA)  Staph. aureus that need further moleculer analysis to prove it.
Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus , MRSA, Modified Kirby-Baur methods.


Sports Medicine bridges the gap between science and practice in the promotion of exercise and health, and in the scientific assessment, study and understanding of sports performance. Regular features include: sports injury prevention and treatment; exercise for health; drugs in sport and recommendations for training and nutrition. Designed as a superb reference source for physicians, sports medicine specialists, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, team doctors and trainers alike, Sports Medicine focuses on definitive and comprehensive review articles that interpret and evaluate the current literature to provide the rationale for, and application of, research findings. Sports Medicine also welcomes the submission of high-quality original research in the above fields. Sports Medicine offers a range of additional enhanced features designed to increase the visibility, readership and educational value of the journal's content. Each article is accompanied by a Key Points summary, giving a time-efficient overview of the content to a wide readership. Articles may be accompanied by plain language summaries to assist readers in understanding important medical advances.The journal also provides the option to include various other types of enhanced features including slide sets, videos and animations. All enhanced features are peer reviewed to the same high standard as the article itself. Peer review is conducted using Editorial Manager®, supported by a database of international experts. This database is shared with the Adis journals.


Some controversy has surrounded the question whether the second language (L2) of bilinguals can access conceptual memory as directly as their first language (L1). It has been proposed that an early age of acquisition and a high degree of proficiency are necessary for direct conceptual access. In the present study, Swedish undergraduates, with English as their second language, and a relatively late (9 yrs) age of acquisition, performed two word processing tasks in both L1 and L2. Exp. 1 used a picture-name verification task, where pictures induced automatic semantic priming. Exp. 2 used a category-exemplar verification task, where pictures again induced semantic priming, although in this case of a strategic kind. In both Exp. 1 (n = 22) and Exp. 2 (n = 23), the primary measure of semantic priming was reduction of the N400 amplitude in the ERP. Exp. 1 (automatic priming) showed a fronto-central priming effect that was indistinguishable in L1 and L2, as to amplitude, topographical distribution, and peak latency, although onset was somewhat earlier in L1. The effects of priming on reaction time (RT) were also parallel in L1 and L2. Exp. 2 (strategic priming) showed a different, centro-parietal priming effect that was similar in amplitude between L1 and L2, but differed in peak latency, and lateral distribution between languages. Also, the language factor interacted with priming in its effects on RT. The study indicates that L2 provides direct automatic access to conceptual memory, although strategic use of it may recruit partly different neuronal resources in L2 than in L1.


Despite being one of the weakest dimers in nature, low-spectral-resolution Voyager/IRIS observations revealed the presence of (H2)2 dimers on Jupiter and Saturn in the 1980s. However, the collision-induced H2-H2 opacity databases widely used in planetary science (Borysow et al. 1985; Orton et al. 2007; Richard et al. 2012) have thus far only included free-to-free transitions and have neglected the contributions of dimers. Dimer spectra have both fine-scale structure near the S(0) and S(1) quadrupole lines (354 and 587 cm−1, respectively), and broad continuum absorption contributions up to ±50 cm−1 from the line centres. We develop a new ab initio model for the free-to-bound, bound-to-free and bound-to-bound transitions of the hydrogen dimer for a range of temperatures (40-400 K) and para-hydrogen fractions (0.25-1.0). The model is validated against low-temperature laboratory experiments, and used to simulate the spectra of the giant planets. The new collision-induced opacity database permits high-resolution (0.5-1.0 cm−1) spectral modelling of dimer spectra near S(0) and S(1) in both Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) observations of Jupiter and Saturn, and in Spitzer Infrared Spectrometer (IRS) observations of Uranus and Neptune for the first time. Furthermore, the model reproduces the dimer signatures observed in Voyager/IRIS data near S(0) (McKellar 1984) on Jupiter and Saturn, and generally lowers the amount of para-H2 (and the extent of disequilibrium) required to reproduce IRIS observations.


SUMMARY: The relationships of eleven strains of Trypanosoma brucei were determined by agglutination tests with antisera to the basic and predominant antigens of the strains to assess (a) the relative values of these antigens for classification purposes, and (b) the antigenic diversity of T. brucei in Nigeria. The indications of the antigenic relationships of the strains obtained by comparisons based on both types of antigens were very similar, but comparisons of predominant strain antigens were easier to make and were applicable to more strains than were comparisons of basic strain antigens. Clones prepared from four strains isolated in one place in Nigeria were antigenically related, but clones of two other strains from the same area were antigenically distinct. Six strains from widely separated localities were antigenically different and produced few antigens in common.


