Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an evolving technology that decouples the control functionality from the underlying hardware managed by the control plane. The application plane supports programmers to develop numerous applications (such as networking, management, security, etc.) that can even be executed from remote locations. Northbound interface (NBI) bridges the control and application planes to execute the third-party applications business logic. Due to the software bugs in applications and existing vulnerabilities such as illegal function calling, resource exhaustion, lack of trust, and so on, NBIs are susceptible to different attacks. Based on the extensive literature review, we have identified that the researchers and academia have mainly focused on the security of the control plane, data plane, and southbound interface (SBI). NBI, in comparison, has received far less attention. In this article, the security of the least explored, but a critical component of the SDN architecture, i.e., NBI, is analyzed. The article provides a brief overview of SDN, followed by a detailed discussion on the categories of NBI, vulnerabilities of NBI, and threats posed by malicious applications to NBI. Efforts of the researchers to counter malicious applications and NBI issues are then discussed in detail. The standardization efforts for the single acceptable NBI and security requirements of SDN by Open Networking Foundation (ONF) are also presented. The article concludes with the future research directions for the security of a single acceptable NBI.


This volume covers the language situation in Fiji, The Philippines and Vanuatu explaining the linguistic diversity, the historical and political contexts and the current language situation, including language-in-education planning, the role of the media, the role of religion, and the roles of non-indigenous languages. The authors are indigenous and/or have been participants in the language planning context. Fiji and Vanuatu are not well represented in the international language policy/planning literature, while the section on the Philippines draws together the published literature in this area. The purpose of the volumes in this series is to present up-to-date information on polities that are not well-known to researchers in the field. A longer range purpose is to collect comparable information on as many polities as possible in order to facilitate the development of a richer theory to guide language policy and planning in other polities that undertake the development of a national policy on languages. This volume is part of an areal series which is committed to providing descriptions of language planning and policy in countries around the world.


Purpose

Brand origin (BO) has been suggested as an important determinant of brand evaluation and purchase intention. However, previous studies have indicated that consumers have limited knowledge and ability to recognize national origin of brands. The purpose of this paper is to assess brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention in the Indonesian laptop market.

Design/methodology/approach

A convenient sample of 195 people in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta participated in the survey. They were given a list of 18 laptop brands (four local and 14 foreign brands) and were asked to identify their actual national origins.

Findings

The study found that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly recognize a true BO. This limited ability also has contributed to the low BORA scores for both local and foreign brands. Brand evaluation was found to be positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the current study could only find partial supports for the relationship between BORA scores and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention.

Practical implications

Many Indonesian consumers are unaware of the laptops' BO, whether it is foreign or local. Companies need to inform, educate, and/or remind consumers of their brand's true origin and avoid being associated with a weaker country image. Furthermore, despite all four Indonesian laptop brand names seem to use non-Indonesian names, only one brand gains a slightly better brand evaluation from favorable misclassification. It may suggest that the effectiveness of foreign branding strategy in the Indonesian laptop market is debatable.

Originality/value

This is one of the few studies examining BORA in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and the largest laptop market in Southeast Asia.


To mitigate the problems of depleting and soaring price of fossil fuels, the production and use of renewable energy have been vigorously promoted. In Europe, the role of biologically-derived fuels and in particular biodiesel is gradually increasing in prominent. Rapeseed biodiesel is the most widely produced in Europe. As a consequence, enormous amount of by-products from production processes are being generated. Current strategies for managing these by-products (mainly rapeseed meal and crude glycerol) seem not to be economically sustainable. More efficient utilisation could add more value to the production chain which in turn would raise the competitiveness of biodiesel compared to petro-diesel. The aim of the project reported in this thesis was to study the feasibility of producing a value added product, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), from by-products generated from rapeseed biodiesel production processes as well as to investigate the effects of methanol, a major impurity in crude glycerol, on growth of Cupriavidus necator, a PHB-producing micro-organism.The preliminary study of C. necator growth in crude glycerol based media revealed that optimum concentration of crude glycerol was in a range 15-25 g/L. It was also found that slight changes in the carbon to nitrogen ratio of the feedstock did not significantly affect the growth while methanol at concentrations beyond 10 g/L did. A model based on a saturation equation was developed and used to successfully predict the inhibition of growth by methanol. From the developed model, mechanisms of the inhibition were proposed. The model could also be used to predict satisfactorily growth or productivity rates in other systems containing short-chain alcohols. The growth in solutions derived from rapeseed meal (designated as hydrolysate) via solid-state fermentation by Aspergillus oryzae followed by hydrolysis of the fermented solids was also studied. The biomass production was found to increase as a function of initial free amino nitrogen (FAN) concentration presented in the hydrolysate. However, at higher initial FAN concentrations, a lower conversion of nitrogen to biomass was observed. PHB production was studied using a feedstock which was a mixture of the hydrolysate and crude glycerol. Total biomass concentration reached 28.8 g/L at 120 h with 86% PHB content. PHB productivity and PHB yield on glycerol were 0.21 g/L?h and 0.32 g/g respectively. These results were comparable with those obtained when pure glycerol and synthetic crude glycerol were used, suggesting that, technically, the use of the generic rapeseed- and crude glycerol-based feedstock to produce PHB is feasible.Overall, the feasibility of producing PHB from rapeseed biodiesel by-products has been demonstrated. The satisfactory result leads to the more important outlook that the generic feedstock derived from rapeseed biodiesel by-products has the potential to be used to produce a wide range of products depending on the micro-organism used. Further development of this process to improve nutrient production efficiency as well as product yields and subsequent integration of the process into the biodiesel production process could well be an important contribution in the development of a sustainable biodiesel industry.


Background: Laparoscopic cyst excision and Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy is gaining popularity as a treatment for choledochal cyst in children. The aim of this study is to determine the feasible and safe of the laparoscopic excision with Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy, and evaluate the short-term outcomes after treatment for children with choledochal cyst.Methods: A prospectively of 51 consecutive pediatric patients undergoing laparoscopic choledochal cyst excision and Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy performed by one surgeon cysts at Hue Central Hospital from June 2012 to December 2017 was studied.Results: The mean operative time was 214.7±67.95 minutes (range, 100~360 minutes), including the time for intraoperative cholangiography. There were two children requiring blood transfusion. Time to first flatus was 40.35±28.55 hours in average. The mean time to drain removal was 2.89±1.02 days. Mean postoperative hospital stay was 9.31±3.43 days. 6 out of 51 cases having early complications, including 2 cases of pancreatitis and 4 cases of bile leakage. Most of cases (90.5%) were classified as good after 10 days to 3 months of follow-up.Conclusions: Laparoscopic choledochal cyst excision and Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy was feasible and safe in children. The short-term outcomes were good in most cases.


Micro-level studies using individual and household data have shown that residential location choices are influenced by neighbourhood ethnic composition. Using three conurbation samples in the Netherlands - Amsterdam metropolitan area, Rotterdam-The Hague metropolitan area, and the countrys largest conurbation, the Randstad metropolitan area - this paper analyses the evolution of neighbourhood ethnic composition as a social interaction outcome of disaggregated household behaviour. The potential tipping point in neighbourhood ethnic composition, beyond which white flight or the departure of native or advantaged households occurs, is tested. The share in neighbourhood population of native Dutch and western minority did not exhibit the hypothesised tipping behaviour in its growth rate with respect to initial share of non-western minority. This paper argues that the large social housing sector, centralised tax regime, and strong regulatory role of the state in housing and urban planning, are the main explanatory factors for the relative constancy in Dutch neighbourhood ethnic composition.


In this thesis we explore the problem of detection of research subdisciplines of a chosen science, based only on the data about citing papers from a chosen batch of papers relevant to the selected science. We directed our attention to the field of Psychology. It is an interesting scientific discipline, with variety of research topics and numerous scientific publications throughout the years.

Due to lack of freely accessible centralized database of psychological papers and their relevant citations, the first step of our thesis was collection of papers and their applicable citations. Data was presented in form of a citation network. Citation networks are acyclic directed information networks, where the structure of the network reflects the structure of the information stored in the network vertices. The process of differentiation of research disciplines in the network was performed by applying a state-of-the-art algorithm for community detection. Our choice was the Louvain method, known for its simplicity, effectiveness and speed.

Part of the mechanism for rating the detected communities was to name them and examine their connections. Due to the vast quantity of available data and the unfamiliarity with the psychological field, we named the communities based on the measures for cosine similarity between our initially collected psychological papers and the relevant texts for each of the APA divisions of Psychology.

Results obtained by the network analysis and the method for community detection are positive. However, the nature of data collection and the influence of our subjective judgment for community naming offer lots of opportunities for further improvement.


Values are an important concept in marketing because they comprise part of peoples' identity and can thus help marketers separate and target different audiences. Unsurprisingly, places and their marketing initiatives increasingly try to appeal to (potential) residents' identity by communicating core values. While the notion of value congruence is not novel, most empirical methods in marketing to date only account for the degree rather than the level of congruence. To address this issue, the present article utilizes polynomial regression and response surface methodology (Edwards & Parry, 1993) in the context of place marketing. Accordingly, the first study shows that the perceived congruence of residents' own values and the values of stereotypical city inhabitants significantly affect residents' feelings about their own cities (N = 1257), but with different effects for different values and levels of congruence. This finding holds not only for popular target groups such as the "creative class" but also across all groups. The second study (N = 449) shows that city slogans can effectively communicate specific values and that value congruence leads to a more positive evaluation of the city brand. Finally, the article discusses the benefits of differentiating between levels of congruence both in marketing research in general, and place brand management in particular.


