Author(s): Holdren, Natalie Robin O'Connor | Advisor(s): Singer, George HS | Abstract: The current study sought to establish whether simulated Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings using scenarios and actors may serve as an effective tool for assessing and improving pre-service special education teachers' ability to facilitate parent participation in legally correct IEP meetings with the introduction of a training intervention. This investigation sought to answer the following research questions: 1) Are the content and methods of a training program designed to teach pre-service special educators to conduct legally correct IEP meetings inclusive of parent participation socially valid as determined by a survey of practicing special educators?, 2) Can pre-service special educators learn to encourage parent participation in simulated IEP meetings with actors across scenario difficulty levels through the use of a training intervention? 3) Can participants learn the skills required to run an IEP that successfully addresses legally required meeting agenda components?, 4) When levels of difficulty of scenarios are compared, do they impact the level of participant and parent actor responding at both pre and post?, and 5) Is there a functional relationship between the training intervention and increases in encouraging parent participation and parent actor participation in response to teacher facilitation as determined by a multiple baseline across subjects design? The training intervention method and content were rated socially valid by in-service special educators. Data indicated that the training intervention was successful at increasing pre-service teachers' facilitation of parent participation skills as well as the mean number of meeting components completed across pre and post levels. Findings suggested that there was no difference in the patterns of participant and parent actor responding at the easy and medium scenario levels, where by visual inspection, an increase in participant use of parent facilitation strategies appears associated with an increase in parent actor participation. In the difficult level, however, an increase in participant facilitation skills did not appear to be associated with an increase in parent actor participation. Analysis of the multiple baseline design data indicated several issues with upward trends in baseline and overlapping levels across baseline and intervention phases, which raised questions regarding an ability to claim a functional effect between the training intervention and the dependent variables under investigation. An examination of an ad hoc hypothesis is presented, whereby a case is made through both direct observation and qualitative data that one actor performed as an outlier. Analysis of the multiple baseline design with outlier data excised demonstrates a likelihood of a functional effect between the intervention and the dependent variables. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and practice for both pre-service and in-service teacher education.


This research addresses the need for an improved characterisation of the onset flow turbulence and the unsteady hydrodynamic blade loads on tidal turbines for the purposes of predicting fatigue life. A new, extensive set of parameters which characterise the magnitudes of the turbulent fluctuations, the anisotropy and the scales of the turbulence at a tidal energy site have been presented. A novel application of rapid distortion theory estimated the velocity fluctuations to be amplified by 15 % due to the presence of the turbine. The turbulence was also predicted to be well correlated over the outer span of a turbine blade at the frequencies of interest. Together, these results enabled a set of non-dimensional parameters describing the turbulence induced forcing on a turbine blade to be established. A model-scale horizontal-axis turbine was used to investigate the unsteady blade load response in a still-water towing tank. A set of wind tunnel tests of the S814 foil were also conducted and used to demonstrate that the lift on the blades could have been degraded by 10 % at the relatively low Reynolds numbers at which the turbine was tested, relative to full-scale. This was owing to dominant laminar separation bubbles. Single frequency planar oscillations of the turbine were used to quantify the contribution of hydrodynamic unsteadiness to the blade-root bending moment. For attached flow, the unsteady bending moment was found to amplify the steady loads by up to 15 %. The total hydrodynamic added mass was up to 2.7 times larger than from non-circulatory forcing and decreased with frequency. Dynamic inflow theory and a returning wake model were able to provide qualitative predictions of these results at low frequencies. At low tip-speed ratios, phenomena consistent with delayed separation and dynamic stall were characterised and the unsteady loading was up to 25 % larger than the steady load. Linear superposition of the single frequency responses was also demonstrated to offer a reliable technique to model the response to a multi-frequency forcing and to a large eddy.


Foetal programming describes the process whereby exposure to environmental stimuli or insults during early development can lead to enduring change in structure and function in later life. This concept has found much support in terms of altered metabolic and cardiovascular function from a range of epidemiological and animal studies, but more recent work is highlighting the role that poor foetal nutrition may have on the development of behavioural and psychiatric problems. The biological mechanisms underlying nutritional programming remain uncertain, however compromised placental deficiency and/or foetal endocrine systems (particularly the IGF axis), have been considered to be of paramount importance at the nexus of this foetal-environmental interplay. In the present study, two knockout mouse models of the imprinted Igf2 gene were used to investigate the effects of placental deficiency and foetal growth restriction on brain development and behaviour in later life. Total deletion of the Igf2 gene (7g/2-Null KO) leads to complete ablation of Igf2 expression from all foetal and placental tissue, severe growth deficiency of both the foetus and placenta, and a mouse that is born small (50% of normal size) and remains small for life. However, the Igf2-0 knockout (Igf2-P0 KO) model, where Igf2 expression is only suppressed in the placenta (deletion of the P0 promoter) results in moderate foetal and placental growth retardation and an adult of equivalent size of normal. Intrauterine growth restricted mice from both Igf2 knockout models were tested on a wide range of behavioural batteries, and performance compared with that of wild-type littermates. Since epidemiological studies of humans have commonly demonstrated linkage between nutritional compromise in early life, and ADHD symptoms and anxiety disorders in later life, behavioural tasks sensitive to these behavioural phenotypes were selected for the purpose of present experiments. 7g/2-P0 KO mice displayed heightened levels of stress and anxiety, as indicated by greater startle responses and a marked increase in avoidance behaviour on several conflict-based tests of anxiety. Mice from both Igf2 knockout models exhibited heightened discriminative accuracy in the 5-choice serial reaction time task, but Tg/2-PO KO mice also showed enhanced impulse control. Real-time qPCR revealed differential expression of both GABA- and 5-HT-ergic receptor subtypes in the hippocampus of Igf2-Q KO mice, which may correlate with the observed stress and anxiety related phenotypes. Moreover, alternate splicing of the 5-HT2C receptor in the striatum could underlie the increased impulse control shown by ig/2-P0 KO mice. While the findings of elevated anxiety levels among the Igf2-P0 KO mice are in line with previous work on humans and animals, the heightened attentional performance and impulse control is entirely novel and highlight the importance of further research on the relationship between early life adversities and later ADHD risk.


Immune factors such as cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors are known to play important roles in the preimplantation interactions and communication between the blastocyst and receptive endometrium. This crucial dialog occurs during the stages when the blastocyst is in the uterine cavity immediately preceding implantation and the establishment of pregnancy. Human preimplantation processes are difficult to study due to restrictions on tissue availability. This review focuses on the expression and role of immune factors in human blastocyst‐endometrial dialog during the very early stages of implantation. It highlights the importance of immune regulators and the need to develop new models to study human implantation.


Abstract Background and Aims The long-term safety and efficacy of allogeneic bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cell [bmMSC] therapy in perianal Crohn's disease [CD] fistulas is unknown. We aimed to provide a 4-year clinical evaluation of allogeneic bmMSC treatment of perianal CD fistulas. Methods A double-blind dose-finding study for local bmMSC therapy in 21 patients with refractory perianal fistulising Crohn's disease was performed at the Leiden University Medical Center in 2012–2014. All patients treated with bmMSCs [1 x 107 bmMSCs cohort 1, n = 5; 3 × 107 bmMSCs cohort 2, n = 5; 9 × 107 bmMSCs cohort 3, n = 5] were invited for a 4-year evaluation. Clinical events were registered, fistula closure was evaluated, and anti-human leukocyte antigen [HLA] antibodies were assessed. Patients were also asked to undergo a pelvic magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] and rectoscopy. Results Thirteen out of 15 patients [87%] treated with bmMSCs were available for long-term follow-up. Two non-MSC related malignancies were observed. No serious adverse events thought to be related to bmMSC therapy were found. In cohort 2 [n = 4], all fistulas were closed 4 years after bmMSC therapy. In cohort 1 [n = 4] 63%, and in cohort 3 [n = 5] 43%, of the fistulas were closed, respectively. In none of the patients anti-HLA antibodies could be detected 24 weeks and 4 years after therapy. Pelvic MRI showed significantly smaller fistula tracts after 4 years. Conclusions Allogeneic bmMSC therapy for CD-associated perianal fistulas is also in the long-term a safe therapy. In bmMSC-treated patients, fistulas with closure at Week 24 were still closed after 4 years.


In the U.S., the prevalence of obesity increased by 30% from 1980 to 1990, and this increase appears to be continuing. Although obesity has multiple etiologies, an overlooked possibility is obesity of an infectious origin. Six pathogens are reported to cause obesity in animals. Canine distemper virus was the first virus reported to cause obesity in mice, followed by Rous-associated virus-7, an avian retrovirus, which has been shown to cause stunting, obesity and hyperlipidemia in chickens. Next, the obesity-promoting effect of Borna disease virus was demonstrated in rats. Scrapie agents were reported to induce obesity in mice and hamsters. The final two reports were of SMAM-1, an avian adenovirus, and Ad-36, a human adenovirus that caused obesity in animals. Additionally, an association with human obesity is the unique feature of SMAM-1 and Ad-36. Although the exact mechanism of pathogen-induced obesity is unclear, infection attributable to certain organisms should be included in the long list of potential etiological factors for obesity. In addition, the involvement of some pathogens in etiology of obesity suggests the possibility of a similar role for additional pathogens.


