Epilithic diatoms are frequently recommended for river biomonitoring, while much less emphasis is placed on epiphytic communities. This study considers use of epiphytic and epilithic diatom communities from the Raška River in biomonitoring. A total of 212 diatom taxa were recorded in both communities. Dominant diatoms were Achnanthidium minutissimum (Kützing) Czarnecki, A. affine (Grunow) Czarnecki, A. subatomus (Hustedt) Lange-Bertalot, Amphora pediculus (Kützing) Grunow, Diatoma vulgaris Bory, Gomphonema tergestinum (Grunow) Fricke, Cocconeis placentula var. lineata (Ehrenberg) Van Heurck, Melosira varians Agardh and Navicula tripunctata (Müller) Bory. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to detect the relationships between diatoms, some environmental factors and sampling sites. Diatoms of the epiphytic community showed a clearly grouping in relation to the sampling sites as compared with diatoms of the epilithic community. Species common to both communities showed a similar correlation with some environmental variables (BOD, pH, NH4+, TP, NO3− and conductivity), with three exceptions (Diatoma vulgaris, Cymbella compacta, and Encyonema silesiacum). Pearson's correlation coefficient showed correlation between selected environmental variables and diatom indices calculated using OMNIDIA 6.2 software (TDI, IPS, CEE, GENRE, TID, SID, SHE and IDSE/5). Diatoms of the epiphytic community are more clearly clustered in relation to the sampling sites as compared with diatoms of the epilithic community. According to our results there is still "place" in biomonitoring for epiphytic community. The present study highlights the necessity of sampling both epiphytic and epilithic communities because substrate specificity could play important role in biomonitoring.


Riverine fresh water outflows create coastal plumes that are distinguished from surrounding sea water by their specific spectral signature. Coastal waters are unique ecosystems, and they are very important in terms of living resources and oceanographic processes. River plumes and coastal turbid waters have important effects on coastal marine ecosystems, and they also influence marine life cycles, sediment distribution, and pollution. Remote sensing and digital image-processing techniques provide an effective tool to detect and monitor these plume zones over large areas. The primary goal of this study was automatic detection and monitoring of coastal plume zones using multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) imagery. For that purpose, the proposed algorithm exploits spectral features of the multispectral images by using feature extraction and decision-making steps. The procedure has two main stages: (1) some pre-processing operations were applied to the images in order to extract the plume core reflectance values with maximum turbidity and offshore water mass reflectance values; (2) a k-means algorithm was applied with initial seed values of reflectance computed from the pre-processing stage to classify coastal plume zones. Spatial pattern and variability of optical characteristics of coastal plume zones were then defined following the results of the classification process. The algorithm was automatically applied in three different regions with three multispectral Landsat images acquired on different dates, and yielded a very high classification accuracy in detecting coastal plume zones.


Bangladesh is currently in the midst of a deadly political crisis. When Bangladesh was born forty-plus years ago, it was generally thought that the Achilles heel of this newly minted country will be its economy. History has, however, proved it wrong. Though the proximate cause of this current political crisis is the controversial parliamentary election of 2014 and the legitimacy of the incumbent government, its history dates back to the birth of the country. Designing a neutral institutional mechanism for holding elections, ensuring smooth transfer of power and establishing intra-party democracy—these are the obvious first steps for a procedural democracy . They will extinguish the immediate fire, but do not address the root cause of the recurrent democratic crises in the country.


Control technology for dreissenid mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. bugensis) currently relies heavily on chemical molluscicides that can be both costly and ecologically harmful. There is a need for more environmentally neutral tools to manage dreissenid mussels, particularly in cooler water. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been shown to be lethal to several species of invasive bivalves, including zebra mussels and Asian clams (Corbicula fluminea). We evaluated the effectiveness of unpressurized infusion of CO2 for 24 to 96 h (100 000–300 000 μatm PCO2) at a water temperature of 12 °C on mortality, byssal thread formation, and attachment of zebra mussels. The safety of elevated CO2 to a nontarget native freshwater mussel (Fatmucket, Lampsilis siliquoidea) was also determined. Elevated PCO2 exposure induced narcotization and reduced attachment of zebra mussels within 24 h. Mortality increased with exposure duration and PCO2. An estimated LT50 (lethal time to produce 50% mortality) for fixed PCO2 ranged from 24 h at 275 000 μatm to ~ 96 h at 100 000 μatm. Exposure of zebra mussels to CO2 for 96 h caused 80–100% mortality at all treatment levels. Fatmucket juveniles survived all PCO2 treatments but burial and byssal thread production were adversely affected during exposure. Our results demonstrate that CO2 is a viable option for management of zebra mussels in cool water and may have less adverse effect for native lampsiline mussels than current-use molluscicides.


OBJECTIVE: Aspiration can cause a variety of pulmonary syndromes, some of which are not well recognized. The objective of this study was to assess the demographic, clinical, radiological, and histopathological correlates of diffuse aspiration bronchiolitis (DAB), a bronchiolocentric disorder caused by recurrent aspiration. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 20 consecutive patients with DAB seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, between January 1, 1998 and June 30, 2014. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 56.5 years (range, 22-76 years), and the male/female ratio was 2.3:1.0. In 18 patients, the diagnosis of DAB was based on the results of a lung biopsy; in the 2 remaining patients, it was based on clinical and radiological features, together with documented aspiration observed in a videofluoroscopic swallow study. In 19 patients (95%), we identified predisposing factors for aspiration, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), drug abuse, and dysphagia. Common presenting features included cough, sputum production, dyspnea, and fever. Twelve patients (60%) had a history of recurrent pneumonia. In all of the patients, chest CT revealed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates consisting of micronodules and tree-in-bud opacities. In the majority of patients, interventions aimed at preventing recurrent aspiration (e.g., anti-GERD therapies) led to improvement in the symptoms of DAB. CONCLUSIONS: Young to middle-aged subjects with recognizable predisposing factors for aspiration and who report a history of recurrent pneumonia are at increased risk for DAB. Although DAB is not well recognized, certain chest CT features are characteristic of the disorder.


A good speech model is essential for speech enhancement, but it is very difficult to build because of huge intra- and extra-speaker variation. We present a new speech model for speech enhancement, which is based on statistical models of magnitude-normalized complex spectra of speech signals. Most popular speech enhancement techniques work in the spectrum space, but the large variation of speech strength, even from the same speaker, makes accurate speech modeling very difficult because the magnitude is correlated across all frequency bins. By performing magnitude normalization for each speech frame, we are able to get rid of the magnitude variation and to build a much better speech model with only a small number of Gaussian components. This new speech model is applied to speech enhancement for our previously developed microphone headsets that combine a conventional air microphone with a bone sensor. Much improved results have been obtained


It is well-known that BGP, the current inter-domain routing protocol, has many deficiencies. This paper describes a hybrid link-state and path-vector protocol called HLP as an alternative to BGP that has vastly better scalability, isolation and convergence properties. Using current BGP routing information, we show that HLP, in comparison to BGP, can reduce the churn-rate of route updates by a factor 400 as well as isolate the effect of routing events to a region 100 times smaller than that of BGP. For a majority of Internet routes, HLP guarantees worst-case linear-time convergence. We also describe a prototype implementation of HLP on top of the XORP router platform. HLP is not intended to be a finished and final proposal for a replacement for BGP, but is instead offered as a starting point for debates about the nature of the next-generation inter-domain routing protocol.


Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between longitudinal sleep duration patterns and behavioral/cognitive functioning at school entry. Design, Setting, and Participants: Hyperactivity-impulsivity (HI), inattention, and daytime sleepiness scores were measured by questionnaire at 6 years of age in a sample of births from 1997 to 1998 in a Canadian province (N=1492). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R) was administered at 5 years of age and the Block Design subtest (WISC-III) was administered at 6 years of age. Sleep duration was reported yearly by the children's mothers from age 2.5 to 6 years. A group-based semi-parametric mixture model was used to estimate developmental patterns of sleep duration. The relationships between sleep duration patterns and both behavioral items and neurodevelopmental tasks were tested using weighted multivariate logistic regression models to control for potentially confounding psychosocial factors. Results: Four sleep duration patterns were identified: short persistent (6.0%), short increasing (4.8%),10-hour persistent (50.3%), and 11-hour persistent (38.9%). The association of short sleep duration patterns with high HI scores (P=0.001), low PPVT-R performance (P=0.002), and low Block Design subtest performance (P=0.004) remained significant after adjusting for potentially confounding variables. Conclusions: Shortened sleep duration, especially before the age of 41 months, is associated with externalizing problems such as HI and lower cognitive performance on neurodevelopmental tests. Results highlight the importance of giving a child the opportunity to sleep at least 10 hours per night throughout early childhood.