Recent years have seen a push towards the separation of the roles of CEO and chairperson of the board. While many companies still maintain a combined CEO-Chair role, investors consistently express their concern that the dual CEO-Chair position jeopardizes the independence and effectiveness of the board. Yet, while investors and academic research have focused on one channel of achieving such separation - through the appointment of an independent director as chair - a second channel has been left relatively unexplored. In fact, in many cases, as this Article documents, the separation of CEO-Chair has occurred through a different channel: the current CEO-Chair steps down as CEO while remaining as the chair of the board, and a new CEO is appointed. This is what the Article terms as the "successor CEO" phenomenon. Acknowledging the significant number of companies with such a structure in corporate America raises several policy questions. What are the corporate governance and operational benefits and drawbacks that the successor CEO route presents? How should investors treat companies that have separated the CEO-Chair roles, but have done so through the successor CEO route? This Article explores these questions, providing detailed data regarding these companies and the chairs of their boards. The Article finds that companies with a successor CEO structure often avoid the appointment of a lead independent director, and in some cases even declare their ex-CEO chair as independent. In addition, their ex-CEO chairs are longer tenured and older compared to other chairs and they often appoint their successors from within. Recognizing that companies with a successor CEO structure may pose specific governance concerns based on the key findings regarding successor CEO structures, the Article then offers several policy recommendations.


A MATRIX representation which is particularly useful for the linear analysis of circuits with time-varying parameters will be given and will be applied to the case of a variable capacitance transmission line. The line will first be treated on the assumption that only a signal and a pump frequency (2?signal = ?pump) are important, and the conditions which should be satisfied by the respective propagation constants if gain is to be obtained will be presented. If the line is assumed capable of propagating combination frequencies at a velocity close to that of the pump and signal, then the results may be drastically modified. In particular, we will consider the effect of the combination frequency ?signal+?pump. Also treated will be the case where all combination frequencies are allowed to propagate along a dispersionless line.


Jesus Christ Superstar (JCS) by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice first debuted as a staged musical in 1971, and was turned into a film production in 1973. In 2000 Gale Edwards and Nick Morris directed a second film adaptation. On Easter Sunday 2018, JCS, directed by David Levaux and Alex Rudzinki, was broadcasted on NBC as a live musical television special. Each of these three productions incorporates different configurations of interracial intimacy among the characters of Judas, Jesus, and Mary. These different characterizations and configurations of race construction produce differing commentaries on race and interracial relations. Despite the emergent scholarship of critical race theory in theater and film studies, there is surprisingly little literature on the configurations of interracial intimacies in JCS. In this thesis, I draw on critical race theory and gender studies to explore how race inflects representations of intimacy in JCS, focusing on the characterization of Judas across these productions. As I critically compare how Judas relates to Jesus and Mary, I observe how portrayals of intimacy produce implicit racial constructions that reveal repressive subjectivity formation narratives of the Euro-American imaginary.


This study aimed at explaining the role of leadership in enhancing the independence and the sustainability of private course institution. This study employed a phenomenology research design to explore the leadership of Art House "Windyas Club" institution. Art House "Windyas Club" was a private course institution teaching children art, painting and coloring, located in Sukun Subdistrict of Malang City. The institution has been running independently for more than 13 years. The data were collected through deep interview, observation and documentation. An inductive analysis model used as the analysis technique. The result of this study shows that: (1) independence is regarded as an the result of deep interpretation of life goals and efforts in life and the manifestation of appreciation upon certain efforts in life (2) leaders maintain the independence and the sustainability of the institution by applying a servant leadership which includes: (1) as the creator or conceiver, in which leaders should create innovation and design any program; (2) as the mediator, in which leaders should act as the resource linker, linking the institution with stakeholders to manage the institution; (3) as the servant in which leaders should be willing to directly provide services for the clients; (4) as a role model, in which leaders are required to share positive values to all of the staffs and teachers including the values of sincerity, prayers, hard work, creativity, good deeds, and gratitude.


This paper estimates how much additional work capacity there might be among men and women aged between 55 and 74 in the United Kingdom, given their health, and how this has evolved over the last decade. The objective is not to suggest how much older people should work but rather to shed light on how much ill-health (as opposed to other constraints and preferences) constrains older individuals' ability to work. We present two alternative methods, both of which rely on constructing a 'counterfactual' employment rate for older people based on the behaviour of other similarly healthy individuals. Both methods suggest that there is significant additional capacity to work among older men and women, but that this has been declining over recent years for women (and possibly also for men). This latter finding suggests that the increase in employment rates among older people seen over the last decade are more rapid than would have been expected based on the improvements seen in health alone.


Abstract It is well-known that an incomplete two-fluid model (TFM) leads to imaginary roots of the characteristic polynomial, thus rendering the model ill-posed. A common approach to fix this problem has been to introduce sufficient numerical/artificial diffusion or nonphysical hyperbolizing terms to stabilize the model. The disadvantage of this approach is that the physical instabilities that can be accurately predicted by the TFM either get severely dampened or disappear entirely. The preferred alternative is to introduce appropriate physics that may stabilize the TFM at short wavelengths while preserving the physical long-wavelength instabilities. For instance, in near-horizontal stratified flows, the appropriate physical mechanism is surface tension. However, it is not apparent what such a mechanism should be in dispersed bubbly flows. Researchers in the past have demonstrated that the inclusion of the momentum transfer due to interfacial pressure along with virtual mass force makes the model conditionally well-posed up to a gas volume fraction of 26%. However, in practice, one may observe bubbly flows having gas concentrations beyond this theoretical limit. Hence, it is important to make the behavior of the TFM well-posed for the entire range of gas volume fractions that is physically permissible. In this paper, the often-neglected phenomenon of bubble collisions is considered. The colliding bubbles generate a dispersed-phase pressure that is resistive to increased compaction. The inclusion of bubble pressure in the TFM renders the model well-posed up to the maximum packing limit. Furthermore, it is also shown that the collision force is necessary to predict the wave propagation velocities for bubbly flows over the entire range of void fractions observed in reality. Comparisons are made with the data, and a reasonable agreement is seen. Finally, it is demonstrated with computational fluid dynamics calculations that the addition of appropriate physical mechanisms (i.e., interfacial pressure and collision) makes the multidimensional TFM well-posed.


Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to explore methods for identifying and managing library's intellectual capital resources within library networks. The analysis is further focusing on the phenomenon of libraries' competition and cooperation in the light of intellectual capital theoretical perspective. Design/methodology/approach: Library's intellectual capital assets/resources are approached through known identification methods, and a distinction between resources and assets is taking place. The categorization of the intellectual capital resources/assets includes human, organizational and relational capital categories. The significant role of non-tangible assets/resources is identified when studying relationships among libraries as well as among libraries and other organizations within networks. Findings: A framework is proposed for understanding the combinations of strong, moderate and weak scenarios of library cooperation and competition in support of intellectual capital assets/resources. Originality/value: The results from this research are conceptually linked to individual library performance, to the formation of libraries' networks and to the maintenance of those that already exist. The intellectual capital resources can be further examined and analyzed on the basis of their effect on value creation for different types of libraries.


BACKGROUND: The immediate effect of aortic valve replacement (AVR) for aortic stenosis on perioperative myocardial function is unclear. Left ventricular (LV) function may be impaired by cardioplegia-induced myocardial arrest and ischemia-reperfusion injury, especially in patients with LV hypertrophy. Alternatively, LV function may improve when afterload is reduced after AVR. The right ventricle (RV), however, experiences cardioplegic arrest without benefiting from improved loading conditions. Which of these effects on myocardial function dominate in patients undergoing AVR for aortic stenosis has not been thoroughly explored. Our primary objective is thus to characterize the effect of intraoperative events on LV function during AVR using echocardiographic measures of myocardial deformation. Second, we evaluated RV function. METHODS: In this supplementary analysis of 100 patients enrolled in a clinical trial (NCT01187329), 97 patients underwent AVR for aortic stenosis. Of these patients, 95 had a standardized intraoperative transesophageal echocardiographic examination of systolic and diastolic function performed before surgical incision and repeated after chest closure. Echocardiographic images were analyzed off-line for global longitudinal myocardial strain and strain rate using 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography. Myocardial deformation assessed at the beginning of surgery was compared with the end of surgery using paired t tests corrected for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: LV volumes and arterial blood pressure decreased, and heart rate increased at the end of surgery. Echocardiographic images were acceptable for analysis in 72 patients for LV strain, 67 for LV strain rate, and 54 for RV strain and strain rate. In 72 patients with LV strain images, 9 patients required epinephrine, 22 required norepinephrine, and 2 required both at the end of surgery. LV strain did not change at the end of surgery compared with the beginning of surgery (difference: 0.7 [97.6% confidence interval, −0.2 to 1.5]%; P = 0.07), whereas LV systolic strain rate improved (became more negative) (−0.3 [−0.4 to −0.2] s−1; P < 0.001). In contrast, RV systolic strain worsened (became less negative) at the end of surgery (difference: 4.6 [3.1 to 6.0]%; P < 0.001) although RV systolic strain rate was unchanged (0.0 [97.6% confidence interval, −0.1 to 0.1]; P = 0.83). CONCLUSIONS: LV function improved after replacement of a stenotic aortic valve demonstrated by improved longitudinal strain rate. In contrast, RV function, assessed by longitudinal strain, was reduced.


