Purpose: The aim of this study is to demonstrate the functionality of a new design of a thick endocapsular open ring for prevention of anterior capsule opacification (ACO) and posterior capsule opacification (PCO). The Institute of Vision Optics, Greece. Design: Prospective, interventional pilot study. Methods: Fifteen patients (17 eyes) underwent cataract surgery with phacoemulsification. During surgery, a thick endocapsular open ring (peripheral capsule reconstructor) was inserted into the capsular bag, prior to intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Six different models of IOL were implanted. Postoperatively, the degree of ACO and PCO was evaluated and described as none, mild, moderate, or severe. Results: The mean follow-up period was 30 ± 8.06 months (range: 12–36 months). At the last follow-up, mild PCO was observed in only three eyes and mild ACO in three patients. The centration of IOLs was good in all but one eye, which had a tilted IOL. Conclusion: The results of this pilot study suggest that the implantation of a new design of thick endocapsular open ring is feasible and may contribute to the prevention of PCO and ACO after cataract surgery.


Product development process makes use of different models, methods and available technologies to validate product requirements at an early stage. Technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are increasingly finding their application in industry and in the product development process. VR has the potential to support the product evaluation process. However, the costly preparation of VR scenes and the expensive hardware needed for the implementation greatly limits its use in the industry. Normally, the different VR content development and rendering softwares are application specific and offer very limited interoperability or reuse of created content. In addition, the needed hardware usually consists of dedicated visualization computers, tracking sensors, interaction devices and requires a fixed installation space. The motivation for the work presented in this paper is to reduce the preparation effort, hardware cost and remove the need for a fixed installation usually required by VR.
 The High-End smartphones of today from almost all the manufacturers can facilitate the development and stand-alone execution of VR and AR applications. However, the major application of Smartphone Virtual Reality (SVR) is mainly in the entertainment industry i.e. VR-gaming or visualization applications etc. VR until today is thought to be a visualization technology that requires special hardware for its implementation. There are hardly any applications of SVR in the industry today mainly because of two reasons. First, the position tracking against the user movement in the virtual scene is not readily available in SVR. It is usually achieved by attaching additional tracking devices to smartphones. Secondly, the smartphones themselves are not perceived as high-performance devices suitable for industrial simulations.
 This paper discusses a method for efficient preparation of VR-scene along with their behavior simulations and presents a novel SVR application that eliminates the need for expensive VR hardware. The challenges and the requirements from the SVR along with the possible solutions are discussed in detail. The presented SVR application includes product behavior simulation and wireless communication with a laptop. An example product along with its behavior simulation sums-up the application of SVR in the product development process. The position tracking in SVR is implemented and an experiment compares the precision of this position tracking with the tracking achieved by a Head Mounted Display (HMD). The experimental setup along with the achieved results are also discussed. A user survey conducted for the smartphone VR application and the feedback of this survey is also presented in this paper.


The current crisis in Europe is one that superimposed itself over an already existing political crisis - one, which due to the cartelization of existing political parties, Peter Mair (1995) famously referred to as a problem of democratic legitimacy in European political systems between those political parties that govern but no longer represent and those that claim to represent but do not govern. As established cartel-political parties have become complacent about their increasing disconnect with societal demands, the group of parties claiming to represent without governing has intensified its anti-elitist, anti-integrationist and anti-mainstream party message. Indeed many such parties, regardless of ideology (radical right but also radical-left), have surged during the past decade, including in the European Parliament elections of 2009 and especially 2014. The common features of these parties are: a) a radical non-centrist ideological stance (be it on the left or right, authoritarian or libertarian dimensions); b) a populist anti-establishment discourse, c) a commitment to representing specific societal classes; d) an aggressive discourse and behaviour towards political enemies, e) a commitment towards 'restoring true democracy' and f) a tendency to offer simplistic solutions to intricate societal issues. The question this dissertation asks is - what accounts for the rise of left-libertarian as well as right-wing authoritarian tribune parties within such a short period of time during the mid-2000s and early 2010s? I investigate this question through a comparative study of six EU member-states. I argue that both supply-side as well as demand-side factors point towards new anti-establishment parties in the European political arena flourishing due to the perceived presence and even strengthening of the cartel-party system established by mainstream centrist political parties. With respect to the financial crisis in particular, anti-establishment parties are not merely capitalizing on the negative effects of the economy, but also on dissatisfaction with mainstream established parties in general and their unanimous and unwavering commitment to economic orthodoxy and austerity.


Ventilatory Sounds as an Index of Exerciçe Intensity Master of Science 1998 Robert Winston Mertens Graduate Department of Community Health University of Toronto Young male subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups to determine the relationships between the phrases "can hear their breathing" (n=8) / "cm readily hear their breathing" (n=9) and exercise intensity. Peak heart rate (HR peak) and the first ventilatory threshold (VTI) were determined from a maximal cycle ergometry test using a SensorMedics 2900 metabolic cari. On 3 separate occasions, subjects' breathing frequency (BF) and HR were recorded using a strain gauge and electrocardiograph (ECG) respectively while pedalling a cycle ergorneter against an increasing resistance of 150 kpm (25 watts) per minute until they could " c m hear their breathing" or "can readily hear their breathing". The 2 phrases are not significantly different (p<0.05). The exercise intensity chosen by the subjects cyding at a Pace corresponding to "cm hear their breathing" or "can readily hear their breathing" corresponds to their VTI ( ~ ~ 0 . 0 5 ) and 70% of HR peak which is within the recommended range (ACSM 55% to 90% of HR


The aim of this study is the experimental determination of a centre height of moment of drag force Hc, which is assumed to coincide with displacement height d on the basis of Jackson's theory. The authors performed a series of wind tunnel experiments on the spatial distribution of pressure drag acting on walls of rectangular block arrays arranged in staggered, square, and diamond layouts under the conditions of different roughness packing densities, i.e., 7.7%, 17.4%, 30.9%, and 39.1%. Total drag and wind profile of the arrays were preliminarily measured by a floating drag balance and a hot-wire anemometer, and roughness length zo and d were derived using two-parameter fitting in our previous work. Hc values determined by the pressure drag measurement were compared with d of our previous work. The results show that the estimated Hc values for staggered and square arrays are significantly smaller than d except for the data of lowest packing density. Moreover, the zo values estimated using one-parameter fitting and measured Hc are slightly larger than those of previous work for the three arrays with high packing density. Although inconsistencies of Hc and d exist, it is likely that Hc could be explained as d for a range of low packing densities, i.e., below 30.9%. The present results suggest the necessity of both more accurate data of spatially averaged wind profile and direct measurement of Hc for experimental determination of the roughness length and displacement height of a block array.


In recent years there has been a growing interest in moving away from
large centralized power generation toward distributed energy resources. Solar
energy generation presents several benefits for use as a distributed energy
resource, especially as a peaking power source. One drawback of solar energy
sources is the need for energy storage for the system to be utilized for a
significant percentage of the day. One way of avoiding adding energy storage
to a solar generation system while still maintaining high system utilization
is to design the power conversion subsystem to also provide harmonic and reactive
compensation. When the sun is unavailable for generation, the system hardware
can still be utilized to correct for harmonic and reactive currents on the
distribution system. This system's dual-purpose operation solves both the power
generation need, and helps to improve the growing problem of harmonic and reactive
pollution of the distribution system.

 A control method is proposed for a system that provides approximately 1 kW
of solar generation as well as up to 10 kVA of harmonic and reactive compensation
simultaneously. The current control for the active was implemented with the
synchronous reference frame method. The system and controller was designed and
simulated. The harmonic and reactive compensation part of the system was built
and tested experimentally. Due to the delay inherent in the control system from
the sensors, calculation time, and power stage dynamics, the system was unable to
correct for higher order harmonics. To allow the system to correct for all of the
harmonics of concern, a hybrid passive - active approach was investigated by
placing a set of inductors in series with the AC side of the load. A procedure
was developed for properly sizing the inductors based on the harmonic residuals
with the compensator in operation.


After a brief introduction summarizing current climate change knowledge and potential responses, climate ethics are discussed within an historical context and a preliminary timeline of cli- mate ethics is set forth. The paper argues as its central thesis that religion has major roles to play in enabling the world's societies and individuals to take the actions necessary to address climate change causes, impacts, and related issues in an effective and ethical manner. The pivotal roles of religion in issues of climate change and environmental justice hinge primarily on religions' functions in society, ethical teachings, reach and influence, and ability to inspire adherents to action. Religions' ability to inspire action is evaluated empirically against data from 2 compilations of religious activity on climate change. The analysis indicates significant religiously based involvement and influence on ethical aspects of climate change and point to much greater potential for the role of religion in future solutions to the climate crisis.


This article examines the administrative takeover of Hà Nội as a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) state-making project in the immediate postwar period (1954–1960). This administrative takeover happened in two stages. First, the DRV "grafted" onto the existing structure to ensure that public administration continued to function. Later, the system was slowly transformed as Associated State of Vietnam (ASV) state employees were sidelined and replaced by the DRV's own personnel. This article argues that the establishment of the DRV administration in Hà Nội, like other state-making projects that took place throughout the northern territory during the 1950s, was a complicated process that required deliberation, adjustment, and coercion.