Spark assisted chemical engraving (SACE) is a method for 3D microstructuring of glass or other non-conductive materials with high aspect ratio and smooth surface quality. It is applicable for rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices, for MEMS interfacing and similar applications. Typical feature size is in the hundreds of micrometres, down to a few tens of micrometres. It is a table-top technology requiring no clean rooms and no masks and with very modest space usage. It is thus well suited for microfactories. This paper gives a basic introduction to SACE and some machining examples.


Measuring the implementation fidelity (IF) or integrity of interventions is crucial, otherwise a positive or negative outcome cannot be interpreted. Direct and indirect methods of IF measurement tend to over-emphasize teacher behaviour. This paper focuses on IF measured by student behaviour collected through computers. Attainment was measured by the STAR test of maths (a computerized item-banked adaptive norm-referenced test). Implementation quality (IF) was measured by Accelerated Maths (AM) (an instruction-free personalized practice and progress-monitoring system in mastery of mathematics skills). Attainment data was gathered in the UK on 20,103 students in 148 schools, and of these implementation data on n=6,285. Only a small percentage of pupils scored on five AM implementation indices at or above the levels recommended. Correlations between attainment and implementation indices were modest, but high implementation was positively correlated with high attainment. Socioeconomic status did not appear to affect implementation or attainment. Implementation quality of AM is clearly a problem in the UK, and needs improvement. However, overall students still scored above average on attainment.


The informal economic sector is very important for the economy of any developing country. As a developing country, informal economy plays a significant role to Bangladesh's labor market. But this sector is still undernourished. This research was conducted to understand the contribution of the urban informal sector at a micro scale. This paper aimed at revealing the contribution of vegetable selling to improve socioeconomic status of vegetable vendors and the obstacles they face to run their business. Research data was collected through in-depth interviews with vegetable vendors who engaged in vegetable selling by rickshaw vans in Dhaka city. Results from this study found significant contributions of vegetable selling at a household level including: continuation of children's education, improved food intake, access to information technology, and the savings generation. Informal businessmen also face several challenges that set back to reap maximum outcomes from this sector. Therefore, it is urgent to take informal economy-friendly initiatives at a macro-level to patronize this sector for getting optimum benefit from it.


Micro-expression recognition is one of the most challenging topics in affective computing. It aims to recognize tiny facial movements difficult for humans to perceive in a brief period, i.e., 0.25 to 0.5 seconds. Recent advances in pre-training deep Bidirectional Transformers (BERT) have significantly improved self-supervised learning tasks in computer vision. However, the standard BERT in vision problems is designed to learn only from full images or videos, and the architecture cannot accurately detect details of facial micro-expressions. This paper presents Micron-BERT ($(\mu$-BERT), a novel approach to facial micro-expression recognition. The proposed method can automatically capture these movements in an unsupervised manner based on two key ideas. First, we employ Diagonal Micro-Attention (DMA) to detect tiny differences between two frames. Second, we introduce a new Patch of Interest (PoI) module to localize and highlight micro-expression interest regions and simultaneously reduce noisy backgrounds and distractions. By incorporating these components into an end-to-end deep network, the proposed $\mu$-BERT significantly outperforms all previous work in various micro-expression tasks. $\mu$-BERT can be trained on a large-scale unlabeled dataset, i.e., up to 8 million images, and achieves high accuracy on new unseen facial micro-expression datasets. Empirical experiments show $\mu$-BERT consistently outperforms state-of-the-art performance on four micro-expression benchmarks, including SAMM, CASME II, SMIC, and CASME3, by significant margins. Code will be available at https://github.com/uark-cviu/Micron-BERT


Deterioration mechanism of concrete suffered slowly freeze-thaw and eroded in different mixed liquor (3%NaCl+5%NaSO4, 3%NaCl+1.5%NaSO4, 5%NaSO4, water) were experimental investigated. The hydration product and microstructure of concrete specimen after 100 circles of freeze-thaw was tested and analyzed with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope). The result indicated that under the interactions of freeze-thaw and mixed erosive solution, there were not only physical changes but also chemical reactions occurred in concrete, which exacerbate the mechanical properties deterioration of concrete. The mechanical performance and microstructures of concrete deteriorated most significantly in the mixed solution 3%NaCl+5%NaSO4, and deteriorated more significantly in the mixed solution 3%NaCl+1.5%NaSO4.


