This essay reviews the history of strategic management as a field of study and the reasons for its progressive inability to address today's issues in order to make the case for a new approach on strategic challenges based on corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and moral philosophy. In conclusion, management science is invited to welcome more non mainstream insights to reinforce its knowledge base, and strategic management is called to revisit business policy.


Simian retrovirus type-D (SRV) is a causative agent of simian acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Asian macaques, and can serve as a viral model in understanding of retrovirus infection because of some similarities to human AIDS pathogenesis. Study of infection and pathogenesis of SRV in macaques could be a strategy of vaccine and antiviral development for preventive and therapeutic purposes. We expressed the SRV-2 envelope gene using baculovirus expression vector system and transfected it to Spodoptera frugiferda insect cell line for SRV-2 recombinant protein production. Analysis using PCR and sequencing technique of recombinant in the passage-3 viral stock indicated the occurrence of recombination between SRV-2 envelope and baculovirus genome. Purification using immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography Ni2+-NTA to recombinant protein could minimize the presence non-specific proteins. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed a specific protein for SRV-2 gp70 envelope. Western blot analysis of this purified protein indicated a specific reaction with anti-SRV-2 antibody positive of Macaca fascicularis serum shown as SRV-2 gp70 envelope band.


The recent progress on human- computer interface technology has enabled more intuitive and natural communications between human and sensor based devices in many fields such as games,e-learning and medical image processing. while traditional human-computer interface devices such as the keyboard and mouse still dominate in our daily life, the existing work consists of less accuracy and some external devices are used to communicate between them.this work proposes a real time hand gesture recognition system for human computer interaction (HCI) this proposed work can recognize two different hand gestures at faster rate with reasonable accuracy. The gestures are classified on the basis of shape based features. Using hand as a device can help people communicate with computers in a more efficient way. This system consists of three main modules like hand segmentation, hand tracking, and gesture recognition from hand features. This feature work focuses the users get the ability to interact with the application from a distance without any physical interaction with keyboard or mouse. The proposed work allows users to track their fingers moving in three-dimensional space


BACKGROUND
Periodontal disease during pregnancy affects maternal oral health and increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, studies on the risk factors for periodontal disease and its impact on oral health-related quality of life in pregnant women in Taiwan are lacking. This present study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with periodontal disease during pregnancy and examine the relationship of periodontal disease with oral health-related quality of life among pregnant women.

METHODS
This study was conducted in a large medical centre in northern Taiwan. Eighty-four participants completed a periodontal examination by dentists as well as structured questionnaires, including the Oral Health Impact Profile-14, demographics, obstetric history, dietary habits, and oral hygiene behaviours. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the risk factors associated with periodontal disease and a t-test was used to compare the difference in oral health-related quality of life between pregnant women with and without periodontal disease.

RESULTS
Fifty participants (59.5%) had periodontal diseases. Risk factors for periodontal disease included eating out for lunch, consuming beverages, brushing less than three times per day, and not receiving regular professional dental cleanings. The oral health-related quality of life was significantly poorer in pregnant women with periodontal disease than in those without.

CONCLUSIONS
The risk factors for periodontal disease, including eating out for lunch, drinking beverages, brushing teeth less, and not regular dental cleaning, provide convincing evidence for pregnant women to maintain good oral hygiene to prevent periodontal disease and improve oral health-related quality of life.


ABSTRACT Two assessment protocols for horse welfare were compared: the Swedish official protocol (OP) and a newly developed horse welfare assessment protocol (HWAP). The protocols differ in composition: the HWAP contains 20 animal-based (35.7%), 28 resource-based (50.0%) and 8 management-based (14.3%) measures whereas the OP has 4 animal-based (8.9%), 21-resource-based (46.7%), 16-management-based (35.6%) and 4-uncategorized measures (8.9%). The HWAP detected more welfare issues than the OP for 11 out of 12 welfare criteria. The OP took less time to assess (2–4 h) compared to the HWAP (3 h 20 min to 8 h 40 min). The added level of detail and more animal-based measures means that the HWAP provides a more thorough assessment of welfare of the individual animal than the OP.


Author(s): Huggins, J. Grant | Abstract: Trapping is the most common damage management practice employed by pecan growers suffering fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) depredation. The author evaluated the economic effectiveness of foot-hold trapping fox squirrels in native pecan groves from 1988 to 1991. Trapping significantly reduced squirrel damage the first and second year of treatment in all three study areas relative to the initial untreated year. This reduction was valued at $38.63 to $279.51/ha. In 1990 the author tested the relative efficiency and selectivity of five trap types. Number 110 body traps performed with the best combination of efficiency, selectivity, and cost of the trap types tested.


Biomimetic deposition of hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings on implants could be done for two reasons, one is to study their possible bioactivity, and one is to generate bioactive coatings on implants before implantation surgery to improve the osseointegration. Heat treatment of coated implants can be performed for several reasons, for example, to ensure coating sterility and to increase the adhesion. This paper describes the morphology and crystalline structure changes occurring due to the heat treatment of biomimetic HA coatings on rutile TiO2. Rutile TiO2 surfaces were produced on titanium (Ti) plates by heating at 800 degrees C. Afterwards, these samples were immersed in a phosphate buffer saline solution for 7 days at 37 degrees C in order to deposit HA coatings on their surfaces. These HA coatings were then either untreated or heat treated at 600 or 800 degrees C for 1 hr. The coatings microstructural changes were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cross-sectional TEM samples were produced using a sample preparation method based on focused ion beam microscopy (FIB). Rutile was found to be bioactive due to HA formation on the surface. The 600 degrees C heat treatment of the HA coating changed its morphology, increased its grain size and also increased the porosity. At 800 degrees C the coating was completely transformed to beta-TCP according to XRD. Sample preparation using FIB and TEM analysis proved to be a useful method for high-resolution analysis of biomimetic coatings in cross-section.


We study the evolution of the structural and electronic properties of crystalline indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) upon amorphization by first-principles calculation. The bottom of the conduction band (BCB) is found to be constituted of a pseudo-band of molecular orbitals that resonate at the same energy on different atomic sites. They display a bonding character between the s orbitals of the metal sites and an anti-bonding character arising from the interaction between the oxygen and metal s orbitals. The energy level of the BCB shifts upon breaking of the crystal symmetry during the amorphization process, which may be attributed to the reduction of the coordination of the cationic centers. The top of the valence band (TVB) is constructed from anti-bonding oxygen p orbitals. In the amorphous state, they have random orientation, in contrast to the crystalline state. This results in the appearance of localized tail states in the forbidden gap above the TVB. Zinc is found to play a predominant role in the generation of these tail states, while gallium hinders their formation. Last, we study the dependence of the fundamental gap and effective mass of IGZO on mechanical strain. The variation of the gap under strain arises from the enhancement of the anti-bonding interaction in the BCB due to the modification of the length of the oxygen–metal bonds and/or to a variation of the cation coordination. This effect is less pronounced for the amorphous material compared to the crystalline material, making amorphous IGZO a semiconductor of choice for flexible electronics. Finally, the effective mass is found to increase upon strain, in contrast to regular materials. This counterintuitive variation is due to the reduction of the electrostatic shielding of the cationic centers by oxygen, leading to an increase of the overlaps between the metal orbitals at the origin of the delocalization of the BCB. For the range of strain typically met in flexible electronics, the induced variation in the effective mass is found to be negligible (less than 1%).


Though DAML-S is growing into a de facto standard for semantic webservice markup, we have only found few complete service descriptions and even less papers discussing technical issues about the markup process. We addressed this lack by (1) reporting on our experiences in describing a set of services, (2) concluding several limitations of the latest DAML-S version (v0.7) and (3) making our work accessible to the research community.


In this paper, we present a variation on the LRX (Local RX) algorithm for detecting anomalies in multi-temporal images. Our algorithm assigns a relative weight to the Mahalanobis distance according to the number of times it appears in an image. Standard transitions between pixels are therefore not viewed as anomalous; unusual transitions are assigned proportionally higher weights. Experimental results using our proposed algorithm vs previous algorithms on multitemporal datasets show a significant improvement.


Introduction: Hypomagnesemia has been common, but mostly underdiagnosed electrolyte abnormality. Studies regarding this is lacking in India especially in rural setting. Here, we have correlated serum magnesium (Mg) level with outcome in patients of medicine Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with respect to length of ICU stay, need for mechanical ventilatory support and its duration and ultimate outcome (discharge/death). Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study carried out over a period of 1-year enrolling 601 patients of Medical ICU (MICU). The Chi-square test is applied to correlate hypomagnesemia with the outcome. Result and Observation: About 25% patients had admission hypomagnesemia. When compared with the normal Mg group, there was significant association of hypomagnesemia with outcome in terms of duration of MICU stay 5.46 (5.75) versus 3.93 (3.88), need for mechanical ventilation (56.86% vs. 24.33%), discharge/cured from ICU (61.43% vs. 85.26%), and death (38.56% vs. 14.73%). However, no significant difference was found in the duration of ventilation between the two groups. Conclusion: Hypomagnesemia is associated with a higher mortality rate in critically ill patients. The need for ventilatory support, but not its duration is significantly higher in hypomagnesemic patients. Hypomagnesemia is commonly associated with sepsis and diabetes mellitus. The duration of MICU stay is significantly higher in patients with low serum Mg.