Background: This study aimed to examine the parental physical illness' effect on behavioral problems among adolescents, and the effects of being an only child, family cohesion, and family conflict on behavioral problems among adolescents with physically ill parents in Liaoning province, China. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2009. A questionnaire including two dimensions of the Family Environment Scale (family cohesion and family conflict), self-reported Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and demographic factors was distributed to the subjects. Results: Among the 5220 adolescents, 308 adolescents lived with physically ill parents. The adolescents with physically ill parents had more behavioral problems than adolescents with healthy parents. Among the girls who lived in families with physically ill parents, the SDQ score and the prevalence of SDQ syndromes were higher in the girls with siblings than the girls without siblings after adjusting for variables; the effect of family cohesion on SDQ was significant after adjusting for variables. Conclusion: Interventions targeting family cohesion may be effective to reduce behavioral problems of adolescents with physically ill parents.


Indoor navigation is increasingly widespread in complex indoor environments, and indoor path planning is the most important part of indoor navigation. Path planning generally refers to finding the most suitable path connecting two locations, while avoiding collision with obstacles. However, it is a fundamental problem, especially for 3D complex building model. A common way to solve the issue in some applications has been approached in a number of relevant literature, which primarily operates on 2D drawings or building layouts, possibly with few attached attributes for obstacles. Although several digital building models in the format of 3D CAD have been used for path planning, they usually contain only geometric information while losing abundant semantic information of building components (e.g. types and attributes of building components and their simple relationships). Therefore, it becomes important to develop a reliable method that can enhance application of path planning by combining both geometric and semantic information of building components. This paper introduces a method that support 3D indoor path planning with semantic information.


Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the commonest infections encountered by clinicians and despite the widespread availability of antimicrobial agents. UTI has become difficult to treat because of appearance of pathogens with increasing resistance to antimicrobial agents. This study aimed to demonstrate the bacterial Uropathogens causing UTI and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was used. A non-probability convenient sampling was used for recruitment participants. Clinically suspected patients complaining about UTI were instructed to collect mid-stream urine in a sterile leak proof container. Dipstick, microscopy and culture and sensitivity were performed for each of the urine samples. CLED medium was used for the isolation of bacterial Uropathogens. Susceptibility test was conducted for the bacteria isolated using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Results: The prevalence of UTI was found to be 81.9% with 70.8% from Female and 11.1% from Male. The isolated Uropathogens were Escherichia coli (56.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (30.7%), Enterococcus fecalis (3.6%), Enterobacter (3.6%), Pseudomonas aureginosa (2.8%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (2.8%). The major antibiotics found to be resistant to isolates were; Ampicillin (93.6%), Augmentin (87.2%), Cotrimazole (85.7%). All isolates of E.coli and Klebsiella pneumonia showed the highest percentage of resistance to Ampicillin and Augmentin while the least resistance was observed against drugs such as nitrofurantoin and Ciprofloxacin. Conclusion: In this study, the prevalence of UTI was 81.9%. Escherichia coli and K. pneumoniae are the major Uropathogens causing UTI among studied patients. Ampicillin showed the highest resistance against the isolated Uropathogens. Nitrofurantoin was the most sensitive followed by ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone as compared with other antibiotics used in this study.


The use of an ELISA that can differentiate between swine infected with pseudorabies virus (PRV) and swine vaccinated with a specific PRV vaccine was evaluated on an individual and herd basis, and a system for interpreting ELISA results on a herd basis was developed. In 17 herds, recently introduced replacement gilts, seronegative for PRV, were vaccinated with a thymidine kinase- and glycoprotein X (gpX)-deleted vaccine. After vaccination, blood samples were collected from these gilts approximately every 1 to 2 months for up to 19 months. Serum samples were analyzed for antibodies to gpX antigen, using a commercially available ELISA kit according to the manufacturer's protocol. Herd status was determined as positive, suspect, or negative, according to the serum sample:negative control (S:N) values of the samples collected from the herd. From the 17 herds, 130 evaluations were performed. On 49 (38%) of the 130 herd evaluations, 1 or more gilts had suspect test results. Additional testing was required in 19 (39%) of these 49 herd evaluations to determine the PRV infection status of the herd. Status of herds having gilts with suspect results and no positive results was usually negative after retesting. Herds having gilts with positive results were unlikely to have negative status after retesting.


We propose an optical spatial filter (OSF) method to suppress beam wander and spatial noise effects. Signal from random displacements of the focus spot around the optical axis within the constricted area is collected. This method advantageously suppresses fluctuations in signal intensity. The OSF consists of a pinhole and cone reflector. The pinhole produces Fresnel diffraction on the focus spot. The cone reflector provides directed reflectance onto the pinhole for random focus spot displacements due to beam wander. The calculations of signal power are based on fluctuations of signal intensity that are minimized by the circular aperture function of the pinhole and the cosine of the reflectance angle from the cone reflector. The method is applied to free-space optical communications at a wavelength of 1.55 μm with an atmospheric chamber to provide optical propagation media. Based on calculations, the beam wander angles that can be received by the OSF are from 14.0° to 28.0°. Moreover, based on experiment, the OSF with a pinhole diameter of 20.0 μm and cone reflector diameter of 1.5 mm produces signal power of −15.3 dBm. Both calculations and experiment show that the OSF enhances the received signal power in the presence of turbulence.


Recently discovered Arabidopsis peroxisomal mutants identify proteins involved in β-oxidation. Peroxisomes are highly dynamic and multifunctional organelles essential to development. Plant peroxisomes accommodate a multitude of metabolic reactions, many of which are related to the β-oxidation of fatty acids or fatty acid-related metabolites. Recently, several dozens of novel peroxisomal proteins have been identified from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) through in silico and experimental proteomic analyses followed by in vivo protein targeting validations. To determine the functions of these proteins, we interrogated their transfer DNA insertion mutants with a series of physiological, cytological, and biochemical assays to reveal peroxisomal deficiencies. Sugar dependence and 2,4-dichlorophenoxybutyric acid and 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid response assays uncovered statistically significant phenotypes in β-oxidation-related processes in mutants for 20 of 27 genes tested. Additional investigations uncovered a subset of these mutants with abnormal seed germination, accumulation of oil bodies, and delayed degradation of long-chain fatty acids during early seedling development. Mutants for seven genes exhibited deficiencies in multiple assays, strongly suggesting the involvement of their gene products in peroxisomal β-oxidation and initial seedling growth. Proteins identified included isoforms of enzymes related to β-oxidation, such as acyl-CoA thioesterase2, acyl-activating enzyme isoform1, and acyl-activating enzyme isoform5, and proteins with functions previously unknown to be associated with β-oxidation, such as Indigoidine synthase A, Senescence-associated protein/B12D-related protein1, Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase, and Unknown protein5. This multipronged phenotypic screen allowed us to reveal β-oxidation proteins that have not been discovered by single assay-based mutant screens and enabled the functional dissection of different isoforms of multigene families involved in β-oxidation.


In this paper a sliding mode controller is applied to a four wheel vehicle system to obtain a satisfactory longitudinal slip for each wheel. A seven degree of freedom model with all of the system nonlinearities is used to evaluate the proposed controller. Simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed controller.


A short review of the author's research results in the area of the dynamics of pendulum hybrid systems, as well as an analytical approach to the discrete material particle system dynamics containing creep elements with the constitutive stress‐strain relation described by the fractional order derivative are presented. The first results presented in this paper are analytical expressions of the modes of three pendulum fractional order system vibrations. It is shown that two time modes (partial solutions) are pure periodical, and four time modes (particular solutions) are 'creeping modes' as a result of the creeping properties influencing standard light elements to the periodical pendulum mode vibrations with corresponding frequencies. By using an analytical approach, for a fractional order hybrid multipendulum system dynamics, eigen main chains, eigen modes and main coordinates are obtained. The second and generalized result concerns the fractional order hybrid multipendulum system dynamics.


Abstract Underutilized crops tend to harbor high levels of genetic diversity, be maintained on-farm in small-scale farming systems and be relatively neglected by formal research and development strategies, including breeding programs. While high genetic variability allows these crops to adapt to marginal environments, inappropriate management practices and reductions in population sizes in individual farmers' plots may lead to productivity loss and poor harvests. This situation further limits their cultivation and use, notwithstanding the potential these crops may hold for diversification of agricultural systems, food security and market development. Peru hosts a wealth of native agrobiodiversity, which includes many underutilized crops. To improve their performance and promote their continued conservation and use, a participatory breeding program was developed on five underutilized crops of the Peruvian highlands; the breeding approach, based on a combination of evolutionary and participatory methods, is designed to achieve a balance between yield improvement and maintenance of genetic diversity. Preliminary results in quinoa and amaranth are encouraging, fostering further engagement of farmers by increasing availability of quality seed for downstream uses. However, methodological, financial and institutional issues need to be addressed for the effort to be expanded and upscaled. This paper provides an overall description of the initiative as well as a discussion on early results obtained in quinoa and amaranth, highlighting those aspects that make this approach particularly relevant for minor crops and identifying the opportunities and challenges for the initiative to move forward.