Hepatoxicity of isoniazid, mainly in association with rifampin, is a rare secondary effect of tuberculostatic treatment. In the United States, it accounts for 0.2% of all pediatric orthotropic liver transplant, and 14% of transplants for drug hepatotoxicity. We report the case of a 10 year-old patient who presented with acute liver failure requiring orthotropic liver transplant after forty days of tuberculostatic treatment with isoniazid, rifampin and pyrazinamide.


BACKGROUND
In advanced breast cancer high-dose consolidation chemotherapy with haematological rescue has resulted in prolonged disease free and overall survival in a small percentage of patients. Maximal reduction of the tumor burden by intensive induction treatment preceding the high-dose chemotherapy may favor that outcome. The aims of this study were to find a rapid highly effective induction regimen with acceptable toxicity and to examine the optimal time for peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) collection for haematological rescue.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Twenty-four patients received 4 cycles of FAC chemotherapy (5-FU, adriamycin, cyclosphamide), each followed by 10 micrograms/kg/d of lenograstim (glycosylated rHuG-CSF) s.c. day 2 to 11. Chemotherapy was administered at 4 dose intensity levels with 6 patients including at each level (level 1: 500(F)/50(A)/500(C) mg/m2/3wk, level 2: 500/50/500 mg/m2/2wk, level 3: 500/75/500 mg/m2/2wk, m2/2wk, level 4: 500/75/1000 mg/m2/2wk d1 i.v.). In addition lenograstim (10 micrograms/kg/d s.c.) was administered for a period of 10 days before (period X) and after (period Y) chemotherapy. In 16 patients (4 at each dose intensity level) assessment of PBPC was performed during period X and Y as well as during cycle 1 and 4. A single apheresis to collect PBPC was planned during chemotherapy cycle 1.

RESULTS
The best response was obtained at dose intensity level 3 (all 6 patients responded, 3 of them achieved CR) with acceptable toxicity. Peak circulating numbers of total CFC/ml blood were median 5819 (period X), 4635 (cycle 1), 3807 (cycle 4) and 3519 (period Y) and occurred concurrently with peak circulating numbers of CD34+ cells. The and median 3.76 x 10(6)/kg CD34+ cells. Three patients received high-dose consolidation chemotherapy with PBPC support. Recovery of ANC > 0.5 x 10(9)/l occurred on median day 11 and of platelets > 20 x 10(9)/l on median day 10.

CONCLUSION
Dose intensity level 3 is the best usable induction regimen in this study. The optimal time for apheresis is either during lenograstim before chemotherapy treatment or during the first cycle of chemotherapy. Rapid haematological recovery was obtained by reinfusion of PBPC as sole source of support in the patients receiving high-dose consolidation chemotherapy.


11 patients with Hodgkin's disease in remission, including 7 patients with an initial stage III-IV, off treatment for at least 6 months, were tested for blood T lymphocyte functions. All were completely re-evaluated at the end of treatment to assess complete remission. The number of peripheral blood lymphocytes was below 1,200/cu mm 5/11 patients. Absolute numbers of E-rosette-forming T lymphocytes were decreased in 8 patients, whereas active rosettes were normal in 4/6. A slightly increased percentage of EAC rosettes, a marker for B lymphocytes, was found in only 2 patients. In vitro lymphocyte reactivity to a sub-optimal dose of PHA was studied in 9 patients. A statistically significant defect of lymphocyte transformation was observed in the patient group T lymphocytes. A membrane change is suggested rather than a true depletion. The persistance of such abnormalities long after treatment may raise the question of a complementary immunostimulating treatment in these patients.


This article commemorates three distinct periods in the growing understanding of physics of motion during the Renaissance (referring to advancement of art) period, the age of enlightenment (scientific renaissance: the Newtonian mechanics), and the adoption of field concept, embodied in the theory of relativity. Emphasis is put on Newton's immense and fundamental contributions and those of his immediate and subsequent contemporaries, leading to Lagrangian dynamics, which is the cornerstone of many contributions to this journal. In particular, a generic geometric interaction potential is introduced within a closed field, which conforms to Newton's law of universal gravitation and extends to the scale of microcosm, thus embedding gravity with other forces of nature. The implications of these extensions to the Newtonian potential are discussed.