Abstract International criminal tribunals (ICTs) constitute one of the primary examples of international institutions vested with undisputable international authority. The decisions of ICTs are final, binding on the parties to the proceedings and cannot be overturned politically. Given the proliferation of ICTs and their increased significance in current international politics, it is important to examine how international criminal judges exercise this authority. Is the exercise of such authority biased toward their homeland's political interests? This question is yet to be answered in both international criminal legal research and international relations research. Using non-hierarchical multi-level modelling, we examine the sentencing decision-making of judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Our analysis indicates that judges act as independent actors, and are not biased in the exercise of their authority.


This work presents the implementation, numerical examples, and experimental convergence study of first- and second-order optimization methods applied to one-dimensional periodic gratings. Through boundary integral equations and shape derivatives, the profile of a grating is optimized such that it maximizes the diffraction efficiency for given diffraction modes for transverse electric polarization. We provide a thorough comparison of three different optimization methods: a first-order method (gradient descent); a second-order approach based on a Newton iteration, where the usual Newton step is replaced by taking the absolute value of the eigenvalues given by the spectral decomposition of the Hessian matrix to deal with non-convexity; and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm, a quasi-Newton method. Numerical examples are provided to validate our claims. Moreover, two grating profiles are designed for high efficiency in the Littrow configuration and then compared to a high efficiency commercial grating. Conclusions and recommendations, derived from the numerical experiments, are provided as well as future research avenues.


The method of asymmetric encryption of images based on the double optical encryption with spatially incoherent illumination is presented. Numerical simulations of the presented method in various modifications are carried out and their efficiency is estimated. The modification providing the best balance between maintaining the advantages peculiar to the optical encryption and quality of the decoded images is chosen. In this case the value of the normalized standard deviation (NSTD) of the decoded image from original one for asymmetric encryption differs no more than by 8% from NSTD of standard optical encryption with spatially incoherent illumination.


Bradycardia support by ICDs has been limited to fixed rate, ventricular pacing. Concomitant placement of a pacemaker and an ICD exposes a patient to potentially life‐threatening device interactions. ICDs capable of dual chamber pacing have recently become available. The number of ICD recipients who stand to benefit from the addition of dual chamber pacing is debated, but no data have addressed this question. This retrospective study analyzed all patients who received nonthoractomy ICD system placement at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN between March 1991 and October 1996 in order to determine the proportion of patients in whom a dual chamber pacing ICD may be indicated. Definitions: (1) Definitely indicated = pacemaker present at ICD implant or NASPE Class I pacing indication; (2) Probably indicated = NASPE Class II pacing indication, NYHA Functional Class III or IV, or history of systolic congestive heart failure; (3) Possibly indicated = history of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation or an ejection fraction ≤ 20%. The results were that nonthoracotomy ICDs were placed in 253 patients. A dual chamber ICD would have been definitely indicated in 11% of the study group, probably indicated in 28%, and possibly indicated in 14%. Chronic atrial fibrillation was present at ICD implant in 6.7% of patients and developed in 0.9%/yr during follow‐up. The addition of dual chamber pacing to ICDs stands to potentially benefit approximately half (53%) of ICD recipients. These data do not address all patients who may benefit from dual chamber sensing.


Microservices are an architectural style of service-oriented applications that allow the application to be divided into independent and autonomous units, which can be individually developed, tested, deployed (mainly in the cloud), scaled and monitored. The application then becomes a composition and integration of small distributed systems. In this paper, a case study is presented, where the Information system for the planning of soccer training, is developed, following the architectural style of microservices. It presents the architecture defined for the information system and its implementation using DevOps practices, among them, continuous delivery, continuous deployment and automated tests. The level of granularity of each microservice is evaluated using domain-driven design and the definition of delimited contexts. Defining the optimal size of microservices is fundamental, directly affecting performance, maintainability, storage, transactions, distributed queries, use and consumption of network and computational resources. On the other hand, the development of the information system allows improving the planning of soccer training using modern sports training techniques. System for the planning of soccer training can be used by soccer teams, clubs, physical trainers, coaches and technical directors both amateur and professional, as a software as a service application.


1---The study was about orientation and mobility, which enable persons with visual impairment to move about and be in control of their environment. The problem of the study was to investigate the factors hindering teaching of orientation and mobility to students who were ( visually impaired in Thika Primary School for the Visually Impaired. The design was aC descriptive survey study, which attempts to describe characteristics of subjects, phenomena, opinions, attitudes, preferences and perceptions of persons of interest to the researcher. For the purpose of the study, the target population was the head teacher, 27 teachers and 107 standard four to eight students of Thika School for the Visually Impaired. A purposive sampling technique was applied to identify the target population. Data was collected using two instruments, questionnaires and classroom observation schedule, all personally designed and developed by the researcher. Data was analyzed qualitatively, findings from the study showed that, 59% of the teachers supported the orientation and the mobility skill to be very important skill to be taught to students who are visually impaired. Despite of 81% of the teachers trained as mobility instructors, data revealed that orientation and mobility lessons were not included in the school timetable by 74% and 56% of the teachers confirmed that there were no enough mobility canes for training. In relating the researcher's findings, it was quite clear that there was need for the subject to be taught to students who are visually impaired before leaving primary education because most of them end their education at primary school level, hence they ended up in communities which had many places to interact with. The provision of mobility canes after class eight were vital in their daily living; they needed them permanently for individual use. From the research it was confirmed that the teaching of orientation and mobility was not effective in the school for the visually impaired due to shortage of instructors and enough mobility cane. The following recommendations were made; Teachers should give orientation, and mobility training importance like other academic subjects and students to be encouraged to practice orientation and mobility skills. Ministry of Education to provide more funds to purchase for enough white canes.


ObjectiveTo discuss the diagnosis and treatment of meralgia paresthetica as reported in the literature and as experienced by the author. Summary Background DataMeralgia paresthetica is a mononeuropathy of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve that can lead to significant disability when the diagnosis and treatment is delayed or missed. This condition is relatively common but is frequently mistaken for other disorders. MethodsFifteen cases of meralgia paresthetica were identified in 14 patients in a private surgical practice during a 4-year period. All patients were initially treated conservatively and seven patients subsequently underwent surgical treatment. Follow-up ranged from 3 to 6 years. ResultsConservative management consisting of local analgesics, steroids, nonsteroidal antiinflammatories, rest, and reduction or elimination of aggravating factors yielded long-lasting improvement in five patients with meralgia paresthetica. Nine patients with 10 cases of meralgia paresthetica did not benefit in the long term from conservative management. Seven of these patients, representing eight cases of meralgia paresthetica, ultimately opted for surgical management, and all obtained good long-term relief of symptoms. ConclusionSurgical management of meralgia paresthetica is a viable option for patients in whom medical management fails. Based on the published literature and the author's experience, a rationale is presented for determining the appropriate surgical management of these patients.


Economists' understanding of the effects of migration has been largely limited to what can be gleaned from separate surveys of migrants and their origin households. This is problematic when the interaction between the two parties affects patterns of resource allocation, above and beyond the direct effects of migration in income and household composition. Using a unique panel dataset from Bangladesh that includes linked data on migrants and origin households, we assess the cost of information asymmetries that arise with migration. Variation in migrant travel times is used to generate variation in the cost of communication between migrants and origin households. However, because migration, as well as the destination, may be chosen with information asymmetries in mind, two sets of instrumental variables are employed: lagged employment shocks at potential destinations and historical migrant networks.


ABSTRACT Mitophagy is a fundamental process that determines mitochondrial quality and homeostasis. Several mitophagy receptors, including the newly identified FUNDC1, mediate selective removal of damaged or superfluous mitochondria through their specific interaction with LC3. However, the precise mechanism by which this interaction is regulated to initiate mitophagy is not understood. Here, we report the solution structure of LC3 in complex with a peptide containing the FUNDC1 LC3-interacting region (LIR) motif. The structure reveals a noncanonical LC3-LIR binding conformation, in which the third LIR residue (Val20) is also inserted into the hydrophobic pocket of LC3, together with the conserved residues Tyr18 and Leu21. This enables Tyr18 to be positioned near Asp19 of LC3, and thus phosphorylation of Tyr18 significantly weakens the binding affinity due to electrostatic repulsion. Functional analysis revealed that mitochondrial targeting of the LIR-containing cytosolic portion of FUNDC1 is necessary and sufficient to initiate mitophagy when Tyr18 is unphosphorylated, even in the absence of mitochondrial fragmentation. Thus, we demonstrated that phosphorylation of Tyr18 of FUNDC1 serves as a molecular switch for mitophagy. This may represent a novel target for therapeutic intervention.


Joints are important mechanical and hydrological features of rock masses, and they can greatly affect wave propagation and attenuation across jointed rock masses. Joints often contain liquid, and the presence of liquid will change the mechanical behaviors of the joint. The saturated joint can be modeled as nonwelded interfaces. Stresses across the joint are continuous, but particle displacements and velocities are not In this paper, with the recently introduced concept of Virtual Wave Source (VWS) and analytical solution of reflection and transmission coefficients for harmonic plane S-wave across one saturated joint, normally incident S-wave propagation across one saturated joint set is studied. Parametric studies of S-wave propagation across one saturated joint set are performed. It is found that the magnitude of transmission coefficient across one saturated joint set is controlled by normalized shear joint stiffness, normalized joint viscosity, number of joints and nondimensional joint spacing. In addition, the waveforms of transmitted waves are discussed in detail in order to explain the phenomena above.