We analyzed the M wave and torque after repetitive activation and recovery of the human soleus muscle in individuals with spinal cord injury. Fifteen individuals with complete paralysis had the tibial nerve activated for 330 ms every second with a 20‐Hz train. The M wave and torque were analyzed before fatigue, immediately after fatigue, and during recovery. The torque and three M‐wave measurements (amplitude, duration, median frequency) changed significantly after fatigue in the chronic group, but the M‐wave area was not changed. The M wave was completely recovered after 5 min of rest, even though the torque remained depressed during recovery. The M‐wave changes appeared to contribute minimally to the reduced torque in individuals with chronic paralysis. The disassociation in the M‐wave–torque relationship during fatigue and recovery suggests, that electrical stimulation under electromyography control is not an ideal method to optimize torque in paralyzed muscle. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 21:776–787, 1998.


Each of the multicolored eyespots (ocelli) on the peacock's (Pavo cristatus) train is a complex structure with a purple-black center surrounded by concentric blue-green and bronze-gold regions. To investigate the influence of all 3 of these colors on male mating success, we used a physiological model of peafowl vision to quantify those colors as females would perceive them during male courtship displays. Males display at about 45° to the right of the sun's azimuth (on average) with the female directly in front, so we investigated how colors would be perceived when illuminated at 30°, 45°, and 60° to the right of a female observer. We studied 34 males displaying at leks in 3 feral populations and quantified their copulation success and the colors of their eyespots. Eyespot coloration explained half of the observed variation in peacock mating success, with the hue and iridescence of the blue-green patch being the most important color variables. When we experimentally masked ocelli on 9 males, their copulation success declined almost to 0, supporting the idea that the eyespots are a major focus of female attention and not a trait that is simply correlated with something else that influences female choice. Thus, our study shows that the blue-green eyespot color overwhelmingly influences peacock mating success. The influence of the other eyespot colors on male success is minimal at best, raising questions about their function.


Several polycations added to the luminal solution were found to inhibit the vasopressin (ADH)-induced water flow in toad urinary bladder but not the ADH-induced increase in sodium transport or in urea permeability. Ultrastructural studies were conducted to evaluate the uptake of cationized ferritin. It was found that endocytosis of cationized ferritin by luminal cells was strikingly enhanced on exposure to ADH; this increased endocytosis was concomitant with inhibition of transepithelial ADH-induced water flow. Various maneuvers preventing endocytosis were also found to counteract the polycation-induced inhibition of the ADH effect. It is suggested that polycations are endocytosed in vesicles whose walls contain the water channels but not the urea or sodium channels.


: Guinea pig experiments making use of spectrofluorometry have revealed reduced level of Schiff's bases in skin biopsy specimens obtained from foci of allergic contact dermatitis induced by 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Iron sulfate electrophoresis resulted in a decrease of the sensitization and of the allergic contact dermatitis intensity, as well as in enhancement of lipid peroxidation in the skin. These data permit a supposition that reduction of lipid peroxidation is one of the pathogenetic mechanisms of delayed type hypersensitivity, and that lipid peroxidation enhancement in the skin by iron sulfate electrophoresis is one of the possible mechanisms of suppressing allergic contact dermatitis.


Most of the ion implanter is large scale, high acceleration voltage and expensive. For research and development, such a huge implanter is not required. Our motivation is to make desktop type ion implanter for SiC device. We report the fabrication of a compact 100 kV ion implanter. In order to miniaturize the equipment, an ion source, an accelerator tube and a main chamber were vertically arranged. We implanted Argon (Ar) and Nitrogen (N) ions to 6H-SiC substrate and the implanted 6H-SiC substrates were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS). In this report, concept of desktop ion implanter, evaluation of implanted substrate and its device application are presented. In order to characterize capability, with using the newly made compact ion implanter, it was possible to make implantation on SiC to get amorphous layer suitable for deices.


Arylsulfatase A (ASA) belongs to the sulfatase family whose members carry a C(alpha)-formylglycine that is post-translationally generated by oxidation of a conserved cysteine or serine residue. The crystal structures of two arylsulfatases, ASA and ASB, and kinetic studies on ASA mutants led to different proposals for the catalytic mechanism in the hydrolysis of sulfate esters. The structures of two ASA mutants that lack the functional C(alpha)-formylglycine residue 69, in complex with a synthetic substrate, have been determined in order to unravel the reaction mechanism. The crystal structure of the inactive mutant C69A-ASA in complex with p-nitrocatechol sulfate (pNCS) mimics a reaction intermediate during sulfate ester hydrolysis by the active enzyme, without the covalent bond to the key side-chain FGly69. The structure shows that the side-chains of lysine 123, lysine 302, serine 150, histidine 229, the main-chain of the key residue 69 and the divalent cation in the active center are involved in sulfate binding. It is proposed that histidine 229 protonates the leaving alcoholate after hydrolysis.C69S-ASA is able to bind covalently to the substrate and hydrolyze it, but is unable to release the resulting sulfate. Nevertheless, the resulting sulfation is low. The structure of C69S-ASA shows the serine side-chain in a single conformation, turned away from the position a substrate occupies in the complex. This suggests that the double conformation observed in the structure of wild-type ASA is more likely to correspond to a formylglycine hydrate than to a twofold disordered aldehyde oxo group, and accounts for the relative inertness of the C69S-ASA mutant. In the C69S-ASA-pNCS complex, the substrate occupies the same position as in the C69A-ASA-pNCS complex, which corresponds to the non-covalently bonded substrate. Based on the structural data, a detailed mechanism for sulfate ester cleavage is proposed, involving an aldehyde hydrate as the functional group.


When students experience difficulty with their coursework, they often utilize strategies such as rereading a text more slowly, organizing class notes, reviewing previous examples, or searching for information available on the Internet. If these efforts are ineffective, students may also consult their teachers, classmates, friends, or parents for assistance. Until recently, such reliance on others was considered of limited value and even stigmatized: the criticism being that learners who are truly independent are not supposed to need others to succeed (Karabenick & Newman, 2011). Recent theoretical developments and research, however, indicate that academic help seeking can be an important self-regulated learning strategy engaged in by highly motivated and academically successful students (Karabenick & Newman, 2011). But help seeking for some students is not without risk. Help seeking can imply inadequacy, threaten self-worth, and subject learners to public scrutiny (Karabenick & Newman, 2011). Being viewed as less capable by teachers, other students, or anyone in an evaluative position could be disconcerting—especially for African American students in mathematics classes where there exists the idea that they are incapable of meaningful participation in mathematics (see, e.g., Jefferson, 1787; Kopan, 2015; Nisbett, 2007; Powell, 2012). This quantitative research study, therefore, was intended to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence help-seeking behaviors of African American College Algebra students at the community college. The purpose was to inform community college mathematics instructors about efforts that might begin to break down teacher–student barriers so that students feel comfortable and encouraged asking for help. Grounded in self-regulated learning and achievement goal theories, this study employed hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and multiple regression analyses to investigate the help-seeking behaviors of 341 African American community college students in 48 College Algebra classrooms. Students completed help seeking scales adapted for College Algebra (see Cheong, Pajeres, & Oberman, 2004), the Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory (Tapia & Marsh, 2002), and the Professorial Concern Scale (Winston, Vahala, & Gills, 1989). Student-level (e.g., mathematics attitude, professorial concern, age, gender, and developmental status) and classroom-level characteristics (e.g., teacher sex and average classroom age) significantly predicted reported levels of help seeking. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. INDEX WORDS: Academic help seeking, African Americans, Community college, College algebra, Hierarchical linear modeling, Mathematics INVESTIGATING COLLEGE ALGEBRA HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIORS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS: A HIERARCHICAL LINEAR MODELING APPROACH by ERVIN J. CHINA


The first swells of a mammoth new refugee flood are starting to overwhelm international relief efforts in northern Iraq, as more than a million residents in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul are beginning to flee before a vicious battle is joined between ISIS and forces trying to displace the terrorist forces.


Despite growing attention from companies and regulators looking to eradicate modern slavery, we know little about how slavery works from a business perspective. We address this gap by empirically examining innovations in the business models of modern slavery, focusing on how the business models of slavery in advanced economies have evolved since slavery was legally abolished. While continuities exist, novel business models have emerged based on new actors, activities, and linkages. We categorize these as four innovative models per actors involved (producer/intermediary) and how value is created and captured (revenue generation/cost reduction), and discuss implications for research, policy, and practice.


Objectives: The way services users understand and relate to the care provided to them is a very important element of their recovery. Qualitative and quantitative studies have focused on psychiatric hospitalisation, from both service user and staff perspectives, mainly from the nursing discipline. However, less is known about the experience of being cared for by others during psychiatric hospitalisation. This study aims to explore the experience of care through a psychologically informed understanding of this experience, so as to elicit themes that have relevance to depression and caring as a result of the care-receiving experience. This study's unique contribution is that it focuses on the more fundamentally humane phenomenon of "being looked after". Therefore the objective of this study is to explore the experience of depressed service users being cared for by others (i.e. mental health care professionals) within in-patient psychiatric settings, in order to throw light on the important link between care and depression and so understand the involvement of the care component of hospitalisation on the depressive experience. It is hoped this will contribute to the provision of appropriate services for these individuals. Method: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight in-patients who had been diagnosed with, and were undergoing treatment for, depression. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

Results: The analysis produced three master themes: 'containment'; 'attached'; 'arrested temporality'. A description of these master themes and the related subordinate themes is presented.