The Web is ubiquitous, increasingly populated with interconnected data, services, people, and objects. Semantic web technologies (SWT) promote uniformity of data formats, as well as modularization and reuse of specifications (e.g., ontologies), by allowing them to include and refer to information provided by other ontologies. In such a context, multi-agent system (MAS) technologies are the right abstraction for developing decentralized and open Web applications in which agents discover, reason and act on Web resources and cooperate with each other and with people. The aim of the project is to propose an approach to transform "Agent and artifact (A&A) meta-model" into a Web-readable format with ontologies in line with semantic web formats and to reuse already existing ontologies in order to provide uniform access for agents to things.


We present the concept of multivalued mappings in generalized modular metric spaces (GMMS). In addition, we give Caristi and Feng-Liu fixed point results for this type of mappings in GMMS. Then, we obtain an application for final outcomes in the sense of Jleli and Samet.


Language learning relies on both short-term and long-term memory. Phonological short-term memory (pSTM) is thought to play an important role in the learning of novel word forms. However, language learners may differ in their ability to maintain word representations in pSTM during interfering auditory input. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate how pSTM capacity in better and poorer pSTM groups is linked to language learning and the maintenance of pseudowords in pSTM. In particular, MEG was recorded while participants maintained pseudowords in pSTM by covert speech rehearsal, and while these brain representations were probed by presenting auditory pseudowords with first or third syllables matching or mismatching the rehearsed item. A control condition included identical stimuli but no rehearsal. Differences in response strength between matching and mismatching syllables were interpreted as the phonological mapping negativity (PMN). While PMN for the first syllable was found in both groups, it was observed for the third syllable only in the group with better pSTM. This suggests that individuals with better pSTM maintained representations of trisyllabic pseudowords more accurately during interference than individuals with poorer pSTM. Importantly, the group with better pSTM learned words faster in a paired-associate word learning task, linking the PMN findings to language learning.


Using the idea of splitting numerical methods and the multi-symplectic methods, we propose a multi-symplectic splitting (MSS) method to solve the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger equation (2D-NLSE) in this paper. It is further shown that the method constructed in this way preserve the global symplecticity exactly. Numerical experiments for the plane wave solution and singular solution of the 2D-NLSE show the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method.


Quadricuspid aortic valve is a rare congenital malformation of the aortic valve. Transthoracic 2-dimensional echocardiography can delineate aortic valve and diagnose most quadricuspid aortic valves. This article is a report of a quadricuspid aortic valve associated with aortic stenosis and aortic insufficiency diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography.


Background Assessment of volume status is crucial in patients with chronic renal failure who are maintained on regular hemodialysis. Aim of the work The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of lung ultrasound in detecting changes in volume status in chronic hemodialysis patients and compare it with the gold standard bioimpedance technique. Patients and methods Forty chronic renal failure patients on regular hemodialysis (three times per week) since at least 6 months were subjected to full history taking and physical examination, full anthropometric measurements, routine laboratory studies, and conventional transthoracic echocardiography. Lung comet score was assessed in both lungs using lung ultrasound, and total body water (TBW) and TBW% were assessed using bioelectrical impedance. The last two investigations were carried out both before and after a midweek dialysis session. Results Most of the patients were male (57.5%) and hypertensive (75%). The mean age was 49.40±16.06 years. The mean lung comet score before and after dialysis was 20.1±15.8 and 14.6±11.8, respectively (P<0.001) and the mean TBW was 37.2±9.1 and 35.8±8.5 l, respectively (P=0.002). Before dialysis, the lung comet score showed significant correlation with TBW% (P=0.01), left ventricular end-diastolic (P=0.02) and end-systolic (P<0.001) dimensions and significant negative correlation with left ventricular ejection fraction (P=0.003). After dialysis, the lung comet score showed only significant negative correlation with left ventricular ejection fraction (P<0.001). There was no significant correlation between change in lung comet score (before and after dialysis) and change in TBW% (P=0.93). Conclusion Bioimpedance and ultrasound lung comet score may provide different but complementary information. Whereas bioimpedance may be more specific to hydration state, lung ultrasound may indicate cardiac condition coexisting with overhydration. It also gives an idea about the hydration state and the effect of dialysis.


This paper studies fixed step-size stochastic approximation (SA) schemes, including stochastic gradient schemes, in a Riemannian framework. It is motivated by several applications, where geodesics can be computed explicitly, and their use accelerates crude Euclidean methods. A fixed step-size scheme defines a family of time-homogeneous Markov chains, parametrized by the step-size. Here, using this formulation, non-asymptotic performance bounds are derived, under Lyapunov conditions. Then, for any step-size, the corresponding Markov chain is proved to admit a unique stationary distribution, and to be geometrically ergodic. This result gives rise to a family of stationary distributions indexed by the step-size, which is further shown to converge to a Dirac measure, concentrated at the solution of the problem at hand, as the step-size goes to 0. Finally, the asymptotic rate of this convergence is established, through an asymptotic expansion of the bias, and a central limit theorem.


The current article reports two experiments designed to examine the effects of creating competing approach and avoidance response functions for 2 stimuli that participate in the same derived stimulus relation. Experiment 1 involved establishing each of 2 distinct members (i.e., B1 and D1) of the same 1-node equivalence relation (A-B-C-D) as a discriminative stimulus for avoidance and approach responses, respectively. During a test phase, participants were presented with equivalence relation members that were of equal nodal distance from each of the discriminative stimuli (e.g., C1). Approach and avoidance responses during this probe phase were highly varied across participants but stable within participants. In general, approach and avoidance responses were observed with equal frequency during probe trials. Experiment 2 addressed several procedural artefacts, including the absence of response time data. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1. Elongated response latencies during probe trials in Experiment 2 support the idea that an approach–avoidance conflict was generated using the current laboratory preparation. These findings have implications for our understanding of the etiology of anxiety disorders.


Non-processive molecular motors have to work together in ensembles in order to generate appreciable levels of force or movement. In skeletal muscle, for example, hundreds of myosin II molecules cooperate in thick filaments. In non-muscle cells, by contrast, small groups with few tens of non-muscle myosin II motors contribute to essential cellular processes such as transport, shape changes, or mechanosensing. Here we introduce a detailed and analytically tractable model for this important situation. Using a three-state crossbridge model for the myosin II motor cycle and exploiting the assumptions of fast power stroke kinetics and equal load sharing between motors in equivalent states, we reduce the stochastic reaction network to a one-step master equation for the binding and unbinding dynamics (parallel cluster model) and derive the rules for ensemble movement. We find that for constant external load, ensemble dynamics is strongly shaped by the catch bond character of myosin II, which leads to an increase of the fraction of bound motors under load and thus to firm attachment even for small ensembles. This adaptation to load results in a concave force-velocity relation described by a Hill relation. For external load provided by a linear spring, myosin II ensembles dynamically adjust themselves towards an isometric state with constant average position and load. The dynamics of the ensembles is now determined mainly by the distribution of motors over the different kinds of bound states. For increasing stiffness of the external spring, there is a sharp transition beyond which myosin II can no longer perform the power stroke. Slow unbinding from the pre-power-stroke state protects the ensembles against detachment.


European sea bass ( Dicentrarchus labrax ), an important species for the Mediterranean aquaculture industry, has been reported to escape from sea cage installations. Fish escapes are caused mainly by operational and technical failures that eventually result into a creation of a tear. Escapees may interact with wild stocks through interbreeding, transfer of pathogens and competition for food. The aim of this study was to examine at which extent the presence of a visible obstacle close to a tear on the net have an influence on sea bass propensity to escape. Fish were initially confined into small sea cages, with a tear at one side. The escape behavior was tested under experimental conditions. It is clearly demonstrated that sea bass was able to locate a tear on the net pen, immediately after its appearance. Crossings occurred in all cages, in singles or in a series of up to seven individuals. The presence of an obstacle close to the net tear altered the escape behavior of D. labrax resulting in a delay that eventually reduced the escape rate. Concluding, it is highly recommended that sea bass cages should be kept internally the culture array. Furthermore, the placement of artificial obstacles close to the sea cages could be an efficient practice that mitigates the escape risk after severe environmental conditions.


In this paper, we propose a novel navigation method for underwater vehicles based on a single seafloor station (SS), with which the vehicles can estimate their positions and orientations with respect to the SS without the need of expensive inertial navigation system or time-consuming calibration. This method is suitable for near-seafloor applications requiring real-time and accurate positioning, such as seafloor imaging and sampling. The method is also suitable for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) since no other external aid is necessary other than SS. The key idea is to utilize mutual acoustical measurements between the vehicle and the SS. Simply explained: 1) the vehicle starts by interrogating the SS acoustically and measures the range between the two units as well as the bearing of the SS with respect to the vehicle in the vehicle reference frame; and then, 2) the SS computes the bearing of the vehicle with respect to the SS and transmits this information back to the vehicle using a similar acoustical device. By combining this information and inputting it into a nonlinear filter structure that includes measurements of the vehicle's ground velocity and yaw angular velocity, the vehicle computes its position and heading estimates. A pair of acoustical devices named acoustical localization and communication (ALOC) devices that can communicate and calculate their relative positions have been built. Sea trials were carried out in October 2011 using the AUV Tri-Dog1 (TD) and a trial SS at Kagoshima Bay in Japan. The AUV successfully navigated around the SS based on the measurements of the ALOC device mounted on both the AUV and the SS. The performance of the method was verified through simulations based on the experimental results.