State laws compel school-aged children to attend school while fully funding only public schools. Especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, this arrangement is under attack—from some as unconstitutionally coercing families to expose their children to non-neutral values to which they object, from others for ignoring the developmental needs of students, especially of color and in poverty. This Article argues that, fully subsidized public education is constitutional as long as public schools fulfill their mission to model and commit people to liberal democratic values of tolerance and respect for all persons as equal choosers. To be sure, those values are not neutral. But as Brown v. Board famously concluded, their promotion in public schools is perhaps the nation's and states' single most compelling interest, because it is essential to the ability of people with diverse beliefs to live together harmoniously while preserving their vast freedoms in other respects. To keep public education from qualifying those freedoms any more than necessary, states give families a right to opt for private education, but at their own expense. This arrangement serves the compelling interest in public education only, however, if public schools—bolstered by compulsory education laws and their uniquely full public subsidization—attract enough families. For well over a century ago, public schools have attracted around 90 percent of all children. Today, however, family moves away from public education are eroding its ability to attract children due principally to public education's conflation of "public" with bureaucratically "uniform" education—precluding pedagogically, democratically, and equitably essential differentiation among students. The Article concludes with ways public schools can better model liberal democratic values by engaging all families in the cooperative and differentiated direction of their children's learning.


Caulerpa taxifolia (Vahl) C. Agardh (Ulvophyceae, Caulerpales) is an algae of tropical origin that was accidentally introduced into the Mediterranean in 1984. Caulerpenyne (Cau) is the major metabolite present in Caulerpa taxifolia. This metabolite has previously been shown to be cytotoxic against cell lines in culture as in KB cells and fibroblasts from hamsters. Cau along with 6 other drugs representative of the major classes of anticancer products was tested against 8 cancer cell lines of human origin. Cau demonstrated growth-inhibitory effects in all cases with some variability between cell lines; this inter-cell variability was, however, less marked than that observed with the anticancer drug tested. Cells of colorectal cancer origin were the most sensitive to the presence of Cau with IC50 values of 6.1 and 7.7 microM. Increasing the duration of contact between Cau and the cells from 75 min to 29.5 hr did not improve the cytotoxic efficacy of this compound. When Cau was pre-incubated in the culture medium for from 7 to 83 min before being exposed to CAL 27 cells (head and neck cancer origin), there was a constant loss of cytostatic action of Cau as a function of Cau pre-incubation time. As the bovine serum albumin concentration increased in the culture medium, the concentration-response curves showed a constant shift towards the right, indicating a loss of cytostatic activity of Cau. In the presence of Cau, cells in culture clearly exhibited an early and marked shift into S phase followed by a blockade into the premitotic G2 M phase. Possible targets for CAU remain to be identified. Cau needs to be tested on tumor bearing animals to confirm this promising antiproliferative activity.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the ferrocement building technique for sustainable housing. Ferrocement involves the use of conventional cement with fine aggregate and several layers of steel, with the advantage of higher strength than conventional reinforced concrete, limited formwork and thinner sections. It is particularly suitable for thin shell structures, where geometry minimizes bending loads. Architectural flexibility is one of the main priorities considered in sustainable housing, along with energy efficiency, occupant comfort, resistance to seismic and tornado events, affordability and durability. Ferrocement's historical and present applications are covered, along with other building techniques, in order to establish best practices and possible improvements. Reducing construction labor is a particular focus, which has limited ferrocement development in recent years. Computer modeling of shell form finding is described, with three case studies created. A structural analysis method is described and applied to each case study to verify general building code safety. Energy modeling is performed in two climates for each case study in the United States and compared to key PassivHaus energy demand limits. Net zero energy use is possible with on-site solar photovoltaic generation.


In 79 patients, suffering from central left-to-right shunts, dye-dilution curves were recorded partially using a peripheral venous injection site during reactive hyperaemia. 47 investigations were carried out during ergometer exercise in supine position. 32 patients received injections of 1-2 mg Propranolol or 0,4-0,8 mg Pindolol. During exercise dye-dilution curves showed characteristic alterations, indicating a decrease of the relative shunt-flow, whereas beta-receptor blocking agents increased the relative shunt-flow. Dye-dilution curves written during exercise may be helpful in evaluating the indication for operative closure in patients with small atrial or ventricular septal defects. beta-receptor blocking agents can facilitate diagnosis of left-to-right shunt as a screening test.


The Walking Qur'an by Rudolph T. Ware III ambitiously takes on African and Islamic studies in a call to make the study of Islam in Africa more central to the two fields that have left it lying in a double margin. By arguing that a series of root metaphors from the tradition suggest an implicit theory of embodied knowledge that constitute an authentic Islam, however, Ware particularizes West African and Muslim forms of religiosity and dehistoricizes present struggles and points of social contention. The resulting narrative appears to legitimate claims made by the religious establishment within Senegal today while making claims to legitimate authority possible among the African American Muslim community.


In field experiments it has been observed that nitrogen availability to corn is frequently depressed where crop residues low in nitrogen remain on the soil surface as compared to where the residues are incorporated in the soil. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the immobilization of soil nitrogen as influenced by position of crop residue with reference to the soil. In greenhouse experiments nitrogen uptake by Sudangrass was significantly greater when cornstalk residue was applied to the soil surface than when it was incorporated in the soil. By comparison with a treatment receiving no residue it was concluded that considerable nitrogen was immobilized by cornstalk residue incorporated in the soil, whereas no immobilization occurred with cornstalk residue on the soil surface. On the other hand, in laboratory experiments it was demonstrated that soil nitrogen could be moved to and immobilized in low-nitrogen residue on the soil surface and that the movement of nitrogen into surface residue was enhanced in treatments which were subsurface irrigated and in treatments held at a low-air humidity. Also it was found in laboratory experiments that subsurface residue decomposed more rapidly than did surface residue and that this more rapid decomposition resulted in an increase in percent nitrogen but in a decrease in total nitrogen of the residue. Likewise, percent nitrogen of surface residue increased, but total nitrogen increased or decreased, depending upon the conditions of the experiment. The results of a field experiment demonstrated that surface applications of low-nitrogen residue without added nitrogen fertilizer resulted in decreased nitrogen uptake by corn and yield of corn. However, when nitrogen fertilizer was added along with the residue, yields were increased above the unmulched check.


The Supreme Court's opinion in Miranda v. Arizona1 does not even look like an ordinary opinion. As many critics have commented, it reads more like a legislative committee report with an accompanying statute.2 As if that were not enough, the Court has, since Miranda, repeatedly said that the Miranda rules are not required by the self-incrimination clause of the fifth amendment but are judge-made rules designed to implement that provision.3 Against this background, it is not surprising to find Miranda under attack not just as wrong but as "illegitimate." Professor Grano, for example, argues that "prophylactic rules" like Miranda's always raise questions of legitimacy; and that even if prophylactic rules are sometimes legitimate, Miranda's prophylactic rule is not. 4 I want first to suggest that Professor Grano is mistaken in his argument that what the Court did in Miranda is different from, and less legitimate than, what it does when it prescribes the kind of prophylactic rules that he finds legitimate. Then I will make a broader argument-that "prophylactic" rules are not exceptional measures of questionable legitimacy but are a central and necessary feature of constitutional law. Indeed, constitutional law consists, to a significant degree, in the elaboration of doctrines that are universally accepted as legitimate, but that have the same "prophylactic" character as the Miranda rule.


One of the major goals in the representation theory of quivers is the classification of isomorphism classes of representations of arbitrary quivers and the homomorphism spaces between them. Whence the classification problem is solved for representations of quivers of Dynkin type and those of extended Dynkin type, it is regarded as very hard for the remaining wild quivers. One of the main aims of this habilitation is to make a contribution to geometric representation theory with focus on wild quivers. Thereby, tree structures happen to play an important role. We concentrate on three aspects.

The first one contributes to the mentioned classification problem in such a way that we introduce methods which can be used to construct isomorphism classes of indecomposable representations which can be described by as many parameters as predicted by Kac's Theorem. Often tree modules serve as a skeleton in this construction and the investigations raise hope that, at least for a certain class of roots, further considerations can lead to a normal form for indecomposable quiver representations.

Geometric considerations build the bridge to the second, cohomological, aspect. Maybe the main knowledge gained in this theory throughout the last years is that the Euler characteristic of moduli spaces of stable quiver representations can be obtained in a purely combinatorial way when counting certain trees. But this is not the end of the story as there is an equivalent formula in the theory of Gromov-Witten invariants counting rational curves on weighted projective planes. In a sense, it turns out that in the theory of Gromov-Witten invariants certain tropical curves, whose underlying graphs are also trees, play the role of torus fixed points of moduli spaces.

The third aspect is on the investigation of quiver Grassmannians attached to representations of extended Dynkin quivers of type D. We show that every quiver Grassmannian admits a cell decomposition into affine spaces. As we can associate a tree with each cell, the Euler characteristic is already given by its number. This can be used to obtain an explicit description of the generating functions of the Euler characteristics. These generating functions are then again important in the theory of cluster algebras as they can be used to determine the corresponding cluster variables.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
To evaluate an application of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the rapid identification of bacterial and fungal pathogens causing endophthalmitis and keratitis and compare time to detection with other laboratory methods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Culture-positive isolates obtained from vitreous and corneal samples were tested. Organisms tested were Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, C. glabrata, and C. parapsilosis. Inoculi were prepared to a final concentration between 1 × 102 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL to 1 × 108 CFU/mL. Samples were hybridized with peptide nucleic acid probes for pathogens using the QuickFISH protocol (AdvanDx; OpGen, Gaithersburg, MD), and the slides were read with fluorescence microscopy.