Conclusion: The results of the analysis are considered in light of existing theory and their clinical implications. The clinical implications of the findings, such as the need to maintain connections with family, foster supportive relationships within the ward environment, understand attachment patterns to the mental health system and temporal idleness within units highlight the need to prioritise the service-user perspective in clinical settings and future research.


Surface waves are a form of coherent noise that can obscure valuable reflection information in exploration records. It is sometimes difficult to eliminate these surface waves by traditional filtering approaches, such as an f-k filter, without damaging the useful signals. As a partial remedy, we propose an interferometric method to predict and subtract surface waves in seismic data. The removal of surface waves by the proposed interferometric method consists of three steps: (1) remove most of the surface waves by a nonlinear local filter; (2) predict the residual surface waves by the interferometric method; (3) separate the residual surface waves from the result of step 2 by a nonlinear local filter, and remove the residual surface waves by a matched filter from the result of step 1. Field data tests for 2D and 3D data show that the method effectively suppresses surface waves and preserves the reflection information. Results suggest that the effectiveness of this method is sensitive to the parameter select...


Spotlighting is one illumination field where the application of light emitting diodes (LED) creates many advantages. Commonly, the system for spot lights consists of a LED light engine and collimating secondary optics. Through angular or spatial separated emitted light from the source and imaging optical elements, a non uniform far field appears with colored rings, dots or patterns. Many feasible combinations result in very different spatial color distributions. Several combinations of three multi-chip light sources and secondary optical elements like reflectors and TIR lenses with additional facets or scattering elements were analyzed mainly regarding the color uniformity. They are assessed by the merit function Usl which was derived from human factor experiments and describes the color uniformity based on the visual perception of humans. Furthermore, the optical systems are compared concerning efficiency, peak candela and aspect ratio. Both types of optics differ in the relation between the color uniformity level and other properties. A plain reflector with a slightly color mixing light source performs adequate. The results for the TIR lenses indicate that they need additional elements for good color mixing or blended light source. The most convenient system depends on the requirements of the application.


Purpose: To evaluate the effect of water deprivation on the signal intensity of the posterior pituitary gland on T1-weighted MR images and correlate the signal intensity with the plasma vasopressin concentration. Material and Methods: Fifteen rabbits were studied: Group 1 (n=10) was deprived of water for 9 days and Group 2 (n=5) was replenished water for 7 days after 7-day water deprivation. MR imaging and plasma vasopressin measurement by radioimmunoassay were made before and after water deprivation and replenishment. Sequential changes of the signal intensity ratio of the posterior lobe to the pons and plasma vasopressin concentration were correlated. Results: Before water deprivation, the hyperintense posterior lobe was demonstrated in all rabbits. During water deprivation, the signal intensity ratio decreased and vasopressin concentration increased gradually. On the contrary, the signal intensity ratio increased and vasopressin concentration decreased with water replenishment. The signal intensity ratio correlated well with the plasma vasopressin concentration (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was a negative, linear correlation between the signal intensity ratio of the posterior pituitary gland on T1-weighted MR images and plasma vasopressin concentration to water deprivation. The results support that the high signal intensity of the posterior pituitary gland on T1-weighted MR images is attributed to the normal content of vasopressin-neurosecretory granules.


Reliable quantification of cellular treatment effects in many bioassays depends on the accuracy of cell colony counting. However, colony counting processes tend to be tedious, slow, and error-prone. Thus, pursuing an effective colony counting technique is ongoing, and varies from manual approaches to partly automated and fully automated techniques. Most fully automated techniques were developed using deep learning (DL). A significant problem in applying DL to this task is the lack of sizeable collections of annotated plate images. For this reason, here we propose an application of Transfer Learning to cell colony counting that can overcome this problem by exploiting models trained for other tasks. To demonstrate this idea's feasibility, we show how a small dataset can be used to transform a DL model designed for counting objects in congested scenes into a specialized cell colony counting model and achieve better performance than existing, more widely-used models.


Names are proposed for divisions, classes, and some orders of bacteria. The kingdom Procaryotae Murray 1968 is divided into three divisions: Gracilicutes divisio nov., Firmacutes divisio nov., and Mollicutes Edward and Freundt 1967, for organisms having, respectively, a gram-negative cell wall, a gram-positive cell wall, and no cell wall. Gracilicutes comprises the class Photobacteria classis nov. for organisms having a phototrophic metabolism and Scotobacteria classis nov. for those having a nonphototrophic metabolism. Photobacteria is divided into two subclasses: Oxyphotobacteriae subclassis nov. for organisms that carry out an aerobic phototrophic metabolism, using water as an electron donor and producing oxygen, and Anoxyphotobacteriae subclassis nov. for those that have an anaerobic phototrophic metabolism. Oxyphotobacteriae comprises the orders Cyanobacteriales ordo nov. (formerly blue-green algae) and Prochlorales Lewin 1977. Anoxyphotobacteriae contains the order Rhodospirillales Pfennig and Truper 1971 and Chlorobiales ordo nov. The possible need of a fourth division to include organisms that have a rigid cell wall but do not contain peptidoglycan is noted. The name proposed for such a division is Mendocutes, that is, organisms having a cell wall with faults and blemishes.


BackgroundLeft ventricular hypertrophy is a generalized adaptation to increased afterload, but the growth factors mediating this response have not been identified. To explore whether the hypertrophic response was associated with changes in local insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) gene regulation, we examined the induction of the cardiac IGF-I gene in three models of systolic hypertension and resultant hypertrophy. Methods and ResultsThe model systems were suprarenal aortic constriction, uninephrectomized spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), and uninephrectomized, deoxycorticosterone- treated, saline-fed rats (DOCA salt). Systolic blood pressure reached hypertensive levels at 3 to 4 weeks in all three systems. A differential increase in ventricular weight to body weight (hypertrophy) occurred at 3 weeks in the SHR and aortic constriction models and at 4 weeks in the DOCA salt model. Ventricular IGF-I mRNA was detected by solution hybridization/RNase protection assay. IGF-I mRNA levels increased in all three systems coincident with the onset of hypertension and the development of ventricular hypertrophy. Maximum induction was 10-fold over control at 5 weeks in the aortic constriction model, 8-fold at 3 weeks in the SHR, and 6-fold at 6 weeks in the DOCA salt model. IGF-I mRNA levels returned to control values by the end of the experimental period despite continued hypertension and hypertrophy in all three systems. In contrast, ventricular c-myc mRNA content increased twofold to threefold at 1 week and returned to control levels by 2 weeks. Ventricular IGF-I receptor mRNA levels were unchanged over the time course studied. The increased ventricular IGF-I mRNA content was reflected in an increased ventricular IGF-I protein content, as determined both by radioimmunoassay and immunofluorescence histochemistry. ConclusionsWe conclude that (1) hypertension induces significant increases in cardiac IGF-I mRNA and protein that occur coordinately with its onset and early in the development of hypertrophy, (2) IGF-I mRNA levels normalize as the hypertrophic response is established, (3) in comparison to IGF-I, both c-myc and IGF-I receptor genes are differentially controlled in experimental hypertension. These findings suggest that IGF-I may participate in initiating ventricular hypertrophy in response to altered loading conditions. The consistency of these findings in models of high-, moderate-, and low-renin hypertension suggests that they occur independently of the systemic renin-angiotensin endocrine axis.


This paper examines the existing literature on strategic competitiveness in broad terms and how the related theoretical framework influence organizational performance. Achieving a competitive advantage position and enhancing firm performance relative to their competitors are the main objectives that business organizations should strive to attain. In order to compete and sustain successfully businesses must not only excel in their area but also persist in the long run. Achieving such a "sustainable competitive advantage" status is not an easy task without a proper strategy being outlined and put into practice by strategic managers. Competitive advantage is a result from and being associated with a long list of contributing factors. An in-depth analysis of four theories is made; the five forces model as postulated by Porter; the resource based view that gave credence to endogeneity; the Dynamic capabilities framework classify resources into seven assets that conjointly enable the firms to identify the need for change, to formulate a response and to implement appropriate measures contribute immensely to achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage; and the relational theory that expounds the need for collaboration amongst organizations. Strategic competitiveness is multi-dimensional and that a firm (Strategic management experts') can attain it through several pathways and by use of a combination of diverse set of strategies


Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secluded village of Headington, near Oxford. The coroner's office provides the corpses he needs - but they have often died by violent means and are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactury in Limehouse. And, from Limehouse, makes contact with the Doomesday Men - the resurrectionists. Victor pays better than any hospital for the bodies of the very recently dead. Even so, perfect specimens are hard to come by... until that Thames-side dawn when Victor, waiting, wrapped in his greatcoat, on his wooden jetty, hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light that slung into the stern of the approaching boat is the corpse of a handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water....


« Following Suit(e) : Woolf, Carlyle, Deleuze » endeavors to locate « starting » places in the writing of V. Woolf, places in which language enters a zone of non-decidability and liberates « flows », a concept akin to Deleuzian « devenir », here submitted to a tentative retranslation –which inscribes a proper name in reverse. This essay situates Woolf between Carlyle and Deleuze, whose Difference and repetition quotes Sartor Resartus , thus repositioning Woolf (an ardent reader of Carlyle) as a major XXth proto-differential philosopher or « followsopher ».