We used an optimized isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid-chromatographic procedure to sepa-rate and measure 12 steroid hormones, and studied the steroid hormone profiles in sera from three patients with 17-hydroxylase deficiency (17-OHD). Two of the patients were sisters, one of whom (11-3),expressing normoten-sion and primary amenorthea, was diagnosed on the basis of chromatographic data and followed up for seven years. The untreated patients had obvious abnormalities on chromatograms of serum extracts, characterized by markedly increased corticosterone (B) and decreased or undetectable cortisol (F) and cortisone (E). The concentration of 11-deoxycorticosterone was much greater in the patient with classical symptoms than in the normotensive patient. In all three patients, concentrationsof aldosterone were within the normal range, but concentrations of progesterone were much lower than in the patients with 21-hydroxylase deficiency. We evaluated the responses to corticotropinand dexamethasone. HPLC evaluation of the serum steroid profiles before and after corticotropin stimulation in the affected family showed that in the parents and one other sibling, concentrations of F before and after stimulation were within the normal ranges. The sums of the ratio of B to F before and the ratio of B to F after corticotropin stimulation (ZB/F) in the parents and the other sibling were 0.292, 0.496, and 0.614, respec-tively, all much higher


Can civil society speak truth to power in Indian democracy? In times when civil society is making headlines every day, this working paper considers some questions regarding the process through which civil society does policy advocacy. Defining civil society as medium and large NGOs, this paper raises some serious questions: When does civil society matter? Can civil society influence public policy? If so, how does it do it? When does it fail? What are the areas in which it can influence policy? What are the areas in which it fails to make any impact? This paper suggests that in attempting to advocate policies to the state i.e., in attempting to speak truth to power, civil society—even when defined as NGOs—does a quintessential political act of engaging the state.


Since 1990, the U.S. military establishment has downsized its force structure and overhead expenses through, among other means, domestic and overseas base closings, reductions in the number of active-duty army and marine divisions and air force tactical wings, and decommissioning of aircraft carriers and long-range bombers. While defense spending of a decade ago amounted to 6 percent of the gross domestic product (GPD), fiscal 1998 defense spending (about $266 billion) will amount to roughly 3 percent of the GDP.[1] But one estimate put military spending in 1995 as 50 percent higher, if measured in constant dollars, than in 1980, before the Reagan-era arms buildup.[2] And while a joint budget resolution adopted by Congress in June of 1995 called for decreases between 1995 and 2002 amounting to $30 billion in discretionary domestic funding, it also called for increases in military expenditures for the same period amounting to $19 billion.[3] While cutting military spending, subsequent federal budgets since 1995 have not cut defense spending at rates anywhere near the percentages cut from other budgetary areas, particularly spending on social services. Narrowly rejected by the Senate in 1995, the idea of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution was derailed again in 1997. On the other hand, 1997 saw the Clinton White House and the GOP teaming up on a plan to fully eliminate the federal deficit by the year 2002.[4] Yet, for all the inside-the-Beltway discussion over the past few years regarding balancing our federal budget and reducing the federal debt, remarkably few of those conversations were devoted seriously to the issue of reducing defense spending. In the words of a recent National Review columnist, "[B]oth tree-hugging liberals and budget-conscious conservatives are captivated by the rewards of the mystical peace dividend."[5] Nevertheless, it is likely that talk of increasing the Pentagon's budget will not be far behind recent news of a faster-than-projected shrinking of the deficit and, for the first time in about thirty years, a possible budgetary surplus. Debates about what sort of military the world's only remaining superpower should maintain and to what levels it should be funded are quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) occurring both within the Pentagon and outside the military.[6] Interservice debates about what sorts of weapons systems or force levels will best defend our interests have perennially raged, with army, air force, and navy all jockeying for a greater piece of the budgetary pie. Meanwhile, congressional budget cutters and deficit hawks have tended to focus on specific line items, such as the closing of specifically named bases, or specific projects, such as the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Seawolf nuclear attack submarine, or C-17 Globemaster 3 transport plane. On the other hand, those politicians with military contractors in their home districts or votes to secure often cite the need to maintain an "industrial base" as an appropriate reason to order up more military hardware. But with politicians on both sides of the aisle calling (slightly) more often these days for an end to military "pork," the Defense Department, military contractors, and some (but not all) strategists have been jockeying for positions that justify continued and increased spending. For example, the Department of Defense's (DOD) "Bottom-Up Review" concluded in 1993 that our national defense strategy had to accommodate the probability of unilaterally and simultaneously fighting and winning two separate regional wars, a conclusion recently labeled as "obsolete" by the congressionally appointed National Defense Panel.[7] Regardless of the dubious merits of the argument, the Bottom-Up Review's anticipation of a major post-Cold War threat to national security was used to justify spending per capita on "readiness" (training and maintenance) at levels higher than during the Cold War.[8] As another example, a widely touted "Revolution in Military Affairs" that looks for future wars to be fought using information and surveillance technology, along with stealth and "intelligent" weaponry, will only require more spending on the sort of high-tech weaponry that was widely used and field-tested in the Gulf War. …


Background: Mathematical modelling in medicine (physiology) takes place in research, clinical practice and learning. There are several suitable modelling languages and tools for physiological model implementation. Graphical simulators are created in order to make models used in teaching more illustrative.
Objectives: It is important to make model developers' cooperation easier. For this reason it should be possible to interconnect models written in different languages. Elearning simulators must be well available for students and teachers. Necessity to install the application can be an obstruction. Methods for sharing models written in Modelica language should be enhanced.
Methods: Standardised interface FMI allows interconnection of models written in different languages. E-learning models are developed on .NET platform. It enables them to run in web browser. The editor for models written in Modelica is being developed. It will run in browser and will be interconnected with web based model repository.
Results: Simulation runtime, solver and simulation centre was implemented in .NET languages. They are used in web e-learning applications. They will be also used together with web-based model repository, that is being developed now.
Conclusions: New tools will simplify model creation and interconnection. They will also improve collaboration of model developers.


This volume constitutes. in part. the proceedings of the symposium on "Cell-Cell Interaction and Release of Inflammatory Mediators" organized by Drs. Patrick Y-K Wong and Charles N. Serhan and presented at the FASEB meeting in Washington. D.C. in April. 1990. It contains chapters by the symposium speakers as well as contributions from investigators in this field. Readers will find exciting advances in this volume. which contains chapters dedicated to state-of-the-art knowledge in the field of Cell-Cell Interaction and the functions of released mediators in inflammatory diseases. This book includes "cutting edge" investigations on transcellular eicosanoid biosynthesis. cytokines. PAF, and adhesion as well as interactions of inflammatory cells with endothe 1 i um. 1 ung and kidney. A 1 so. the contro 1 and regu 1 at ion of renal function by lipid mediators generated during cell-cell i nteracti ons between rena 1 mesangi a 1 cells and 1 eukocytes has generated insight into the cell biology and regulatory role of these mediators in the kidney. Moreover. the relationship between these areas is discussed in sequelae of both asthmatic and renal diseases. We hope that some of the enthusiasm and excitement present in this research are also evident here and that this volume will serve as a reference for researchers. teachers. and students to survey thi s rapidly growing field."


Background Depression has been shown to be an independent risk factor for short-term mortality in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). There are studies suggesting that depression might also be associated with long-term mortality. Anxiety has also been associated with mortality. This study aimed to further investigate the predictive value of depression and anxiety symptoms on all-cause mortality, 10 years after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods The study population comprised a consecutive series of CAD patients (n = 1411) treated with PCI between September 2001 and October 2002 at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was completed by 1112 patients at baseline to assess levels of depression and anxiety. The endpoint was defined as all-cause mortality. Results The prevalence of depression and anxiety was 24.8% and 27.7%, respectively. The cumulative all-cause mortality rate in depressed patients was 37% versus 20% in non-depressed patients (log-rank p < 0.001). After adjustment, depression remained a predictor of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 1.77; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.36–2.29). Cumulative survival rates did not differ for anxious versus non-anxious patients (log-rank p = .79). However, after adjustment, anxiety was associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality (HR 1.50; 95% CI 1.14–1.98). A sub-analysis showed that cumulative survival rates did not differ for depressed and anxious patients versus depressed but non-anxious patients (log-rank p = 0.46). Conclusions Depression is associated with an increased risk of 77% for all-cause mortality, 10 years post-PCI, independently of anxiety. Although anxiety was associated with all-cause mortality, it has no additional value in the case of co-occurring depression.