Members of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") must establish minimum standards of patent protection that are consistent with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS Agreement"), including for pharmaceutical products. In describing the "flexibilities" accorded pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement, however, the Report of the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines ("HLP Report") strays far from principles of treaty interpretation under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
While the HLP Report correctly identifies and catalogues a number of flexibilities that are explicitly referenced in the patent provisions of the TRIPS Agreement — such as transitional periods for least developed countries or deference relating to patent exhaustion — the HLP Report finds other flexibilities that are derived only from an improper interpretation of the Agreement. Particularly problematic is the HLP Report's encouragement of WTO Members to make use of a broad "freedom to determine" — for themselves — the meaning of substantive requirements of patentability in the interests of advancing short term access to existing medicines.
After describing the principles of treaty interpretation, the article outlines the patent-related TRIPS flexibilities and their limitations, including (i) ex ante flexibilities, relating to the initial grant of the patent, and (ii) ex post flexibilities, relating to the rights conferred to a patent owner. In doing so, the article highlights instances where the HLP Report inappropriately recommends and encourages WTO Members to disregard substantive requirements of the TRIPS Agreement. Finally, the article considers TRIPS-plus protections as an additional "flexibility" available to WTO Members.


Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases found in developing and tropical regions of the world. It is contracted over 200 million times annually, almost 800,000 of which are fatal. The primary causative agent of malaria is Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite of the phylum Apicomplexa, members of which are characterized by an essential non-photosynthetic organelle called the apicoplast. Like the chloroplast and mitochondria, the apicoplast contains its own genome, which needs to be properly replicated with each cell division for continued survival. To date, the gene PfPREX, a novel polyprotein, encodes for the only known helicase, primase, and polymerase involved in replication of the genome of the apicoplast. In this investigation we characterized the fidelity of the DNA polymerase (apPOL) and examined its ability to extend or remove various baseparing mismatches. This allowed us to determine the relative likelihood of each misincorporation. The purpose of these investigations is to better understand apPOL, which is a vital part of the machinery of Plasmodium falciparum as well as a unique polymerase itself. While the other two products of PfPREX have been shown to be related to those of T7 bacteriophage, the most similar polymerase to apPOL is that of DNA polymerase I of Aquifex aeolicus, a thermophilic bacteria. It is also part of a small group of polymerases that are related to but distinct from prototypical A-family DNA polymerases. For these reasons we have chosen to investigate this important DNA polymerase.


The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, the paper provides a synthesis of the potentialities and limits of the dominant economic literature on vertical contractual relations which essentially focuses on the impact of vertical specialization and vertical integration on competition and customers' welfare. Second, the paper proposes a characterization of the different degrees of vertical specialization and vertical integration for key actors in the info-communications industry: equipment suppliers, telcos, ISPs/IAPs, navigation and software/middleware companies, information and content companies. Thirdly, the paper acknowledges a confrontation between, on the one hand, optimal vertical structures exhibited in dominant economic models and, on the other hand, observed vertical structures in the info-communications industry. From this confrontation emerges an important gap between theoretical results and observable trends. The outcome of this paper is thus that the dynamics between vertical relationships and competition requires a new research agenda, especially for researchers concerned with the evolution of the info-communications industry.


We have developed high affinity Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) for neurotransmitters such as dopamine, noradrenaline and caffeine. These polymer particles are mixed within the bulk of screen-printed ink allowing masss-producible bulk modified MIP Screen-Printed Electrodes (MIP-SPEs) to be realised. We have explored different SPE supporting surfaces, such as polyester, tracing paper and household-printing paper. The performance of those MIP-SPEs is studied using the Heat-Transfer Method (HTM), a patented thermal method. With the combination of screen-printing techniques and thermal detection, it is possible to develop a portable sensor platform that is capable of low-cost and straightforward detection of biomolecules on-site. In the future, this unique sensor architecture holds great promise for the use in biomedical devices.


Spain has been the home of some of the world's great artists and has museums and galleries to match. In the cities, narrow twisting old streets suddenly open up to views of the daring modern architecture, as a culture of old and new mix and mingle in the city's nightlife. There are endless tracts of wild and crinkled sierra to explore, as well as some spectacularly rugged stretches of coast. Culturally, the country is littered with superb old buildings, from Roman aqueducts to Gothic cathedrals, and almost every second village has a medieval castle. With more than 115 years exploring the globe with its writers, photographers, and research expeditions, "National Geographic" is uniquely positioned to introduce your readers to everything they need to know about the countries of the world.


New Perspectives (NP) is a program aiming to prevent that youth at onset of a criminal career will develop a persistent criminal behavior pattern. The effects of NP on juvenile delinquency and other life domains are investigated, using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). In the present study at-risk youth aged 12 to 23 years are assigned randomly to the intervention (n = 80, NP) or control condition consisting of care as usual (n = 80, CAU). After screening, random assignment, and consent to participate, adolescents and their parents are requested to complete questionnaires. Data are collected at four points in time: at baseline (before the start of the intervention), after 3 months, after 6 months (post-test) and 1 year after treatment (follow-up). Primary outcome measures include involvement in delinquent behavior and recidivism. Secondary outcome measures include parenting behavior, peer and parents relationships, cognitive distortions. Other measures include nontargeted (by NP) delinquency-related factors such as substance use. Standardized questionnaires and interviews are used to collect data. Moderator analyses will also be conducted in order to examine the influence of ethnic background, gender and age, and delinquency levels on the program effectiveness. The present study will provide new insights in the effects of a prevention program targeting youth at risk for the development of a persistent criminal career.


Major depressive disorder is a frequent and devastating psychological condition with tremendous public health impact. The underlying pathophysiological mechanisms involve abnormal neurotransmission and a relatedly impaired synaptic plasticity. Since general anesthetics are potent modulators of neuronal activity and, thereby, can exert long-term context-dependent impact on neural networks, an intriguing hypothesis is that these drugs could enhance impaired neural plasticity associated with certain psychiatric diseases. Clinical observations over the past few decades appear to confirm this possibility. Indeed, equipotency of general anesthesia alone in comparison with electroconvulsive therapy under general anesthesia has been demonstrated in several clinical trials. Importantly, in the past 15 years, intravenous administration of subanesthetic doses of ketamine have also been demonstrated to have rapid antidepressant effects. The molecular, cellular, and network mechanisms underlying these therapeutic effects have been partially identified. Although several important questions remain to be addressed, the ensemble of these experimental and clinical observations opens new therapeutic possibilities in the treatment of depressive disorders. Importantly, they also suggest a new therapeutic role for anesthetics that goes beyond their principal use in the perioperative period to facilitate surgery.


This radical new reading of British Conservatives' fortunes between the wars explores how the party adapted to the challenges of mass democracy after 1918. Geraint Thomas offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between local and national Conservatives' political strategies for electoral survival, which ensured that Conservative activists, despite their suspicion of coalitions, emerged as champions of the cross-party National Government from 1931 to 1940. By analysing the role of local campaigning in the age of mass broadcasting, Thomas re-casts inter-war Conservatism. Popular Conservatism thus emerges less as the didactic product of Stanley Baldwin's consensual public image, and more concerned with the everyday material interests of the electorate. Exploring the contributions of key Conservative figures in the National Government, including Neville Chamberlain, Walter Elliot, Oliver Stanley, and Kingsley Wood, this study reveals how their pursuit of the 'politics of recovery' enabled the Conservatives to foster a culture of programmatic, activist government that would become prevalent in Britain after the Second World War.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the optimal radiation dose and observe the influence of radiation sterilization on spirulina polypeptide powder. METHODS: The polypeptide powder of spirulina was sterilized using a 60Coγ ray. RESULTS: Radiation sterilization had significant effects on spirulina polypeptide powder, which was more effective with increasing radiation dose. Taking the sterilization rate and peptide content into account, the most effective radiation dose for sterilization was 9 kGy. CONCLUSION: Reasonable conditions for sterilization have the effect of sterilization on spirulina polypeptide powder.


Enhancement of the activation of GABAA receptors is a common feature of many sedative and hypnotic drugs, and it is probable that the GABAA receptor complex is a molecular target for these drugs in the mammalian central nervous system. We set out to elucidate the role of the two predominant (α1 and β2) subunits of GABAA receptor in sedative drug action by studying mice lacking these two subunits. Both α1 (−/−) and β2 (−/−) null mutant mice showed markedly decreased sleep time induced by nonselective benzodiazepine, flurazepam, and GABAA agonist, 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroisoxazolo(5,4-c)pyridin-3-ol. The sleep time induced by the β-selective drug etomidate was decreased only in β2 (−/−) knockout mice. In contrast, α1 (−/−) mice were more resistant to the α1-selective drug zolpidem than β2 (−/−) or wild-type animals. Knockout mice of both strains were similar to wild-type mice in their responses to pentobarbital. The duration of loss of the righting reflex produced by ethanol was decreased in male mice for both null alleles compared with wild-type mice, but there were no differences in ethanol-induced sleep time in mutant females. Deletion of either the α1 or β2 subunits reduced the muscimol-stimulated 36Cl− influx in cortical microsacs suggesting that these mutant mice have reduced number of functional brain GABAA receptors. Our results show that removal of either α1 or β2subunits of GABAA receptors produce strong and selective decreases in hypnotic effects of different drugs. Overall, these data confirm the crucial role of the GABAA receptor in mechanisms mediating sedative/hypnotic effects.