Data-independent acquisition (DIA) methods have gained great popularity in bottom-up quantitative proteomics, as they overcome the irreproducibility and under-sampling limitations of data-dependent acquisition (DDA). diaPASEF, recently developed for the timsTOF Pro mass spectrometers, has brought improvements to DIA, providing additional ion separation (in the ion mobility dimension) and increasing sensitivity. Several studies have benchmarked different workflows for DIA quantitative proteomics, but mostly using instruments from Sciex and Thermo, and therefore, the results are not extrapolable to diaPASEF data. In this work, using a real-life sample set like the one that can be found in any proteomics experiment, we compared the results of analyzing PASEF data with different combinations of library-based and library-free analysis, combining the tools of the FragPipe suite, DIA-NN and including MS1-level LFQ with DDA-PASEF data, and also comparing with the workflows possible in Spectronaut. We verified that library-independent workflows, not so efficient not so long ago, have greatly improved in the recent versions of the software tools, and now perform as well or even better than librarybased ones. We report here information so that the user who is going to conduct a relative quantitative proteomics study using a timsTOF Pro mass spectrometer can make an informed decision on how to acquire (diaPASEF for DIA analysis, or DDA-PASEF for MS1-level LFQ) the samples, and what can be expected depending on the data analysis tool used, among the different alternatives offered by the recently optimized tools for TIMS-PASEF data analysis.


SUMMARY Consecutive changes in two discrete layers of the egg shell of the house cricket, Acheta domesticus, have been claimed to control the uptake of water by the eggs. The development of the shell has been re-investigated with the electron microscope by examination of eggs at different stages of embryogenesis and of ovarioles containing oocytes at various stages of maturity. It is confirmed that fragmentation of the maternal epicuticle and deposition and resorption of the serosal cuticle are the only apparent changes in the shell during development. The existence of a serosal epicuticle is confirmed and a distinction is made between the serosal epicuticle and the vitelline membrane. Previously unreported features of the shell are (i) an outer zone of the maternal endocuticle which seems to be the most stable part of the maternal cuticle, (ii) a microlaminar organization within the scales of the maternal epicuticle, (iii) a vitelline membrane containing specialized regions, which remains distinct from the serosal epicuticle throughout development, and (iv) the osmiophilic character of the serosal epicuticle, its complex fine structure and its origin. Observations on eggs which had just begun to absorb water allow us to suggest that fragmentation involves a shrinkage of the material of which the scales are composed.


Aim: To evaluate the potential risk of ethyl carbamate (EC) formation in wine by studying its production kinetics at sub-optimal storage temperatures.Methods and results: The kinetics of EC formation was investigated in 60 white wines obtained from 6 varietal juices fermented with 10 yeast strains. The wines were analysed for their urea content at bottling, then EC formation was monitored during in-bottle storage at < 12 °C for 150 days followed by 152 days at 40 °C. Storage at < 12 °C had no effect on EC formation, regardless of initial urea content ; however, at 40 °C we found a positive correlation between initial urea content and final EC content.Conclusion: Urea content higher than 20 mg/L in wine kept at 40 °C can produce from 15 up to 30 μg/L EC in less than 5 days. Two yeast strains, La Claire SP665 and Maurivin Platinum, minimised the urea in wine, reducing the risk of EC formation.Significance and impact of the study: The temperatures used in this study can be accidentally - but easily - reached during sub-optimal wine storage and shipping, and in the presence of substantial amounts of urea, the EC level can exceed the warning levels established by some countries in just a few days. The paper confirms the importance of minimising urea production in wine and controlling temperature during storage and shipping.


Many studies have pointed out a correlation between airborne PM quantitative exposure and health effects. The aim of this research is the investigation of the role of the PM2.5 chemical fraction in the DNA damage induction in human cells (A549). Air samples (PM2.5) were collected in different sites (urban, industrial and highway) using a high–volume sampler. Organic and water-soluble extracts of PM2.5 were tested on A549 cells to evaluate genotoxic and oxidative damage using the Comet assay without and with formamido-pyrimidine-glycosylase (Fpg). Organic and water extracts were analysed for determination of PAHs by GC-MS methods and metals by the ICP-MS technique respectively. The PM2.5 organic extract of all the samples caused a significant dose-dependent increase of the A549 DNA damage. The genotoxic effect was related to IPA PM2.5 content and the highest effect was observed for the motorway site sample (65.03 CL/10m) while the oxidative damage was observed in PM2.5 water extract of the industrial and motorway sites. The extent of the oxidative damage seems to be related to the type and concentration of metals present in these samples. The results of this study emphasize the importance of evaluating the PM chemical composition for the biological effect determination. This concern highlights the need for considering its qualitative composition in addition to its size and air concentration for PM health effect evaluation and exposure management.


To date, the residential sector accounts for a major portion of consumption by consuming more
than 40% of the entire world's energy and producing 33% of the carbon dioxide emissions. In
North America, the residential sector energy consumptions are mainly related to heating,
ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which are not operating in the most efficient
ways due to existing on/off and conventional controllers. In Ontario, due to the variable price of
electricity, variation in outdoor disturbances, and new Ontario Government sweeping mandate in
overhauling the energy use in residential sector, there is an opportunity to develop intelligent
control systems to employ energy conservation strategy planning model (ECSPM) in existing
HVAC systems for reducing their operating cost, energy consumption, and GHG emission.
In order to take advantage of these opportunities, two model-based predictive controllers (MPCs)
were developed in this Ph.D. research. In the first MPC controller, a Matlab-TRNSYS co-simulator
was developed to fill the lack of advanced controllers in building energy simulators. This cosimulator
investigated the effectiveness of different novel ECSPMs on an HVAC system's energy
cost saving during winter and summer seasons. This co-simulator offered 23.8% saving in the
HVAC system's energy costs in the heating season. Regardless of the strong capabilities,
employing this co-simulator for implementing comprehensive/complex optimization methods
resulted in an unacceptably long optimization time due to the of TRNSYS simulation engine.
Therefore, in the second PMC controller, simplified house thermal and HVAC system models
were developed in Matlab. To design a grid-friendly house, this model was enhanced by
integrating on-site renewable energy generation and storage systems. A novel algorithm was
developed to reduce the MPC controller optimization time. The effectiveness of the novel MPC
model in the HVAC system's energy cost saving was compared with a Simple Rule-based (SRB)
controller, which itself is an efficient HVAC controller, while this controller offered 12.28%
additional savings in the heating season.


Abstract Background: Topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are clinically proven for the management of musculoskeletal conditions. It is important that prescribers and patients are aware of the safety profile of topical NSAIDs. Objectives: To evaluate the risk of adverse events (AEs) associated with topical diclofenac for the treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of blinded, randomized, placebo-, vehicle- or active-controlled trials. Results: The risk of any type of AE experienced with topical diclofenac was slightly higher compared with placebo/vehicle (RR 1.11), but was more than 50% lower than the risk observed with active topical comparators (RR 0.53). Absolute risk values indicated differences in the risk of AEs depending on the diclofenac formulation used; in particular, lower rates of local skin reactions were observed with diclofenac patches (e.g. 2.5% in placebo/vehicle-controlled studies) and gels (4.2%) compared with diclofenac solutions containing dimethylsulfoxide (34.2%). Dry skin/crusting and rash were the most common local skin reactions reported (9.0% and 3.0% of patients, respectively, in placebo/vehicle-controlled studies), which were usually mild-to-moderate and self-resolving. The discontinuation rate due to local skin reactions with topical diclofenac (1.9%) was low and comparable with non-active comparators (0.7%), and the tolerability of topical diclofenac treatment was rated as 'good' to 'excellent' by >90% physicians and patients. Conclusions: Topical diclofenac appears to be generally well tolerated for cutaneous use in acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions.


ABSTRACT The changes within temporality, the rise of presentism, and the emergence of ersatz nostalgia as the cultural consequences of late capitalism are producing a pseudo-historicist perspective as a way of dealing with the past. This article claims that the rising interest in the Ottoman Past in Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not just the product of the conservative cultural perspective of the ruling party but also the result of the pseudo-historicism produced by the long-term transformation of the Turkish society since the 1980s. This article takes the architectural production as an exemplification to illuminate the pseudo-historicist perspective in the Turkish context, because architecture appears as the most important terrain which reflects the development of this interest in the Ottoman past due to its characteristic as a profession closely knitted with the economy, and its representational power mirroring the cultural.


ABSTRACT Introduction Even considering the advance of the medical treatment in the last 20 years with new and more effective drugs, the outcomes are still disappointing as the control of obesity and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) with a large number of patients under the medical treatment still not reaching the desired outcomes. Objective: To present a Metabolic Risk Score to better guide the surgical indication for T2DM patients with body mass index (BMI) where surgery for obesity is still controversial. Method: Research was conducted in Pubmed, Medline, Pubmed Central, Scielo and Lilacs between 2003-2015 correlating headings: metabolic surgery, obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, representatives of the societies involved, as an expert panel, issued opinions. Results: Forty-five related articles were analyzed by evidence-based medicine criteria. Grouped opinions sought to answer the following questions: Why metabolic and not bariatric surgery?; Mechanisms involved in glycemic control; BMI as a single criterion for surgical indication for uncontrolled T2DM; Results of metabolic surgery studies in BMI<35 kg/m2; Safety of metabolic surgery in patients with BMI<35 kg/m2; Long-term effects of surgery in patients with baseline BMI<35 kg/m2 and Proposal for a Metabolic Risk Score. Conclusion: Metabolic surgery has well-defined mechanisms of action both in experimental and human studies. Gastrointestinal interventions in T2DM patients with IMC≤35 kg/m2 has similar safety and efficacy when compared to groups with greater BMIs, leading to the improvement of diabetes in a superior manner than clinical treatment and lifestyle changes, in part through weight loss independent mechanisms . There is no correlation between baseline BMI and weight loss in the long term with the success rate after any surgical treatment. Gastrointestinal surgery treatment may be an option for patients with T2DM without adequate clinical control, with a BMI between 30 and 35, after thorough evaluation following the parameters detailed in Metabolic Risk Score defined by the surgical societies. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), because of its well known safety and efficacy and longer follow-up studies, is the main surgical technique indicated for patients eligible for surgery through the Metabolic Risk Score. The vertical sleeve gastrectomy may be considered if there is an absolute contraindication for the RYGB. T2DM patients should be evaluated by the multiprofessional team that will assess surgical eligibility, preoperative work up, follow up and long term monitoring for micro and macrovascular complications.