Prevalence of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) reflects community and individual risk factors. Cultural and behavioural factors influence community prevalence of sexually transmitted disease (STD), illegal abortion, puerperal sepsis and contraceptive usage--all of which influence risk of PID. The relative importance of these factors will vary by region. Individual risk factors for the ascent of a lower genital tract infection are still poorly understood but are thought to be behavioural and immunological. Prevention of PID must be undertaken at several levels. At primary level, it requires a reduction in community risk. At secondary level, individual risk can be modified by ensuring diagnosis and treatment of STD before damage of the upper genital tract occurs. More attention to cultural factors should increase the potential for prevention at both levels.


Purpose – In the early 1990s, Sweden suffered from a severe property crisis. This study aims to analyze the market for income properties in Sweden over a 20‐year period, 1980‐2000, taking a fresh look at describing the depth of the property crisis. The study specifically attempts to examine if appraisal bias was present when the state‐owned Nordbanken bank foreclosed on a large number of properties.Design/methodology/approach – Using transaction data, the article estimates a set of hedonic price indices. The result is used to calculate predicted market values. To assess if the appraisals are biased they are compared with both the predicted market value and the actual transaction price.Findings – The study does not find any indications of the appraisals being systematically biased. For the comparison with transaction price, however, a caveat in drawing these conclusions is that the appraisals could have had a direct impact on the reservation prices. The results further suggest that there is added informati...


A new method is described for online detection of parameter changes in a sensor. This is based on work by Yung and Clarke (1989) which employs a local ARIMA model of the sensor output to generate an innovation sequence. A statistical test, which quantifies the change to the variance of an innovation sequence, is developed and used to provide a decision process based on a likelihood ratio of probabilities. Real-time experimental results for detecting a change in a thermocouple time-constant are presented.


Background: Currently, many initiatives are devoted to optimizing informed consent for participation in clinical research. Due to the digital transformation in health care, a shift toward electronic informed consent (eIC) has been fostered. However, empirical evidence on how to implement eIC in clinical research involving neonates is lacking. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 health care professionals active in Belgium or the Netherlands. All health care professionals had experience in conducting clinical research involving neonates. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using the framework method. Results: Interviewees generally supported the use of eIC in clinical research involving neonates. For example, eIC could enable parents to receive study feedback via the eIC system. Requirements were expressed for parental involvement to decide on which feedback would be appropriate to return. Moreover, experts specialized in presenting information and designing electronic systems should be involved. Broad consensus among health care professionals indicates that the face-to-face-interaction between parents and the research team is vital to establish a relationship of trust. Therefore, it is necessary that the use of eIC runs alongside personal interactions with the parents. Concerns were raised about the accessibility of eIC to parents. For this reason, it was suggested that parents should always be given the possibility to read and sign a paper-based informed consent form or to use eIC. Conclusions: Health care professionals' views indicate that the use of eIC in clinical research with neonates may offer various opportunities. Further development and implementation will require a multi-stakeholder approach.


Students in this class will research a Supreme Court case and will need to locate relevant information in law reviews, Justice biographies, etc.


PURPOSE
The role of apoptosis in the transitory ocular embryonic structures has not been clarified yet, therefore, in the present study we focused on one of the transitory ocular structures, the embryonic fissure. To elucidate the developmental mechanism of the embryonic fissure, we observed cell death by apoptosis in the optic cup during early development in mice.

METHODS
Pairs of C57BL6N/Jcl mice, each comprising an estrous female and a potent male, were caged together overnight. Females that had vaginal plugs the next morning were considered at day 0 of pregnancy. The embryos or fetuses were removed by laparotomy on days 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 18 of gestation. Tissue blocks of the eyes were fixed and embedded in paraffin wax. Serial frontal sections of the eye were cut and stained with the TUNEL method and then counterstained by hematoxylin or methyl green solution. We examined TUNEL-positive cells in the optic cup by light microscopy.

RESULTS
TUNEL-positive cells were seen at the lower nasal side of the optic cup, corresponding to the presumed embryonic fissure area, on day 9 of gestation before the formation of the embryonic fissure. Many TUNEL-positive cells were present at the lips of the embryonic fissure on days 10, 11, and 12. In contrast, TUNEL-positive cells were not detectable in the corresponding area on day 13 after the complete closure of the embryonic fissure.

CONCLUSIONS
Apoptosis is anatomically closely associated, and appears to be essential for the formation and persistence of the embryonic fissure.


In this study, the design of the distance examination system for professional qualification measurement of the Vocational Qualifications Authority, the question bank of this examination system and the methods of forming the questions are given. Possible contributions are being investigated for solutions to problems such as the formation of quality questions, the establishment of question banks, and the creation of examinations consistent with the norms that will be tested during the exams and the creation of exams from the right questions,if the applicant has already entered the examination, the fact that the previous exam questions are not used for the same applicant invocational qualification measurement exams.


Objective: Palliative care at home is a new service provision in Romania. This study evaluated retrospectively, after the patient's death, the provision of care at home from the perspective of professionals directly involved in the care process. The evaluation included assessment of the role of the professional, the functioning of the team, communication with patients and family and overall judgment. This study is part of the development of palliative care at home by multidisciplinary teams in Romania. Methods : Over a period of eighteen months, five teams with in total of 19 professionals, provided palliative care for 103 patients with cancer in its terminal stage. During this period 80 patients died. A questionnaire was send to the professional involved. All responded resulting in 181 evaluations. These evaluations are the base for analysis. The data was analyzed using a SPSS. Results: Of the 181 cases evaluated, 63 indicated an emotional burden on the professionals. GPs and nurses reported such a burden more frequently. A lack of knowledge of how to treat a special case was reported 56 times. This was especially so when a case was judged as different from other cases, which often included (unexpected) complications. GP's reported cases with complications more frequently than oncologists and nurses. The multidisciplinary teams functioned very satisfactorily in treating patients. Although communication with patient/family was generally judged positively, communication with patients was sometime viewed as problematic. The overall


Abstract Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a flexible, albeit complex gas separation system. Due to its inherent nonlinear nature and discontinuous operation, the design of a model based PSA controller especially with varying operating conditions, is a challenging task. This work focuses on the design of an explicit/multi-parametric model predictive controller for a PSA system. Based on a system involving four adsorbent beds separating 70 % H 2 , 30 % CH 4 mixture into high purity hydrogen, the key controller objective is to fast track H 2 purity to the set point value of 99.99 %. To perform this task, a rigorous and systematic framework is employed. First, a high fidelity PDAE based model is built to mimic the real operation and understand its dynamic behavior. The same model is also used to derive a linear approximate model by applying suitable system identification techniques. Then a model predictive control step is formulated for the reduced model where latest developments in multi-parametric programming are applied to derive a suitable explicit MPC controller. To test the performance of the designed controller and further refine the tuning parameters, closed loop simulations are performed where the PDAE model developed in earlier step act as virtual plant. Comparisons studies of the derived explicit MPC controller are also performed with conventional PID controllers.


OBJECTIVE
To describe a breastfeeding theory based on King's Conceptual System.

METHOD
Theoretical study that used analysis of concept, assertion synthesis, and derivation of theory for the creation of a new theory.

RESULTS
King's system components were associated with elements of the breastfeeding process and a middle-range theory was created, which describes, explains, predicts, and prescribes breastfeeding by analyzing factors that precede and affect it, as well as their consequences on the breastfeeding process.

CONCLUSION
The Breastfeeding Interactive Model is abstract enough to be applied in different social, cultural, political, and economic contexts, because it conceptualizes breastfeeding in systemic, dynamic, and procedural aspects. Based on a conceptual model of nursing, it contributes to the scientific construction of the subject; however it can also potentially be applied by other professionals involved in breastfeeding assistance.