The therapeutic relationship (TR) is essential in mental health nursing care and plays a fundamental role in the understanding and treatment of the patient's health status. Despite being a bidirectional construct, limited evidence is available to shed light on this issue in mental health units and even less so in the first days of admission. This study aimed to examine the association and differences between nurses' and patients' perspectives on the establishment of the therapeutic relationship in acute mental health units during the first days of hospitalization. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 12 Spanish mental health units. Data were collected from patients and nurses using the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S) questionnaire. A total of 234 cases were analysed, including 234 patients and 58 nurses. The results showed a positive association between nurses' and patients' perspectives on the therapeutic relationship, but also revealed significant differences on each WAI-S dimension. Nurses assigned higher scores compared to patients on the perception of the quality of the therapeutic relationship. The dimensions with the greatest weight from the patients' perspective regarding the quality of the therapeutic relationship were the perception of greater agreement on goals and tasks among nurses. This study demonstrates the importance of establishing shared goals and tasks with nurses from the first days of hospitalization to improve the quality of the therapeutic relationship as perceived by patients. These findings underline the need to consider the different perspectives of both parties to promote a high-quality therapeutic relationship.


Generally, classical polynomial splines tend to exhibit unwanted undulations. In this work, we discuss a technique, based on control principles, for eliminating these undulations and increasing the smoothness properties of the spline interpolants. We give a generalization of the classical polynomial splines and show that this generalization is, in fact, a family of splines that covers the broad spectrum of polynomial, trigonometric and exponential splines. A particular element in this family is determined by the appropriate control data. It is shown that this technique is easy to implement. Several numerical and curve-fitting examples are given to illustrate the advantages of this technique over the classical approach. Finally, we discuss the convergence properties of the interpolant.


Coconut coir is an effective growth medium that has been used in hydroponic cultivation of lettuce in Thailand; this material is inexpensive and readily available in tropical regions. Here, we evaluated the financial feasibility of an energy-saving hydroponic system using coconut coir as the growth medium in northeastern Thailand. We first compared coconut coir hydroponic cultivation with the conventional open field cultivation to assess the productivity and marketability of cucumbers in the rainy and dry seasons: in the hydroponic system, profit in the rainy season 57% higher and in the dry season, 95% higher. Next, we assessed a simulation of a new cropping pattern based on the hydroponic system. The assessment included a new 4-year investment in a conventional crop of rice and cucumber in the rainy season and tomato in the dry season, versus an investment in the coconut coir-based hydroponic system for a 0.32 ha (2 rai) field. Incremental cost‒benefit values, comparing existing management practices with the new 4-year term, were calculated at a discount rate of 0.0975, which was the lowest concessional loan rate by the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. The cost‒benefit ratio was 1.14. These findings show that investment in hydroponic cultivation in northeastern Thailand would be cost effective.


Synopsis Seismic reflection data have revealed the presence of a large dome-like volcanic structure in the northern Rockall Trough, known as the Sigmundur Complex. The complex comprises a single, nearly circular platform marked by scarp edges, with some evidence for intra-basalt sequence reflectors, representing the original depositional attitude of former lava flows, dipping away from an eroded central volcano. The complex is mostly buried beneath Lower Eocene–Recent sediments although the culmination of the structure does crop out at sea bed. A free-air gravity anomaly over the complex reaches a peak value of +600 gu. Gravity modelling suggests the presence of a large mafic plutonic mass immediately underlying the volcanic pile. The intrusion possesses an asymmetric shape with a sloping top and base at depths of 2.4–3.0 km and 24.8–25.4 km respectively. The diameter increases downwards from 3.6–7.2 km at the top to 14.5–21.1 km at the base.


Single immunomellitus, coeliac disease, liver disease, acute leukglobulin polypeptides are coded for by two or more aemia and Hodgkin's disease, and finally trophogenes; families of multiple closely linked genes are blastic tumours. Unfortunately, the genetic linkage characteristic of immunology, but may well be a between HLA and 21-hydroxylase deficiency was basic phenomenon of mammalian germ lines; discovered too late for inclusion in the Bulletin. immunoglobulins demonstrate the importance of 21-hydroxylase deficiency is a paradigm of genetic somatic mutations; the interaction between different disease as the genetics, biochemistry, and treatment lymphocyte types exerts control over protein synare so well worked out. Never before have we had thesis, presumably by some form of genetic feedback. such razor-sharp dissection of a segment of a human Last, but not least, allelic exclusion (involving autochromosome and been able to discern, even if we do somes) was discovered in a study of antibody not always fully understand, the interactions of molecules. closely linked genes, the effects of linkage disequiliFudenberg's book covers all these areas with great brium, and the emergence of disease associations. clarity, tackling with skill a plethora of experimental Without doubt, HLA will be of the greatest practical data from both comparative and human studies. An importance in the prediction of those at risk of abundance of tables and diagrams is a particularly developing many diseases with a clear genetic basis praiseworthy feature of the book. As in the first but which depend on environmental triggers. As our edition, chapter 1 is an introductory essay which is understanding of this system increases, we will be well worth reading. Chapter 2 describes immunoable to detect and potentially remove offending globulin structure and evolution and goes on to a environmental agents thus allowing true prevention. lucid exposition of the admittedly complicated This issue of the British Medical Bulletin is first genetics of immunoglobulin molecules. Chapter 4 rate and is obligatory reading for every clinical tackles the generation of antibody variability and geneticist. It is remarkable value at £5-00 and is describes what is known of the genetics of antibody perfectly complementary to 'Basic Immunogenetics' specificity. Chapter 5 deals succinctly with lymphoid by Fudenberg and his colleagues which is reviewed membrane antigens including their genetic control below. and relation to immune response, T and B cells, and R. HARRIS lymphocyte interactions. The potted version of mouse H-2 is excellent. Chapter 6 is an adequate


This paper presents a systematic approach for video-audience-watching content analysis. Our analysis technique is based on audience preference that they will click Like while watching a video clip. The principal component analysis is applied to extract the content structure of a video clip. The hierarchical clustering technique also is used to segment a video content as time slots. The analysis and clustering are based on the audience opinion. In our experiment, the approach is set to teaching video content for 22 4-year students in Bachelor degree. The analysis results show the three principal structures that can represent three principal video-audience-watching preference styles.


Analysis of published data allows to suggest a possible model of adenohypophyseal cytoarchitectonics based on the concepts of tissue self-renewal and streaming in this gland. The model provides a framework for understanding: a) the existence of ambiguous cellular elements; b) change of relationship between different types of hormone secreting cells with sex-dependent prevalence of somato- or lactotrophs; c) relatively high proliferative activity of lactotrophs in mature pituitary gland; d) specific spatial arrangement of various types of hormone secreting cells; e) multiple effects of some bioregulators on the secretion of two or more pituitary hormones; f) the existence of polyfunctional pituitary adenomata containing and secreting several adenohypophyseal hormones simultaneously. Possible approaches to thorough evaluation and testing of the model in experiments using organ or cell cultures of adenohypophysis are discussed.


Immature Xenopus oocytes injected with inositol 1, 4, 5-trisphosphate (Ins(1, 4, 5) P3) give a complex electrophysiological response comprising an early depolarizing spike followed by a burst of oscillations. These two components have been interpreted on the basis of an interaction between two internal calcium stores: an Ins (1, 4, 5) P3-sensitive pool responsible for the early spike which then primes an Ins (1, 4, 5) P3-insensitive pool to begin to oscillate through a process of calcium-induced calcium release (Berridge, M. J., J. Physiol., Lond. 403, 589-599 (1988)). The role of the latter was investigated in Xenopus oocytes by using the drug caffeine which can trigger calcium-induced calcium release in muscle cells. Caffeine had no effect on the early Ins (1, 4, 5) P3-induced spike but it suppressed the subsequent oscillations. The spontaneous oscillations observed in some oocytes were also abolished by caffeine. Oscillation amplitude and duration was slightly reduced following incubation of oocytes with adenosine or isobutyl-methylxanthine. Because these two agents gave large membrane hyperpolarizations indicative of an increase in cyclic AMP, it can be concluded that this second messenger is not responsible for the inhibitory action of caffeine. The ability of caffeine to abolish oscillations while not affecting the early Ins (1, 4, 5) P3 response is discussed with regard to the two-pool model for generating calcium oscillations.


In Alloy 718 ingot cogging process, dynamic and metadynamic recrystallizations, and static grain growth occur, and also the presence of δ phase plays a key role in controlling the grain size. In this study, the evolution of grain structure in VIM/VAR-processed Alloy 718 ingots during post-cogging heat treatments is dealt with. Compression tests were made on VIM/VAR-processed Alloy 718 ingot at temperatures between 900oC ~ 1150oC. Heat treatments were made on the compression-tested specimens, and the variation of grain size was evaluated. Constitutive equations for the grain growth are established to represent the evolution of microstructures. Special attention is paid to the evolution of grain structure under the condition of dynamic and metadynamic recrystallizations, and grain growth. The grain growth rate depends mainly on the presence of δ-phase below the δ-solvus temperature, and on the difference in the grain boundary characteristics above it.