RESULTS
Of the 29 total isolates tested, 28 yielded positive identification. S. aureus was identified in four out of five vitreous samples, whereas coagulase-negative staphylococci were identified in all vitreous samples. Mixed staphylococci culture was identified in all samples. P. aeruginosa was identified in all six keratitis samples. C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, and mixed fungal culture were identified respectively in eight of eight samples at minimal concentration of 1 × 104 CFU/mL. There were no false-negatives. Time to detection was 20 minutes after the 12- to 18-hour inoculation period and provided an identification 6 hours sooner than by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 1 to 2 days sooner than by routine culture.

CONCLUSIONS
This small study demonstrates the sensitive, specific, and rapid detection of gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria and fungi using FISH probes in isolates from endophthalmitis and keratitis samples. This method decreases time to identification and reduces labor intensity compared with routine PCR and culture methods. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2019;50:S9-S12.].


Sex determination is governed by a series of genetic switches that influence cell fate and differentiation during critical periods of gonadal development. Remarkably, the primordial fetal gonad is bipotential. Therefore, gonadal development provides an excellent opportunity to identify genes involved in differential organogenesis. The identification of the testis-determining gene, SRY (Sex-reversed on the Y), was a pivotal first step towards unraveling this genetic pathway. It is now clear that numerous other genes, in addition to SRY, are necessary for normal testis development. For example, human mutations in a variety of genes (SOX9, WT1, SF1) impair testis development. Murine models provide evidence for additional genes (Lhx9, Emx2, M33, Dmrt, Fgf9). This lecture will highlight insights gleaned from human mutations in the nuclear receptors, SF1 (Steroidogenic Factor1) (NR5A1) and DAX1 (Dosage-sensitive sex reversal, Adrenal hypoplasia congenita, X chromosome) (NR0B1). These studies reveal the exquisite sensitivity of SF1-dependent developmental pathways to gene dosage and function in humans.


The dynamics of a semi-flexible polymer chain in the presence of periodically distributed nanoparticles is simulated by using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. For repulsive or weak attractive nanoparticles, the dynamics are slowed down monotonically by increasing the chain stiffness kθ or decreasing the inter-particle distance d. For strong attractive nanoparticles, however, the dynamics show nonmonotonic behaviors with kθ and d. An interesting result is that a stiff polymer may move faster than a flexible one. The underlying mechanism is that the nanoparticle's attraction is weakened by the chain stiffness. The nonmonotonic behavior of the polymer's dynamics with kθ is explained by the competition between the weakening effect of the chain stiffness on the nanoparticle's attraction and the intrinsic effect of chain stiffness which reduces the dynamics of the polymer. In addition, the nonmonotonic behavior of the polymer's dynamics with d is explained by the competition between the nanoparticle-exchange motion of the polymer dominated at small d and the desorption-and-adsorption motion at large d. The excluded volume effect of the nanoparticles plays a more important role for stiffer polymers as the attraction of the nanoparticles is weakened by the chain stiffness.


Purpose: This research was designed to serve as a pilot study to generate baseline data on non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) for cognitive/academic enhancement purposes among students representing two healthcare professions, Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech Language Pathology (SLP) and to assess students' opinions regarding whether use of these medications constitutes academic "cheating." Introduction: NMUPD, such as Adderall ® or Ritalin ®, to reduce fatigue, improve memory, and increase concentration to ultimately improve grades has increased among college students in recent years, with estimated use put as high as 35% on some campuses. These drugs appear to be readily available to those not prescribed them, with primary sources including family, friends, and classmates. Aside from health concerns stemming from ingesting non-prescribed medications is the ethical concern whether use of such cognitive enhancers is "cheating." Methods: Following IRB approval, 150 OT and 150 SLP students, randomly selected from membership in their respective national associations, were mailed survey packets containing a cover letter, questionnaire, and return envelope. Results: A total of 51 completed surveys, including 25 OT and 26 SLP students, were returned and included in analyses. Of these, five (9.8%) reported using cognitive enhancing prescription medications. Four of these reported having a legal prescription, including one who admitted faking symptoms of ADHD to access the prescription. The fifth student had no prescription. Motives included recreational enjoyment, to improve attention/concentration, reduce hyperactivity/impulsivity, and to obtain higher grades. Four out of ten students indicated abuse of prescription medications was a problem at their institutions, with three out of ten believing it was easy to obtain such drugs. Students were visibly divided as to whether use of these medications was academic cheating. Conclusions: The percent of these healthcare profession students reporting to have used non-prescribed medications for academic enhancement purposes mirrors that of studies on the general college student population and reflects the division as to whether use constitutes cheating. As the survey is a self-report, the numbers using the prescription medications may be higher. Results indicate future research on NMUPD among healthcare students is warranted, along with a need to educate students on the risks of use of these medications for non-prescribed purposes.


This paper uses cross-national data to examine the effects of federal fiscal and political institutions on the fiscal performance of subnational governments. Balanced budgets among subnational governments are found when either (1) the center imposes strong borrowing restrictions or (2) subnational governments have both wide-ranging taxing and borrowing autonomy. Large and persistent aggregate deficits occur when subnational governments are simultaneously dependent on general-purpose intergovernmental transfers and free to borrow-a combination found most frequently among constituent units in federations. Time-series cross-section analysis reveals that as countries increase their reliance on transfers over time, subnational and overall fiscal performance decline, especially when subnational governments have easy access to credit. These findings illuminate a key dilemma of fiscal federalism and a more precise notion of its dangers: When constitutionally constrained or politically fragmented central governments take on heavy co-financing obligations, they cannot credibly commit to ignore the fiscal problems of lower-level governments.


Programming languages evolve over time, adding additional language features to simplify common tasks and make the language easier to use. For example, the Java Language Specification has four editions and is currently drafting a fifth. While the addition of language features is driven by an assumed need by the community (often with direct requests for such features), there is little empirical evidence demonstrating how these new features are adopted by developers once released. In this paper, we analyze over 31k open-source Java projects representing over 9 million Java files, which when parsed contain over 18 billion AST nodes. We analyze this corpus to find uses of new Java language features over time. Our study gives interesting insights, such as: there are millions of places features could potentially be used but weren't; developers convert existing code to use new features; and we found thousands of instances of potential resource handling bugs.


: This paper presents the design of a neurocontroller for a turbogenerator that augments/replaces the conventional Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) and the turbine governor. The neurocontroller uses a novel technique based on the Adaptive Critic Designs (ACDs) with emphasis on Heuristic Dynamic Programming (HDP) and Dual Heuristic Programming (DHP). Results are presented to show that the DHP based neurocontroller is robust and performs better than the HDP based neurocontroller, as well as the conventional controller, especially when the system conditions and configuration changes.


Freshwater snails are intermediate hosts for several snail-borne diseases affecting humans and animals. Understanding the distribution of snail intermediate hosts and their infection status is very important to plan and implement effective disease prevention and control interventions. In this study, we determined the abundance, distribution, and trematode infection status of freshwater snails in two agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia. We sampled snails from 13 observation sites and examined them for trematode infections using a natural cercarial shedding method. A redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to examine the relationship between snail abundance and environmental variables. Overall, a total of 615 snails belonging to three species were identified. Lymnea natalensis and Bulinus globosus were the dominant snail species, representing 41% and 40% of the total collection, respectively. About one-third of the total snail population (33%) shed cercariae. The cercariae species recorded were Xiphidiocercaria, Brevifurcate apharyngeate distome (BAD), Echinostome, and Fasciola. Snail species were found in high abundance in aquatic habitats located in the agricultural landscape. Therefore, land-use planning and protection of aquatic habitats from uncontrolled human activities and pollution can be considered as important strategies to prevent and control the spread of snail-borne diseases in the region.


The prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD), mortality and financial burden of those in Iran is growing. Creating an active lifestyle with physical activity is the best prevention of CAD and its risk factors. The aim of this Cross-sectional study was compare of serum concentration of Fibrinogen, Homocysteine, Lipoprotein(a) and Glycosylated Hemoglobin in selected groups (Active, Sedentary, and CAD) of men (40-55 yrs); who were voluntarily participated, was based on NHIS and PA-R questionnaire (N=3*15). Fasting blood sample was taken for measuring serum concentration of fibrinogen (A: 287.86 ± 51.56, S: 299.80 ± 49.21 and CAD: 307.20 ± 63.80 mg/dl), Homocysteine (A: 11.73 ± 2.62, S: 12.40 ± 3.86 and CAD: 11.96 ± 5.11 μmol/L), Lipoprotein(a) (A: 18.06 ± 11.11, S: 22.06 ± 13.99 and CAD: 28.33 ± 7.20 mg/dl ) and Glycosylated Hemoglobin (A: 4.26 ± 0.36, S: 4.73 ± 13.37 and CAD: 5.25 ±1.32%). Data analysis with ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests (p ≤ 0.05). Mean differences of Homocysteine (p=0.898) and fibrinogen (p=0.630) between groups were not significant. Mean differences of Lipoprotein(a) between active and CAD group was significant (p=0.009). Mean differences of Glycosylated Hemoglobin between active and CAD (p=0.002) and between inactive and CAD (p=0.046) were significant. Therefore morning exercise training has not any desirable effects on these risk factors in this study and more studies need to be done to clarify the optimum levels of intensity, duration and type of exercise for desirable change in this risk factors level.


This special issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition addresses issues of the measurement and the malleability of implicit prejudice and stereotypes. The findings raise fundamental questions about the assumptions underlying the assessment of implicit prejudice, particularly with regard to the widely used Implicit Association Test (A. Greenwald, D. McGhee, & J. Schwartz, 1998) and the assumption of extant models of prejudice and stereotyping that implicit biases are automatically and invariantly activated when perceivers come in contact with members of stigmatized groups. Several of the articles show that contextual manipulations produce reductions in implicit manifestations of prejudice and stereotyping. The articles in this issue, in challenging conventional wisdom, are thought provoking and should be generative in the field's ongoing efforts to understand the role of implicit (and explicit) processes involved in prejudice and stereotyping.