Key requirements for an experiential, innovative course in race relations, as well as the processes followed for university approval and implementation, are described. The course was offered by a licensed clinical psychologist at a university in the "'deep South" during the 1970's, a period of heightened racial tensions, and was part of a special program of courses designed for non-majors. The course included readings in race relations, special speakers, small group discussions and interactions. journals kept by each student and discussed with the instructor, a weekend field trip to a historically Black college, and a one-week, live-in stay in the home of a family of another race during the last third of the course. Student feedback received after each course and from a 20 year follow-up study indicated that this experiential course was perceived as the basis of life-long changes in behaviors and attitudes about race relations. ********** In previous articles (Kranz & Lund, 2004; Kranz & Lund, 1998: Kranz, Lund, & Johnson, 1996; Kranz, Lund, & Steele, 2003; Porter, Kranz, & Lund, 1998), the authors described a unique class in race relations that was initiated and taught at the University of North Florida from 1972-1977 during the first years of the University's existence. The articles captured student responses concerning various ways the course had changed their lives positively in terms of both personal and professional racial interactions. In those articles, various aspects of the class were explained, including design of the experiential course in race relations, techniques implemented, student reactions and changes in perspectives on race relations, live-in experiences in homes of other races, and field trips to historically Black colleges. However, what has not been addressed to date was how the class was initially proposed and implemented within the new university's curriculum, the process through which a particular department was encouraged by the administration to offer and sponsor new courses for the program, and the faculty and administrative reactions about the implementation and success of the courses. When the Psychology Department hired a new assistant professor with expertise in race relations, the department chair extended that faculty member the opportunity to create a unique course that would fit within the Venture Studies Program. This program offered advanced courses for non-majors designed such that the classes be innovative, pose lasting questions about contemporary issues, and challenge student reasoning abilities, attitudes and behaviors. The typical Venture Studies course was intended to be relevant to the times, progressive, and oftentimes to challenge a variety of commonly held beliefs and ideologies. The following actual course titles were examples listed in the 1976 catalogue: Womanhood in Modern Society; Politics: Left, Right, & Center; Bioethics: The Right to Exist; and Human Sexuality. The course considered in this article was entitled "Human Conflict: Black and White", since those were the two racial groups primarily represented in the UNF student body at that time. The University of North Florida, under the auspices of the Venture Studies Program, which was an innovation of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, encouraged its professors to explore new educational possibilities outside the institution's existing curricular framework, and thus provided another avenue of creative thought and exploration for its students and faculty. The result was an energized body of students and faculty members who entered into a learning experience with many experimental formats and challenging outcomes. Due to the growing excitement about the creative potential offered through this learning experience, an increasing number of students participated in Venture Studies program courses. Since the program invited each department to create and offer unique courses that would fit program goals and be meaningful to student's social and educational growth, the instructor felt that the following requirements should be included for the Human Conflict in Black and White course in addition to traditional lecture and class discussion: * In the latter part of the course, a seven-day stay in the home of a family of the other race was required for each participating student. …


The main purpose of this paper is to study if two major microcredit programs, namely Women Microcredit Funds (WMF) and Self-Help Groups (SHG), in Southern Iran reach rural poor and vulnerable households. We use primary panel data that consist of monthly consumption and income information for 280 households. The results showed that although both programs are successful at reaching poor, evidence on propensity of vulnerable households joining programs is relatively limited. Furthermore, results indicate that vulnerable households are more likely to join SHG, while poor households mostly choose to join WMF program.


Using real-time confocal microscopy, we examined the dynamic intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) response of porcine tracheal smooth muscle (TSM) cells to acetylcholine (ACh). Exposure to ACh caused regenerative, propagating [Ca2+]i oscillations. The amplitude and fall time of the [Ca2+]i oscillations were inversely correlated to basal [Ca2+]i, whereas the frequency and rise time were directly correlated to basal [Ca2+]i. ACh-induced [Ca2+]i oscillations were initiated in the absence of extracellular Ca2+ and after membrane depolarization with KCl, suggesting that 1) [Ca2+]i oscillations primarily arise by release from internal stores such as the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), and 2) Ca2+ influx is necessary for maintenance of oscillations. Exposure to both caffeine and ryanodine inhibited ongoing ACh-induced [Ca2+]i oscillations, suggesting a role for caffeine-sensitive ryanodine receptor (RyR) SR Ca2+ channels. Inhibition of SR Ca2+ reuptake by thapsigargin increased basal [Ca2+]i and decreased [Ca2+]i oscillation amplitude, suggesting that Ca2+ reuptake is also essential. The present results suggest that [Ca2+]i oscillations in porcine TSM cells involve repetitive Ca2+ release and reuptake from RyR channels, perhaps through a Ca2+ -induced Ca2+ release mechanism.


Thirty-seven states have been involved in at least one of the lawsuits challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas regulations. By constructing a dataset of potential influences on state involvement, I empirically test states' motivations to enter the litigation as either intervenors or parties. I find that the states' involvement is strongly associated with their political affiliations and somewhat associated with potential industry costs. Meanwhile, differences in climate change risks and public opinion do not drive the states' decisions. This Note argues that such state involvement in environmental litigation is undesirable and that the Environmental Protection Agency could stem such political actions by analyzing the costs and benefits of major environmental regulations by state. State-by-state analyses would highlight important distributional impacts among states, which would push Congress to alleviate those concerns through the political process. Meanwhile, such state-by-state analyses would also make overtly political decisions by state leaders more transparent; constituents could use the state-specific analyses to evaluate the positions of their leaders. Solving the tension caused by the differential impacts of climate change and climate change mitigation strategies in the United States could have helpful implications for international climate change treaties. Furthermore, this Note's findings that the positions of state attorneys general are largely determined by politics in the environmental arena could suggest critical scrutiny of the motivations behind their positions in other litigation.


Background Lateral ankle sprains occur at a high rate in competitive athletics. Following an ankle sprain, residual symptoms and recurrent injuries often persist. This can lead to chronic ankle instability (CAI) and eventually osteoarthritis. Therefore, understanding the magnitude of these long term issues is critically important to healthcare providers. Objective To determine the prevalence of CAI in Division I college athletes and any potential relationship between the presence of CAI and subsequent ankle sprain occurrence. Design Case-control study. Setting Division I Athletics Department. Participants A total of 462 college athletes participated in this study (184 males, 278 females, age = 19.5 ± 1.3 years, height = 178.4 ± 0.7 cm, body mass = 73.7 ± 10.5 kg). All participants completed the Identification of Functional Ankle Instability (IdFAI) survey to determine presence of CAI. Individuals scoring ≥11 on the IdFAI were classified as having CAI, and those scoring <11 as not having CAI. Interventions Frequency of ankle injury along with descriptive information (e.g. side, grade, etc…) was tracked for all participants for an academic year. Main outcome measurements Frequency of ankle sprains. A non-parametric c2 test of independence was used to determine the presence of an association between CAI status and subsequent ankle sprain occurrence. A priori alpha was set a p < 0.05.  Results Of the athletes included in this study, 40.5% (n = 187) had CAI. Of all 462 athletes there were 58 athletes who sustained an ankle sprain during the academic year; of those 58 ankle sprains 35 (60.3%) were identified as having CAI at the beginning of the study. There was a significant association between CAI status and the presence of sustaining an ankle injury during the academic year (c2(1) = 10.9, p = 0.001). Conclusions Similar to previously published results, there is a high prevalence of CAI in collegiate athletes. These data provide support that athletes with CAI have a significant association with sustaining an ankle sprain during the athletic season.


The study on the links between strategy, structure and performance has been for long time a fundamental and highly important research topic for the management researchers and practitioners. In this direction this paper presents a 'holistic' empirical investigation of the whole network of relations between business strategy (at a first level), information and communication technologies (ICT) investment, non-ICT investment and BPR (at a second level), and finally business performance (at a third level). It is based on firm-level data from 271 Greek firms, which are used for the estimation of structural equation models (SEM) connecting the above variables, theoretically based on the CobbDouglas Production Function. It is concluded that none of the three generic business strategies defined by M. Porter (cost leadership, differentiation and focus) has a significant effect on ICT and non-ICT investment; on the contrary, particular strategic choices (differentiation and focus strategy) have been found to drive process change. Also, it has been found that all the investigated internal factors, ICT investment, non-ICT investment and BPR, have a positive impact on business performance. Concerning their interrelations, ICT investment affects positively BPR, which indicates that BPR is a partial mediator in the relationship between ICT and performance; on the contrary, this does not happen with non-ICT investment, indicating an important difference between these two types of capital investment as to their relation with process change.


Background: The aims of this work were (a) to evaluate the prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) in a large sample of the Brazilian general population and (b) to compare CD prevalence between children and adults. Methods: The study group comprised 4405 subjects (2629 F and 1776 M). Age distributions were 2034 (1-14 years), 848 (15-29), 584 (30-44), 667 (45-59) and 272 above 60. The immunoglobulin A antiendomysial antibody (IgA-EMA) test was used as the serological screening tool. All sera were submitted to turbidimetric measurement of IgA levels and those with IgA deficiency to the IgG antigliadin (IgG-AGA) test. The small intestinal biopsy was recommended for subjects showing either (a) IgA-EMA positivity or (b) selective IgA deficiency (SigAD) and IgG-AGA positivity. Results: There were 16 EMA positive out of 4405 sera tested. SIgAD was found in five cases (one adult and four children). Two of these children tested positive for IgG-AGA and underwent jejunal biopsy that, in both cases, disclosed a normal mucosa. Overall, 17 out of 18 eligible subjects performed the small intestinal biopsy. The prevalence of biopsy-proven CD in this study group was 3.41 per 1000 individuals. If all 18 EMA-positive patients were included, the overall prevalence would become 3.63 per 1000. The prevalence in adults and children was 2.11 per 1000 and 5.44 per 1000, respectively. Conclusion: This work supports previous findings showing that CD is not a rare disorder in Brazil and that there is an unexplained difference in the prevalence of CD between adults and children.