Cardiac myoglobin plays a role in oxygen consumption and has a protective effect during periods of hypoxia, but little is known about the role of myoglobin during periods of ischaemia. Myoglobin-rich sea raven hearts and myoglobin-poor ocean pout hearts were isolated and perfused at varying flow rates and under conditions of low and high oxygen demand to assess the role of myoglobin in oxygen extraction. In the myoglobin-rich hearts, oxygen extraction remained constant over the flow range. In the myoglobin-poor hearts, oxygen extraction was significantly elevated, relative to controls, at the lower flow rates but decreased as the flow rate increased. In hearts where myoglobin was inactivated by an oxidizing agent, oxygen extraction was similar to that observed in myoglobin-poor hearts. Under conditions of high oxygen demand, myoglobin-rich hearts again showed a constant oxygen extraction over the flow range. Myoglobin-inactivated hearts had a significantly elevated oxygen extraction at low flows, and this decreased as flow rate increased. These data suggest that myoglobin renders oxygen extraction by fish hearts independent of the rate of perfusion.


An autosomal-dominant mucoid colonic carcinoma syndrome is described. Seventeen members of one family over three generations have experienced cancers, including 14 with adenocarcinoma of the colon. The defective autosomal locus is pleiotropic, producing adenocarcinoma of the endometrium, atypical endometrial hyperplasia, uterine leiomyosarcoma, and bladder transitional and renal cell carcinoma in addition to the mucoid variant of colon carcinoma.


Biomimicry has received much attention in engineering, and many breakthrough discoveries have been guided by a solution found in nature. However, many biomimicry-based proposals apply to a specific problem, provide limited context, and lack implementation details. That makes it unnecessarily hard for practitioners to find relevant literature for their problems. To investigate this problem, we performed a literature review on 111 publications related to biomimicry and extracted several characteristics, e.g., meta-data, the solution, and the investigated species. In particular, we were interested in whether the proposed algorithms could be used for other use cases. Our results indicate a structural issue: publications related to new or adapted algorithms very prominently emphasize a specific use case, instead of the generalized problem category, e.g., clustering. We found that 38% lack generalization in at least one of the introductory elements (i.e., title, abstract, and introduction), and that 53% of them lack generalization entirely. Moreover, 40% of the proposed algorithms lack at least one major characteristic, e.g., code samples or benchmarks against state of the art algorithms. We motivate the generalization problem with our adapted implementation of an algorithm proposed for load scheduling. Moreover, the artifacts of this study can support practitioners in finding more efficiently existing solutions across research domains.


Remote sensing techniques using VIS-NIR-SWIR-TIR sensors, offer a unique opportunity to collect necessary spatial parameters that play a key role for better assessments of mining related environmental impacts. The TIR HSR sensors data, as they are still not well investigated, may contribute to characterize the necessary parameters. An atmospheric correction of TIR (LWIR) data, taken with the AHS multispectral sensor over the Sokolov area in the Czech Republic, was performed. Surface kinetic temperature and emissivity values of the study area were calculated. Some important parameters such as Apparent Thermal Inertia and soil sand and clay content were derived from the corrected data set. The ongoing analysis of the TIR HSR sensors data, ground measurements data and laboratory studies will contribute an additional data layer to the mapping of mining related environmental impacts.


Climate data records (CDRs) of essential climate variables (ECVs) as defined by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) derived from satellite instruments help to characterize the main components of the Earth system, to identify the state and evolution of its processes, and to constrain the budgets of key cycles of water, carbon, and energy. The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) of the European Space Agency (ESA) coordinates the derivation of CDRs for 21 GCOS ECVs. The combined use of multiple ECVs for Earth system science applications requires consistency between and across their respective CDRs. As a comprehensive definition for multi-ECV consistency is missing so far, this study proposes defining consistency on three levels: 1) consistency in format and metadata to facilitate their synergetic use (technical level); 2) consistency in assumptions and auxiliary datasets to minimize incompatibilities among datasets (retrieval level); and 3) consistency between combined or multiple CDRs within their estimated uncertainties or physical constraints (scientific level). Analyzing consistency between CDRs of multiple quantities is a challenging task and requires coordination between different observational communities, which is facilitated by the CCI program. The interdependencies of the satellite-based CDRs derived within the CCI program are analyzed to identify where consistency considerations are most important. The study also summarizes measures taken in CCI to ensure consistency on the technical level, and develops a concept for assessing consistency on the retrieval and scientific levels in the light of underlying physical knowledge. Finally, this study presents the current status of consistency between the CCI CDRs and future efforts needed to further improve it.


The research hypothesis that guides the work is that the meaning of a film, as intended in a "procedural terms", begins even before its vision and precisely in the dialogue between the paratexts to which we expose ourselves before its vision and the film itself, which can direct the viewer's interpretation in several ways. The video essay is a double experiment: on one hand, it reconstructs "what it is about" The Favourite by Yorgos Lanthimos by recomposing the information retrieved from some promotional texts that are available online. On the other hand it reassembles parts of the film verbatim to show how it would have been according to the narrative segments highlighted by the various synopses or, vice versa, recontextualizing the images of the trailer as they are presented in the film. If on one hand this highlights the partiality and the differences of focus in the various texts, on the other hand the editing operations, made possible by the very form of the essay, touch the living material of the narrative structure of the film by distorting it, thus giving it the possibility of revealing its own density by exposing the multiple interpretations it contains. A practice of "metacriticism" that analyzes the narrative to reveal the semantic paths that are not immediately obvious. Link Videosaggio: https://vimeo.com/341335554


The resolution of the rainfall data usually provided by operational C-band radar networks of Western European meteorological services is 1 km in space and 5 min in time. It has been shown that higher resolutions are needed for various applications, notably in the field of urban hydrology. A way of dealing with this unmeasured small scale rainfall variability is to input stochastically downscaled rainfall fields to urban hydrological models and simulate not a single response for the studied catchment but an ensemble. In this paper we suggest to discuss a downscaling procedure for the rainfall field. It relies on the Universal Multifractals which have been extensively used to model and simulate geophysical fields extremely variable over a wide range of spatio-temporal scales such as rainfall. Here this standard framework of multiplicative cascades has been modified in a discrete case to better take into account the numerous zeros of the rainfall field (i.e. a pixel with no rainfall recorded). More precisely the zeros are introduced at each scale within the cascade process in a probabilistic scale invariant way. The downscaling suggested here consists in retrieving the scaling properties of the rainfall field on the available range of scales and stochastically continuing the underlying process below the scale of observation. Rainfall data coming from a dense network of 16 optical disdrometers (Particle Size and Velocity, PARSIVEL, 1st generation) that was deployed for 16 month over an area of approximately 1 km2 in the campus of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland) will be used to validate this downscaling procedure. Preliminary results with a network of second generation PARSIVEL currently under construction in Ecole des Ponts ParisTech (France) will also be shown. The methodology implemented consists in downscaling a rainfall field with a resolution of 1 km and 5 min to a resolution comparable with the disdrometers' one (few tens of cm and 1 min). The variability among the generated "virtual" disdrometers is then compared with the observed one. The impact of these results on the comparisons commonly performed between radar and rain gauge / disdrometer rainfall data will finally be briefly discussed.


The manufacturing domain can be characterized by the concepts of product, process and resource. The coordination of humans, machines and materials is needed to attain a desired product by using knowledge, time, money and energy optimally. Business processes define such coordination. Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is an industry standard for modeling business processes. This standard is not being applied to the manufacturing domain so far. In this paper, we propose BPMN extensions to support process modeling in the manufacturing domain, especially the modeling of production processes. We motivate and justify our proposed extensions by an exemplary assembly process.


Across the developing world, churches often seek to shape members' public opinion and electoral behavior, yet we know little about which people are most likely to be influenced. Drawing from recent research on both authoritarian personality and moral foundations, I investigate the ways orientations towards hierarchy and authority shape responses to political influence in church. Two competing hypotheses present themselves. Authoritarians might be more likely to comply with religious authorities, or they might be less responsive if churches sway non-authoritarians towards the consistently conservative attitudes of authoritarians. Moreover, rigidity in cognitive style may make authoritarians less persuasible in general. Examining cross-national data from the 2012 AmericasBarometer and longitudinal data from Brazil's 2014 presidential election, I find that churches affect more strongly the opinions of non-authoritarians on issues related to social conformity. However, authoritarians are most likely to heed religious cues when attitudes and behaviors are not driven by social conformity.


The U.S. corn ethanol industry is a subsidized, high cost, trade protected, limited scale industry; unable to compete in free markets orto efficiently supply new fuel demands of clean air legislation. Lower cost, sugarcane ethanol from Latin America (Brazil) should be asupplementary source, especially for U.S. coastal markets. Counter trade-corn for ethanolwould be more beneficial to U.S. corn producers than domestic ethanol corn markets and would result in more efficient land use, less soil erosion, and less fossil fuel use. A variable producer subsidy should replace the current market subsidies and import tax policies, giving limited protection to the domestic ethanol industry while assuring adequate low-cost ethanol supplies through competitive imports.


We use Lagrangian measures, depicted by finite-time Lyapunov exponents, to characterize transport patterns of inertial pollutant particles formed in urban flows. Motivated by actual events we focus on flows in realistic urban geometry. Both deterministic and stochastic particle transport patterns have been identified, as inertial Lagrangian coherent structures. For the deterministic case, the organizing structures are well-defined and we extract them at different hours of a day to reveal the variability of coherent patterns. For the stochastic case, we use a random displacement model for fluid particles and derive the governing equation for inertial particles to examine the change in organizing structures due to "zeroth-order" random noise. We find that, (1) the Langevin equation for inertial particles can be reduced to a random displacement model; (2) using random noise based on inhomogeneous turbulence, whose diffusivity is derived from k − e models, major coherent structures survive to organize local f...