A supersonic atomizing nozzle is the quite vital component in manufacturing superfine copper powders. The performances of the nozzle have a extremely major influence on the properties of copper powders. Base on the manufacturing technological conditions and the structural features of supersonic nozzle, the mathematical models of fluid field in the supersonic nozzle can be established. According to the method of computational fluid dynamics, the control equation is dispersed. The gridding is created by the means of free division. The finite element equations are set up by Galerkin. Then the impact of nozzle structures on airflow is showed. In the same situation of fluid parameters, the out velocity becomes higher by changing the nozzle structure. The result proves that quadric accelerating nozzle is better.


Like other ancient texts, the human genome has been copied many times. With three billion letters to reproduce, errors creep in. Some defective versions are destined not to be copied again; they are lethal mutations. But some variants are harmless, or at least not fatal, just as some spellings are slightly different but mean the same thing: Americans write "favor," Britons "favour." Other spellings affect the meaning of the sentence in which they occur--in genomic terms, the gene--but leave it in a more or less readable and useful form. Molecular biologists call such common single letter variations SNPs--short for single nucleotide polymorphisms. Nucleotides are the four letters of the genomic alphabet, A, T, C and G; "polymorphism" is from the Greek and means simply many forms. Scientists have described roughly two million SNPs in the human genome and are likely to discover a few million more. When you want to look for a gene, SNPs are like marker flags. For one person, flag number 1,000,000 might be green and number 1,000,001 yellow, while another person may have different colors in either or both locations. Suppose we want to find genes associated with a common, complex disease such as diabetes. You might want to get two groups of people--those who have type 2 diabetes and those who do not--and check to see whether they have any systematic differences in any of their flag colors. If most people in one group have a yellow flag in position 1,000,000 while most of those in the other group have a blue flag at the same spot, a gene linked to the disease may lurk nearby on the genome. Of course, with two million flags to check, searching for genes can be excruciatingly laborious. The solution? A Haplotype Genome Project. It turns out that for long stretches of the genome, your flag color at one position may also predict the color of the next hundred or so flags. Why? Because your ancestors tended to inherit that stretch of the genome, flags and genes included, as one continuous segment. The variations they introduced into the genome, like an ancient scholar copying a text, tend to be reproduced by their descendants. These stretches are haplotypes--chunks of genomic text that appear repeatedly within a given population. For every newly discovered haplotype that covers, say, 100 SNPs, we would only have to determine the color of a single flag to know the color of all of them. If we could do that for the entire genome (an unlikely scenario) we could reduce a hundredfold the number of flags we need to track down--from two million to twenty thousand. …


The Arctic is directly impacted by climate change. The increase in air temperature drives the thawing of permafrost and an increase in coastal erosion and river discharge. This leads to a greater input of sediment and organic matter into coastal waters, which substantially impacts the ecosystems, the subsistence economy of the local population, and the climate because of the transformation of organic matter into greenhouse gases. Yet, the patterns of sediment dispersal in the nearshore zone are not well known, because ships do not often reach shallow waters and satellite remote sensing is traditionally focused on less dynamic environments. The goal of this study is to use the extensive Landsat archive to investigate sediment dispersal patterns specifically on an exemplary Arctic nearshore environment, where field measurements are often scarce. Multiple Landsat scenes were combined to calculate means of sediment dispersal and sea surface temperature under changing seasonal wind conditions in the nearshore zone of Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk in the western Canadian Arctic since 1982. We use observations in the Landsat red and thermal wavebands, as well as a recently published water turbidity algorithm to relate archive wind data to turbidity and sea surface temperature. We map the spatial patterns of turbidity and water temperature at high spatial resolution in order to resolve transport pathways of water and sediment at the water surface. Our results show that these pathways are clearly related to the prevailing wind conditions, being ESE and NW. During easterly wind conditions, both turbidity and water temperature are significantly higher in the nearshore area. The extent of the Mackenzie River plume and coastal erosion are the main explanatory variables for sediment dispersal and sea surface temperature distributions in the study area. During northwesterly wind conditions, the influence of the Mackenzie River plume is negligible. Our results highlight the potential of high spatial resolution Landsat imagery to detect small-scale hydrodynamic processes, but also show the need to specifically tune optical models for Arctic nearshore environments.


Pneumococcal serine‐rich repeat protein (PsrP) is a pathogenicity island‐encoded adhesin that mediates attachment to lung cells. It is a member of the serine‐rich repeat protein family and the largest bacterial protein known. PsrP production by S. pneumoniae was confirmed by immunoblotting and a truncated version of the protein was determined to be glycosylated. Using isogenic psrP mutants complemented with various PsrP constructs and competitive inhibition assays with recombinant proteins, we determined that PsrP requires an extended SRR2 domain for function and that adhesion is mediated through amino acids 273–341 of its basic region (BR) domain. Affinity chromatography, immunoprecipitation, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), fluorescent‐activated cell sorting (FACS) and immunofluorescent colocalization studies determined that PsrP binds to Keratin 10 (K10) on the surface of lung but not nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. Unglycosylated K10 bound to wild type but not psrP deficient pneumococci; suggesting that unlike other serine‐rich repeat proteins, PsrP‐mediated adhesion is independent of lectin activity. Finally, mice immunized with recombinant (r)PsrPBR had significantly less bacteria in their blood and improved survival versus controls following intranasal challenge. We conclude that the BR domain of PsrP binds to K10 in a lectin‐independent manner, that K10 is expressed on lung cells and that vaccination with rPsrPBR is protective against pneumococcal disease.


This research was designed to investigate the perceptions of teachers and students on the high rate failure rate in mathematics at Uganda ordinary certificate of education in Mayuge district. The study was conducted in Imanyiro sub-county, Mayuge District. It's one of the districts which registers high failure rates in mathematics at U.C.E.The researcher used a descriptive survey design with quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study covered a total of 108 respondents, representing 90 students, 12 teachers and 8 head teachers. This sample was considered representative and manageable, given the limited time for the research. The researcher adopted largely quantitative research methods in collection of data. Qualitative methods were also used to some extent to provide secondary data. A questionnaire was used as the main instrument in data collection. Data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative method, which reduced data to percentages and frequencies. This study revealed that students with high confidence in mathematics perform better than students with low confidence. This suggested that high confidence in mathematics is an important outcome on its own. The study further revealed that the studying environment in class impacts on achievement in mathematics for both boys and girls, and the teacher is instrumental in creating a conducive classroom setting and stimulating atmosphere for constructive learning of mathematics. However, the study also revealed no significant gender differences in students' interest in mathematics. The study recommends that there is need to strengthen the existing educational policies especially those of minimum requirement as formulated to enhance students facilitation to learn. This is through provision of instruction materials, textbooks and ensuring that teachers are qualified and work as a team to enhance achievement in mathematics.


The international discussion of the communist hypothesis has quickly developed into a debate regarding the adequate party-form for radical politics today. This article argues that the stakes of this development become clearer when it is related to the central debates of the earlier alternative globalization movement. The article then explores some significant models of organization that emerged in previous periods in which the renewal of communist politics was closely linked to attempts to rethink the party-form: the notion of the 'compositional party' of Italian operaismo, Lukács's concepts of a 'political subject', and Gramsci's 'modern Prince.' The modern Prince is argued to represent the type of 'expansive' party-form that might be able to respond productively to the challenges of contemporary political movements.


Italy was the first Western country to experience a major coronavirus outbreak and consequently faced large-scale health and socio-economic challenges. The Italian government enforced a wide set of homogeneous interventions nationally, despite the differing incidences of the virus throughout the country.

Objective: The paper aims to analyse the policies implemented by the government and their impact on health and non-health outcomes considering both scaling-up and scaling-down interventions.
Methods: To categorise the policy interventions, we rely on the comparative and conceptual framework developed by Moy et al. (2020). We investigate the impact of policies on the daily reported number of deaths, case fatality rate, confirmation rate, intensive care unit saturation, and financial and job market indicators across the three major geographical areas of Italy (North, Centre, and South). Qualitative and quantitative data are gathered from mixed sources: Italian national and regional institutions, National Health Research and international organisations. Our analysis contributes to the literature on the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing policy interventions and their outcomes.

Results: Our findings suggest that the strictness and timing of containment and prevention measures played a prominent role in tackling the pandemic, both from a health and economic perspective. Technological interventions played a marginal role due to the inadequacy of protocols and the delay of their implementation.

Conclusions: Future government interventions should be informed by evidence-based decision making to balance, the benefits arising from the timing and stringency of the interventions against the adverse social and economic cost, both in the short and long term.


Isothermal nucleic acid amplification is a simple process that rapidly and efficiently accu - mulates nucleic acid sequences at constant temperature such as 37 and 42°C. Isothermal nucleic acid amplification approach offers several advantages over temperature circle methods (such as PCR) including rapid assay results, cost-effectiveness, and portabil -ity. Two detection approaches based on circular strand-displacement polymerization reaction (CSDPR) were presented in this chapter for sensitive and specific thalassemia gene detection. One is a lateral flow strip biosensor based on CSDPR for semi-quanti - tative detection of thalassemia DNA. The other is a spectrophotometric DNA detection approach based on CSDPR for quantitative detection of thalassemia DNA.