This paper proposes a traffic anomaly detector, operated in postmortem and in real-time, by passively monitoring packet headers of traffic. The frequent attacks on network infrastructure, using various forms of denial of service attacks, have led to an increased need for developing techniques for analyzing network traffic. If efficient analysis tools were available, it could become possible to detect the attacks, anomalies and to take action to contain the attacks appropriately before they have had time to propagate across the network. In this paper, we suggest a technique for traffic anomaly detection based on analyzing correlation of destination IP addresses in outgoing traffic at an egress router. This address correlation data are transformed using discrete wavelet transform for effective detection of anomalies through statistical analysis. Results from trace-driven evaluation suggest that proposed approach could provide an effective means of detecting anomalies close to the source. We also present a multidimensional indicator using the correlation of port numbers and the number of flows as a means of detecting anomalies.


This study aims to determine the extent to which formative assessment influences performance in summative assessment and student attitudes towards reading academic texts in English. In a sample of 9 psychology major students at a public university in San Jose, Costa Rica, the study gathered data pertaining to learner performance in both formative and summative assessment as well as self-reported attitudes and perceptions in questionnaires administered after assessment. The results have re vealed that formative assessment has positively influenced student per formance in summative assessment, and that in turn it has promoted a more enthusiastic attitude towards reading academic texts in English.


Measurement of particle velocity in fluidized beds is always technically difficult. A new method based on cross-correlation principle was proposed to calculate time-averaged velocity of particles. Considering the different reliabilities of signal segments, a cross-correlation coefficient was introduced into the formula for calculating time-averaged velocity. A PV6 D optical fiber probe was used to obtain original signals in a fluidized bed with 200 mm i.d., and the time-averaged velocities calculated from three different methods were compared. The calculated particle volume flow rates based on different velocity calculating methods indicate that the method proposed in this paper is more reliable. Based on this method, particle time-averaged velocity was measured at different heights in the transition section of a turbulent fluidized bed. A modified three-zone drag law model was used to predict the flow structure of particles with clustering behavior. The experimental and simulation results both indicate that, from the transition section to the dilute section, particle velocity of the core region rises at first and then declines, the radial velocity distribution changes from a steep curve to a flat one, and then becomes steep again. This result depends on both solid concentration distribution and gas velocity distribution.


Caffeine, one of the most consumed central nervous system (CNS) stimulants, is an antagonist of A1 and A2A adenosine receptors. In this study, we investigated the potential protective effects of this methylxanthine in the retinal tissue. We tested caffeine by using in vitro and in vivo paradigms of retinal inflammation. Human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19) were exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with or without caffeine. This latter was able to reduce the inflammatory response in ARPE-19 cells exposed to LPS, attenuating the release of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α and the nuclear translocation of p-NFκB. Additionally, caffeine treatment restored the integrity of the ARPE-19 monolayer assessed by transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) and the sodium fluorescein permeability test. Finally, the ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury model was used in C57BL/6J mice to induce retinal inflammation and investigate the effects of caffeine treatment. Mouse eyes were treated topically with caffeine, and a pattern electroretinogram (PERG) was used to assess the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) function; furthermore, we evaluated the levels of IL-6 and BDNF in the retina. Retinal BDNF dropped significantly (p < 0.05) in the I/R group compared to the control group (normal mice); on the contrary, caffeine treatment maintained physiological levels of BDNF in the retina of I/R eyes. Caffeine was also able to reduce IL-6 mRNA levels in the retina of I/R eyes. In conclusion, these findings suggest that caffeine is a good candidate to counteract inflammation in retinal diseases.


Bearing in mind that his work would be of practical value to neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons, Henri Duvernoy, professor of anatomy at the School of Medicine at Besancon, has prepared this study of the veins at the base of the brain and of the brain stem. He perfused warmed 5% to 10% gelatin solution containing India ink through the arterial system of brains immersed in warmed water. He then allowed the preparations to cool, made dissections, and photographed the areas of interest. The first portion of the book (34 pages) is a clear and concise descriptive text in which the larger veins of the brain stem and base of the brain are first considered and then the regional architecture is described. Throughout the text, reference is given to figures that illustrate the various points that are made. The figures, 71 in all, comprise the second portion of the book. Most are


Global climate change is one of the most important environmental issues that human have ever faced. China is taking an active role in reducing carbon dioxide emission in order to alleviate the climate change process. Building sectors contribute for 30% of carbon emission and 27.5% of total energy consumption in China. There is an urgent need for improving building energy efficiency to achieve carbon reduction. New buildings are legislated by national standards and regulations to secure a relatively high level of energy efficiency. However, the diversity of architectural design, system operation and management make it a big challenging to achieve energy efficiency in existing buildings. Existing researches have already investigated the building retrofit technologies and strategies. However, information on the current building stocks is even more important due to its impact in decision makings of retrofit strategies. This paper investigates the energy consumption of public buildings in Chongqing, China. Building energy consumption data collected from Chongqing public building energy consumption monitoring platform was analyzed by SPSS software. The data collection and analysis are focused on governmental office, general office, hotel buildings and shopping mall. Statistical hypothesis test, using log-normal P-P plot and Shapiro–Wilk test, reveals that the annual energy consumption densities of these types of building are log-normal distributed.


volume (SV), cardiac output (CO) and total vascular resistance. Simultaneous FBC, electrolyte count, and renin, aldosterone and ANF levels were measured. Laser therapy was performed under local anesthesia and patients were infused with less than 500 ml saline throughout the procedure. Results: Mean gestational age at inclusion was 21 (18–26) weeks. When amnioreduction < 1000 (0–700) ml (n = 12), HR, mean arterial pressure (MAP), TVR, CO and SV did not vary significantly at 6 and 24 hours. When amnioreduction was above 1000 (1000–3700) ml, n = 25: • HR was stable (ANOVA, p = NS) • MAP (mmHg) decreased from 80.6 ± 8 to 70.4 ± 17 and 74.5 ± 9 (ANOVA, p = 0.01) at 6 and 24 hours, respectively. • TVR (dyn* s* cm-5) decreased from 1520 ± 400 to 1170 ± 300 and 1150 ± 300 (ANOVA, p < 0.0001) at 6 and 24 hours, respectively. • CO indexed (ml/minute* m2) increased from 2693 to 3209 and 3231 (ANOVA p < 0.001) at 6 and 24 hours respectively, due to changes in SV. Patients showed significant hemodilution as early as 6 hours after procedure with a reduction in hematocrit (< 0.0001), plasma proteins (< 0.0001). and Hb levels (< 0.0001) with 1.2 g/dl on average. Simultaneously, renine (p < 0.005) and aldosterone (< 0.005) levels decreased, while ANF levels increased (p < 0.05).


Azadirachta excelsa is traditionally used by the locals to treat diabetes mellitus but the active compounds of the leaves have
not been identified yet. Hence, the aim of the study was to identify the components of Azadirachta excelsa leaf extract by
qualitative phytochemical screening and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Five grams of leaf extract were
extracted using various solvents for phytochemical screening, while another five grams of ethanolic leaf extract was subjected
for GC-MS analysis where the mass spectra of the compounds detected were matched with the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) library. The results showed the presence of flavonoids, condensed tannin, triterpenes and steroids in
phytochemical screening tests, while GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of seven major compounds in the ethanolic leaf
extract. The major component of A.excelsa ethanolic leaf extract was 9, 12, 15-octadecatrienoic acid (42.34%), followed by
pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl-, methyl ester (28.99%), phytol (10.63%), 9, 12, 15-octadecatrien-1-ol (5.37%), octadecanoic
acid, methyl ester (4.36%), 9, 12-octadecadienoic acid, methyl ester (4.24%) and hexadecanoic acid, ethyl ester (4.06%).
Therefore, the findings of this study form a basis for the characterization of the compounds and allow researchers to investigate
the potential of this plant in treating diabetes mellitus.


G protein–coupled receptor phosphorylation plays a major role in receptor desensitization and arrestin binding. It is, however, unclear how distinct receptor phosphorylation patterns may influence arrestin binding and subsequent trafficking. Here we engineer phosphorylation sites into the C-terminal tail of the β2-adrenoceptor (β2AR) and demonstrate that this mutant, termed β2ARSSS, showed increased isoprenaline-stimulated phosphorylation and differences in arrestin-3 affinity and trafficking. By measuring arrestin-3 recruitment and the stability of arrestin-3 receptor complexes in real time using fluorescence resonance energy transfer and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we demonstrate that arrestin-3 dissociated quickly and almost completely from the β2AR, whereas the interaction with β2ARSSS was 2- to 4-fold prolonged. In contrast, arrestin-3 interaction with a β2-adrenoceptor fused to the carboxyl-terminal tail of the vasopressin type 2 receptor was nearly irreversible. Further analysis of arrestin-3 localization revealed that by engineering phosphorylation sites into the β2-adrenoceptor the receptor showed prolonged interaction with arrestin-3 and colocalization with arrestin in endosomes after internalization. This is in contrast to the wild-type receptor that interacts transiently with arrestin-3 at the plasma membrane. Furthermore, β2ARSSS internalized more efficiently than the wild-type receptor, whereas recycling was very similar for both receptors. Thus, we show how the interaction between arrestins and receptors can be increased with minimal receptor modification and that relatively modest increases in receptor-arrestin affinity are sufficient to alter arrestin trafficking.