With the purpose of researching how the parameters such as style, pitch and rod length of the attach member impact the overall crane, the variation of the strength and stiffness in attach member. The theory of nonlinear big displacement is adopted to model the overall crane. And the model was considered in several working conditions,then the trends of the stress, axial force and the displacement are shown by Graphics and data. From above, a better style of the attach member can be chosen and this method which is shortening the distance between tower centerline and outer wall lengthening the rod of attach member would be helpful to the attach member program in engineering.


A horizontal two-dimensional finite element model is developed in order to estimate the process of scour around a large-scale cylinder due to waves. The present model differs from previous models in the sense that the wave model is based on an elliptic mild slope equation and the sediment transport induced by the steady streaming is considered. The current induced by the gradient of radiation stress is considered and calculated using a depth integrated shallow water equation. The contributions of the Lagrangian drift velocity to the scour is also considered in this model. The model is validated against a few cases where experimental data are available. The comparison of the calculation results with the experimental data indicates that the present numerical model predicts the scour around a large cylinder reasonably well. The effects of Keulegan–Capenter (KC) number, the grain size of sediments and the model scale on scour around a large cylinder are also investigated.


Normal 0 false false false EN-IE X-NONE X-NONE The paper will discuss best practice for the design and delivery of support for academic writing skills development. The paper also presents a case study of such support on an undergraduate, part-time degree programme at University College Dublin (UCD). Elton (2010) suggests that the approach to academic writing be discipline dependent and neither specialists in academic writing nor practising academics in a discipline can separately provide students with the necessary support to develop the ability to write. Three models of academic skills support are provided in the literature; bolt-on, build-on and build-up. These models provide a useful framework for conceptualising the different approaches to skills development (academic writing in this case). The 'bolt on' approach describes institutions that provide additional sessions to address academic writing (Wingate, 2006). The 'build-in' approach is where the provision of such support is embedded into the curriculum and usually occurs early in a student's studies. Finally, the 'build-up' approach was first suggested by Author and Author (2007) and takes the build-up approach a step further. In this approach, institutions provide supports embedded in the delivery of the curriculum and allow students to 'build-up' their academic writing skills, not only upon programme commencement, but throughout the duration of their studies. The paper reasserts a greater likelihood of success in developing academic writing skills where interventions are embedded within a broader framework of student support. Through an ongoing collaboration between programme support and teaching staff, academic writing skills interventions can be scheduled in a progressive manner throughout a degree.


Post-radiation changes were studied in 21 patients suffering from esophageal cancer who had undergone preoperative irradiation. The results of quantitative morphological analysis were compared with the data obtained from examination of 15 patients operated for tumors but unexposed to radiation. Tumor damage index proved to be 35.0% +/- 4. Mitotic index remained unchanged, while pathological mitoses in tumors increased four times after irradiation (62.0% +/- 5.8 as compared with 15.4% +/- +/- 4.4). They are mostly observed in the dispersion of chromosomes in metaphase. It is concluded that in order to adequately visualise radiation-induced damage to tumor, different morphological criteria should be used in its evaluation, depending on the length of post-irradiation period.


Personalized dialogue systems are an essential step toward better human-machine interaction. Existing personalized dialogue agents rely on properly designed conversational datasets, which are mostly monolingual (e.g., English), which greatly limits the usage of conversational agents in other languages. In this paper, we propose a multi-lingual extension of Persona-Chat, namely XPersona. Our dataset includes persona conversations in six different languages other than English for evaluating multilingual personalized agents. We experiment with both multilingual and cross-lingual trained baselines and evaluate them against monolingual and translation-pipeline models using both automatic and human evaluation. Experimental results show that the multilingual trained models outperform the translation pipeline and that they are on par with the monolingual models, with the advantage of having a single model across multiple languages. On the other hand, the state-of-the-art cross-lingual trained models achieve inferior performance to the other models, showing that cross-lingual conversation modeling is a challenging task. We hope that our dataset and baselines will accelerate research in multilingual dialogue systems.


Stream restoration efforts often aim at creating new unconstrained meandering channels without weirs and bank revetments. In reconstructed streams, the initial morphological response of the new streams is often rapid, until a dynamic equilibrium is reached. Here we report on a chute cutoff that occurred within 3 months after realization of a stream restoration project, caused by a plug bar that formed in response to a backwater effect. The temporal evolution of the morphology of both the new and the old channels was monitored over a period of nearly 8 months, including precutoff conditions. The observations can be separated into three stages. Stage 1 is the initial period leading to cutoff vulnerability, stage 2 is the actual cutoff, and stage 3 is the morphological adjustment in response to the cutoff. In stage 1, a plug bar was deposited in one of the channel bends. Hydrodynamic model results show the location of the plug bar coincides with a region where bed shear stress decreased in downstream direction due to backwater. Longitudinal channel bed profiles show that the channel slope decreased soon after channel reconstruction. Hence, sediment from upstream was available to form the plug bar. After the plug bar was deposited, an embayment formed in the floodplain at a location where the former channel was located (stage 2). The former channel was filled with sediment prior to channel construction. It is likely that the sediment at this location was less consolidated, and therefore, prone to erosion. The chute channel continued to incise and widen into the floodplain and, after 6 months, acted as the main channel, conveying the discharge during the majority of time (stage 3). The cutoff channel gradually continued to fill with sediment, from the moment the plug bar formed until the chute channel incised into the floodplain. Sedimentary successions of the deposited material show upward fining, which is in agreement with observations of chute cutoffs in rivers. Although the artificial setting limits the degree in which the observed processes can be projected on natural rivers, the observations prompt to investigate the role of backwater effects in natural chute cutoff initiation.


Wheelchair users are more than twice as likely to be obese compared to the general population. This is not surprising considering that it is challenging for wheelchair users to monitor their weight as well as maintain an active lifestyle, both of which are factors that strongly influence a person's ability to manage their weight. The E-scale is a weight monitoring system that was designed for wheelchair users to be able to weigh themselves frequently in their homes. It is comprised of a set of weight sensors that are placed under the legs of a bed or other piece of furniture and passively and continuously measures the weight on each bed leg. This dissertation focuses on the design evolution of the E-scale, and specifically on developing and testing two key aspects of the E-scale that are related to its commercial viability. To make sure that the E-scale can be used in the common scenario where beds are shared by a couple, algorithms for monitoring and differentiating the weight of multiple people using the same bed were developed. To test the usefulness of the E-scale, a weight loss study for wheelchair users was conducted to determine if the E-scale is a feasible technology to use along with a standard behavioral weight loss program adapted specifically for wheelchair users. The results of these two studies as well as a description of future work and preliminary discussions of other applications of the E-scale are reported.


ABSTRACT Estimating abundance for multiple populations is of fundamental importance to many ecological monitoring programs. Equally important is quantifying the spatial distribution and characterizing the migratory behavior of target populations within the study domain. To achieve these goals, we propose a Bayesian hierarchical multi-population multistate Jolly–Seber model that incorporates covariates. The model is proposed using a state-space framework and has several distinct advantages. First, multiple populations within the same study area can be modeled simultaneously. As a consequence, it is possible to achieve improved parameter estimation by "borrowing strength" across different populations. In many cases, such as our motivating example involving endangered species, this borrowing of strength is crucial, as there is relatively less information for one of the populations under consideration. Second, in addition to accommodating covariate information, we develop a computationally efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm that requires no tuning. Importantly, the model we propose allows us to draw inference on each population as well as on multiple populations simultaneously. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through a motivating example of estimating the spatial distribution and migration of hatchery and wild populations of the endangered pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus), using data from the Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Program on the Lower Missouri River. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


This report presents the findings of an effectiveness review carried out on Oxfam's response to the 2011/2012 food insecurity response in Chad that was undertaken through the application of Oxfam's Humanitarian Indicator Tool. Overall the response scored 64% and met or almost met eight of the 12 standards. This is marginally above the 60% cut-off point. Considerable efforts were made to ensure that the number of beneficiaries increased as the situation deteriorated, enabling the response to provide assistance to over 250,000 people. Throughout, the programme demonstrated a high degree of attention to conflict sensitivity and ensured that women's rights were systematically included in all projects and activities. However, the programme under-utilized Sphere as a point of reference for technical quality, falling short of meeting Sphere standards, particularly in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).


The problem of air pollution is one of the most important problems faced by the world in the context of large urban agglomerations. Numerous activities are being undertaken all over the world to both counteract existing pollution and prevent the emergence of another one. Manufacturing is one of the activities that have a significant negative impact on the natural environment. Starting from the production itself, through the life of vehicles, and ending with the problems of storage and recycling of used means of transport, at every stage there are negative effects on the environment. There is no doubt that in all types of pro-ecological activities, it may be extremely important to predict the future state based on various determinants occurring in the analysed or preceding period of time. To this end, various types of mathematical and statistical tools are being used. Recently, you can also notice interest in all types of methods aided by artificial intelligence. Such methods include artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, or evolutionary algorithms. The article presents the problems of environmental pollution as a result of the development of motorization. The main components of exhaust gases from car engines are discussed, which are particularly harmful to the natural environment. Methods for reducing the emission of pollutants emitted from internal combustion engines are described, and the monitoring of hazards related to air pollution is discussed. The possibilities of using artificial neural networks as a tool for modelling the state of air pollution have also been discussed.