Iran faces environmental challenges such as erosion and extreme events, namely droughts and floods. These phenomena have frequently affected the country over the past decades and temperature rise has led to a more challenging situation. Iran started to implement national and provincial policies in the 1950s to cope with these phenomena. To provide an overview of Iran's efforts to tackle land degradation and climate change, this paper examined through literature since 2000 the stakeholders' policies, their interventions and obstacles to the mitigation of these environmental challenges. Government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international projects have been the primary actors. Erosion-sensitive soil plantation, drought-resistant seeds, and water-saving irrigation systems were the main interventions of these policies. However, the research stresses the lack of coordination between these stakeholders, and the absence of a comprehensive database that could enable climate change to be tackled better in the future.


ABSTRACT This article intends to both broaden and deepen our understanding of Nordic penal exceptionalism by bringing into the debate Iceland's two Open Prisons. Thus far, despite being one of the Nordic countries Iceland has been more or less excluded from debates on Nordic penal practice which is remiss, as due to its isolation, Iceland may well offer a different perspective on it. Both open prisons are small establishments with about 20 prisoners held in each, in remote rural settings. As an immersive project I stayed in both prisons as a quasi-prisoner in order to examine their practice and culture from the inside. I conclude that in both establishments the social environment is characterized by both conviviality and familiarity between staff and prisoners. I argue that whilst Nordic penal exceptionalism is defined more widely, this culture of 'living together' is in fact most defining of it, at least in open prisons.


This study focuses on the short story writing of the Lebanese/Syrian writer Widād Sakākīnī (1913-1991). Its primary aim is to discover how she was able to establish herself as a respected writer while keeping her distinctive character as a woman writer within a literary tradition that was strongly defined by patriarchal values and contained many misogynic elements. An additional aim of the study is to present Widād Sakākīnī's life and milieu alongside her works.The study is based on the assumption that the fact that Widād Sakākīnī was a woman, that is, a representative of a normally silenced community, working within a literary tradition dominated by men, influenced both the form and the content of her writing. Theoretically the study has been influenced by Sandra Gilbert's and Susan Gubar's way of considering texts by early women writers as palimpsests; under the conventional and socially accepted surface deeper and less socially accepted levels of meaning can be found. With the help of structuralist theories (A.J. Greimas' model for interpreting the narrative plot as interpreted by Pil Dahlerup, Irene Engelstad and Irene Iversen and used by them for studying texts written by women writers and Susan Sniader Lanser's theories about women writers' use of the narrative voice) as well as poststructuralist theories about intertextuality (Genette and Culler) the study has identified various literary strategies used by Widād Sakākīnī to conform to the dominant male discourse within which she was working while preserving her own identity as a woman writer. The study shows that she skillfully managed to create new, and sometimes, subversive meanings to traditional themes and motifs used in her texts.


In this article, a space-time continuous finite element method with interpolated coefficients for a class of semilinear parabolic problem is introduced and analyzed. Basic global error estimates are established under the convergence assumption for linear problem. Further application of the orthogonal expansion method which is to construct some superapproximate interpolating functions, the supperconvergence on mesh nodes is proved. Finally the result is tested by a numerical example.


A 21-year-old woman complaining of 8-month amenorrhea associated to weight gain, galactorrhea and frequent headaches, presented for clinical evaluation; her laboratory tests were: TSH: 1192 mUI/ml (0.27-4.2); TT4: 1.0 microg/dl (4.4-11.4 l); TT3: 0.41 ng/ml (0.7-2.1); prolactin: 69.2 ng/ml (3-20) and a diagnosis of myxedema associated to galactorrhea was made. A hypothalamic-pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a suprasellar and intrasellar mass lesion of 1.9 x 1.4 x 1.9 cm, determining compression and deviation of the optic chiasm. Due to the possibility of hyperplasia of the TSH-producing cells, treatment of hypothyroidism was initiated with levothyroxine. Two months later, upon normalization of thyroid hormones and TSH levels, a second MRI showed an anatomically normal pituitary gland. Regression of the pituitary mass after treatment with levothyroxine confirmed the hypothesis of pituitary hyperplasia secondary to primary hypothyroidism. Our findings support the importance of determining thyroid function tests during the investigation of pituitary masses and thus avoiding an unnecessary surgery.


Ablation of the BPAG1 gene results in the dystonia musculorum mouse, exhibiting rapid spinal nerve degeneration, dystonic movements, and severe ataxia. By defining the developmental and tissue-specific expression of the neuronal form of BPAG1 (BPAG1-n) and by comparing the corresponding pathology in BPAG1 null mice, we seek here to understand how absence of BPAG1 results in this devastating phenotype in mice and in potentially related human neurological disorders. Throughout normal development, BPAG1-n was expressed in a variety of sensory and autonomic neuronal structures, but was absent or reduced in areas such as basal ganglia that are often affected in dystonias and ataxias. Interestingly, BPAG1-n was also expressed broadly in embryonic motor neurons, but expression declined dramatically after birth. Despite these complex developmental patterns, BPAG1-/- pathology was restricted largely to postnatal development. Moreover, gross neuronal degeneration was restricted to only a few regions where BPAG1-n was found, including dorsal root ganglion neurons and a small subset of motor neurons. Most notably, while skeletal muscle was normal, appearance of severe dystonic ataxia correlated with postnatal degeneration of muscle spindles. Collectively, our findings suggest a mechanism for the BPAG1 null phenotype and indicate that different neurons respond differently to the absence of BPAG1-n, a cytoskeletal linker protein.


Cellulases are important enzymes not only for their potential applications in different industries like industries of animal feed, agricultural, laundry & detergent, textile, paper&pulp, wine &brewery, food processing, olive oil extraction. Carotenoid extraction, pharmaceutical & medical sciences, analytical applications, protoplast production, genetic engineering and pollution treatment, but also for the significant role in bio conversion of agriculture wastes into sugar and bio ethanol. This review paper simply assesses about: Enzymes, Cellulose, Cellulases& its types, Cellulase production and detailed study on Applications of cellulases.


ABSTRACT This study investigates the discrete effects of inquiry-based instructional practices that described the PISA 2015 construct 'inquiry-based instruction' and how each practice, and the frequency of each practice, is related to science achievement across 69 countries. The data for this study were drawn from the PISA 2015 database and analysed using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). HLMs were estimated to test the contribution of each item to students' science achievement scores. Some inquiry practices demonstrated a significant, linear, positive relationship to science achievement (particularly items involving contextualising science learning). Two of the negatively associated items (explaining their ideas and doing experiments) were found to have a curvilinear relationship to science achievement. All nine items were dummy coded by the reported frequency of use and an optimum frequency was determined using the categorical model and by calculating the inflection point of the curvilinear associations in the previous model e.g. students that carry out experiments in the lab in some lessons have higher achievement scores than students who perform experiments in all lessons. These findings, accompanied by detailed analyses of the items and their relationships to science outcomes, give stakeholders clear guidance regarding the effective use of inquiry-based approaches in the classroom.


In this paper, we present a local appearance-based approach for 3-D face recognition. In the proposed algorithm, we first register the 3-D point clouds to provide a dense correspondence between faces. Afterwards, we analyze two mapping techniques-the closest-point mapping and the ray-casting mapping, to construct depth images from the corresponding well-registered point clouds. The depth images that are obtained are then divided into local regions where the discrete cosine transformation is performed to extract local information. The local features are combined at the feature level for classification. Experimental results on the FRGC version 2.0 face database show that the proposed algorithm performs superior to the well-known face recognition algorithms.


Electromagnetic radiation, such as microwaves, are all the time reflected, transmitted, and/or absorbed by any kind of matter, glasses, conductors, water, ferrites, and so forth. Magnetic materials absorb greatly microwaves. The more magnetic, the more microwaves are absorbed. The aim of this chapter is to present the fundamental physics of the absorption of microwave power (energy per unit time) by ferrimagnetic and ferromagnetic matter in the nano and micro size scale. The magnetic moments and their collective modes are the basic microscopic absorbers under in-resonance and out-of-resonance conditions. Experimental setups and measurement techniques are described. The profiles of microwave absorption are described and connected to the micromagnetic environment that elicits such absorption. Section by section and the overall microwave power absorption profiles are related to the micromagnetic structures. Emphasis is made on nano- and micromagnets. These interactions of microwaves with nano- and micromagnets serve to infer microscopic magnetic information.


Indonesia is a country that has a lot of natural resources. Natural resources are widely used in various areas of human life. One of the resources that is often used is limestone. Limestone is a non-metallic mining material that has considerable potential and reserves and spreads across almost all parts of Indonesia, but the exact amount of reserves is not yet known. The research aims to predict the amount of packstone-type limestone reserves using geophysical methods. This research was conducted using the geoelectric method with the Schlumberger configuration, where the resistivity geoelectric data obtained variations in resistivity and layer thickness. This data is then interpreted to determine the type of rock in the surface area, and make a 3D model to determine the distribution of limestone in the study area and calculate the amount of limestone reserves in the study area. Based on the research results, it is known that the research area is dominated by packstone with a resistivity value of 16.6 Ωm 1.3x10 Ωm. The calculation result of packstone reserves in the study area is 73,629,403 tons.