Medication for hospice inpatients is prescribed by doctors, dispensed by pharmacists and administered by nurses. A clearly designed drug chart is central to this process. Changing the drug chart needs careful management, to avoid staff discontent and procedural errors. Improvements were required to the design of the drug chart at the Marie Curie Hospice, Solihull, which was identified as being difficult to work with. The aim was to design a new drug chart, which was clear and user-friendly for the clinical team, and which would reduce error. A drug chart working group was established in September 2009, consisting of a pharmacist, two nurses and a doctor. Issues for improvement were identified by means of a staff questionnaire. It was suggested that the spaces for writing controlled drug prescriptions were too scattered, the syringe-driver section was unclear, printed 'as required' prescriptions were illogically arranged, and there were too many separate sheets of paper for fluid and warfarin prescriptions. Allergy warnings did not stand out, and insufficient space meant that patients frequently needed two charts. The best features were taken from a number of hospice drug charts, and combined to reflect these issues. Several prototypes were evaluated, and the final version was tested over a 3 month period. In September 2011, the new drug chart was launched. The process of implementation of the newly designed drug chart has led to a user-friendly clinical tool. Three months into its establishment on the inpatient unit, feedback has been constructive and positive. On-going audit of the implementation of the newly designed drug chart will be carried out.


Karl Barth leaves room by his own principles for further, even different thinking about Jews and gender (and, as a corollary, about homosexuality) than he records in the Dogmatics. Now that Marquardt, Klappert, Sonderegger, Soulen, and others have offered sympathetic critiques from a generally Barthian point of view, and Eberhard Busch has exhaustively laid to rest any biographical questions of Barth's relation to the Jewish people in his 1996 book, Unter dem Bogen des einen Bundes: Karl Barth und die Juden 1933–1945, the way lies open to carry forward Barth's theological critique of nineteenth century theology and of abstraction further into the areas of Jews and gender, and to propose constructive pneumatological and exegetical supplements to his thinking. Barth's thinking on women and men, like his thinking on Jews, labors, for all its promise in its time, under a defect he calls abstraction. Barth faulted Calvin for abstracting both elect human beings and the electing God from Jesus Christ, whom Barth called the elect human being and the electing God in one. Yet on the election of the community Barth did not entirely escape the abstraction. In the manner of Augustine's Retractions, Barth wrote to Maruardt toward the end of his life that he had been so busy with (theological) Israel that he had had no time for the Jews. Does Barth, as Marquardt and Sonderegger suggest, throw up despite himself a conceptual screen onto which he at once projects an abstraction ("Israel") and behind which he hides actual human beings ("the Jews"), a screen resistant to the blowing of the Spirit? Do the concepts " man" and " woman" form a similar conceptual screen, dating from Schleiermacher's dialogue Christmas Eve, in which men and women (like Christians and Jews) have essentially different responses to the incarnation of Jesus Christ? Das ewig M??nnliche and das ewig Weibliche, inherited from German romanticism, see to run afoul of Barth's trinitarian particularism, as does " Israel". Yet further application of Barth's own principles, including more attention to the Spirit, leaves him more options in his treatment of Jews and gender, and richer exegesis – including exegesis by anagogy.


Protein A chromatography remains the dominant capture step used during the downstream purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). With the recent expiry of the Repligen patent on recombinant Protein A, a variety of new Protein A resins have been introduced in the market. Given productivity limitations during downstream processing that have come into sharper focus with the recent increase in cell culture titers for mAbs, the selection of an appropriate Protein A resin has direct implications on the overall process economics of mAb production. The performance of seven different Protein A chromatographic resins was compared with respect to static binding capacity and dynamic binding capacity as a function of flow rate. This data was translated into a comparison of productivity (g mAb purified per unit resin volume per unit time) for the seven stationary phases. In addition, elution pH and host cell protein impurity levels after product capture on each of these resins were determined. The current article provides an effective methodology and dataset for the selection of the optimal Protein A chromatographic resin.


Fresh‐frozen biological allograft remains the most effective substitute for the 'gold standard' autograft, sharing many of its osteogenic properties but, conversely, lacking viable osteogenic cells. Tissue engineering offers the opportunity to improve the osseointegration of this material through the addition of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, the presence of dead, immunogenic and potentially harmful bone marrow could hinder cell adhesion and differentiation, graft augmentation and incorporation, and wash procedures are therefore being utilized to remove the marrow, thereby improving the material's safety. To this end, we assessed the efficiency of a novel wash technique to produce a biocompatible, biological scaffold void of cellular material that was mechanically stable and had osteoinductive potential. The outcomes of our investigations demonstrated the efficient removal of marrow components (~99.6%), resulting in a biocompatible material with conserved biomechanical stability. Additionally, the scaffold was able to induce osteogenic differentiation of MSCs, with increases in osteogenic gene expression observed following extended culture. This study demonstrates the efficiency of the novel wash process and the potential of the resultant biological material to serve as a scaffold in bone allograft tissue engineering. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


Background: Inpatient portals are online patient portals linked to electronic health records that provide hospitalized patients and caregivers secure access to real-time clinical information and tools to enhance their communication with providers and hospital experience. Objective: The main objective of this commentary was to provide a perspective that inpatient portals are innovative tools poised to engage patients and caregivers during hospitalization and, thus, enhance patient-centered care. Results: Inpatient portals are desired by patients and caregivers and may contribute to improved recognition of their inpatient care team, knowledge of their treatment plan and overall inpatient experience. A sociotechnical systems approach is recommended to mitigate potential unintended consequences of inpatient portal use and support effective portal design, implementation and evaluation. Conclusions: This article highlights the potential of using inpatient portals to engage hospitalized patients and caregivers and proposes next steps to evaluate this emerging technology.


This article is devoted to the nonlinear integral equation arising in the biological model of Ulf Dieckmann and Richard Low. A brief review of the model of foreign authors Individual-based model is made, the meaning and necessity of introducing spatial moments is described. The following is the derivation of the nonlinear equation (for the equilibrium state) from the system of dynamics of spatial moments, after the Power-3 closure. As it was supposed earlier, as a result of this closure the integral equation with nonlinear convolution is deduced. The resulting equation is transformed to a form convenient for the application of the numerical method based on the Neumann's series. The authors developed a stable numerical method for solving the obtained integral equation. At the end of the article, a large number of examples of the use of the constructed numerical method and numerical modeling are given: a surface in the parameter space for the integral nuclei of motion and competition is constructed; the dependence of the solution of the nonlinear integral equation depending on the area of integration (the solution for these manipulations goes to the asymptote, and does not change significantly); numerical study of the integral equation for the parameter of natural mortality equal to zero. An interesting result is the existence of a nontrivial solution, the investigated nonlinear integral equation for the natural mortality parameter, d > 0. This essentially distinguishes the derived integral equation from its linear analogue, widely studied in previous works.


In this work, we propose several deep neural network architectures that are able to leverage data from multiple languages. Modularity is achieved by training networks for extracting high-level features and for estimating phoneme state posteriors separately, and then combining them for decoding in a hybrid DNN/HMM setup. This approach has been shown to achieve superior performance for single-language systems, and here we demonstrate that feature extractors benefit significantly from being trained as multi-lingual networks with shared hidden representations. We also show that existing mono-lingual networks can be re-used in a modular fashion to achieve a similar level of performance without having to train new networks on multi-lingual data. Furthermore, we investigate in extending these architectures to make use of language-specific acoustic features. Evaluations are performed on a low-resource conversational telephone speech transcription task in Vietnamese, while additional data for acoustic model training is provided in Pashto, Tagalog, Turkish, and Cantonese. Improvements of up to 17.4% and 13.8% over mono-lingual GMMs and DNNs, respectively, are obtained.


Multi-network systems, i.e. multiple neural network systems, can often solve complex problems more effectively than their monolithic counterparts. Modular neural networks (MNNs) tackle a complex problem by decomposing it into simpler subproblems and then solving them. Unlike the decomposition in MNNs, a neural network ensemble usually includes redundant component nets and is often inspired by statistical theories. This paper presents different types of problem decompositions and discusses the suitability of various multi-network systems for different decompositions. A classification of various multi-network systems, in the context of problem decomposition, is obtained by exploiting these differences. Then a specific type of problem decomposition, which gives no information about the subproblems and is often ignored in literature, is discussed in detail and a novel MNN architecture for problem decomposition is presented. Finally, a co-evolutionary model is presented, which is used to design and optimize such MNNs with subtask specific modules. The model consists of two populations. The first population consists of a pool of modules and the second population synthesizes complete systems by drawing elements from the pool of modules. Modules represent a part of the solution, which co-operate with each other to form a complete solution. Using two artificial supervised learning tasks, constructed from smaller subtasks, it can be shown that if a particular task decomposition is better than others, in terms of performance on the overall task, it can be evolved using the co-evolutionary model.


Soil-covered upland landscapes are common in much of the habitable world, and our understanding of their evolution as a function of different climatic, tectonic, and geologic regimes is important across a wide range of disciplines. Erosion laws direct quantitative study of the processes shaping Earth's surface and form the basis of landscape evolution modeling, but are based on limited field data. Here we use in situ-produced cosmogenic 1 0 Be and 2 6 Al concentrations from granitic saprolite to quantify an exponential decline in soil production with increasing soil thickness for a new field site in Point Reyes, California. Results are similar to soil production functions from two different, previously studied field sites, and are used with extensive measurements of soil thickness to quantify depth-integrated sediment transport flux. Plots of calculated sediment fluxes against the product of soil depth and hillslope gradient provide the first field-based evidence that soil transport is a nonlinear, depth-dependent function. Data from all sites suggest that the widely used linear diffusion equation is only appropriate for shallow gradient, convex-up regions, while the depth-dependent transport law is more broadly applicable. Quantifying both the mobile soil thickness and landscape morphology is therefore critical to understanding how landscapes evolve.