The announcement of a plan to cut the U.S. federal budget deficit through the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation provides an excellent opportunity to examine the influence of expectations on economic behavior. This paper presents a small forward-looking macroeconomic model and simulates the effects of the announcement of a multistaged reduction in the fiscal deficit. Open and closed economy specifications are compared and contrasted to highlight the importance of international transmission mechanisms in macroeconomic adjustment. The results of the simulations are compared with the stylized facts of the U.S. macroeconomy over the period surrounding the passage of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings legislation.


Local structure such as context-specific independence (CSI) has received much attention in the probabilistic graphical model (PGM) literature, as it facilitates the modeling of large complex systems, as well as for reasoning with them. In this paper, we provide a new perspective on how to learn CSIs from data. We propose to first learn a functional and parameterized representation of a conditional probability table (CPT), such as a neural network. Next, we quantize this continuous function, into an arithmetic circuit representation that facilitates efficient inference. In the first step, we can leverage the many powerful tools that have been developed in the machine learning literature. In the second step, we exploit more recently-developed analytic tools from explainable AI, for the purposes of learning CSIs. Finally, we contrast our approach, empirically and conceptually, with more traditional variable-splitting approaches, that search for CSIs more explicitly.


At last reading, the administration's national health care reform proposals contained not one reference to social work. It appears that the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) had substantial impact on framing the provisions to include universal coverage, substance abuse and mental health benefits, and reimbursement of nonphysician providers. Nevertheless, when the proposals were sent to Capitol Hill, they did not include any specific reference to social workers as essential health care providers. Administration officials reportedly said this was an oversight. Why would this omission of social work matter? First, if there is not necessarily a need for social workers in health care--the sector that employs more social workers than any other--then there will not necessarily be reimbursement for social work services, and there will not necessarily be jobs. Second, if there is not necessarily a need for social workers, there will not be federal training dollars. It is those dollars that ensure access to education for people of varied race and ethnicity and from disadvantaged backgrounds. Third, if there is not necessarily a need for social workers, there is not likely to be a need for the social work perspective in health research. So much for the recent promise to increase social work research support at the federal level. Finally and foremost, if there is not necessarily a need for social workers in health care, there is not necessarily going to be health care, as contrasted with medical care. There is not necessarily going to be outreach that goes beyond a poster or a mailing, nor assessments that inquire what clients themselves believe is wrong or "what needs fixing" to maintain their health (Pinderhughes, 1989). If social work employment or education or research or service programs matter to social workers, then health care reform legislation matters. Moreover, health care reform is only one prominent example of the fundamental difference that federal legislation makes on a professional as well as a very personal level. The omission of social work in health care reform is likely to be corrected through the vigorous legislative action of NASW. This situation, however, demonstrates how important vigorous action is. Arm's-Length Politics Since social work's beginnings, social workers have attempted to influence the political process (Brieland, 1982; Ginsberg, 1988; Wolk, 1981). Nevertheless, virtually all articles on social work and politics admonish social workers to give more precedence to political activity. Abraham Ribicoff, then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, wrote in 1962, "Social workers have been inconspicuous for much too long around the committee rooms, state legislatures, and halls of Congress. . . . You have not wielded your influence to anywhere near the degree your unique fund of knowledge and your skill at working with people might warrant". Authors on the topic of legislative advocacy--lobbying--frequently find it necessary to adopt a tone of persuasion toward fellow social workers. If these authors have diagnosed the situation correctly, some social workers need to be convinced that lobbying is desirable and necessary. Haynes and Mickelson (1986), for example, stated, "It is our contention that lobbying is a legitimate, fundamental, and powerful practice in a pluralistic society, and that social workers and their clients will continue to lose politically if they do not enter the arena. . . . Because our political structure is both representative and pluralistic, it requires and even demands that some individuals speak on behalf of others". Mahaffey (1972), in a classic article on lobbying and social work, sought to enlarge social workers' views of the critical importance of engaging in the political process "to expand social and rehabilitation services for those who are powerless, discriminated against, shackled by circumstances, and deprived of opportunities to achieve their maximum individual potential". …


Sports authorities fear that a new form of doping called gene doping, based on the misuse of gene therapy, represents an emerging important problem and so far no methods are available for detecting it. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has included since 2003 for the first time gene doping methods in the "Prohibited List of Substances and Methods", thus detection of this new form of doping is challenging for analytical chemists. In this work, we apply affinity-based biosensors (ABBs), in particular DNA piezoelectric sensing, for detection of target DNA sequences selected as transgenosis markers. In this work, two sequences widely used in transgenosis experiments have been identified as markers: the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) gene and the promoter of Cytomegalovirus (CMV). The biosensors are characterized in their analytical performances using synthetic oligonucleotides and amplified DNA obtained from purified plasmid used as a template. Finally they have been applied to transgenic human cell cultures (human embryonic kidney HEK-EGFP), transformed with the same plasmid and carrying the target markers. This represents the closest human real matrix available for our transgenes.


Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are typically associated with schizophrenia but also occur in individuals without any need for care (nonclinical voice hearers [NCVHs]). Cognitive models of AVHs posit potential biases in source monitoring, top-down processes, or a failure to inhibit intrusive memories. However, research across clinical/nonclinical groups is limited, and the extent to which there may be continuity in cognitive mechanism across groups, as predicted by the psychosis-continuum hypothesis, is unclear. We report two studies in which voice hearers with psychosis (n = 31) and NCVH participants reporting regular spiritual voices (n = 26) completed a battery of cognitive tasks. Compared with non-voice-hearing groups (ns = 33 and 28), voice hearers with psychosis showed atypical performance on signal detection, dichotic listening, and memory-inhibition tasks but intact performance on the source-monitoring task. NCVH participants, however, showed only atypical signal detection, which suggests differences between clinical and nonclinical voice hearers potentially related to attentional control and inhibition. These findings suggest that at the level of cognition, continuum models of hallucinations may need to take into account continuity but also discontinuity between clinical and nonclinical groups.


Carbon nanotube used as the cathode material, the diode-type field emission display panel was developed with low-cost screen-printing method and precise photolithography process. The modified CNT field emitter was fabricated for improving the field emission characteristic, and the detailed fabrication process was also presented. The indium-tin-oxide film on the cathode back-plane was divided to form the CNT cathode electrode, and the insulation slurry was screen-printed to form the insulation layer. Field emission characteristic of whole display device was measured. The sealed field emission display panel showed good emission properties and high display image brightness.


Software systems that learn from data with machine learning (ML) are used in critical decision-making processes. Unfortunately, real-world experience shows that the pipelines for data preparation, feature encoding and model training in ML systems are often brittle with respect to their input data. As a consequence, data scientists have to run different kinds of data centric what-if analyses to evaluate the robustness and reliability of such pipelines, e.g., with respect to data errors or preprocessing techniques. These what-if analyses follow a common pattern: they take an existing ML pipeline, create a pipeline variant by introducing a small change, and execute this pipeline variant to see how the change impacts the pipeline's output score. The application of existing analysis techniques to ML pipelines is technically challenging as they are hard to integrate into existing pipeline code and their execution introduces large overheads due to repeated work. We propose mlwhatif to address these integration and efficiency challenges for data-centric what-if analyses on ML pipelines. mlwhatif enables data scientists to declaratively specify what-if analyses for an ML pipeline, and to automatically generate, optimize and execute the required pipeline variants. Our approach employs pipeline patches to specify changes to the data, operators and models of a pipeline. Based on these patches, we define a multi-query optimizer for efficiently executing the resulting pipeline variants jointly, with four subsumption-based optimization rules. Subsequently, we detail how to implement the pipeline variant generation and optimizer of mlwhatif. For that, we instrument native ML pipelines written in Python to extract dataflow plans with re-executable operators. We experimentally evaluate mlwhatif, and find that its speedup scales linearly with the number of pipeline variants in applicable cases, and is invariant to the input data size. In end-to-end experiments with four analyses on more than 60 pipelines, we show speedups of up to 13x compared to sequential execution, and find that the speedup is invariant to the model and featurization in the pipeline. Furthermore, we confirm the low instrumentation overhead of mlwhatif.


Phenotypically plastic changes in response to variation in perceived predation risk are widespread, but little is known about if and how social environment modulates induced responses to predation risk. We investigated the influence of perceived predation risk (i.e. chemical cues from a predator) and social environment (i.e. one, two or 20 individuals reared together) on three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) morphology in a factorial common garden experiment. We found that exposure to chemical cues from potential predators did not influence growth or body condition or induce more robust morphological defences (i.e. lateral plate numbers and dorsal spine lengths). However, sticklebacks exposed to predator cues developed longer caudal peduncles and larger eyes as compared with fish from the control treatment. As these responses may improve sticklebacks' ability to avoid piscine predation, they might be adaptive. Social environment/density also influenced expression of some traits, but these effects were independent of predation-risk treatment effects. In general, these results suggest that apart from the classic morphological defence structures, which appear mostly constitutive, three-spined sticklebacks are capable of expressing potentially adaptive morphological responses to chemical cues from potential predators.