Five patients with lymphocytic malignancies were found to have structural aberrations of chromosome 14, all involving band q11. The malignant cells of all five cases were analyzed by immunofluorescence to establish immunologic phenotypes. Three patients had T lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia with mediastinal masses (cases 1, 2, and 3); one patient had peripheral T cell lymphoma (case 4); and one patient had acute lymphocytic leukemia, common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen positive (case 5). Although aberrations of chromosome 14 frequently are associated with lymphocytic malignancies, these abnormalities most often result in extra material on the long arm, 14q+. However, none of the five patients reported here had a 14q+. Cases 1 and 2 had t(9;14)(q34;q11) and t(11;14)(p11 or 13;q11), respectively. Case 3 showed del(14)(q11), and cases 4 and 5 showed inv(14)(q11q32). Structural aberrations resulting in 14q- and inv(14) appear to occur infrequently. The five cases in this report, in conjunction with those found in the literature, indicate a strong association between breaks at 14q11 and T lymphocytic malignancies.


The visual focus of attention (VFOA) has been recognized as a prominent conversational cue. We are interested in estimating and tracking the VFOAs associated with multi-party social interactions. We note that in this type of situations the participants either look at each other or at an object of interest; therefore their eyes are not always visible. Consequently both gaze and VFOA estimation cannot be based on eye detection and tracking. We propose a method that exploits the correlation between eye gaze and head movements. Both VFOA and gaze are modeled as latent variables in a Bayesian switching state-space model (also referred switching Kalman filter). The proposed formulation leads to a tractable learning method and to an efficient online inference procedure that simultaneously tracks gaze and visual focus. The method is tested and benchmarked using two publicly available datasets, Vernissage and LAEO, that contain typical multi-party human-robot and human-human interactions.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the impact of policy directives and performance feedback on the organization (specifically the coordination) of foot care programs for veterans, as mandated by public law within the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VA).

STUDY DESIGN
Case study of 10 VA medical centers performing diabetes-related amputations.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Based on expert consensus, we identified 16 recommended foot care delivery coordination strategies. Structured interview protocols developed for primary care, foot care, and surgical providers, as well as administrators, were adapted from a prior study of surgical departments.

RESULTS
Although performance measurement results for foot risk screening and referral were high at all study sites over 2 calendar years (average 85%, range 69% to 92%), the number of coordination strategies implemented by any site was relatively low, averaging only 5.4 or 34% (range 1-12 strategies). No facility had systematically collected data to evaluate whether preventive foot care was provided to patients with high-risk foot conditions, or whether these patients had unmet foot care needs.

CONCLUSIONS
Although foot care policies and data feedback resulted in extremely high rates of adherence to foot-related performance measurement, there remained opportunities for improvement in the development of coordinated, technology-supported, data-driven, patient-centered foot care programs.


This paper analyses the production costs and income of eight groups of farms: five private farms and three belonging to the Andean rural community. These farms are located in Peru and Bolivia and breed alpacas and llama for both meat and fibre. The research is based on case studies. Each case study includes several farms, grouped according to similar characteristics: available resources; breeding techniques and geographical location. A farm economic data analysis was undertaken by determining economic budget income. Statistics and data from 2003 were analysed to determine farm resources and farm production costs, per animal head and net farm income per labour unit and livestock head. This paper is relevant as regards economic data for production systems which are more often analysed for sociological and cultural aspects and less often for economic data and identification of real productive economic data which are not generally market driven.


Fetus with giant hydrothorax and ascites was diagnosed at 25th week of pregnancy. Fetal echocardiography revealed normal heart anatomy with 8 points in Cardiovascular Profile Score (CVPS), (minus one for ascites and hydrothorax). At 26th week of pregnancy pleurocenthesis and amniocenthesis for fetal karyotype were performed. Fetal karyotype was normal however there was re-accumulation of the pleural effusion next week, so at 27th week of pregnancy pleuroamniotic shunt was established. Based on fetal echocardiography CVPS was 8 due to ascites and hydrothorax. Two weeks later there was again re-accumulation of pleural effusion and CVPS was still 8 points. At 29th week of pregnancy second pleuroamniotic shunt was implemented. Four days after second shunting there was no ascites and only rim of hydrothorax. At 31st week of pregnancy the fetus had again fetal echo and hyperoxygenation test which was positive. At 34th week of pregnancy there was still only rim of pleural effusion and no ascites (CVPS was 9). At 35th week there was spontaneous rupture of membrane, however the newborn was delivered by Cesarean section with birth weight 2200g and Apgar scores of 5 and 7. There was only small pleural effusion in left pleural cavity after delivery. The newborn was discharge home at 21 days. Conclusions: Despite dramatic fetal presentation and rapid reaccumulation of hydrothorax, monitoring by fetal echocardiography examinations had shown a safety of repeated fetal needling and double shunting.


Despite recent progress in the identification of mediators of podocyte injury, mechanisms underlying podocyte loss remain poorly understood, and cell-specific therapy is lacking. We previously reported that KIBRA, KIdney and BRAin expressed protein, encoded by WWC1, promotes podocyte injury in vitro through activation of the Hippo signaling pathway. KIBRA expression is increased in the glomeruli of patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and KIBRA depletion in vivo is protective against acute podocyte injury. Here, we tested the consequences of transgenic podocyte-specific WWC1 expression in immortalized human podocytes and in mice, and we explored the association between glomerular WWC1 expression and glomerular disease progression. We found that KIBRA overexpression in immortalized human podocytes promoted cytoplasmic localization of YAP (Yes-associated protein), induced actin cytoskeletal reorganization, and altered focal adhesion expression and morphology. Transgenic WWC1 (KIBRA OE) mice were more susceptible to acute and chronic glomerular injury, with evidence of YAP inhibition in vivo. Of clinical relevance, glomerular WWC1 expression negatively correlated with renal survival among patients with primary glomerular diseases. These findings highlight the importance of KIBRA-YAP signaling to the regulation of podocyte structural integrity and identify KIBRA-mediated injury as a potential target for podocyte-specific therapy in glomerular disease.


This paper presents a theoretical approach to predict the effect of nonlinear noise mechanisms in all-pole RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) tunable filters. It is shown that both nonlinearity and noise can be expressed as perturbations of poles of the filter transfer function. Perturbations in the bandpass filter are mapped into its equivalent ladder network as perturbations in the prototype element values. Closed-form equations are derived to calculate pole-perturbations in Butterworth and Chebyshev filters using prototype perturbations. The proposed method is then used to calculate the effect of nonlinear noise phenomena due to Brownian motion in RF MEMS tunable filters for different input power levels. As a result, the filter phase noise is calculated as a function of input power, tuning state, fractional bandwidth, filter order, and frequency offset. The effect of filter nonidealities and their implications on phase noise are discussed. Finally, it is shown that signal-to-noise ratio degradation due to filter phase noise is most significant in MEMS tunable filters with low bandwidth, high order, and high quality factor.


Data collected on 371 Balami, 291 Uda and 355 West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep in Nigeria were used to characterize the three breeds for 18 morphometric traits. The sheep belonged to two sexes (575 male: 439 females) and two age groups ( 23-month and 24 to 35-month). They were obtained from traditionally managed flocks and markets in 4 states of Nigeria. The morphometric traits measured were Ear Length, Force Leg Length, Rear Leg Length, Body Length, Shoulder Width, Neck Circumference, Hearth Girth, Rump Height, Head Length, Head Width, Horn Length, Rump Width, Rump Length, Tail Length, Wither Height, Horn Base Circumference, Testicle Width, and Testicle Length. Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance appropriate for a 3x2x2 design. The results showed that breed, sex and age and their interactions significantly (p<0.05) influenced the morphometric traits. Balami sheep was significantly (p<0.05) higher than Uda and WAD sheep in morphometric traits. WAD sheep had the lowest values (p<0.05) for morphometric traits. Male sheep was superior (p<0.05) to female sheep in morphometric traits. 24 to 35-month old sheep were higher (p<0.05) than 23-month sheep in the measured morphometric traits. It is concluded that detailed breed description of Nigerian sheep can be done using morphometric traits. However, such description would be influenced by age, sex and their interaction with the breeds under consideration.