A discrete event simulation methodology was developed to assist in managing test wafer usage in semiconductor fabs. The purpose of modeling test wafer usage is to predict the number of new test wafers required, test wafer WIP levels, and how to downgrade test wafers to reduce costs of purchasing new test wafers. The test wafer simulation methodology is a detailed yet accurate way to predict test wafer consumption. The methodology has been implemented in a 200 mm development facility, resulting in considerable cost savings by reducing the overall WIP levels of test wafers.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic illness with psychic and somatic symptoms that do not respond uniformly in the first weeks of treatment. Methods: A post-hoc analysis of pooled data from five placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized studies in non-depressed GAD patients treated with venlafaxine extended release (ER) or placebo was performed to determine the temporal response of psychic and somatic symptoms to treatment over 8 weeks. Two of the studies included extension phases of up to 6 months, the results of which were also analyzed here. Results: The earliest symptoms to respond included both psychic symptoms (anxious mood, tension, behavior at interview) and somatic muscular, cardiovascular, and respiratory symptoms. The last symptoms to respond included the psychic symptoms of insomnia and fear and the somatic sensory, gastrointestinal and autonomic symptoms, perhaps in part because of drug-related side effects. Continuing treatment beyond 8 weeks in venlafaxine ER responders for up to 6 months of total treatment results not only in additional improvement in early-responding symptoms, but also in the improvement of late-responding symptoms, perhaps due in part to the development of tolerance to antidepressant side effects. Conclusion: Serious consideration should be given to maintaining partial responders to venlafaxine ER treatment on the same treatment for ≥3–6 months.


Title of Document: IMPLICATIONS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION FOR THREE PACIFIC ARCTIC BIVALVE SPECIES Christina Leigh Goethel, Master of Science, 2016 Directed by: Dr. Jacqueline M. Grebmeier Marine-Estuarine and Environmental Science Sea ice retreat, seawater warming, and now ocean acidification are recognized as physical stressors impacting the productive benthic communities on the shallow continental shelves of the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas, particularly calcifying organisms like bivalves that are prey items for benthivorous predators including walruses, eiders, and bearded seals. Using time-series benthic faunal collections and laboratory experiments, my research: 1) evaluates the abundance and dominant size class of Macoma calcarea in the northern Bering Sea and the southeastern Chukchi Sea during summer months from 1998-2014, and 2) investigates the effects of ocean acidification on growth and oxygen consumption of two size classes of three dominant bivalve species, M. calcarea, Astarte montagui, and Astarte borealis. Results suggest a northward shift in bivalve distribution (p < 0.01) and a recent size reduction at both sites. Experimental results suggest that one dominant size class (2.1-3 cm) will be more susceptible to ocean acidification. IMPLICATIONS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION FOR THREE PACIFIC ARCTIC BIVAVLE SPECIES


This action plan chronicles the threats faced by wild orchids, but more importantly to critical habitats that host extraordinarily high orchid diversity and endemicity. It explores and recommends specific ways that national and local government, legislators, scientists and orchid conservationists as well as growers can all help to reverse present trends. The facts and viewpoints presented in this comprehensive document update and supplement the information available to conservation organisations and agencies through the world so that they can lobby their appropriate government offices more effectively.


Predicting human mobility between locations plays an important role in a wide range of applications and services such as transportation, economics, sociology and other fields. Mobility prediction can be implemented through various machine learning algorithms that can predict the future trajectory of a user relying on the current trajectory and time, learning from historical sequences of locations previously visited by the user. But, it is not easy to capture complex patterns from the long historical sequences of locations. Inspired by the methods of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), we propose an augmented Union ConvAttention-LSTM (UCAL) model. The UCAL consists of the 1D CNN that allows capturing locations from historical trajectories and the augmented proposed model that contains an Attention technique with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) in order to capture patterns from current trajectories. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of our proposed methodology that outperforms the existing models.


The comparative study of the blood clearance tests of 99mTc phytate (99mTc-P) and indocyanine green (ICG) was undertaken in liver-injured rats with D-galactosamine (GaIN). The blood clearances of 99mTc-P and ICG in rats decreased with the increase in dose of GaIN and with the time elapsed after GaIN administration. As compared with the blood clearance test of ICG, the blood clearance test of 99mTc-P in rats was found to be more sensitive in detection of the hepatic dysfunction with mildly damaged stage, but to be relatively inaccurate in detection of the hepatic dysfunction with severely damaged stage induced by GaIN.


The standard view of the I celandic saga literature includes a division of the family sagas in two main groups, classical and post-classical, reflected in e.g. the Islenzk fornrit edition and in the most influential scholarly works. The post-classical sagas (like Harðar saga, Þorskfirðinga saga, B arðar saga, Kjalnesinga saga etc.) are treated as a separate, nongenuine group. They are described as later and inferior to classical ones, but also different regarding character, style and thematics. I n particular they are ascribed a non-realistic tendency and a focus on supernatural/fantastic motifs. I n my article I examine one aspect of the concept of "post-classical" family sagas: the dating of them to the time after 1300, and the general idea of separating the two alleged groups regarding time of composition. Traditionallythe family sagas have largely been dated on the basis of their "classical"/"post-classical" character. I f we use more objective basic criteria, like mention of a saga in a clearly dated work, it turns out that there is good reason to date several of the "post-classical" sagas to the "classical" 13th century. This does not necessarily mean that the saga literature as a whole have to be re-dated, but it does mean that a lot of the characteristics of the "postclassical" sagas were well established in saga literature long before 1300 and cannot be used as dating criteria.


The Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) is a new, freely available modeling suite for predicting fate and transport of oil and gas released from subsea accidents. The model is coded in Python and Fortran and is freely available from http://github.com/socolofs/tamoc. The model contains general modules for handling ambient water column data, hydrocarbon equations of state, and bubble and droplet dynamics, including particle rise velocity, shape, surface area, and heat and mass transfer rates. Three simulation models are included with the modeling suite. The Single Bubble Model (SBM) tracks the fate of a single bubble or droplet as it rises through the water column, advected by the three-dimensional ambient currents, and undergoing dissolution and heat transfer. For larger scale releases, two different integral plume models are provided. In weak currents, the Stratified Plume Model (SPM) predicts multiple subsurface intrusions; when currents are larger and the plume trajectory is deflected in the downstream direction, the suite applies the Bent Plume Model (BPM), which yields one intrusion layer and tracks separation between the released oil droplets and gas bubbles and the entrained seawater. All modeling components have been thoroughly validated to available laboratory and field data. This paper demonstrates some of the key validation metrics and applies the model to explore the dynamics of the Deepwater Horizon accident. The hot oil and gas released from the wellhead quickly cool to near ambient temperature (within 25 m above the release), and dissolution is generally faster than gas ebullition. Model predictions agree well with observations from 2010, including calculations for the depth of the intrusion layer and the flux of chemical components to the atmosphere.


The current investigation was carried out to determine the genetic diversity among 207 rice germplasm accessions under rainfed condition by using principal component analysis. In this study, PC1 had the contribution from the traits viz., canopy temperature which accounted 16.063% to the total variability. Flag leaf width and flag leaf area has contributed 15.425% to the total variability which came under PC2. The remaining variability of 12.024%, 9.896%, 8.732% and 6.727% was consolidated in PC3, PC4, PC5 and PC6 by various traits like grain breadth, days to 50% flowering, grain length and flag leaf length. The cumulative variance of 68.867% of total variation among 17 characters was explained by the first six axes. Thus the results of principal component analysis revealed, wide genetic variability exists in this rice germplasm accessions. The genotypes having low canopy temperature will be considered in selection criterion under rainfed condition. The genotypes i.e., IC299924, IC335860, IC336076, IC369303, IC371899, IC376408, IC376584, IC377168, IC381834, IC447325, IC459645, IC577038, IC579065, IC580716 were found in better yield as well as low canopy temperature under rainfed condition. These genotypes can be utilized as donor in breeding programme for rainfed condition.


This study investigated the associations of green tea, coffee, and caffeine consumption with self-report lifetime depression in the Korean population using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In total, 9576 participants (3852 men and 5724 women) aged 19 years or older were selected for the present study. Green tea, coffee, and caffeine consumption levels were assessed with a validated food frequency questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for depression according to green tea, coffee, and caffeine consumption. Frequent green tea consumers (≥3 cups/week) had 21% lower prevalence of depression (OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.63–0.99, p for trend = 0.0101) than green tea non-consumers after adjustment for potential confounders. Likewise, frequent coffee drinkers (≥2 cups/day) had 32% lower prevalence of depression (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.55–0.85, p for trend = 0.0026) than coffee non-drinkers after adjustment for potential confounders. Also, participants in the highest quartile of caffeine consumption had 24% lower prevalence of depression than those in the lowest quartile (OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.62–0.92, p for trend = 0.0032). Frequent consumption of green tea, coffee, or caffeine was associated with a reduced prevalence of self-report lifetime depression in Korean adults. A prospective study and randomized clinical trials should be conducted to confirm the inverse relationships of green tea and coffee consumption with risk of depression.