In recent years, pastoralist settlement around Sibiloi National Park in Kenya has increased illegal grazing within the park's boundaries. This issue stems from a myriad of causes, such as; food aid, sedentism, better access to healthcare, lack of grazing land, increase in number of droughts and increase in number of livestock head. The region has a significant lack of research on the topic and a systems perspective will be constructed in this research paper. The systems perspective will be constructed with the use of past literature and interviews answered by those who live in the East Turkana region. Findings have found that sedentism has been made popular due to foreign aid that has poured into the region. This sedentism has created conflict with competing tribes due to settlements being created near tribal boundaries. Sedentism has also contaminated water sources and overgrazed grasslands. Seasonal movements have also changed due to sedentism, and tribal authority has decayed. Foreign aid has helped with the increasing population of the Dassenach community, which is one of the largest pastoralist tribes in East Turkana. The size of livestock herds have also grown in number. These increases have pushed wildlife out from their native habitats thus diminishing their numbers within the park.


Irreversible sequels of some genetic diseases can be prevented by neonatal screening. The aim of this paper was to verify the prevalence of diseases diagnosed by the National Program of Neonatal Screening (PNTN) in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, between 2001 and 2006. This cross-sectional descriptive study included 20,529 newborn infants screened by that program. Out of those, 859 were re-examined, and 21 had the disease confirmed. Considering all screened newborn infants and the number of diagnostics per disease, the following disease prevalence was determine: phenylketonuria--1:20,529; congenital hypothyrodism--1:2,281; hemoglobinopahies--1:3,421; cystic fibrosis--1:10,264; and biotinidase deficiency--1:6,843. Understanding disease status and prevalence of newborns in a population allows the establishment and the improvement of public policies aimed at the children.


With the expansion of the sharing economy, growing urban traffic, and increasing environmental pollution, bike-sharing systems (BSSs) are developing rapidly all over the world. A major operational issue in BSS is to reposition the bikes over time such that enough bikes and open parking slots are available to users. Especially during peak hours, it is essential to stabilize BSS in use. To cope with the issue, this article proposes a new approach integrating multiobjective optimization and a weighting factor based on the shortage event types of each station. In addition, the multiobjective artificial bee colony algorithm is modified according to the features of this work to find optimal solutions. The proposed approach is applied to the real-life repositioning of a BSS during peak hours to verify its feasibility and effectiveness. Also, the algorithm is compared with other frequently used multiobjective algorithms. For the comparative study, convergence metric and spacing are adopted to further measure the algorithm performance. The scalability of the proposed approach in addressing the multiobjective repositioning problems during peak hours is also verified by multiple trials. Note to Practitioners—This work deals with bike repositioning in bike-sharing systems (BSSs) during peak hours, which has major significance in the efficient operation of such systems. It builds a multiobjective optimization model and solves it through a modified multiobjective artificial bee colony algorithm. The existing single-objective optimization methods fail to solve the concerned problem. This work can find the optimal routes of the repositioning vehicles along with the number of desired parked bikes of corresponding stations. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method is highly effective and can greatly and readily help decision-makers better manage the BSS of a practical size.


The present studies demonstrate two computerized approaches to examining the expression of depression on the Internet. Study 1 observed linguistic markers of depression in English and Spanish forums. English and Spanish posts by depressed (N=160) and non-depressed individuals (N=160) were collected from Internet forums using bulletin board systems (bbs). A computer program (LIWC2001) was used to compare linguistic categories across groups within the English and Spanish language. Study 2 analyzed the themes people use when talking about their depression in forums in English and Spanish. Posts by English speaking (N=404) and Spanish speaking depressed people (N=400) were collected from bbs. An automated inductive approach to content analysis was used to compare how the expression of depression varies across cultures. The results for Study 1 showed that linguistic cues previously associated with depression were found to be higher in depressed than in non-depressed posts in English and Spanish. Study 2 showed that depressed people who wrote in Spanish were more likely to mention relational concerns than depressed people who wrote in English, who were more likely to mention medicinal concerns. Implications for informational and support needs and concerns in psychotherapy vs. online support across cultures are addressed and discussed.


Abstract. We present the data reduction pipeline for CHARIS, a high-contrast integral-field spectrograph for the Subaru Telescope. The pipeline constructs a ramp from the raw reads using the measured nonlinear pixel response and reconstructs the data cube using one of three extraction algorithms: aperture photometry, optimal extraction, or χ2 fitting. We measure and apply both a detector flatfield and a lenslet flatfield and reconstruct the wavelength- and position-dependent lenslet point-spread function (PSF) from images taken with a tunable laser. We use these measured PSFs to implement a χ2-based extraction of the data cube, with typical residuals of ∼5% due to imperfect models of the undersampled lenslet PSFs. The full two-dimensional residual of the χ2 extraction allows us to model and remove correlated read noise, dramatically improving CHARIS's performance. The χ2 extraction produces a data cube that has been deconvolved with the line-spread function and never performs any interpolations of either the data or the individual lenslet spectra. The extracted data cube also includes uncertainties for each spatial and spectral measurement. CHARIS's software is parallelized, written in Python and Cython, and freely available on github with a separate documentation page. Astrometric and spectrophotometric calibrations of the data cubes and PSF subtraction will be treated in a forthcoming paper.


Traditional geometric scene analysis cannot attempt to address the understanding of human vision. Instead it adopts an algorithmic approach, concentrating on geometric model fitting. Human vision, however, is both quick and accurate but very little is known about how the recognition of objects is performed with such speed and efficiency. It is thought that there must be some process both for coding and storage which can account for these characteristics. In this thesis a more strict emulation of human vision, based on work derived from medical psychology and other fields, is proposed. Human beings must store perceptual information from which to make comparisons, derive structures and classify objects. It is widely thought by cognitive psychologists that some form of symbolic representation is inherent in this storage. Here a mathematical syntax is defined to perform this kind of symbolic description. The symbolic structures must be capable of manipulation and a set of operators is defined for this purpose. The early visual cortex and geniculate body are both inherently parallel in operation and simple in structure. A broadly connectionist emulation of this kind of structure is described, using independent computing elements, which can perform segmentation, re-colouring and generation of the base elements of the description syntax. Primal colour information is then collected by a second network which forms the visual topology, colouring and position information of areas in the image as well as a full description of the scene in terms of a more complex symbolic set. The idea of different visual contexts is introduced and a model is proposed for the accumulation of context rules. This model is then applied to a database of natural images.


We report here a fatal case of nosocomial pneumonia due to a multidrug-resistant (MDR) strain of Enterobacter cloacae, which was also resistant to carbapenems, in a patient with a diagnosis of Churg-Strauss syndrome. The microorganism was investigated for the presence of metallo- and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases. The strain produced two class 1 integrons carrying bla(VIM-1) and aadA2 gene cassettes located on chromosomal and plasmidic DNA, respectively, and a plasmid-encoded SHV-12 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase. Our results clearly demonstrate the transfer of this kind of resistance in E. cloacae with potentially serious clinical implications.


Background and Objectives Atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs) can be continuously detected by cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs); however, the predictors of clinically relevant AHREs are unclear. Methods This prospective multicenter study monitored 816 patients (median age 73 years, 40.4% male) without atrial fibrillation (AF) from September 2017 to July 2020. AHREs was defined as a programmed atrial detection rate >220 beats/min. The reference values of 6 minutes and 6 hours were set to analyze clinical implication of AHREs based on previously published data that the 6 minutes excluded most episodes of oversensing. Results During a median follow-up of 18 months (interquartile interval 9–26 months), AHREs with the longest durations of >15 seconds, >6 minutes, and >6 hours and clinically documented AF by electrocardiography were noted in 246 (30.1%), 112 (13.7%), 49 (6.0%), and 24 (2.9%) patients, respectively. Among patients developing AHREs >6 minutes, 102 (91.1%) of 112 patients were identified at the 6-month visit. Patients with AHREs >6 minutes had higher proportions of sick sinus syndrome, subjects with atrial premature beat >1% on Holter monitoring, and larger left atrium (LA) size than patients with AHREs ≤6 minutes. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that LA diameter >41 mm (odds ratio [OR], 2.08; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.25–3.45), and sick sinus syndrome (OR, 3.22; 95% CI, 1.91–5.43) were associated with AHREs >6 minutes. Conclusions In patients with LA diameter >41 mm, and sick sinus syndrome before CIEDs implantation is associated with risk of developing AHREs >6 minutes. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03303872


A new photonic microwave phase shifter that can realize the continuous 0°-360° phase shift with high output RF signal power is presented. It is based on controlling the phase of the two RF modulation sidebands of the phase modulated optical signals. The use of the two RF modulation sidebands, instead of the single sideband in most conventional phase shifters, has the advantage of high output RF signal power. The new photonic microwave phase shifter also has the ability to control the output RF signal amplitude. Experimental results are presented that verify the new concept.


Abstract Crystallographic (X-ray diffraction) and chemical (X-ray fluorescence and combustion analysis) investigations on bone microsamples (human iliac crest of 111 individuals aged 0-90 years) reveal that certain crystallographic and chemical parameters (lattice parameters, crystallinity, chemical compounds, biomineralic fraction...) are closely related to aging and type of tissue (corticalis and spongiosa). In juvenile bone [0-25y], the biomineralic fraction rises significantly, as does crystallinity and area of apatite (002)-reflection indicating a growth of crystal size. The second main age interval [25-50y] does not display statistically relevant variations with age. The third main age group [50-90y] is characterized by large chemical variations, probably due to overlapping effects of age and declining health.