Cefoxitin, a new semi-synthetic cephamycin, has been studied in the treatment of patients with a variety of infections. Included have been a number of patients who have impaired renal function. The drug proved to be effective in treating gram-positive, gram-negative and anaerobic infections, and can be given by the intravenous or intramuscular route. Adverse effects occurred in six of 34 patients. These were not usually serious. The presence of renal failure did not interfere significantly with the efficacy of cefoxitin in treating urinary tract infection and it is considered, in contrast to the aminoglycosides, that this preparation can be used successfully without the necessity for measuring blood or urine levels in patients with reduced or unknown renal function.


We discuss the treatment, in an effective field theory, of multi-particle correlations within a "large" system. We show that the act of coarse-graining necessarily introduces violations of unitarity in the evolution of states where the particle number is not defined. For an interacting system, such unitarity violations can cascade from the ultraviolet scale to the infrared in a "short" time. Hence, an effective field theory will be grossly inadequate for describing multi-particle correlations and related observables, even far away from the cut-off scale $\Lambda$. We furthermore argue that if the system is strongly coupled at $\Lambda$, than its final state {\em in the Effective Field Theory} (EFT) will appear as the highest entropy state if only low cumulants and correlations of the EFT degrees of freedom are measured.
Heuristically, this can serve as an explanation of how "entropy" is created in a microscopically unitary evolution of a Quantum Field Theory (QFT). We conclude by discussing how these considerations might provide a clue to the apparent thermalization in a hadronic collision even in comparatively small systems, as well as the so-called black hole information paradox; We argue the "paradoxes" are likely to be artifacts of using an effective theory beyond its domain of validity.


peak flow meter for his parents to establish the best he can manage. I have given them the danger peak flow value of 100, and if it falls below this they will come to casualty. 2 Passive smoking-I have advised his parents to stop smoking as it is likely to be aggravating the child's asthma. 3 Brother with Down's syndrome-Close family involvement in the management of this child's asthma is important, and this will be less easy because ofthe care that his brother also needs. 4 Poor housing-I have not addressed this problem today. Review1 month.


Millions of refugees have recently migrated to Turkey with the start of the crisis in their countries. As educationis one of the most crucial factors shaping the future of these refugees, studies are needed in thisrespect to reflect their current needs and problems in the host countries. From this point of view, this paperaimed to explore the views of Turkish EFL teachers working with refugee students in public schools invarious parts of Turkey. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 EFLteachers. The relationships of refugee students with host country students, the problems they encounteredwhile learning English, their basic needs in English classes, and potential suggestions of EFL teachers forrefugee students' English language learning were among the issues addressed in the interviews. Fourcategories and their sub-categories were found out as a result of the analysis. The findings indicated severalproblems both refugee students and their English teachers faced in English classes in public schools.The findings also included the teachers' suggestions with regard to materials used in the classes, suitablecounselling for refugee students, employment of Syrian English teachers, and many other topics. Finally,implications drawn from the findings with the aim of easing the language learning process of refugee studentsin public schools and some suggestions for further research were provided. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.31.19078


Suicidal intoxication from massive propranolol ingestion is rare. Surprisingly, no reported cases have involved physicians. The author herein reports a case of self-poisoning death due to ingestion of propranolol by a young male physician. A 31-year-old man with major depressive disorder was found dead in his dormitory room. Fifteen empty packages, each having contained ten 40-mg propranolol tablets, were found without any tablets leftover in his room. A suicide note was also found in his room. He was thus alleged to have ingested 6 g of propranolol for self-poisoning. Autopsy findings revealed approximately 150 mL of pink fluid with some partially dissolved pink tablets in the stomach. No anatomic cause of death was found, except for mild dilatation of cerebral ventricles. Toxicologic analysis revealed propranolol in his blood and gastric contents. The cause of death was attributed to acute cardiac arrest due to severe acute propranolol intoxication from self-poisoning caused by major depressive disorder possibly secondary to organic brain syndrome.


Imitation learning enables robots to learn from demonstrations. Previous imitation learning algorithms usually assume access to optimal expert demonstrations. However, in many real-world applications, this assumption is limiting. Most collected demonstrations are not optimal or are produced by an agent with slightly different dynamics. We therefore address the problem of imitation learning when the demonstrations can be sub-optimal or be drawn from agents with varying dynamics. We develop a metric composed of a feasibility score and an optimality score to measure how useful a demonstration is for imitation learning. The proposed score enables learning from more informative demonstrations, and disregarding the less relevant demonstrations. Our experiments on four environments in simulation and on a real robot show improved learned policies with higher expected return.