Background: In 2008, Ayers and Housner published a descriptive analysis of undergraduate PETE programs' application of the 2003 NASPE standards. The shift in emphases from the 2003 to 2008 standards motivated the examination of how U.S. PETE programs address current standards. Purpose: Based upon recommendations for future research, this study investigated how the 2008 NASPE beginning teacher standards are assessed. Technology, diversity, and adapted physical education (APE) were also analyzed. Method: Data were collected from 156 PETE program directors through a revised version of the Ayers and Housner online survey. Results: Programs utilized a variety of methods to assess teacher candidates' (TC) skills, with methods of assessing each standard reported. An increased number of programs required a multicultural/cultural diversity course (77.2%), APE coursework (96.5%), and at least one technology course (91%). Discussion: PETE programs have continued to improve in faculty and TC diversity as well as responding to standards. Future standards must be written to address identified weaknesses. Subscribe to TPE


In recent times, both researchers and policymakers have identified the need to develop statistics on cooperatives that can be compared at the international level. This need has also been discussed at the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) held in Geneva in October 2013, which recognized the importance of having more comprehensive and internationally comparable statistics on cooperatives by adopting a resolution for advancing work on the topic (International Labour Organisation [ILO], 2013). This paper summarizes the main results of the project "Terms of References for National Practices in Developing Statistics on Cooperatives" that is part of the series of initiatives undertaken by the ILO to better understand how data on cooperatives are collected and realised across the world. The project aimed at deepening the data collection methodologies and understanding the data collection process and the role of the institutions involved, the sources of data and the definitions, questions sets, classification schemes, methods and tools applied to collect and analyse data on cooperatives in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Philippines, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The paper presents a synthesis of these country practices putting them into a common framework with proposals for a definition of cooperatives, as well as recommendations for a classification system and methods to release statistics on cooperatives.


The relative burden due to non communicable diseases (NCD) is increasing worldwide and has been shown to be generally greater for men than women. The objective of this paper is to describe gender differences in NCD mortality rates and trends in Brazil. Standardized mortality rates for the years 1991-2010 were corrected for sub notification and ill defined causes of death and calculated using sex specific five year age grades. Trends in standardized mortality were studied using joinpoint regression models. In 2010, rates for NCDs (men: 479/100000; women: 333/100000) and for most major NCD categories (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and other chronic diseases) were higher for men than women. Age standardized mortality rates declined for both sexes over the period, beginning in 1993 and attenuating in more recent years. From its peak in 1993 to 2010, the unconditional probability of dying between the ages of 30 and 70 due to one of the four principal NCD groupings decreased for men from 32.3% to 22.8%; for women, from 23.5% to 15.4%. In conclusion, age standardized NCD mortality, though decreasing dramatically over the past two decades in Brazil, remains notably greater in men than in women and, this difference, in relative terms, will increase if these trends continue.


A major obstacle facing in-situ bioremediation of chlorinated solvents is the efficient and reliable delivery of carbon substrates to the indigenous microbes in the subsurface. The substrates act as electron donors for the reductive dechlorination of the solvents under anaerobic conditions. A novel solution to this problem is being investigated by atomising the liquid substrate into micron-sized droplets using medical jet nebulisers and an ultrasonic humidifier that may then be transported to the subsurface using sparging gases. Extensive droplet size distribution measurements of atomised carbon substrate, transported through columns of granular soil under both dry and field capacity saturation conditions have been taken using a laser diffraction particle sizer. Droplet size distribution of transported atomised substrate was found to be influenced by both porous medium particle size and degree of saturation. The results demonstrate the transportation of 1-12μm droplets through fine gravel and coarse sand and the consequent effect on the droplet size distribution of the transported substrate.


Gas turbine blades and vanes face very severe operating conditions - high temperature and pressure which necessitates the creation of complex cooling and component designs, resulting in high computational cost. The ability to predict cyclic failure in these components is therefore a critical activity that has been historically performed using 3D commercial finite element (FE) codes for baseload conditions. However, these codes take substantial time and resources which restricts their application in failure prediction at variable operating conditions. Newer data-driven techniques such as machine learning (ML) provide a valuable tool that can be utilized to predict the occurrence of cyclic failure for these conditions with minimal time and resource requirement.
 In this paper, a machine learning based surrogate model is developed to predict the cyclic failure of a radially cooled turbine blade. The features used as input to machine learning model are turbine inlet temperature, coolant inlet temperature, hot gas mass flow rate, cooling air mass flow rate and blade materials. The output for the model is a binary variable depicting the incident of component failure. 70% of the FE data points are used to train the ML model while the remaining are used for testing. A comparative study between Logistic Regression, Random Forest, K-nearest neighbor, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) was performed to select the most accurate algorithm for the classification model. Finally, the results show that the Random Forest and SVM algorithms predicts failure with the highest f-1 score of 0.92. The model also demonstrates that Turbine Inlet temperature has the highest importance amongst the input features followed by blade material. Additionally, this methodology offers a tremendous advantage for failure prediction by reducing analysis time from multiple hours to a few seconds, rendering this technique especially beneficial for time sensitive business decisions in the gas turbine industry.


Since 2001, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies (Wireless RERC) has taken an active role in promoting accessibility of emergency alerting systems for Americans with disabilities. Among federal government initiatives is a new rule that will take effect in 2010, requiring that emergency alerts be sent using Short Messaging Service (SMS) from all cell phone towers in areas affected by emergencies. This paper shares consumer input on wireless emergency communication via analysis of data gathered through the Survey of User Needs (SUNs) conducted by the Wireless RERC since 2001 and through focus groups conducted with deaf individuals.


ABSTRACT Much has changed since Frunze was renamed Bishkek in 1991 and became the capital of independent Kyrgyzstan. Though it was once considered to be among the 'greenest' and most 'orderly' cities of the Soviet Union, today many of its long-term residents complain about the new settlements (novostroiki) that have emerged during the last two decades. To Bishkek's urbanites, the recent arrival of migrants is not associated with an escape from rural poverty and a rightful struggle for civic rights, but indicates a massive cultural and aesthetic degradation of familiar urban life. In this article, beyond contesting narratives of cosmopolitan nostalgia vs. legitimate belonging, I investigate how urban practitioners in fact produce and deal with different spaces in the city. My ethnographic accounts not only identify social avoidance as an essential pulse of Bishkek's current rhythm, but also illustrate that after a period of post-rural socialization previously stigmatized migrants may manage to smoothly blend into urban spatial flows and lifestyles.


Forty soils from top layer (0-20 cm) were sampled in different regions of China and Kjeldahl, HF-Kjeldahl and double treatment methods were used to determine total N, total N plus fixed ammonium, and total N and the residual fixed ammonium left in soil after determination of total N, respectively, to evaluate if Kjeldahl's method could include the fixed N by soil minerals. The fixed N by soil minerals was measured by Silva-Bremner procedure to make comparison. Results showed that total N determined by Kjeldahl's method averaged 1.622 g kg-1, while that by HF- Kjeldahl's method 1.633 g kg-1, and that by double procedure 1.666 g kg-1. Obviously results obtained by the last two methods, particularly the double treatment method, were higher than Kjeldahl's, showing that Kjeldahl's method could not or not fully release N fixed by 2:1 minerals in soil, and therefore the determined results would not be the true "total N" for soils that contained large amount of the fixed N. The mineral fixed N averaged 166 mg kg-1, accounting for 10.1% of the total N while the residual fixed N amounted to 30.4 mg kg-1, equivalent to 1.9% of the total N or 18.3% of the total fixed N. The residual fixed N was correlated neither to organic matter nor to total N, but closely related to the total fixed N with a correlation coefficient of 0.598 (n=40), showing that the fixed N was the sole source of the residues. Soils having high residues of the fixed N were just those containing high fixed N, and soils containing high fixed N were just those containing high amount of 2:1minerals. As a result, Kjeldahl's method could not give a true value of the total N for such soils. However, for those containing small or little amount of 2:1 minerals, there was no significant difference in results measured by these methods.


In the recent period several studies have pointed to the growing economic differentiation in southern Italy. They call particular attention to several areas of local dynamism which are emerging. However, the role of social and political factors is not clear. Some authors try to revise the classical concept of clientelism, in order to propose different clientelistic "styles" and to identify among these, which are cases of supported economic development. Nevertheless, this perspective doesn't clarify how these particularistic mechanisms work. This article tries to expound the relation between political variables and economic development through a comparative study of four local systems in southern Italy (Avellino, Salerno, Termoli and San Severo). Even though the author herself argues that the role of local politics is crucial to explain the South's internal economic differentiation, she adopts a different point of view from that mentioned above. According to the concept of "selective modernisation" advanced by Richard Bendix, local politics may have a positive role if it is "modern" politics, that is it provides local collective goods and it's relatively universalistic. The main hypothesis of the research is that two factors of dynamic local systems may have affected a process of modernisation: social and political cohesion. The article tries to deepen these conceptual categories and their implications for local economic development.


Infrared reflectance spectra have been obtained for the meteorites Shergotty and Allan Hills (ALHA) 77005, a unique achondrite apparently related to the shergottites. Comparisons with the reflectance spectra of eucrites and asteroid 4 Vesta indicate that the surface of Vesta is covered with eucrite-like basalts and that, if shergottite-like basalts are present on the surface of Vesta, they must be a minor rock type. The paradox that both the eucrite and shergottite parent bodies should presently exist is examined. The preferred solution is that both eucrites and shergottites are derived from Vesta, and that this asteroid is compositionally and isotopically heterogeneous; however, other possible solutions cannot be ruled out.