Murine interleukin-10 (IL-10) is produced by type 2 helper (Th2) cells and selectively inhibits cytokine synthesis by type 1 helper (Th1) cells, whereas human IL-10 is produced by and inhibits proliferation and cytokine synthesis by both Th1 and Th2 subsets. This study reports that bovine IL-10 mRNA is expressed by Th0, Th1, and Th2 clones of bovine T cells specific for either Babesia bovis or Fasciola hepatica but not by two CD8+ T-cell clones. The antigen-induced proliferative responses of all three subsets of CD4+ cells were inhibited by human IL-10, and low levels (10 U/ml) of exogenous human IL-2 restored the suppressed response. However, proliferation of one Th1 clone was never inhibited but was enhanced by IL-10. Human IL-10 also inhibited the expression of gamma interferon and IL-4 mRNA in Th0 clones. In the absence of accessory cells (AC), the responses of Th clones to concanavalin A or IL-2 were not inhibited by IL-10, whereas antigen-specific responses of Th1 and Th2 cells were reduced when IL-10-pretreated macrophages were used as AC. Together, our results with bovine T cells support the concept that IL-10 primarily affects AC function and does not directly inhibit CD4+ T cells and demonstrate that the immunoregulatory effects of IL-10 are not selectively directed at Th1 populations, as they are in mice.


The hemostasis of the maternal body differs from the one outside the pregnancy period. The hemostasis indicators highlight during pregnancy both the growth in thrombin production and fibrinolysis. Thrombopenia and the modifications of the plasmatic factors as well as of the blood flow don't trigger any alterations of the hemostasis during pregnancy but point out the presence of diseases either associated to or induced by pregnancy. They can also lead to a worsening of these diseases. It is worth mentioning the presence of the clinical risk factors for a thrombotic accident (according to Virchow's classical criteria) to which the biological factors are added as a consequence of the acquired or congenital thrombophilia. The thrombotic syndrome is considered to be the cause of a series of obstetrical accidents: repeated abortion, premature birth, intrauterine growth restriction, foetus decease in uterus, preeclampsia, the HELLP syndrome, DPPNI. The antithrombotic treatment, both clinically and biologically justified, not only prophylactic but also curative, can lead to an improvement of the obstetrical results.


Study Design. A retrospective database review. Objective. The aim of this study was to compare complication rates following one to two-level lumbar spine surgery in patients with primary hypercoagulable states and coagulopathies. Summary of Background Data. Both hypercoagulable states and coagulopathies are not uncommon conditions that have the potential to significantly alter perioperative patient management. However, there are few studies that document the added risk of medical complications following spine surgery in these patient populations. Methods. The PearlDiver database (2005–2012) was utilized to determine perioperative complication rates in patients with primary hypercoagulable states and coagulopathies who underwent primary one to two-level posterolateral lumbar spine fusion. Control cohorts without specific hematologic disorders were matched by demographics and comorbidities. Ninety-day complication rates were determined, along with revision rates at one and two years. When considering complication rate comparisons between matched cohorts, P < 0.005 was considered significant. Results. In total, 746 patients with coagulopathies and 2753 patients with primary hypercoagulable states were selected. Matched control cohorts contained 74,879 and 54,007 patients, respectively. Hypercoagulable patients had significantly increased rates of medical complications [odds ratio (OR) 1.4], infections (OR 1.6), and venous thromboembolisms (OR 9.0) during the three months following spine surgery and same-day transfusions (OR 1.2) when compared with matched controls (P < 0.001). Patients with von Willebrand disease or hemophilia had increased rates of three-month infections (OR 2.3) and transfusion (OR 2.0) when compared with a matched control group (P < 0.005). One- and two-year revisions rates were not significantly higher for either pathologic cohort when compared to matched controls. Conclusion. Both primary hypercoagulable states and coagulopathies increase infection and transfusion rates following one to two-level lumbar spine surgery. Level of Evidence: 3


If workers can choose between permanent and flexible contracts, compensating wage differentials should arise to equalize on-the-job utility in the two types of contracts. Estimating job satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey shows that agency and casual contracts are associated with routinely lower satisfaction. This results because the low job satisfaction associated with less job security is not offset by higher compensation or other job characteristics. Job security is sufficiently important that holding constant this one facet of satisfaction eliminates the overall gap in job satisfaction between flexible and permanent contracts.


Importance
Electronic health records (EHRs) contain an abundance of health information. However, researchers need to understand data accuracy to ask appropriate research questions.

Objective
To investigate the concordance of the names of medications for microbial keratitis in the structured, formal EHR medication list and the text of clinicians' progress notes.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This cross-sectional study, conducted in the cornea section of an ophthalmology department in a tertiary care, referral academic medical center, examined the medications of 53 patients with microbial keratitis treated until disease resolution from July 1, 2015, to August 1, 2018. Documentation of medications was compared between the structured medication list extracted from the EHR server and medications written into the clinical progress note and transcribed by the study team.

Exposure
Medication treatment for microbial keratitis.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Medication mismatch frequency.

Results
The study sample included 24 men and 29 women, with a mean (SD) age of 51.8 (19.6) years. Of the 247 medications identified, 57 (23.1%) of prescribed medications differed between the progress notes and the formal EHR-based medication list. Reasons included medications not prescribed via the EHR ordering system (25 [43.9%]), outside medications not reconciled in the internal EHR medication list (23 [40.4%]), and medications prescribed via the EHR ordering system and in the formal list, but not described in the clinical note (9 [15.8%]). Fortified antimicrobials represented the largest category for medication mismatch between modalities (17 of 70 [24.3%]). Nearly one-third of patients (17 [32.1%]) had at least 1 medication mismatch in their record.

Conclusions and Relevance
Almost 1 in 4 medications were mismatched between the progress note and formal medication list in the EHR. These findings suggest that EHR data should be checked for internal consistency before use in research.


In 2001, UC Cooperative Extension nutrition specialists with the Center for Weight and Health introduced the Children and Weight: What Communities Can Do About It project, with the goal of reducing the prevalence of pediatric overweight. This project was designed to facilitate the formation of community coalitions, and to educate and empower them to improve or create environments that foster healthy lifestyles in children and their families at the local level. The project has been implemented in 13 California counties and by groups across the country. The "Spectrum of Prevention" is featured as a way to address the problem of pediatric overweight from multiple levels, ranging from educating individuals and providers to advocating for systemic and environmental change. Shasta CAN in Shasta County, the Solano County Children and Weight Coalition and the Kern County Childhood Overweight Coalition are presented as models of how coalitions can creatively plan and implement activities across the spectrum.


The expansion of road network and continuous increase of vehicle ownership challenge the performance of routine traffic control. It is necessary to make a balanced adjustment and control from the perspective of the road network to disperse the traffic flow on the entire road network.

 This paper develops a method to quantify the intersections' importance at a global level based on the road network topology, which is the location of the intersection in the road network and the structural characteristics of the intersection decided by the traffic movement. The priority order in traffic signal coordination is the sorting results of intersection's importance. The proposed method consists of two consecutive algorithms. Firstly, the graph connectivity of network is defined based on the shortest path distance and spatial connectivity between adjacent intersections. Secondly, The Importance Estimation Model (IEM) is built, which is the function of the importance indexes of current intersection and its neighboring intersections. A simulated case of a six by eight grid network was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method in TRANSYT.

 The results show that the Importance Estimation Model (IEM) minimized the measure of effectiveness compared with the schemes obtained by the volume sorting method, the saturation degree sorting method, and the method SMOO. It also created a higher frequency of small queues than the other methods.


In a six-week multicenter, double-blind comparison study, moxonidine and clonidine HCl were tested in 122 and 30 outpatients, respectively, with mild to moderate hypertension (World Health Organization stage I and II; highest measured diastolic blood pressure, 90 to 115 mm Hg). Each agent reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure to a similar significant extent: moxonidine, 25.4 and 12.4 mm Hg, respectively; clonidine, 25.3 and 10.0 mm Hg, respectively (P less than .001 vs baseline). The mean individually titrated dose of moxonidine and clonidine HCl was found to be 0.36 mg/d. Clonidine slightly reduced heart rate in patients assuming an upright position by 3 beats/min at the end of dose titration (P = .018), while moxonidine did not. Two patients receiving moxonidine and three patients taking clonidine HCl discontinued therapy because of side effects. However, patients administered clonidine experienced significantly more side effects (53%) compared with a 30% incidence of adverse effects associated with moxonidine (P = .031). The most frequent adverse effect of both agents was dryness of mouth, which was mentioned significantly more often with clonidine (47%) than with moxonidine (20%) (P = .005). Edemas were found in 0.8% and 17% of patients during six-week treatment with moxonidine and clonidine, respectively (P = .001). Accordingly, moxonidine was tolerated significantly better than clonidine (P less than .001) in this parallel comparison study. Moxonidine is as effective as clonidine in monotherapy of mild to moderate essential hypertension and, additionally, neither drug produces clinically important changes in biochemical parameters.


The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is the second most valuable commercial species landed from Irish waters. The species is dependent on muddy seabed sediment in which burrows are constructed. Larvae are hatched from the seabed into the water column. The distribution of Nephrops depends in part to the presence of suitable sediment and also from larval supply modulated by existing local hydrodynamic regimes. The pelagic stage of the life-cycle is governed by both physical and biological factors including temperature, water speed and larval maturation rate. This study encompasses three aims, 1: to synthesise available sediment data and examine the spatial extent of potential Nephrops habitat in waters around Ireland, 2: investigate local hydrodynamic conditions on Nephrops fishing grounds which are likely to be encountered by planktonic larvae following hatching and 3: to employ a particle tracking model to study the potential dispersal fields of Nephrops larvae from individual fishing grounds and assess stock connectivity. The study finds that larval distribution between fishing grounds is dependent on variable seasonal conditions, the geographical size of an area and its proximity to other grounds. Fishing grounds in the Irish Sea and Porcupine Bank are isolated from other areas, whereas grounds in the Celtic Sea exhibit a high degree of connectivity and should be considered as a meta-population. Successful annual recruitment to the adult population of this species is largely dependent on favourable environmental conditions which enable the re-seeding of the same or adjacent grounds.