Introduction: Bacterial vaginosis is characterized by the imbalance of the vaginal flora, with decrease in Lactobacillus and increase in other bacteria. Objective: To investigate the prevalence and factors associated with bacterial vaginosis. Methods: Systematic review based on the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, filed in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews. The research was conducted in the PubMed and Scopus databases in September 2021. After reading the titles and abstracts of 84 articles and the full text of 20 articles, 10 of them were included in the review. The articles were considered eligible if they investigated the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis and used Amsel's diagnostic criteria or Gram-stained bacterioscopy in women of reproductive age without comorbidities. The studies were evaluated by two investigators to establish reliability. The risk of bias and the quality of the selected studies were evaluated using the Joanna Briggs Institute tool. Results: The mean prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in the included studies was 25.4% (95%CI 24.0–26.8). In three population-based studies, the mean prevalence was 18.1% (95%CI 16.0–20.5); and in seven clinic-based studies, it was 27.2% (95%CI 24.6–29.9). The factors associated with bacterial vaginosis were the use of sex accessories (OR 2.4; 95%CI 1.1–4.9), marital status "single" (OR 1.4; 95%CI 1.1–1.8), partner infidelity (OR 1.5; 95%CI 1.2–1.9), abnormal vaginal secretion (OR 1.5; 95%CI 1.2–2.0), and the presence of trichomoniasis (OR 4.1; 95%CI 1.5–11.5). Conclusion: The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis was high, and the associated factors are linked to sexual behavior.


Researchers at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) conducted a mixed methods examination of the effect of introducing the experiential learning practice of playing an ethics game on student grasp of ethics information indicated through personal growth/self-awareness. The literature examined for this study established that ethics instruction can be challenging and sometimes viewed as overly scholarly rather than practical and applicable in daily life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure participants personal growth/self-awareness if they played an ethics game versus received ethics instruction through a case study methodology. The test group consisted of 62 students with the control group of 63 totaling hundred and twenty-five participants. The test group played an ethics game where they used ethical concepts to solve four moral dilemmas whereas the control group used one case study to gain a deeper understanding of the ethical concepts. Although both methods of instruction were shown to be effective, findings established to a statistically significant level that the test group experienced a greater level of personal growth/selfawareness than the control group under certain conditions as a result of the treatment. These findings may be applicable not only to military but other contexts where leaders endeavor to choose appropriate ethical solutions to morally ambiguous problems.


Abstract The output of bio-based polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has been growing rapidly with a substantial increase of developments both in academic and industrial research areas in the past decade, which is due to its water solubility, plasticity, and degradability. However, PVA is highly flammable with a limiting oxygen index of only 19% owning to its inherent macromolecular structure composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. The demand for flame retardancy of PVA has been increased rapidly and is generally satisfied by introducing flame retardants via chemical grafting, physical blending, and coating. This review summarizes the flame retardants applied in PVA and their influence on the flammability and mechanical properties of PVA materials. The type of flame retardant additives and their application technologies for various PVA products are presented in terms of various PVA products, such as films, aerogel, fibers, foams, and bulk composites. The films dominate the whole research of flame retardant PVA materials owing to their widespread application. The fire performance and flame retardant mechanism are compared and discussed. Additionally, PVA acted as an assistant agent in some polymeric flame-retardant formulations is also discussed and reviewed.


Background: In the MiTy trial [pregnant T2D randomized to metformin vs. placebo], infants exposed to metformin in-utero had a lower risk of large-for-gestational-age (LGA) but were at higher risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) . To date, there are limited data on the effect of in-utero exposure to metformin on infant/child growth in T2D, according to the intrauterine growth status. The MiTy Kids study followed the offspring of MiTy participants to 24 months of age to examine the effect of metformin exposure in-utero on child growth.
 Aim: Examine the weight and body mass index (BMI) trajectories of children of women with T2D, according to the intrauterine growth status [appropriate for gestational age (AGA) , LGA, and SGA] and metformin exposure.
 Methods: The study population included offspring of MiTy trial participants. Height and weight measurements were collected at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Analysis of data was conducted using a fractional polynomial linear mixed effects approach to compare growth trajectories.
 Results: Of the 283 children who participated in MiTy Kids (46.3% female) , 194 children were AGA at birth (90 metformin and 1placebo) , 65 were LGA (29 metformin and 36 placebo) , and 24 were SGA (16 metformin and 8 placebo) . In children born AGA, both sexes in the metformin arm had a lower weight gain trajectory than those in the placebo group (p=0.008) . Treatment and sex did not have an effect on the growth trajectories of children born LGA. In SGA children, in both sexes, SGA children in the metformin group had a lower weight gain trajectory (p=<0.001) and BMI trajectory (p=0.042) than children in the placebo group, and achieved a lower weight than the WHO growth standard at 24 months.
 Conclusion: Metformin exposure in-utero was associated with lower weight gain trajectories and BMI trajectories in children of both sexes born SGA and lower weight gain trajectory in AGA children. Further follow-up will determine subsequent growth in these children.

 J. Sanchez: None. J. Hamilton: Advisory Panel; Novo Nordisk Canada Inc. Research Support; Mead Johnson & Company, LLC. G. Tomlinson: None. E. Asztalos: None. K. Murphy: None. B. Zinman: Advisory Panel; Abbott Diabetes, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk Canada Inc., Sanofi K.K. D. Simmons: Research Support; Abbott, Hitachi, Ltd., Novo Nordisk. Speaker's Bureau; Sanofi. Other Relationship; Elsevier. A. Haqq: None. I.G. Fantus: None. A. Armson: None. J.F.R. Barrett: None. L.E. Donovan: Other Relationship; Dexcom, Inc., Inner Analytics, Medtronic, Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. P. Karanicolas: Research Support; Baxter. Y. Jiang: None. S. Tobin: None. K. Mangoff: None. G. Klein: None. D. Feig: Advisory Panel; Novo Nordisk. Research Support; Apotex.

 Canadian Institutes of Health Research


A pot experiment was conducted at the open net house of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, during the period from March to June 2007 using soil collected from the surrounding areas of Gazni sal forest of Jhenaigati upazilla under Sherpur district to study the effect of different forest tree leaf litters on growth, yield, nutrient contents of red amaranth cv. Altapety. Plant height, number of leaves plant-1, dry weight plant-1 and moisture content (%) were significantly influenced by the addition of different forest tree leaf litters and highest values were obtained from the chemical fertilizer treatment which was identical with teak leaf litter in most of the parameters. The lowest values of most of the parameters were obtained from control treatment. Nutrient contents of red amaranth were significantly influenced by the addition of different leaf litters except Mg. The highest and lowest values of most of the nutrient contents and their uptake were recorded from chemical fertilizer and control treatment, respectively. It was also observed that addition of different leaf litters substantially decreased soil acidity and significantly increased the organic matter, total N, available P, exchangeable K, available Ca, Mg contents in the post harvest soil. The performance of these leaf litters with respect to growth, yield, nutrient contents and their uptake by red amaranth and the soil fertility was in the order teak >eucalyptus>acacia>sal. Overall results suggested that leaf litters can be used as an alternative of chemical fertilizer in the surrounding areas of Gazni sal forest for profitable production of leafy vegetables like red amaranth. Keywords: Leaf litter; Red amaranth; Forest soil; Yield quality DOI: 10.3329/jbau.v8i2.7929 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 8(2): 221-226, 2010


This paper investigates the way intonation can contribute to the organisation of source texts (ST) and target texts (TT) in simultaneous interpreting (SI). The research method and results offer a broader perspective on the use of intonation in SI, a parameter often viewed in the literature as anomalous and genre-specific. The empirical analysis focuses on the structural organisation of ST and TT into phonological paragraphs, a process which is achieved, in part, through intonational choices both of the speakers and of the interpreters. A corpus-based study of fifteen ST and the corresponding TT produced in the European Parliament and European Commission was conducted using an acoustic methodology with discoursal support. The results indicate that both speakers and interpreters comply with the intonational pattern described in the literature, i.e. high pitch at initial paragraph boundaries and low pitch at final boundaries. These findings should be relevant for future research on intonation in the field of interpreting, intonation being a factor that seems to affect both the interpreter's perception of the ST and, ultimately, the listeners' reception of the TT.


Hydrogen is a key element in the energy transition. To ensure that hydrogen can become generally established as an energy source, it must be produced at market prices, in sufficient quantities and in a climate-neutral manner, and used with a high CO2 reduction rate. This requires affordable, robust hydrogen systems in the form of electrolyzers and fuel cells. With the intent of launching their serial production in the future, Reference-factory.H2 provides both a design for guidance and a modular system based on new and specifically optimized technologies. This shall contribute to the economically viable production of electrolyzers and fuel cells, accelerate their market breakthrough and massively reduce the cost of hydrogen. Reference-factory.H2 will be presented for the first time at the joint Fraunhofer booth at the Hannover Messe 2022 from May 30 to June 2 (Hall 5, Booth A06).