The problem of target motion analysis (TMA) has been the subject of an important literature. However, present methods use data estimated by a short time analysis (azimuths, Dopplers, etc.). For far sources, the nonstationarities of the array processing outputs, induced by the sources motion, may be simply modeled. This model leads one to consider directly a spatio-temporal TMA. Then new (spatio-temporal) data can be estimated. These estimates correspond to a long time analysis. Further, note that they are estimated independently of the (classical) bearings. In this general framework, the concept of source trajectory replaces the classical instantaneous bearings. Corresponding TMA algorithms are then studied. Then the study of statistical performance is carefully studied.


Summary : Coronary artery calcification, detected by computed to-mography, is a noninvasive measure of coronary atherosclerosis and an independent predictor of myocardial infarction. We conducted a genome-wide association study with a discovery sample of nearly 10 000 participants of European original and a replication sample of (cid:1) 6000 participants of European origin. We report strong evidence for genetic variants in 9p21 near the CDKN2B and CDKN2A genes and in 6p24 within the PHACTR1 gene. Additionally, we found evidence for concordance of single-nucleotide polymorphism associations with both coronary artery calcification and some but not all other loci known to be associated with myocardial infarction, including 3q22 ( MRAS gene), 13q34 ( COL4A1/COL4A2 genes), and 1p13 ( SORT1 gene). These findings reinforce the important role of variation at multiple genes in the pathogenesis of coronary athero- sclerosis. Although the functional mechanism of many of these genetic associations remains to be determined, our comprehensive study lays the groundwork for future studies to determine the role of several genes in treatment, prediction, and prevention of coronary atherosclerosis and resulting myocardial infarction and other clinically apparent forms of coronary heart disease. Conclusions : SNPs in the 9p21 and PHACTR1 gene loci were strongly associated with coronary artery calcification and myocardial infarction, and there are suggestive associations with both coronary artery calcification and myocardial infarction of SNPs in additional loci. later-onset disease is progressive with clinical arrhythmia complications developing in later decades. The findings of this study underscore the role of mutation analysis with cascade screening of families to enable appropriate genetic counseling and targeted serial cardiac evaluation. Conclusions : Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy is a genetically complex disease characterized by marked intrafamilial phenotype diversity. Penetrance is definition dependent and is greater with the 2010 criteria compared with the 1994 criteria. Relatives harboring (cid:1) 1 genetic variant had significantly increased risk of developing clinical disease, potentially an important determi- nant of the phenotypic heterogeneity seen within families with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. signatures derived from the entire complement of messenger RNAs in a cell or tissue have become established in the clinical management of certain disorders, particularly cancer. The comprehensiveness of this ap- proach contributes to its accuracy. Myocarditis is a disorder that causes a substantial proportion of patients presenting with new-onset heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction. Typically diagnosed by endomyocardial biopsy and evaluated with histological criteria called the Dallas criteria, clinical management is hampered by low sensitivity and specificity and the need for multiple cardiac biopsies. The present study suggests that the application of a transcriptomic based biomarker can substantially improve the diagnostic accuracy of heart biopsy for myocarditis. Using endomyocardial biopsy tissue obtained at the time of clinical presentation, we developed a molecular signature comprising 62 genes that predicted with high accuracy the presence of myocarditis in a population of 48 patients. Importantly, this required evaluation of tissue from a single endomyocardial biopsy sample and therefore is clinically practical. The present results could provide treating physicians with important and accurate diagnostic information about individual patients and could provide tools for personalized treatment or monitoring. Given emerging treatment strategies for viral and inflammatory myocardi- tis, accurate diagnostic tools are of increased importance. Conclusions : Together, these findings demonstrate that transcriptomic biomarkers from a single endomyocardial biopsy can improve the clinical detection of patients with inflammatory diseases of the heart. This approach advances the clinical management and treat- ment of cardiac disorders with highly variable outcome. 