Māori Purposes Bills were commonly described in Parliament's debating chamber as "washing-up" bills, which suggested they were considered to be of little importance. This research challenges that perspective.  The research explores Māori Purposes Acts as a body of law, beginning in 1931. It considers the content of the legislation, the legislative process and the role of Māori Purposes Acts within the legislative framework. The research examines policy provisions and amendments, the petitions process facilitated by the legislation, special governance arrangements, and remedial provisions including settlements with the Crown.  The research incorporates quantitative analysis, but due to the variability of the provisions contained in the legislation, a predominantly qualitative approach is used to consider the nature of the Acts. The research operates within an orthodox legal paradigm and Karl Llewellyn's "law-jobs" theory is used as an analytical framework to identify common themes, draw out the purposes of the legislation and understand its role in New Zealand's legal system. Critical race and post-colonial theoretical perspectives are acknowledged but are not central to the research. The research also considers whether Māori Purposes Acts delivered justice for Māori prior to the modern Treaty of Waitangi settlements process.  The research concludes the washing-up characterisation was often inaccurate. The research found Māori Purposes Acts were used as a mechanism to provide Māori with relief from and remedies for particular problems, which were often raised by petition to Parliament, and remedies gave effect to recommendations of the Māori Affairs Committee and Royal Commissions. Some remedies were expressed as settlements of Māori grievances against the Crown, which preceded modern Treaty of Waitangi settlements. The legislation was used to maintain the legislative framework governing Māori land ownership and Māori communities, to introduce new policies and fill policy gaps, and to create special exceptions to the legislative framework including special governance provisions.  The research provides evidence of the poor fit between the restrictive legislative framework governing Māori lives and Māori needs, and it demonstrates the inability of New Zealand's legal system to deliver justice for Māori. Although many provisions attempted to ameliorate inequities, correct mistakes and resolve disputes, provisions often fell short of meeting the criteria for justice and are best described as taking important steps towards justice.


This dissertation investigates a new method for obtaining excited-state properties of finite, many-electron systems such as atoms, molecules and nano-systems. The method combines the merits of many-body perturbation theory and time-dependent perturbation theory and yields approximate density response functions which preserve basic physical conservation laws. Furthermore, advanced density functionals for ground-state properties like total energies and van der Waals coefficients can be constructed from these approximations. The thesis begins with an introduction that discusses in more detail the concepts and formulas used in the papers attached. It is followed by a summary of the main findings and an outlook. In total, four original papers are included. Paper I is concerned with the random phase approximation for the total energy and the corresponding Kohn-Sham (KS) potential. While total energies are far too negative the potentials produce very accurate ionization potentials. Paper II investigates the response function of the time-dependent exact-exchange (TDEXX) approximation for obtaining static polarizabilities, van der Waals coefficients and some low excitation energies. The results are very close to results obtained from time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory showing that the method accurately reproduce results from the more demanding Bethe-Salpeter approach. In Paper III some important findings regarding the exact-exchange kernel are presented. The optical absorption spectra is calculated and the results show that at higher energies the approximation is ill-behaved leading to a response function with the wrong analytic structure. A new derivation of Fano-parameters based on adiabatic TDDFT is also given. In Paper IV the adiabatic approximation to TDEXX is used to obtain an advanced functional for the total energy, yielding both excellent total energies and KS potentials. van der Waals coefficients are shown to be very sensitive to the ground-state density and when calculated in TDEXX using a correlated density, results are remarkably improved. (Less)


This paper outlines the results of a survey that was carried out, to identify Applied Technology High School students' attitudes towards learning the English language and to investigate whether the students' attitude is affected by the teacher's nativity. The study sample consisted of 196 students at the Applied Technology High School (ATHS). A questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings showed that the vast majority of the subjects of the study had positive attitudes towards learning the English Language. In addition, the findings revealed that teacher's nativity (native speaker vs non native speaker of English) did not influence students' positive orientation toward the English language. Finally, some pedagogical implications that would help tap the students' attitudes were presented.


Objective: One of the infections seen in neutropenic patients is brain abscess. Bacterias (Enterobacteriaceae, Nocardia), fungi and protozoa (toksoplazma) are the common etiologic agents. Mortality is extremely high in spite of antimicrobial therapy. So we intended to present an acute lenfoblastic leukemia patient with brain abscess. Case: Twenty-seven years old female with acute lymphoblastic leukemia suddenly developed fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and sensorymotor loss on the right side of her face on the 27th day of chemotherapy. Combination of cefepime + amikacin + fluconazole + metronidazole was started after the detection of multiple lesions of brain abscess by magnetic resonans imaging (MRI). Vancomycin was added to the combination on the 3rd day since fever was still high and clinical signs and symptoms persisted. On the 3rd day of new combination flucanazole was discarded and liposomal amphotericin B was added instead. On the 2nd day of liposomal amphotericin B fever and neurological signs and symptoms disappeared. Control MRI revealed no abscess lesions. Conclusion: We presented this case since brain abscess has a high mortality rate in neutropenic patients and it was treated successfully by ampirical antimicrobial approach.


The ubiquity and familiarity of Ethernet has caused a surge of interest in convergence technologies over Ethernet. In order for some applications to migrate to an Ethernet network, enhancements needed to be made in the form of data center bridging (DCB). DCB consists of both point-to-point protocols as well as end-toend protocols that all need to be tested to ensure vendors' products work together in a heterogeneous environment to prevent frame loss during congestion. This article discusses what each of the four protocols is and how to test the protocols separately as well as in combination in order to observe the interactions of DCB with different applications. The information provided in this article is drawn from the authors' experience testing DCB over the past three years and in 13 different industry wide interoperability events.


Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity, which requires mastering several languages, frameworks, technology trends (among other aspects) under the pressure of ever-increasing arrays of external libraries and resources. Recommender systems are gaining high relevance in software engineering since they aim at providing developers with real-time recommendations, which can reduce the time spent on discovering and understanding reusable artifacts from software repositories, and thus inducing productivity and quality gains. In this paper, we focus on the problem of mining open source software repositories to identify similar projects, which can be evaluated and eventually reused by developers. To this end, CrossSim is proposed as a novel approach to model open source software projects and related artifacts and to compute similarities among them. An evaluation on a dataset containing 580 GitHub projects shows that CrossSim outperforms an existing technique, which has been proven to have a good performance in detecting similar GitHub repositories.


This paper studies the information processing behavior of a decision maker (DM) who can only process a subset of all the information he receives: before taking an action, the DM receives sequentially a number of signals and decides whether to process or ignore each of them as it is received. The model generates an information processing behavior consistent with that documented in the psychological literature: first, the DM chooses to process signals that are strong; second, his processing strategy exhibits confirmation bias if he has a strong prior belief; third, he tends to process signals that suggest favorable outcomes (wishful thinking). As an application I analyze how the Internet and the induced change in information availability affects the processing behavior of the DM. I show that providing more/better information to the DM could strengthen his confirming bias.


Objective: Identify factors associated with adherence to nasoalveolar molding (NAM) therapy. Design: Retrospective case-control study. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients, Participants: Infants with cleft lip, with or without cleft palate, referred for NAM. One hundred thirty-five patients met criteria. Main Outcome Measure(s): Adherence to NAM therapy, defined as continuous use of the appliance and attendance of NAM adjustment visits. Results: Female sex (OR = 2.85, 95% CI 1.21-6.74), bilateral cleft (OR = 2.88, 95% CI 1.29-6.46), and travel distance (OR = 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.01) were independent predictors of nonadherence. Bilateral clefts (OR = 8.35, 95% CI 2.72-25.64) and public-payer insurance (OR = 3.67, 95% CI 1.13-11.91) for male patients were significantly associated with nonadherence, in our sex-stratified multivariate model. The majority of the families (58%) had public health insurance. Males comprised 77.0% of the cohort. Conclusions: NAM treatment adherence is impaired by bilateral clefts, female sex, increased travel distance, and public insurance. Further studies are warranted to investigate how these factors affect adherence, and to develop interventions to improve adherence in families at risk due to economic or psychosocial barriers.


Aims: To evaluate differences in employment status, during a five-year follow-up period in patients on sick leave due to low back pain who had participated in a trial comparing a brief and a multidisciplinary intervention. Methods: From 2004 to 2008, 535 patients were referred to the Spine Centre at the Regional Hospital in Silkeborg if they had been on sick leave for 3–16 weeks due to low back pain. All patients underwent a clinical examination by a rehabilitation physician and a physiotherapist, and were randomised to either the brief intervention or the multidisciplinary intervention. The outcome was employment status from randomisation to five years of follow-up and was measured by the mean number of weeks in four different groups of employment status (sequence analysis) and a fraction of the number of weeks working (work participation score) that were accumulated over the years. Results: A total of 231 patients were randomised to the brief intervention and 233 patients to the multidisciplinary intervention. No statistically significant differences in the mean weeks spent within the different employment statuses were found between the two intervention groups. After five years of follow-up, participants in the multidisciplinary intervention had a 19% higher risk of not having a work participation score above 75% compared to participants in the brief intervention. Conclusions: After five years of follow-up no differences in employment status were found between participants in the brief and the multidisciplinary intervention.