A sector programmable EEPROM memory capable of emulating the byte programmable functionality of full-featured byte programmable EEPROMs. The EEPROM memory incorporates an on-chip write cache (83) used as a buffer between byte level data entered by the user system and word level data written to the main memory core. The EEPROM main memory core is divided into memory pages (32) with each memory page further divided into sub-page sectors (59-62), and each sub-page sector holding a multitude of multi-byte data words. The sub-page sectors within a memory page can be individually or collectively subjected to a program and erase cycle. The EEPROM memory incorporates an ECC unit (73) used to recover and refresh lost data in the memory core. The EEPROM memory is also capable of interruptible load cycles.


In the present work, we are concerned with heterogeneous material systems that have multiple distinct materials and void phases, and associated interfaces, for which the geometric scale and specific morphology at the micro/nano-level play an essential role in the global properties, functional behavior, and material system performance. Such heterogeneous combinations of materials that are engineered to function together to create unique properties and performance that is a function of their interaction are called material systems. Engineered heterogeneous material systems are at the heart of revolutionary advances in devices that convert and store energy (e.g., batteries, fuel cells, solar cells, capacitors, and many electro-optical devices), and other membrane-based devices used in chemical and fuel processing, sequestration, and extraction. In recent years, advances in a variety of additive manufacturing methods and techniques have made it possible to design, control, and fabricate specific micro- or nano-structures to achieve prescriptive functional performance of the material systems and devices in which they appear. However, systematic multiphysics analysis methods properly set on field equations that represent the local details are not available, so that first-principles understandings and designs of those materials are not properly founded. Recently, the DoE established an Energy Frontiers Research Center for Physics Based Nanostructure Design and Fabrication of Heterog eneous F unctional M aterials, called the HeteroFoaM Center, to address this and related questions. The present paper presents some initial findings of part of that effort related specifically to durability. For the present study, our approach to the question of durability of engineered material systems will be to construct a damage model, wherein damage is defined as (and by) changes in material state as a function of some generalized time variable that defines the intensity and history of the applied conditions that drive those changes. To bring the reality of engineering practice to our discussion, the durability concepts will be related to the damage and functional degradation observed in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) during service. SOFCs convert the chemical energy of fuel to electrical power. This focus will serve to define the scope of our discussion, which will be the durability of complex, heterogeneous material systems as measured by degradation of their functional performance defined by mechanical, thermal, and electrical behavior.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Consumerism is a term with a rather strange metamorphosis. It first began to appear in economic literature in the 1930s and 1940s. It then expressed a new concern for consumption problems. Since standard economic theory contended that consumption was the end-all of economic activity, a final end in the analysis of Adam Smith, little could or need be said about it. In the standard texts prepared for students it was relegated to the back of the book in no more than two chapters. Wesley Mitchell, in an influential essay in the AER in 1912 entitled "The Backward Art of Spending Money," argued that consumption matters in the society as a whole were neglected. Consumer economists such as Leland Gordon, in his long-used and many-editioned Consumer Economics, wrote of developing a "technology of consumption." This theme was prevalent within the consumer movement of the 1930s and 1940s. The marketing movement, at which much of the consumer advocates directed their attention, began to refer to this consumer-centered movement as "consumerism," only their use of the term was a pejorative one and was accompanied with a certain cynicism. In the book Confronting Consumption, edited by Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca, the term "consumerism" as used should not be confused with any of these earlier meanings of the term. Their book of essays is directed to what they consider an imminent danger, the mass-consumption society already within the so-called developed economies and now just beginning to threaten less developed ones. That imminent danger is one that threatens the very existence of the earth. The book consists of essays by seven other contributors in addition to the three editors, but the bulk of the text consists of contributions by the three editors. The general theme is laid out in the first two or three chapters. The threat to Earth stems from the mass consumption that threatens not only resource depletion but also accumulated waste. Resources are finite, and space in which to put the waste, waste sinks in the language of the authors, are limited. The finite nature of earth space and the geometric explosion of goods and waste is the source of the problem. And it is axiomatic that we must reduce consumption drastically. The term they use


Objectives
The association between caffeine and pregnancy loss remains controversial due to limitations of prior studies such as relying on self-reported intake only, exposure measurement after clinical confirmation of pregnancy, and potential time-varying confounding by nausea/vomiting and lifestyle factors, which may be affected by prior caffeine exposure. Thus, our aim was to evaluate associations of preconception and early pregnancy serum caffeine, paraxanthine, and theobromine, self-reported intake of caffeinated beverages, and risk of pregnancy loss among 1228 reproductive-age women attempting pregnancy in the EAGeR trial during 2007-2011.

Methods
We estimated HRs and 95% CIs for any pregnancy loss, hCG loss (prior to ultrasound confirmation), and clinical loss (after ultrasound confirmation) according to caffeinated beverage intake and caffeine biomarkers measured at preconception and the 8th week of gestation using weighted adjusted Cox proportional hazards models.

Results
At preconception, 67%, 28%, and 9% of women reported any intake of caffeinated sodas, coffee, and tea, respectively. Preconception total caffeinated beverage intake of ≥3 vs. 0 cups/day was associated with 85% (95% CI: 1.18, 2.94) higher risk of any pregnancy loss, driven primarily by associations for hCG loss (HR: 2.88 (95% CI: 1.20, 6.91)). Caffeinated soda intake was associated with hCG loss (≥2 vs. <2 cups/day HR: 2.11 (95% CI: 1.14, 3.89)), whereas caffeinated coffee intake was associated with clinical loss (≥2 vs. <2 cups/day HR: 1.27 (95% CI: 1.02, 2.90)). Likewise, any detectable level of serum caffeine (>0.2 vs. ≤0.2 ng/mL) at preconception was strongly associated with hCG loss (HR: 4.51 (95% CI: 1.36, 14.91)). Serum caffeine, paraxanthine, and theobromine measured at the 8th week of gestation were not associated with risk of loss.

Conclusions
Collectively, these data suggest that caffeine intake prior to pregnancy may increase risk of pregnancy loss, particularly in early gestation.

Funding Sources
Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD.


For the pricing of interest rate derivatives various stochastic interest rate models are used. The shape of such a model can take very different forms, such as direct modelling of the probability distribution (e.g. a generalized beta function of second kind), a short-rate model (e.g. a Hull–White model) or a forward rate model (e.g. a LIBOR market model). This article describes the general structure of optimization in the context of interest rate derivatives. Optimization in finance finds its particular application within the context of calibration problems. In this case, calibration of the (vector-valued) state of a given stochastic model to some target state, which is determined by available relevant market data, implies a continuous optimization of the model parameters such that a global minimum of the distance between the target state and the model state is achieved. In this article, a novel numerical algorithm for the optimization of parameters of stochastic interest rate models is presented. The optimization algorithm operates within the model parameter space on an adaptive lattice with a number of lattice points per dimension which is both low and fixed. In this way, a considerable performance gain is achieved, as compared to algorithms working with non-adaptive lattices requiring increasing and/or large numbers of lattice points. As compared to standard algorithms, e.g. those of the Levenberg–Marquardt type, the presented adaptive lattice algorithm also reduces the danger of getting trapped near a wrong local minimum. As a numerical example, its application is demonstrated by optimizing volatility and mean reversion parameters of the Hull–White model, such that the latter becomes calibrated to the swaption volatility market relevant for a given OTC (over-the-counter, i.e. not exchange traded) bond option.


The aim of this project is to improve the fault-tolerant data communication setup that we proposed previously. From the verification tests for this setup, which integrates two basic schemes, we observed that performance could be very sluggish sometimes, due to time constraints imposed by problematic routing among communicating objects and possible message retransmissions. These constraints, if not relaxed, would restrict the possibility of building useful object-based real-time systems over the Internet. The two schemes in the extant setup are namely (a) consecutive message transmissions to improve the communication reliability, and (b) adaptive buffer management to prevent message losses at the reception side due to buffer overflow. Careful analyses of the previous test data have revealed that inclusion of load balancing would make the setup more responsive. With this motivation in mind, a load-balancing model is proposed in this paper. The different experiments in this project involved both local and remote Internet sites. The preliminary test results indicate that the proposed load balancing scheme can indeed enhance system responsiveness by relaxing time constraints. Therefore, further work and deeper investigations in the same direction are worthwhile.


ICTs such as mapping platforms, algorithms, and databases are a central component of how society responds to the threats posed by disasters. However, these systems have come under increasing criticism in recent years for prioritizing technical disciplines over insights from the humanities and social science and failing to adequately incorporate the perspectives of at-risk or affected communities. This paper describes a unique month-long workshop that convened interdisciplinary experts to collaborate on projects related to flood data. In addition to findings about the practical accomplishment of interdisciplinary collaboration, we offer three interrelated contributions. First, we position interdisciplinarity as a critical practice and offer a detailed example of how we staged this process. We then discuss the benefits to interdisciplinarity of expanding the range of temporal logics normally deployed in design workshops. Finally, we reflect on approaches to evaluating the event's contributions toward sustained critique and reform of expert practice.


This paper presents a system level for the effective and rapid design and evaluation of a complete electric vehicle system. Several critical components are examined including the mechanical model of the vehicle, the electric motor (with its associated power electronic components) and the energy storage system.A Brushless DC (BLDC) motor Saber model that integrates the DQ axis transformations within the electro-mechanical motor model is developed that facilitates fast and accurate characterization of the behaviour of the vehicle with a realistic drive cycle and aerodynamic model. The simulated results presented show that the novel Saber model can be a viable solution for behavioural high speed analysis of an electric vehicle drive train. The impact on total vehicle simulation times is significant, with a major reduction in simulation times allowing multiple scenarios and optimization of both the system and electronic control to be rapidly undertaken.