7 Summary : Autosomal dominant hypercholesterolemia (ADH) is characterized by severely elevated low-density lipoprotein cholester- ol levels from birth on, enhanced atherosclerosis progression, and premature cardiovascular events. Functional and morphological changes of the arterial wall are observed in children with ADH, which indicates that the atherosclerotic process has already been initiated. Early diagnosis and treatment of ADH are pivotal because therapy with lipid-lowering agents strongly decreases the risk for cardiovascular events. If possible, a clinical diagnosis of FH should preferably be confirmed by molecular genetic testing. Furthermore, the imprecision of any current clinical screening strategy for ADH emphasizes the relevance of genetic testing for definite diagnosis of ADH and screening purposes in affected families. This study shows that, if stringent criteria are used, a functional mutation can be found in 95% of children. We therefore feel that children are better suited for the definition of the molecular basis of a dyslipidemic phenotype. This knowledge can help clinicians establish the definite diagnosis of ADH in families. Once a child is identified as having ADH, cascade screening can be performed to screen more distant relatives using the inheritance pattern across the pedigree. Furthermore, these data strongly suggest that most of the large-effect genes underlying ADH have been found, at least in the Netherlands. This is of importance because any novel gene implicated in the pathogenesis of ADH and cardiovascular disease could become a pharmacological target in itself; hence, it is important to establish whether a large proportion of ADH patients still carry unexplained molecular defects. Conclusion : In the vast majority of children with an ADH phenotype, a causative mutation can be identified, strongly suggesting that most of the large-effect genes underlying ADH are known to date. 8 Summary : Coronary heart disease disproportionately affects certain ethnic groups. Hispanics are affected by excessive rates of cardio- vascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, overweight and obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. This study evaluated whether genetic markers identified from genome-wide association studies in whites were associated with myocardial infarction (MI) in Hispanics. We determined 14 variations in 1989 cases with a first nonfatal acute MI and 2096 population-based controls. Our results indicated that 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 3 independent loci were associated with MI risk. A genetic risk score summing the number of the associated risk alleles was also associated with MI, per unit related to 18% (11%–25%) increased risk. The improvement polymorphisms is associated with lower PLTP transcription and activity, an increased number of HDL particles, smaller HDL size, and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. These findings indicate that PLTP is a proatherogenic entity and suggest that modulation of specific elements of HDL metabolism may offer cardiovascular benefit. Lipoprotein-associated A (Lp-PLA2) is transported in the circulation on high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol particles and is present in atheroma- tous plaques, where it may exert proatherogenic effects through generation of lysophosphatidylcholine and oxidized fatty acids. Higher Lp-PLA2 activity is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in observational studies, making Lp-PLA2 a potential therapeutic target. However, higher Lp-PLA2 activity may simply mark alterations in blood lipids and other CHD risk factors, reflect (rather than contribute to) plaque, or even play an antiatherogenic role through the hydrolysis of the proinflammatory mediator platelet-activating factor and its analogues formed on oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. We identified common variants of the PLA2G7 gene that encodes Lp-PLA2 associated with Lp-PLA2 activity and used these to clarify the nature of the association of Lp-PLA2 with other putative risk factors and CHD events using mendelian randomization. Genetic variants associated with modest effects on Lp-PLA2 activity were not associated with major alterations in cardiovascular risk factors, coronary ather-oma, or CHD events. Larger mendelian randomization analyses, perhaps with the use of variants associated with larger effects on Lp-PLA2 activity, and randomized trials of specific Lp-PLA2 inhibitors will be needed to or refute a for Lp-PLA2 including 6 new candidate genes, as well as ABO and VWF . For FVIII, 5 loci were identified and overlapped vWF findings. We replicated 9 of the 10 new findings in independent samples. In summary, new genetic associations were discovered in biological pathways not previously associated with circulating levels of these factors, including proteins implicated in uptake and intracellular transport of the factors. These findings may point to novel prevention and treatment targets of hemostasis disorders. Conclusions : New genetic associations were discovered outside previously known biological pathways and may point to novel preven- tion and treatment targets of hemostasis disorders. cardiomyopathy (HCM) or dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), is paramount for individualized patient care, because some genetic forms are associated with disease manifestation at an early age, an overall poor prognosis, or a high incidence of sudden cardiac death. However, comprehensive genetic testing is not offered to all patients because of the genetic heterogeneity of cardiomyopathies as well as limitations in throughput and high costs of current genetic testing. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies can generate gigabases of DNA sequence information in a single sequencing run, now fundamen