When people engage in recreational activities in sensitive forest habitats, there can be unintended negative impacts on wildlife and forests. These include disturbance and displacement of wild game as well as damage to young plants (tree seedlings and saplings from ski or snowshoe compaction or direct physical damage from ski edges). These are just a few examples that highlight the need to manage the impact of recreationists with different measures in order to minimize the disturbance of game (especially red deer and roe deer) and the impairment of important object protective forests that this in turn causes. In Section 2 of this chapter, we describe the tourism, population, settlement area, economy, forestry and natural hazards in the GreenRisk4Alps Pilot Action Region (PAR) of Gries am Brenner and Vals in Tyrol, Austria. Section 3 provides an overview of the overarching initiative and integration forum, "Tyrolian mountains – experience together", which was initiated by the Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung (Office of the Tyrolean Provincial Government). We then provide a description of the exact workflow, the possible measures and other details on ski tour steering options. Ski tour steering measures in the Gries am Brenner and Vals PAR can be found in Section 3.4, followed by a critical review of the experiences in Section 4.


Research begins with a question that begs to be answered. The research question must be well articulated and specific. Once the research question is established, the methodology is chosen. Thus, it is the research question that determines the methodology. In the field of special education, many methodologies have been used to answer research questions. For example, Stoner et al. (2006c) used a single subject design to determine the effectiveness of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) for adults with intellectual disabilities. Quasi-experimental methodology may be the appropriate methodology for determining the effectiveness of intervention with a group of students. The effectiveness of two math curricula for students at risk was conducted by Woodward and Brown (2006) using quasi-experimental research. If the research question centers on attitudes or opinions of a large group of individuals, then quantitative research may be used. Brown, Welsh, Haegle Hill, and Cipko (2008) reported on preservice teacher attitudes about teaching students with learning disabilities (LD). However, if one wants to broaden and enhance understanding and to fully and deeply comprehend the perspectives of individuals, then qualitative methodology would be used. For example, through the use of qualitative methodology, two studies (Bailey, Parette, Stoner, Angell, & Carroll, 2006a; Bailey, Stoner, Parette, & Angell, 2006b) described the perspectives of members of individual education plan (IEP) teams and perspectives of family members regarding augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use in public schools. The findings of these studies (a) offered in-depth understanding of the process of obtaining AAC devices, (b) identified barriers and facilitators to AAC device use, and (c) provided strategies for effective use of AAC devices.


Antibody titers were measured in domestic or European ferret (Mustela putorius furo) jills vaccinated with modified-live canine distemper virus (CDV) vaccine and in their kits. The half-life of maternal antibody to CDV in ferrets was 9.43 days. Ferret kits should be vaccinated against CDV at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age.


The interaction between human and nature will cause many ecological impacts, such as declining environment quality. The relationship between inland and sea can not be separated each other. The inland damaged will affect coastal areas. Sedimentation in Watershed (DAS) make  ec ol ogi cal  changes , i t' s accordingly. It can greatly affect the socio-economic conditions of coastal communities. This situation leads the communities to develop strategies adaptation which finally change stratification system and social mobility. Keywords: coastal, sedimentation, social mobility, strategies adaptation, Watershed (DAS)


Structural analysis of structural parts with stiffness variation can be difficult. The stiffness variation of elements can be modelled by average values of cross-sectional and material parameters and applying the fine FE mesh. For elimination of mentioned disadvantages of classical finite element applications, a two-node nonlinear bar element with the continuous longitudinal variation of stiffness was developed in the first part of the monography. The stiffness matrices of the bar element were derived using full geometric nonlinear nonincremental formulation of equilibrium equations without any linearization. In the second part, the stiffness matrices of geometrically nonlinear beam finite element were derived using full nonlinear nonincremental formulation. The matrices of two-node plane beam element with symmetric cross-section and constant stiffness were formulated. The accuracy of new nonlinear elements were compared and assessed by numerical experiments against ANSYS analyses.


Several East European countries are embarking on major programmes both to expand their private sectors by encouraging new firm formation, and to transfer much of the existing state sector into private ownership. This paper studies the early experience of Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia in these areas, and reviews in detail their privatization plans for the three years 1991-3. All three countries envisage that about half the existing state sector will be in private hands by 1994 an extremely rapid rate of ownership change. While all countries will use a mixture of privatization methods, Hungary intends to sell its state firms, while the other two countries will also give away to the population a substantial fraction of the shares in the largest firms. Both approaches involve some very difficult problems. In the case of sales, it is uncertain how rapidly these can take place if a `reasonable' share price is to be maintained. In the case of giving away shares, which in practice requires some important institutional developments such as the creation of Privatization Funds (as suggested in Poland), the main difficulty is likely to be associated with the sheer administrative complexity of the privatization process.


The paper presents experimental results of thermal processes investigations in flow type metal hydride hydrogen storage and purification reactor RSP-8(I). Thermal processes in the reactor during hydrogen separation from carbon dioxide are studied. Optimal operation parameters for hydrogen purification and performance efficiency of metal hydride reactor RSP-8(I) are defined experimentally. Investigations of heat and mass transfer inside a vertical metal hydride reactor RSP-8(I) with 1 kg of LaFe0.1Mn0.3Ni4.8 show considerable non-uniformity of pressure inside the bed. If the reactor is charged from the top, the hydrogen pressure at the bottom is lower by 0.2-0.3 MPa, which results in earlier occurrence of heat and mass transfer crisis.


This memoir presents a self-portrait of Esrkine Caldwell's first 30 years as a writer, with special emphasis on his long and hard apprenticeship before he emerged as one of the most widely read and controversial writers of his time. All the while conveying the enormous amount of drive and dedication with which he pursued the writer's life, Caldwell tells of his struggles to find his own voice, his travels and his various jobs, which ranged from back-breaking common labour to much sought-after positions in radio, film and journalism. Such literary personages as Nathanael West, Maxwell Perkins and Margaret Mitchell appear in the book, as does Margaret Bourke-White, with whom he collaborated on a number of projects and whom he also married. Including a self-interview, it offers insights into Caldwell's imagination, his sources of inspiration and his writing habits, as well as his views on critics and reviewers, publishers and booksellers.


Pseudo-continuous arterial, spin labeling (pCASL) measurements were performed in 20 patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) to investigate whether cerebral blood flow (CBF) increases during the first 24 hours after a cerebrospinal fluid tap test (CSF TT). Five pCASL magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were performed. Two scans were performed before removal of 40 mL CSF, and the other three at 30 minutes, 4 hours, and 24 hours, respectively after the CSF TT. Thirteen different regions of interest (ROIs) were manually drawn on coregistered MR images. In patients with increased CBF in lateral and frontal white matter after the CSF TT, gait function improved more than it did in patients with decreased CBF in these regions. However, in the whole sample, there was no significant increase in CBF after CSF removal compared with baseline investigations. The repeatability of CBF measurements at baseline was high, with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.60 to 0.90 for different ROIs, but the median regional variability was in the range of 5% to 17%. Our results indicate that CBF in white matter close to the lateral ventricles plays a role in the reversibility of symptoms after CSF removal in patients with iNPH.


Using the Immunochip for genotyping, we identified 39 non-human leukocyte antigen (non-HLA) loci associated to celiac disease (CeD), an immune-mediated disease with a worldwide frequency of ∼1%. The most significant non-HLA signal mapped to the intronic region of 70 kb in the LPP gene. Our aim was to fine map and identify possible functional variants in the LPP locus. We performed a meta-analysis in a cohort of 25 169 individuals from six different populations previously genotyped using Immunochip. Imputation using data from the Genome of the Netherlands and 1000 Genomes projects, followed by meta-analysis, confirmed the strong association signal on the LPP locus (rs2030519, P = 1.79 × 10−49), without any novel associations. The conditional analysis on this top SNP-indicated association to a single common haplotype. By performing haplotype analyses in each population separately, as well as in a combined group of the four populations that reach the significant threshold after correction (P < 0.008), we narrowed down the CeD-associated region from 70 to 2.8 kb (P = 1.35 × 10−44). By intersecting regulatory data from the ENCODE project, we found a functional SNP, rs4686484 (P = 3.12 × 10−49), that maps to several B-cell enhancer elements and a highly conserved region. This SNP was also predicted to change the binding motif of the transcription factors IRF4, IRF11, Nkx2.7 and Nkx2.9, suggesting its role in transcriptional regulation. We later found significantly low levels of LPP mRNA in CeD biopsies compared with controls, thus our results suggest that rs4686484 is the functional variant in this locus, while LPP expression is decreased in CeD.


by Erik A. Borger Obesity is linked to many health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, affecting millions of Americans each year. These health problems are not found simply in adults, but are also starting to develop in children, affecting their physical and emotional well being at a younger age than ever. The lack of physical activity and poor diet must be addressed before it is too late, and too many children's lives have been negatively altered. The study focuses on the effects of exercise on childhood obesity, concentrating on elementary aged adolescents. The study focuses upon 27 students whom researchers administer exercise towards twice weekly, examine participant's body fat levels, and assess their overall BMI. The results were then be used for schools and researchers to gain knowledge from.