AIM: To asses if telemedicine with telemonitoring is a clinically useful and secure tool in the tracking of patients with COVID-19. METHODS: A prospective observational study of patients with COVID-19 diagnosis by positive PCR considered high-risk tracked with telemedicine and telemonitoring was conducted in the sanitary area of Lugo between March 17th and April 17th, 2020. Two groups of patients were included: Outpatient Tracing from the beginning and after discharge. Every patient sent a daily clinical questionnaire with temperature and oxygen saturation 3 times a day. Proactive monitoring was done by getting in touch with every patient at least 11a day. RESULTS: 313 patients (52.4% female) with a total average age of 60.9 (DE 15.9) years were included. Additionally, 2 patients refused to join the program. Since the beginning, 224 were traced outpatient and 89 after being discharged. Among the first category, 38 (16.90%) were referred to Emergency department on 43 occasions; 18 were hospitalized (8.03%), and 2 deceased. Neither deaths nor a matter of vital emergency occurred at home. When including patients after admissions monitoring was done in 304 cases. One patient re-entered (0.32%) to the hospital, and another one left the program (0.32%). The average time of monitoring was 11.64 (SD 3.58) days, and 224 (73.68%) patients were discharged during the 30 days of study. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that telemedicine with home telemonitoring, used proactively, allows for monitoring high-risk patients with COVID-19 in a clinically useful and secure way.


The United States Supreme Court repeatedly has held that individuals and organizations cannot legislatively be compelled to disclose membership information where such disclosure infringes on the freedom of association of the organizations or their members. Now the fundamental rights to freedom and privacy of association are being challenged in a new manner. With increasing frequency and severe consequences, civil discovery mechanisms are being used to compel the disclosure of information in violation of group and individual constitutional rights to associational privacy. Use of civil discovery to obtain such information is particularly insidious in that litigants' rights to a full and fair resolution of their legal disputes are being threatened. Moreover, the risk of having to comply with highly intrusive discovery inquiries may deter the commencement of meritorious litigation. This phenomenon requires a judicial response. Courts must recognize an associational privacy privilege in the discovery context in order to protect the first amendment rights of litigants.The increased frequency of effort to use civil discovery to compel the disclosure of membership and related information can be attributed to a combination of factors. First, politically and socially active groups have increasingly resorted to the courts. Concomitantly, the use of discovery has increased tremendously. As litigants have become better acquainted with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, they have recognized the Rules' tremendous potential as an information gathering device. Finally, because the degree of respect owed associational rights in the discovery context is not yet clear, inquiring parties have found the demand for confidential information promising both as a means for strengthening their position in the litigation through increased knowledge, and as a potent tactical weapon. Such discovery has been used to limit substantive rights. Defendants threatened with intrusive interrogatories often will prove amenable to settlement negotiations. Plaintiffs faced with such inquiries may feel constrained to dismiss their suits or limit their complaints. In this way, many important substantive rights are being endangered by the use of discovery to intrude on associational privacy.One particularly troublesome aspect of this phenomenon is that politically controversial and unpopular groups often are the subject of these intrusive inquiries. For example, names of Black Panther Party officers and members, and names and addresses of Minnesota Communist Party members and sympathizers, were sought by the United States government using civil discovery mechanisms. At least one public utility sought to discover the membership and mailing list of a defendant anti-nuclear group, the SHAD Alliance. Sperry Rand Corporation sought to discover the names, sex, race, address, occupation and present employer of every member of a Connecticut chapter of the National Organization for Women, which was pursing Title VII race and sex discrimination claims against the company. Finally, black residents of Chattanooga, Tennessee, sought through civil discovery to ascertain the names and addresses of the members and "officers" of Ku Klux Klan organizations and the identity of persons who attended their meetings.While courts are now experienced at weighing associational privacy interests against legislative concerns, they have not yet refined an analysis for protecting associational privacy in the discovery arena, where opposing litigants assert an entitlement to private information so they may fully defend or present their cases. This Article argues that a qualified associational privacy privilege must be made available to litigants at the discovery stage in order to protect their first amendment associational rights. It seeks to provide courts with a detailed analytical approach to be used in determining when a privilege should be recognized. The Article also attempts to make the judiciary and the bar aware of the issues raised by assertion of the privilege. Section I derives a theoretical framework for the privilege from Supreme Court precedent involving the right of associational privacy generally. Section II addresses three potentially significant objections to recognizing a privacy of association privilege, and Section III outlines the proposed analytical approach. Section IV then illustrates this approach and explores its implications by comparing and evaluating the approaches taken in a number of actual cases. Finally, Section V discusses the ramifications of successful and unsuccessful assertions of the privilege, including the role of protective orders and the propriety of sanctions against unyielding litigants.


This paper presents the current state of research and practice for human intent inferencing, recognition, and application. The paper addresses both the specific topic of human intent inferencing and areas closely associated with human intent inferencing drawn from the research areas of artificial intelligence, human computer interaction, and cognitive science. Examples of these closely related topic areas are cognitive modeling and knowledge representation, plan/goal recognition and interpretation, and mixed initiative and collaborative problem-solving. Finally, the paper closes with a summary of the issues still remaining in the area of human intent inferencing and some recommendations on future research directions.


An accurate estimate of the prevalence of scrapie infection in the Great Britain (GB) sheep flock is essential when assessing any potential risk to human health through exposure to sheep transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). One method for assessing the prevalence is to sample sheep intended for human consumption using a diagnostic test capable of detecting infected animals prior to the onset of clinical signs. An abattoir survey conducted in Great Britain in 1997–1998 tested brain samples from 2809 apparently healthy sheep of which none was found to be positive for scrapie by histopathology or immunohistochemistry (IHC) although 10 were positive for scrapie–associated fibrils (SAF). Subsequently, the tonsils from a subset of the animals sampled were examined using IHC, one of which tested positive. To interpret these results we use a likelihood–based approach, which accounts for the variation in the prevalence of infection with age and test sensitivity and specificity with stage of infection. Combining the results for all of the diagnostic tests yields an estimate of the prevalence of scrapie infection in the GB sheep flock of 0.22% (95% confidence interval: 0.01–0.97%). Moreover, our analysis suggests that all of the diagnostic tests used are very specific (greater than 99%). Indeed, only SAF detection yields a specificity estimate of less than 100%, which helps to account for the high number of samples found to be positive for SAF.


This article focuses on the International Salvage Convention and the protection of the environment in salvage operations. The article traces the evolution and history of the law of Salvage to its present status by using the UK as a case study. In essence, the article seeks to ascertain the extent of current international regime on salvage in protecting the environment. The question that this article poses is: Does the International Salvage Convention 1989 accord enough protection to the environment against the backdrop of global efforts to promote environmental protection and sustainable development? The article begins with a brief synopsis of the underlying principles of salvage including the rule of 'no cure-no pay' followed by an appraisal of the events that culminated arguably in the development of the International Salvage Convention 1989 to safeguard the environment in the course of salvage operations. A systematic analysis of the defects inherent in the International Salvage Convention 1989 vis-a-vis protection of the environment are analysed and a number of reforms are highlighted. Key terms International Salvage Convention, England, Environmental Protection, Pollution and Environmental Salvage Award


Convolutional neural networks have become state-of-the-art in a wide range of image recognition tasks. The interpretation of their predictions, however, is an active area of research. Whereas various interpretation methods have been suggested for image classification, the interpretation of image segmentation still remains largely unexplored. To that end, we propose SEG-GRAD-CAM, a gradient-based method for interpreting semantic segmentation. Our method is an extension of the widely-used Grad-CAM method, applied locally to produce heatmaps showing the relevance of individual pixels for semantic segmentation.


In this chapter, we describe the histophysiology of human Leydig cells, their cytologi- cal characteristics, their differentiation processes, and the physiopathological processes occurring at various times throughout life. We first focus on the normal development of fetal Leydig cells as well as the pathologies of fetal Leydig cells that can affect num bers or hyperplasic processes (e.g., hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, cryptorchidism, congenital Leydig cell hyperplasia secondary to diabetes, and isoimmunization). Next, we explain the changes occurring at puberty with the onset and differentiation of adult Leydig cells and the pathophysiology of delayed puberty. We then describe the histophysiology of adult Leydig cells and the most frequent pathologies (e.g., hypogo- nadotropic hypogonadism, testicular dysgenesia, mild androgen insensitivity syndrome, 5-α-reductase defect, and Klinefelter syndrome). Finally, we discuss the morphological changes of these cells in the elderly.


Anticoagulation monitoring in pediatric patients can be problematic because of the immaturity of the coagulation system in this population. In addition, the hemodilution required to place a small patient on bypass can interfere with standard monitoring methods. In this institution, the Hemochron Jr. ACT (activated clotting time)+ assay has been the standard of care for anticoagulation monitoring since 1997. This assay, with a target ACT of 400 s for initiating bypass, was compared to both the Medtronic HMS system (N = 7) and the Hemochron HiTT assay (N = 6) in pediatric patients. All three assays were then employed to monitor a pediatric Hemophilia A patient (Factor VIII <1%) with high inhibitor titer. Both the HiTT clotting time and the HMS heparin level showed statistically significant correlation to the ACT+ (HiTT, N = 24, r = 0.761; HMS, N = 31, r = 0.818). An HMS target heparin level of 1.5 mg/kg and a HiTT target clotting time of 180 s were found to be clinically equivalent to the 400-s ACT+ as indicators of the need for additional heparin. When a 7-year-old male with severe hemophilia A and high inhibitor titer required tricuspid valve replacement, all three assays were used to ensure appropriate anticoagulation management. During bypass, this patient's ACT+ remained out of range (>1005 s). The HiTT was maintained at >180 s and the HMS heparin level at >1.5 mg/kg. Heparin was administered when any single parameter was below the cutoff value. The use of the combination of three distinct monitoring assays for this patient allowed the surgical team an added level of confidence that appropriate anticoagulation had been maintained.