Background: Haptoglobin (Hp) binds hemoglobin (Hgb), thereby inhibiting free radical production. It is presumed that Hp 2-2 genotype is associated with worse functional outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) related to the weaker affinity for Hgb binding, decreased clearance of hemoglobin from the site of hemorrhage, and an associated increase in secondary injury with the alpha-2 allele.Objective: The objective is to describe the relationship between Hp genotype and mortality and gross functional outcome after aSAH.Methods: A total sample of 268 subjects was narrowed down to a sample of 193 Caucasian subjects (due to differences in allele frequency distribution among races), age 18-75 with a diagnosis of aSAH, Fisher Grade greater than or equal to 2, DNA and outcome data available and without pre-existing chronic neurologic disease/deficit were enrolled into an ongoing study (NR004339). Demographic and medical condition variables were extracted from medical records. Modified Rankin Score (MRS) and Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) were assessed at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after aSAH. Data analysis included univariate analysis as well as multivariate logistic regression analysis, controlling for covariates including age, sex, and severity of hemorrhage (Fisher grade).Results: The sample was primarily female (n=138; 71.5%) and Caucasian (n=237; 88.4%) with a mean age of 54.45 years. This sample was further narrowed down to include only subjects of Caucasian race due to differences in allele frequency distribution among other races previously published in literature. Haptoglobin 2-2 genotype was significantly correlated with MRS at 3 months post aSAH during univariate analysis (p=.04) and at 3 months after controlling for covariates in the multivariate logistic regression analysis (p=.05). Univariate analysis produced a significant (p=.02) relationship between subjects whose genotypes yielded at least one alpha-2 allele and development of cerebral vasospasm (CV). Subjects whose genotypes had only one alpha-2 allele were significantly (p=.01) associated with Fisher grade. Fisher grade and Hunt and Hess score were both significantly associated with poor outcomes on MRS at all four time periods. Age was significantly (p=.01) correlated with Hp 1-1 and Hp 1-2 genotypes; specifically, these patients were younger than those with Hp 2-2 genotype. After controlling for covariates, Fisher grade was the only covariate that maintained significance in predicting outcomes after aSAH at all four time periods.Conclusions: Subjects whose genotypes contain at least one alpha-2 allele more often had poor outcomes on MRS at 3 months post aSAH and were more likely to develop CV. Additionally, haptoglobin genotype can be used as predictor of gross functional outcome when measured using MRS at 3 months after aSAH. The Fisher grading scale and Hunt and Hess scoring system are both significantly useful for predicting outcomes (GOS, MRS, mortality) at all four time periods after aSAH.


On the night of 16–17 March 2022, in Gdańsk, Professor Taduesz Dmochowski died unexpectedly. Political scientist, professor of the University of Gdańsk, for many years Dean of the UG Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Dmochowski was a member of the Academic Council of the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Gdańsk and of the scholarly bi-annual journal Gdańsk East Asian Studies.
Tadeusz Dmochowski was born on 9 September 1962 in Gdańsk. In 1981, he began to study history at the Humanities Faculty of the University of Gdańsk. After completing his studies, he worked for several years at the Medical High School, part of the M. Słaby Medical Schools Group No. 1 in Gdańsk. From October 1996, he worked in the UG Faculty of Social Sciences. In 1998, he received a doctorate in the Humanities in the field of political science, and in 2010, he received his post-doctoral degree (habilitacja) in the Humanities in the field of political science for his dissertation Radziecko-chińskie stosunki polityczne po śmierci Mao Zedonga (Soviet-Chinese Political Relations since the Death of Mao Zedong).
Professor Dmochowski was active in creating the Institute of Political Science from its very beginnings; currently it is one of the seven institutes in the UG Faculty of Social Sciences. For many years, he was Vice-Director of the Institute of Political Science responsible for teaching affairs (2002–2012); subsequently (2012–2016), he was Director of the Institute of Political Science. In 2016, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, a position he held until his death. His whole career was bound up with the University of Gdańsk, his alma mater. He helped to train many generations of political scientists.
He was a member of the Committee for Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (from 2015) and he was a member of the central governing body of the Polish Association of Political Sciences. He was author of several books, dozens of academic articles, and many chapters in multi-author books. His books relate to East Asia. In 2020, the President of Poland awarded him the Silver Cross of Merit for his academic work.