Driven by the wide range of new material properties offered by multi-material 3D printing, there is emerging need to create predictive material models for these materials. A data driven process for estimating nonlinear material model is presented in this paper. In contrast with classical methods which derive the engineering stress-strain relationship assuming constant cross-section area and fixed length of a specimen, the proposed approach takes full advantage of 3D geometry of the specimen to estimate the material models. Give a hypothetical material model, virtual tensile tests are performed using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method, and the parameters of the material model are estimated by minimizing the discrepancies of the virtual responses and the experimental results. The detailed material models, numerical algorithms as well as the optimization approaches are presented and finally preliminary results are offered.


This continuing feature updates readers on recent developments in cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. Cardiovascular disease remains the number 1 killer in the United States, and more clinical outcome trials have been conducted in cardiology than in any other field of medicine. Given this rapidly expanding knowledge base, if pharmacists stay current with developments in drug therapy, they can have a significant impact on prevention and treatment.


In two experiments, we studied the effects of (a) the extent to which group members are risk seeking in comparison with others in the group and (b) group member prototypicality (the extent to which individuals hold group-typical risk preferences) on the likelihood that group members will take the lead in risky decision making. Participants were led to believe that they engaged in a four-person group discussion and received bogus feedback about their own risk preferences, the risk preferences of the other group members, and the risk preferences of their group as a whole. In Experiment 2, we also manipulated the framing of the decision problem (gain vs. loss frame). Results supported the hypotheses that (a) more risk seeking members are more likely to take the lead and (b) prototypical members are more likely to take the lead when the problem facing the group is ambiguous (i.e., when group risk preferences and decision framing are incongruent), whereas nonprototypical members are more likely to take the lead when the problem facing the group is relatively clear-cut (i.e., when group risk preferences and decision framing are congruent). Copyright 2000 Academic Press.


This paper is based on a study within PE teacher program inSweden. The starting point and the motive for the study are a number of issues concerning PE teacher education programme. Research shows that the PE teacher education programme has inadequate links to science, that it finds it difficult to challenge traditional gender patterns, and that the students' experiences of their own sporting activities are more important than the education programme for what knowledge is considered valuable (MacDonald et. al 2002; Brown, 2005; Tsangaridou 2008). The aim of the study is to investigate what happens when the experiences and conceptions of physical education (PE) student teachers encounter the value structures of a PE teacher education programme. Special interest is also paid to what conceptions of masculinity and femininity are expressed. The study has a cultural-sociological and gender theoretical perspective. I have found inspiration in Pierre Bourdieu's theories. Bourdieu was not particularly interested in what knowledge is as such, but rather how it originates and is reproduced in a social context, where having the interpretative prerogative means having the power to define knowledge. Bourdieu's work remains an important springboard in investigating how knowledge, norms and values are originated and reproduced in a social context, where having the interpretative prerogative means having the power to define knowledge (Bourdieu, 1990). Analyses from such a perspective make it possible to understand reproduction and change within education in relation to those who are involved in it. Data has been collected using essays written by 52 PE student teachers during their physical education specialisation and in-depth interviews with 8 teacher educators. The data were analysed using Bourdieu's conceptual tools of habitus, taste, capital and doxa. The findings paint a picture of a PE teacher education programme where the orthodox is seldom challenged. PE teacher education is characterised by many of the traditions, norms and values which historically have been its distinguishing features. The "rules of the game" are generally taken for granted and this is based on a shared belief in the value of the education. The structural conditions for the PE teacher education programme seem to be in harmony with the students' habitus. The students expected it to be about sport and although they feel their expectations were fulfilled, they would have liked even more. They are less interested in pedagogical issues and they would have preferred the whole course to provided a guide which they could follow and would result in lessons which worked well and were problem-free. The way they see the subject is largely the same as it was before the course, but what appeared to them to be a "pure" sports subject before the course started has afterwards become more a way of "attaining health through sport". Even if gender and social issues have been part of the education (a much too great a part, according to some students), the gender habitus which students have incorporated and embodied while they were growing up has changed very little during the programme. There seems to be a lack of pedagogical tools for how these issues should be dealt with "in practice". In the eyes of the students, the symbolic capital of PE teacher is to be good at many different sports and have in-depth knowledge of human biology. Both students and teacher educators have problems to put into words what a PE teacher must know and be able to do, and until this can be articulated it is not possible to reflect about, challenge, argue for, or fight over what this knowledge is, and its place in the education programme. The paradox is that practical aspects of the course which are seen as central by both the students and the educators are the losers within the framework of a college of higher education.


Frequent exposure to green space has been linked to positive health and well-being in varying populations. Yet, there is still limited research exploring the restorative benefits associated with differing types of green space use among students living in the university setting. To address this gap, we explored green space use amongst a population of undergraduate students (n = 207) attending a university with abundant opportunities to access the restorative properties of nature. The purpose of this study was to examine the type and frequency of green space interactions that are most strongly associated with indicators of health and well-being, and investigate student characteristics associated with frequent use of green space. Results revealed that students who frequently engage with green spaces in active ways report higher quality of life, better overall mood, and lower perceived stress. Passive green space interactions were not strongly associated with indicators of health and well-being. Having had daily interactions with green space in childhood was associated with frequent green space use as a university student, and identified barriers to green space use included "not enough time," and "not aware of opportunities" These results could assist in the tailoring of "green exercise" interventions conducted in the university setting.


Background: The health expenditure increases over time, while drug cost takes 30% of total health expenditure. An alternative to reduce drug cost is by using generic medicines. This research aimed to count the drug cost saving potential by the use of generic drugs. Methods: A cross sectional non intervention study has been conducted in five hospitals in DKI Jakarta province. Result: Showed the total number of prescription prescribed from all hospitals during 6 months was 72,492. From 1600 prescription analyzed there were 5,891 items of drug. Five of ten drugs which were often prescribed had no generic match. The highest price comparison of branded and generic drugs was in antibiotic groups (59 times). The price of prescription can be reduces Rp.28,733 per each and the cost saving potential from 6 months period in 5 hospitals were Rp.2,082,912,636 by using generic drugs. The Conclusionof this research was generic drug use can save drug cost approximately Rp.28,000 per prescription or equal to about 2 billion for 6 months.


Abstract: Body-size distributions of organisms across environments in space and time are a powerful source of information on ecological and evolutionary processes. However, most studies only focus on selected parameters of size distributions (e.g., central tendency or extremes) and rarely take into account entire distributions and how they are affected by the collection style and facies. Here we analyze the impact of facies, region, taxonomy, and collection style over size distributions using diameter as a proxy of Late Devonian ammonoids in their entirety using non-metric multidimensional scaling and PERMANOVA based on Kolmogorov distance. The effects are then compared with effects on mean sizes. In all analyses, lithology was the dominant effect, with sizes greater by 59% in marls and by 33% in limestones, as compared to black shales. The effect of complete sampling style was a decrease in size by 11%. Kurtosis was an important parameter differentiating size distributions, with platykurtic distributions in marls and leptokurtic distributions in limestones, suggesting that this parameter may reflect different degrees of time averaging. Most size distributions were positively skewed, but most strongly in marls. Complete sampling led to skewness values close to zero (symmetrical distributions) and high kurtosis. Samples from higher paleolatitudes were on average smaller, but contained outliers with the largest sizes, highlighting the need to analyze entire distributions. Lithology and collection differences need to be accounted for when evaluating size differences across space (polar gigantism) and time (Lilliput effect). Similarly, differences in facies may affect species determination.


One of the challenges in the current COVID-19 crisis is the time and cost of performing tests especially for large-scale population surveillance. Since, the probability of testing positive in large population studies is expected to be small (<15%), therefore, most of the test outcomes will be negative. Here, we propose the use of agglomerative sampling which can prune out multiple negative cases in a single test by intelligently combining samples from different individuals. The proposed scheme builds on the assumption that samples from the population may not be independent of each other. Our simulation results show that the proposed sampling strategy can significantly increase testing capacity under resource constraints: on average, a saving of ~40% tests can be expected assuming a positive test probability of 10% across the given samples. The proposed scheme can also be used in conjunction with heuristic or Machine Learning guided clustering for improving the efficiency of large-scale testing further. The code for generating the simulation results for this work is available here: https://github.com/foxtrotmike/AS.


One of the basic assumptions underlying all traditional definitions is that diversity is a characteristic of an individual or a group, which is a problematic to groupwork. This paper explores Phases 1 and 2 of a multi-method research project exploring groupworkers' understandings of diversity and how their perceptions impact their approach to group processes, with implications for group practice advancement. The project consists of sequential phases following a mixed-methods design. In the initial phase, in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted individually with 24 groupworkers. While the second phase (phase two) consisted of 4 focus groups involving theoretical and criterion sampling strategies to interview experienced therapeutically-oriented groupworkers in Western and Eastern Canada. The analysis was guided by Glaser and Strauss's (1967) constant comparative method involving open-coding, followed by axial coding, and concluded with selective coding.
Groupworkers reported feeling overwhelmed and, in some cases, "paralyzed" by the complex diversity present in their groups. These findings suggest attention to group diversity renders it potentially more relevant and salient. We also found the levels and complexity of diversity increased as the reflection by groupworkers deepened. In keeping with the traditional aims of groupwork, attending to diversity goes beyond the group to include responses to diversity in the organizational and community contexts. Dialogue and change in organizational responses to diversity is important in the areas of organizational climate, allocation of resources, and agency policy and procedures. Accordingly, offering groupworkers and members tools to attend and navigate diversity in situ is a first step towards recognizing its presence and importance. A critical step in moving forward is to examine the nuances of diversity and move beyond thinking of diversity in terms of demographic variables.