The physical properties of red pepper seed were evaluated as a function of moisture content. The average length, width and thickness were 4.46, 3.66 and 0.79 mm, respectively, at 7.27% d.b. moisture content. In the moisture range of 7.27 to 20.69% dry basis (d.b.), studies on rewetted red pepper seed showed that the thousand seed mass increased from 7.97 to 8.89 g, the projected area from 8.40 to 9.09 mm2, the sphericity from 0.525 to 0.555 and the terminal velocity from 4.36 to 4.51 m s-1. The static coefficient of friction of red pepper seed increased linearly against surfaces of four structural materials, namely, rubber (0.394 to 0.477), aluminium (0.255 to 0.382), stainless steel (0.298 to 0.416) and galvanised iron (0.319 to 0.395) as the moisture content increased from 7.27 to 20.69% d.b. The bulk density decreased from 402.1 to 360.0 kg m-3, the true density from 795.2 to 746.3 kg m-3 and the porosity increased from 49.43 to 51.76%, respectively, with an increase in moisture content from 7.27 to 20.69% d.b.


MacDonald, J. E., Hacking, J., Weng, Y. and Norrie, J. 2012. Root growth of containerized lodgepole pine seedlings in response to Ascophyllum nodosum extract application during nursery culture. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 1207-1212. Vigorous root growth immediately after spring planting is crucial to ensure a well-developed root system before the occurrence of drought events associated with climate change. The objective of this study was to enhance spring root growth of containerized lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.) seedlings. Seedling culture began in April. In September, seedlings were root drenched with an extract of the brown marine alga Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jolis in finisher fertilizer at rates of 1:750, 1:500, and 1:250. Finisher fertilizer alone served as control. Applications were made three or six times. Seedling culture continued until lifting in December, and then seedlings were freezer stored. Frequency of application had no effect on root growth, whereas rate of application had a significant effect. Compared with control, the 1:750, 1:500, and 1:250 rates significantly reduced total length of the root system in mid October. After overwintering and growing under favorable environmental conditions for 21 d, the 1:500 rate significantly increased the total number of white roots, as well as the number of both short and long white roots. These results suggest that application of Ascophyllum nodosum extract may be a valuable nursery practice to increase spring root growth, thereby enhancing drought resistance.


To minimize the time to market and cost of new sub 0.2 um process technologies and products, PDF Solutions, Inc. has developed a new comprehensive approach based on the use of predictive simulation roots combined with highly efficient experimental design techniques and special test structures. This paper focuses on our approach for concurrent development of new technologies and optimization of cell libraries for these technologies. We present a software system called Circuit Surfer which performs this library optimization in a highly automated fashion and with guaranteed correctness in silicon. We demonstrate several examples of Circuit Surfer applications to cell library design to optimize such objective functions as performance, cell area or yield.


The chemical abundance patterns of the oldest stars in the Galaxy are expected to contain residual signatures of the first stars in the early universe. Numerous studies attempt to explain the intrinsic abundance scatter observed in some metal-poor populations in terms of chemical inhomogeneities dispersed throughout the early Galactic medium due to discrete enrichment events. Just how the complex data and models are to be interpreted with respect to "progenitor yields" remains an open question. Here we show that stochastic chemical evolution models to date have overlooked a crucial fact. Essentially, all stars today are born in highly homogeneous star clusters and it is likely that this was also true at early times. When this ingredient is included, the overall scatter in the abundance plane [Fe/H] versus [X/Fe] (-space), where X is a nucleosynthetic element, can be much less than derived from earlier models. Moreover, for moderately flat cluster mass functions (γ ≲ 2), and/or for mass functions with a high mass cutoff (Mmax ≳ 105 M☉), stars exhibit a high degree of clumping in -space that can be identified even in relatively small data samples. Since stellar abundances can be modified by mass transfer in close binaries, clustered signatures are essential for deriving the yields of the first supernovae. We present a statistical test to determine whether a given set of observations exhibit such behavior. Our initial work focuses on two dimensions in -space, but we show that the clustering signal can be greatly enhanced by additional abundance axes. The proposed experiment will be challenging on existing 8–10 m telescopes, but relatively straightforward for a multi-object echelle spectrograph mounted on a 25–40 m telescope.


Introduction: Nepal is vulnerable to many hazards and disasters. Geographically, Nepal is situated at the Indi-an and Eurasian seismic plates and is prone to disasters like floods, landslides, fire, and earthquakes. The earthquake on April 25, 2015, with a 7.8 Richter scale and several aftershocks, have resulted in a considerable loss of human lives, physical infrastructure, and natural resources in Nepal. Many studies on the impacts of the earthquake mentioned the challenges in community recovery. This paper examines and explains the impact of earthquakes on family and community and how family and community cope during the disaster. Besides coping mechanisms, this paper explains discourses or conflicts in the family and communities. The paper is an outcome of a statistical analysis of 912 households survey conducted in Nepal's central hill, Kispang Rural municipality, a community affected by the 2015 earthquake in Nuwakot district. Methods: This research relies on literature review, key informant interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), field visits, expert interviews, etic and emic approaches to observe the field. The research questionnaires were prepared and performed a household survey of 912 households. Various questions on how the earthquake in Nepal "X" has created the "Y" impacts and discourses or conflict in the family and the community in Nepal's central hills were analyzed. Results: The earthquake has impacted the families and communities; however, the families and communities had shown distinct coping mechanisms to stay resilient to the impact—various factors were identified where family discourses and escalated conflict influenced the community peace. It was found that family-level discourses and conflict emerged mainly in collectivist society or joint or extended families. Gender-based violence/ conflict was also measured and found augmented after the earthquake in the community.   Conclusion: The research study concluded that family discourses and conflict emerge when disaster relief and reconstruction policies do not incorporate the needs of affected communities. The multi-dimensional holistic, integrated policies that integrate all the affected communities' needs will support building community and family-level peace. Discriminative policies that divide families and communities should not be practiced.


Submitted 2020-07-01 | Accepted 2020-09-01 | Available 2020-12-01 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2020.23.mi-fpap.105-111 The by-products of olive oil production are not traditional feed ingredients in poultry nutrition. Despite their low nutritional value, they can be used not only as a source of energy and nutrients, but also as bioactive substances in nutrition of broiler chickens. The aim of the study was to determine whether the use of olive leaves and cake in feed mixtures for broilers affects their growth performance and bone mineralisation. In the feeding experiment 120 male Ross 308 broilers were used. At the age of 21 days the chickens were randomly assigned to 5 experimental groups each with two pens (replicates) of 12 animals and fed with 5 different feed mixtures without (Control) or supplemented with 5% or 10% olive leaves (OLeave5, OLeave10) or cake (OCake5, OCake10). Live weight and feed intake per pen were recorded weekly. At the end of the feeding experiment (42 days), 12 chickens per group were randomly selected and slaughtered. At the slaughter line, bone samples (femur, tibia and humerus) were taken from each chicken. The supplementation of olive leaves and cake had no significant effect on the growth performance and mineral content in femur, tibia and humerus of the broilers. The addition of 5 and 10% olive leaves to the feed resulted in higher Cu content in the humerus, but bone mineralisation did not change. In conclusion olive leaves and cake did not modify bone mineralisation but could be supplemented in the feed mixtures for broilers without negative effects on growth performance. Keywords: broiler, olive by-product, live weight, bone mineralisation References AL-HARTHI, M. (2017). The effect of olive cake, with or without enzymes supplementation, on growth performance, carcass characteristics, lymphoid organs and lipid metabolism of broiler chickens. 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This paper deals with distributed detection using a tandem network with conditionally dependent observations. Our approach utilizes a recently proposed hierarchical conditional independence model where a hidden variable is introduced and induces conditional independence among sensor observations. If the hidden variable is discrete, optimal local decision rules are reminiscent that of the conditional independence case. For continuous scalar hidden variable, similar results can be obtained when additional monotonicity conditions are imposed.


This paper interrogates human relationships with the natural environment using the saskatoon berry as a "habitat guide," a concept borrowed from the Indigenous perspectives of the Blackfoot, Papachase Cree and the Métis. As a settler on Treaty Six and Métis territory no. 4 – the traditional lands of various Indigenous Peoples including the Papaschase Cree, Blackfoot, Nakota Sioux, Ojibwe, Métis and others – my research engages with personal experience and specific Indigenous knowledge systems and worldview(s). This paper is divided into three sections: the first examines engagement with the natural environment and makes a case for stewardship and kinship as eco-conscious ethics. The second section, based on an oral interview with Papaschase Cree educator and scholar Dwayne Donald, builds on traditional ecological knowledge to provoke thoughts on multispecies relationality. In the final section, I offer a close reading of poems by two Métis poets to emphasize kinship and ethical relationality through the saskatoon berry.