A new holistic assessment system and its impacts on student performance in regional anatomy. Int. J. Morphol., 38(4) :863-868, 2020. SUMMARY: Summative and formative assessments are two overlapping complementary ways of assessing student progress in regional anatomy teaching and learning. Our present study was designed to create a new holistic assessment system that embraces both summative and formative assessments, and evaluate its impacts on student performance of regional anatomy. A collection of five formative assessment tests were designed and introduced into the teaching process of regional anatomy, and their performances were combined with scores of the summative assessment taken at the end of the semester to form the holistic assessment. And an anonymous survey was conducted to gather student perceptions regarding the assessments. We found, compared to summative assessment scores, students' overall average points are higher by 4.67 points (P<0.05) and 9.23 points (P<0.01) when evaluated by the holistic and formative assessment; formative assessment scores are positively correlated to summative assessment scores, and the Pearson correlation is 0.624. Questionaire investigation showed 57.65 % of the students wishes to be assessed by the holistic assessmen, and 97.9 % of the students think that the holistic assessment can promote the frequency of student-teacher communication, which helps them form the right learning attitude and improve the performance. The results indicated that holistic assessment is a more reflective and practical approach of evaluating student performance in regional anatomy teaching, which can increase student-teacher communication and enhance the self-directed learning among students.


Deep geological disposal solution of high-level and long-lived radioactive waste has been internationally recognised as the preferred option. On this regard, Belgium investigates two deep clay formations; the Boom clay at Mol located at around 220 m deep, considered the reference host formation, and recently the Ypresian clay located at around 500 m deep, considered as the alternative one. The main objective of this research is to perform a thermo-hydro-mechanical characterisation of Ypresian clay by a comprehensive experimental program, carried out on undisturbed samples taken from Kallo borehole (370 m deep).
The characterisation program comprised laboratory classification tests, initial total suction and water retention curves (with chilled-mirror dew-point psychrometer), X-ray diffraction, small-strain shear stiffness properties at different orientations (parallel and perpendicular to bedding planes), and mercury intrusion porosimetry (pore size distribution curve of the intact material). Oedometer tests under saturated conditions using step loading and continuous loading approaches were used to characterise the volume change properties of the intact material (yield stress, pre and post-yield compressibility) at different orientations (loading parallel and perpendicular to bedding planes) and at different temperatures (22 and 80 oC). The material was put in contact with synthetic water at a vertical total stress of 4 MPa (to restore the in situ stress), and then subjected to drained heating (the material underwent some small contraction on this process). The water permeability properties were determined on constant volume and oedometer cells at different orientations (flow parallel and perpendicular to bedding planes) and temperatures (22, 40, 60 and 80 oC). Temperature cycling effects on water permeability were also examined at constant vertical stress in oedometer cells.
Microstructural changes undergone by the material along the different stress paths followed were analysed by mercury intrusion porosimetry. The microstructural study focused on the double porosity features of the intact material, and how this pore network evolves on loading and heating.
A heating pulse and constant volume equipment was calibrated and upgraded, which included the development of new acquisition software, the adaptation of new pore water pressure transducers, and a new controlled-power cartridge heater. Preliminary results of a heating/cooling pulse test were presented and discussed.


A widely used measure for rail safety is accident rate, which is defined as the number of train accidents normalized by traffic exposure. Of interest in rail safety research is to understand the temporal trend of accident rates, the significant factors affecting the trend, as well as how to predict future accident rates. This paper presents a statistical analysis of U.S. freight-train derailment rates from 2000 to 2012, based on information from the Federal Railroad Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The analysis leads to several observations, including:• There is a significant temporal decline in Class I freight-train derailment rate (−5.8%) per year• The rate of change in accident rate varies by accident cause. Freight-train derailment rates due to broken rails or welds and track geometry defects declined by 7% annually, respectively; bearing-failure-caused derailment rate decreased by 11% annually; and derailment rate caused by train handling errors fell by 9% annually.Future train derailment rates are projected and can be used to evaluate the safety benefit of accident prevention strategies.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


This article provides an update on the ongoing debate as to whether New Zealand should enter into a currency union with Australia. While the decision to adopt a common currency would ultimately be a political one, assessing the specific economic costs and benefits is important for informed debate. Theoretical developments in the currency union literature and the experience of actual currency unions are both relevant considerations. Experience with the European Monetary Union has focussed attention on the `endogeneities' of optimal currency areas, where a common currency can be the catalyst for further economic integration between member states. However, the jury is still out on this front. Since our last review in 2001, there has also been some further local research looking at how a common currency might influence the New Zealand economy, but the implications of this research remain inconclusive. The case for a common currency for New Zealand and Australia, at least in economic terms, continues to be open for debate.