Objectives: To Investigate the phytochemicals present in Bryonopsis laciniosa fruit. Methodology: Qualitative, Quantitative screening, Compound Identification by UV-Visible method and identification of functional group of the active chemical components were followed by standard procedures. Result: The results showed the presence of phytonutrients like reducing sugar, terpenoids, triterpenoids, aminoacids, anthroquinone, polyphenols, glycosides, anthocyanins, tannins, coumarins, emodins, saponins, total alkaloids, total flavonoids, lignin and serpentine. These substances may be responsible for the health related properties of the plant which are based on antioxidant,anticancer, antipyretic, antiaphoretic, antidiabetic, anti-inflammation, antiheamatisum, antimicrobial and antiviral activity. Conclusion: This study supports the popular use of Bryonopsis laciniosa fruit in preparation of various pharmaceutical formulations for human welfare.


Local Drug anf Food Agency in Manado ( Balai Besar POM ) is a Strategic Public Service Unit of National Drug and Food Agency ( Badan POM ) which expected capable to work effectively and efficiently to detects, prevents, and controls products, and also to protects consumer's safety, security and health. Therefore, its necessary to know the current performance of quality control sector staff in Balai Besar POM Manado in order to increasing it. To detect staff performance of quality control sector in Balai Besar POM Manado which suitable to its importance level, and to detect the rank of performance variable which has biggest value on performance forming at Balai Besar POM Manado, its needs an approach using Importance‐Performance analysis of cartesius diagram to find out which organizational elements that most need improvement. This research is carried out on 34 quality control sector staff in Balai Besar POM Manado using descriptive research design and data collecting is obtained from primary and secondary data. Primary data is questionnares which distributed to quality control sector staff in Balai Besar POM Manado. Secondary data is comes from annual report of Balai Besar POM Manado. The results of this research based on Importance‐Performance analysis of cartesius diagram shows that ability to complete job and productivity variables has to get top priority from Balai Besar POM Manado to increase both variables, while ability to make decision and cooperation relationship with other people variables are also needs to increase, but these variables aren't top priority. The order of performance variable rank based on its importance level is knowledge and understanding job, working attitude, productivity, ability to complete job, cooperation relationship with other people, and ability to make decision variables. Key Words : Balai Besar POM Manado, Performance, Importance‐Performance Analysis


Original Article Cardiovascular disease is progressively becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India generally in young adults.The objective of the present was to study the prevalence of CHD among adult population of Lucknow District. For this a community based cross sectional study was done on 4 randomly selected villages and 8 randomly selected urban areas .1047 (385 Rural and 662 Urban)subjects over and above the age of 20 years old were surveyed using Questionnaire including general information, physical examination and, Electrocardiography(ECG). It was found that the overall prevalence of CHD based on clinical diagnosis & ECG was 7.1% with 8.8%in Urban area and 3.8% in Rural area.(p<0.01).The prevalence was higher in females 8.9% as compared to males 6.2% (p<0.001).Diagnosis on the basis of ECG alone was 3.0% in males and 8.1% in females (p<0.05).Isolated Q wave was present in 2.1% subjects while ST segment depression was present in 3.0% of subjects. Rose Angina Questionnaire was positive in 2.7%of the studied population. It is concluded that Coronary Heart Disease is more prevalent in urban as compared to the rural population. Disease was more prevalent in females as in contrast to the hospital setting.


Supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) has the potential to be used as the working fluid in a power cycle since S-CO2 shows a density value high as its liquid phase while the viscosity value remains closer to its gaseous phase. Thus, it requires much less work to compress due to its low compressibility as well as relatively small flow resistance. However, the S-CO2 leakage flow from turbo-machinery via seal becomes one of the important issues since not only it influences the cycle efficiency due to parasitic loss but also it is important for evaluating the system safety under various operating conditions.
 In the previous turbo expo paper, the effect of the tooth length on the critical flow and comparing the results to the existing two phase system analysis code calculation were presented. In this paper, the gap effect, which is simulated by changing the diameter of a orifice and the number of tooth effect in a labyrinth seal geometry nozzle are presented by using the same experimental facility described in the previous paper. In addition, this paper includes the experimental results under various conditions including not only single phase flow such as supercritical, and gaseous state only but also two phase flow condition.


Vaccination with intact (146S) foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) particles is used to control FMD. However, 146S particles easily dissociate into stable pentameric 12S particles which are less immunogenic. We earlier isolated several single-domain antibody fragments (VHHs) that specifically bind either 146S or 12S particles. These particle-specific VHHs are excellent tools for vaccine quality control. In this study we mapped the antigenic sites recognized by these VHHs by competition ELISAs, virus neutralization, and trypsin sensitivity of epitopes. We included two previously described monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that are either 12S specific (mAb 13A6) or 146S specific (mAb 9). Although both are 12S specific, the VHH M3F and mAb 13A6 were found to bind independent antigenic sites. M3F recognized a non-neutralizing and trypsin insensitive site whereas mAb 13A6 recognized the trypsin sensitive VP2 N-terminus. The Asia1 146S-specific site was trypsin sensitive, neutralizing and also recognized by the VHH M8F, suggesting it involves the VP1 GH-loop. The type A 146S-specific VHHs recognized two independent antigenic sites that are both also neutralizing but trypsin insensitive. The major site was further mapped by cross-linking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) of two broadly strain reactive 146S-specific VHHs complexed to FMDV. The epitopes were located close to the 2-fold and 3-fold symmetry axes of the icosahedral virus 3D structure, mainly on VP2 and VP3, overlapping the earlier identified mAb 9 site. Since the epitopes were located on a single 12S pentamer, the 146S specificity cannot be explained by the epitope being split due to 12S pentamer dissociation. In an earlier study the cryo-EM structure of the 146S-specific VHH M170 complexed to type O FMDV was resolved. The 146S specificity was reported to be caused by an altered conformation of this epitope in 12S and 146S particles. This mechanism probably also explains the 146S-specific binding by the two type A VHHs mapped by XL-MS since their epitopes overlapped with the epitope recognized by M170. Surprisingly, residues internal in the 146S quaternary structure were also cross-linked to VHH. This probably reflects particle flexibility in solution. Molecular studies of virus-antibody interactions help to further optimize vaccines and improve their quality control.


Title Streaming BDD manipulation Author(s) Minato, Shin-ichi Citation IEEE Transactions on Computers, 51(5): 474-485 Issue Date 2002-05 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/16897 Rights © 2002 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. Type article File Information IEEE-TC51-5.pdf


The components of the pupal cuticle are the main differentiation products synthesized by both the larval and adult epidermis during the prepupal period of Drosophila development. The pupal cuticle is formed in vitro by imaginal discs in response to a 6 h pulse of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE). We previously described the isolation and initial characterization of four ecdysone-dependent genes (EDGs) whose expression in imaginal discs occurs only in response to a pulse of 20-HE. In this report, we demonstrate that the pattern of temporal and tissue-specific expression of these EDGs in vivo is like that expected for genes that encode pupal cuticle proteins. Transcripts of these genes are detected in prepupae only in the epidermis and only when cuticle components are synthesized and secreted. Nonetheless, their temporal and spatial patterns of accumulation differ. EDG-84A-1 transcripts accumulate only in prepupae and only in imaginal cells. EDG-78E and EDG-64CD transcripts accumulate at the same time in both larval and imaginal cells. EDG42-A transcripts appear first in prepupae in imaginal cells and then, after a 2-4 h lag, in larval cells. It is evident that some genes are not restricted in their expression to only larval or imaginal epidermis.


It was hypothesized that a driver is not safe when travel speed is too high and also not necessarily safe when travel speed is too low. Based on this hypothesis, this paper studied the risky driving performances by measuring speed variations of a driver's recurrent trips in two perspectives: 1) driver profiles, which scored the risk on-road driving of each driver and 2) driving patterns, which reflected the risk speed patterns of a type of drivers. The proposed method was tested on a 30-day global positioning system (GPS) dataset, collected from 100 trucks. The study first split the raw dataset into trips and finds the most repeatedly traveled route. Next, the frequency and amplitude of the speed variations from trips of each truck are calculated to establish driver profiles. A risk score is used to rank the truck drivers, i.e., a higher score indicates that the truck driver is more likely to conduct risky driving performances. All trucks are featured in four pre-defined driving patterns according to the different types of speed variations. The geospatial speed distribution of several trucks is manually examined from the raw dataset to verify the results. The contribution lies in providing a method to evaluate a driver's risk performance through mass truck GPS data. The proposed method would help for monitoring on-road risky driving performances in large fleet management and also providing knowledge about driving styles among drivers which would be beneficial in study driver assistant system.