With popular microblogging services like Twitter, users are able to online share their real-time feelings in a more convenient way. The user generated data in Twitter is thus regarded as a resource providing individuals' spontaneous emotional information, and has attracted much attention of researchers. Prior work has measured the emotional expressions in users' tweets and then performed various analysis and learning. However, how to utilize those learned knowledge from the observed tweets and the context information to predict users' opinions toward specific topics they had not directly given yet, is a novel problem presenting both challenges and opportunities. In this paper, we mainly focus on solving this problem with a Social context and Topical context incorporated Matrix Factorization (ScTcMF) framework. The experimental results on a real-world Twitter data set show that this framework outperforms the state-of-the-art collaborative filtering methods, and demonstrate that both social context and topical context are effective in improving the user-topic opinion prediction performance.


The history, biological, and medical aspects of glyceryl ethers, as well as their chemi- cal syntheses, biosynthesis, and their chemical and physical properties are briefly reviewed as background information for appreciating the importance of the enzyme glyceryl-ether monooxy- genase, and for embarking on new studies of this enzyme. The occurrence, isolation and general properties of the microsomal, membrane-bound, glyceryl-ether monooxygenase from rat liver are described. Radiometric, nonradiometric, and coupled and direct spectrophotometric assays for this enzyme are detailed. The effects of detergents on the kinetics of this enzyme are described together with the stoichiometry and the effects of inhibitors. The structure-activity relationships of pterin cofactors and of ether lipid substrates, including their stereospecificities, have been summarized from enzyme kinetic data which are also tabulated. The mechanism of enzymic hydroxylation of glyceryl ethers and a model for the active site of glyceryl-ether monooxygenase are proposed from these apparent kinetic data. Notes on useful future studies of this monooxygenase have been made.


The primary response of A/J mice to p-azobenzenearsonate-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (ABA-KLH) was investigated. A day-by-day analysis at the plaque- forming cell (PFC) level was performed, with inhibition by anti-cross- reactive idiotype (CRI) serum to determine percentage of CRI(+) PFC. A regular pattern in the dynamics of Id (idiotype) dominance was observed. Just as in the NP-b and NP-a systems (9, 12), the major Id (CRI) is more dominant in primary than in secondary or hyperimmune responses. This trend is more apparent in IgG PFC which are generally 80-95 percent CRI(+) at day 10 in the primary response but only 30-40 percent CRI(+) at day 10 in secondary or hyperimmune responses. A somewhat different pattern is seen with IgM PFC. These may reach a peak of 85 percent CRI(+) in the primary response, but secondary or hyperimmune IgM PFC, which are lower in numbers than IgG PFC, remain high in CRI content at approximately 70 percent. The PFC data on extent of id dominance in secondary or hyperimmune responses is fully compatible with previously reported serological data by others. Analysis of IgG PFC by hapten inhibition indicated that heterogeneity was in the order secondary PFC {greater than} primary PFC {greater than} hybridoma AK-2.2 PFC with H(75)/H(25) values of 22.9, 6.2, and 2.7, respectively; where H(75) and H(25) are the hapten concentrations required to give 75 percent and 25 percent of inhibition of PFC, respectively. Hapten inhibition data also suggested that secondary IgG PFC were 10 times higher in median binding avidity for ABA-L-tyrosine than primary IgG PFC. The kinetic analysis strongly indicated that CRI(+) IgM PFC were preferentially switched to IgG PFC in the primary response. In both studies, the CRI content of the earliest-appearing IgG PFC was significantly higher than that of IgM PFC on that day. For example, in one case IgM PFC were 60 percent CRI + on day 6 whereas IgG PFC were 100 percent CRI(+). The high Id dominance and selective isotype switching may have either a B or a T cell basis.


Great efforts have been taken to guarantee the efficiency of research project selection. Before research proposals are assigned to appropriate experts for evaluation, research proposals needed to be grouped according to their similarities in research topics. This paper applies an ensemble method to cluster research proposals to support research project selection. Several cluster algorithms are applied to group the proposals and the merits of each algorithm in text clustering are made full use of in the form of ensemble method. Based on the real data from Beijing Natural Science Foundation (BNSF), empirical experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Meanwhile, the proposed method promotes the efficiency in the proposal grouping process.


turgid breast. The instrument consists of a high-quality glass blown to form a large reservoir with an ordinary glass nipple shield fused to it. The air outlet is at the top so that milk is not drawn into the rubber tube and bulb. This bulb has two valves arranged so that a negative pressure is created in the reservoir. In practice the apparatus works best with a fairly rapid series of small contractions, thus simulating normal suckling. It can be used to relieve a turgid breast, or to rest a breast with a cracked nipple; the milk drawn off can be fed to the baby until the crack heals, thereby frequently enabling breast-feeding to be continued. This breast reliever has been well tried out by two district midwives in the last three years, and can be recommended for use in domiciliary practice or small hospitals without electrical equipment.


Biometrics has become a strong candidate to replace traditional authentication systems however biometric data in itself is vulnerable and requires protection. This paper presents a new method to protect face biometric data using one-way transformation in which original face images cannot be retrieved. The secure and reissueable templates are generated by utilizing the Radon transformed signatures of the face biometric and a multi-space random projection. Using an image-based statistical algorithm, authentication is conducted on the transformed templates without the need to reverse them back. Genuine and impostor distributions separation was also improved by 13.82% leading to a 41.35% reduction in the equal error rate. Index Terms — cancellable biometric, face recognition, Radon transform, random projection.


The paper examines the concept of knowledge and knowledge management; nature and lifecycle of knowledge management. It also review the various processes involved in knowledge acquisition and generation, knowledge capture, knowledge storage, knowledge sharing and knowledge application. The paper also discusses the various forms of knowledge elicitation to include questionnaire, interview, observation, role reversal technique, and discussion forums as well as the forms of knowledge representation to include report writing, database management system and institutional repositories. The paper shield light on the various technologies that aids knowledge management practice chief among which are groupware, electronic mail, database management system, data mart, data warehouse among others. Keywords: knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge sharing, knowledge application


&NA; Using social information can benefit individuals in many ways. Responding to alarm signals can, for instance, maximize survival under predation risk. However, foraging individuals should consider the reliability of such risk‐based information to balance antipredator behavior and resource acquisition. Receiver decisions could depend on personality effects, as individual variation in risk‐taking tendencies (i.e., boldness) could not only affect receiver perception of the signaled threat but also signaler reliability. Recent theoretical models support the possibility of coevolution between personality and communication strategies. Using a playback experiment, we show that wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) respond to alarm calls according to their own boldness level (measured as consistent individual differences in basal vigilance) and that they increase their vigilance response to bolder callers potentially considered as more reliable. Further, receivers respond to the callers' boldness regardless of their own boldness and independently of their familiarity level with callers, therefore decoding this information from vocalizations. Such effects of individual behavioral variation on the perception and interpretation of social information could apply to signals used in a variety of ecological contexts.


A popular approach to estimate a source location using time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements is to construct an objective function based on the maximum likelihood (ML) method. An iterative algorithm can be employed to minimize that objective function. The main challenge in this optimization process is the non-convexity of the objective function, which precludes the use of many standard convex optimization tools. Usually, approximations, such as convex relaxation, are applied, resulting in performance loss. In this work, we take advantage of difference-of-convex (DC) programming tools to develop an efficient solution to the ML TDOA localization problem. We show that, by using a simple trick, the objective function can be modified into an exact difference of two convex functions. Hence, tools from DC programming can be leveraged to carry out the optimization task, which guarantees convergence to a stationary point of the objective function. Simulation results show that, when initialized within the convex hull of the anchors, the proposed TDOA localization algorithm outperforms a number of benchmark methods, behaves as an exact ML estimator, and indeed achieves the Cramér-Rao lower bound.


A major contribution to film scholarship and women's studies, this is the first critical biography of America's first native-born female director. It fully documents the career of Lois Weber as a director from 1908 through 1934 and notes the impressive number of short subjects and feature films that she made. Largely forgotten and often maligned, Lois Weber has received scant attention in recent years, yet this study points out that she was one of the cinema's genuine auteurs, not only directing, but also writing and often starring in her films. She was one of the first committed filmmakers who utilized the motion picture to express her views on subjects as varied as birth control, abortion, capital punishment, hypocrisy, and racial intolerance. Lois Weber's career is an extraordinary one, arguably unsurpassed by any other woman director before or since. Acclaimed film historian Anthony Slide presents us with an important reminder of the role women played in the American silent film industry and places Weber's preeminence in film history.


Prior to the advent of electronic media, and before travelling became a mass phenomenon, books were the primary means through which children gained a picture of the world at large and gleaned information about far-away places and their inhabitants. The first works of fiction adapted for children, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Swift's Gulliver's Travels, inspired two major narrative traditions: adventure stories set in exotic places but told in a realistic mode, and fantastic journeys to invented realms. Systematic representations of foreigners in non-fiction for children start to appear in late 18th-century pictorial encyclopedias, and geography textbooks designed to instruct and amuse with descriptions of places and of the customs of their inhabitants, are popular from the early 19th century on. With an imagological focus on the construction of national and ethnic identities, and with special attention to cultural perspective, this article examines and contrasts representations of imaginary and purportedly real foreign people and places in children's books, from late 18thand early 19th-century educational and recreational material in which strange places and people are "discovered," through late 19thand early 20thcentury abcedaria and picturebooks which presented these as "known," to contemporary, ludic material which adopts a performative approach towards presenting strange places and people.