Food security is defined as the situation when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life (FAO 1996). According to official figures, 24.8% of Mexican population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2010. This represents an increase of 3.1 percentage points with respect to 21.7% in 2008. In other words, this represents an increase of 4.1 million individuals, from 23.9 to 28 million, living under these conditions in two years, from 2008 to 2010 (CONEVAL 2011). CONEVAL validated the Mexican Food Security Scale (EMSA, for its acronym in Spanish) as a reliable instrument to measure food security using Rasch model at the national and state level in Mexico (Carrasco, Peinador, and Aparicio 2010). Despite the validity that the food security scale is proved to have, to the best of our knowledge, there is no available study that has intended to find association between demographic factors and food insecurity at a national level in Mexico. This study will bridge the gap in the literature regarding the identification of factors that determine food insecurity in Mexico. The data used in this study come from The Socioeconomic Conditions Module (MCS 2010, for its acronym in Spanish) of the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH, for its name in Spanish) in the third quarter of 2010. In this study we use an ordered probit model, along with nationally representative data and a newly developed food security scale for Mexico. The analysis was conducted for the general (total) population first and then for a subpopulation group of rural lower-income households. We found that households with younger, less-educated household heads were more likely to suffer food insecurity. Other groups that were found to be vulnerable in terms of food insecurity include: households headed by a single, widow or divorced mother, households with disabled family members, households with strong indigenous background, rural households, low income families, non-agricultural households and households with kids.


Predicting interestingness of media content remains an important, but challenging research subject. The difficulty comes first from the fact that, besides being a high-level semantic concept, interestingness is highly subjective and its global definition has not been agreed yet. This paper presents the use of up-to-date deep learning techniques for solving the task. We perform experiments with both social-driven (i.e., Flickr videos) and content-driven (i.e., videos from the MediaEval 2016 interestingness task) datasets. To account for the temporal aspect and multimodality of videos, we tested various deep neural network (DNN) architectures, including a new combination of several recurrent neural networks (RNNs), to handle several temporal samples at the same time. We then investigated different strategies for dealing with unbalanced datasets. Multimodality, as the mid-level fusion of audio and visual information, brought benefit to the task. We also established that social interestingness differs from content interestingness.


A simple numerical method for calculating the cutoff frequency of single-mode operation in optical fibers with an arbitrary index-profile is presented. The method does not involve any approximation other than the scalar approximation and is applicable even to numerical data from index-profile measurements. The calculations are simple and can be carried out even on a programmable calculator.


Lack of access to finance is often cited as a key reason why poor people remain poor. This paper uses data on the Indian rural branch expansion program to provide empirial evidence on this issue. Between 1977 and 1990, the Indian Central Bank mandated that a commercial bank can open a branch in a location with one or more bank branches only if it opens four in locations with no bank branches. We show that between 1977 and 1990 this rule caused banks to open relatively more rural branches in Indian states with lower initial financial development. The reverse is true outside this period. We exploit this fact to identify the impact of opening a rural bank on poverty and output. Our estimates suggest that the Indian rural branch expansion program significantly lowered rural poverty, and increased non-agricultural output.


ABSTRACT Tourism is frequently construed as unusual and extraordinary in contrast to the routines and predictability of work and home life. However, the tourism spaces are co-created through practices that are simultaneously mundane and unusual. Yet everyday touristic practices are seldom researched, especially regarding water tourism. The mundane strategies of creating the boatspace form an important part of the tourist experience of everyday life on canals of England. Movements of bodies in the space, gastronomic experiences, and hygiene practices studied here via ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation and semi-structured interviews with leisure boaters) become defining characteristics of the leisure boaters' everyday. We show that spatial practices, temporal structures, and search for ontological security are essential elements of domesticating and co-creating the emergent boatspace, where physical and social space are negotiated between various actors.


The recent success in coupling lower hybrid (LH) waves in high performance plasmas at JET together with the first demonstration on FTU of the coupling capability of the new passive active multijunction launcher removed major concerns on the possibility of using LH on ITER. LH exhibits the highest experimental current drive (CD) efficiency at low plasma temperature thus making it the natural candidate for off-axis CD on ITER where current profile control will help in maintaining burning performance on a long-time scale. We review recent LH results: long internal transport barrier obtained in JET with current profile sustained and controlled by LH acting under real time feedback together with first LH control of flat q-profile in a hybrid regime with Te ∼ Ti. Minutes long fully non-inductive LH driven discharges on Tore Supra (TS). High CD efficiency with electron cyclotron in synergy with LH obtained in FTU and TS opening the possibility of interesting scenarii on ITER for MHD stabilization. Preliminary results of LH modelling for ITER are also reported. A brief overview of ITER LH system is reported together with some indication of new coming LH experiments, in particular KSTAR where CW klystrons at the foreseen ITER frequency of 5 GHz are being developed.


Abstract : From 20 to 31 August 2001, Brockington and Associates, Inc., performed an intensive historical resources survey (Phase I) within the propose expansion site for the Fort Barrancas National Cemetery, at the Naval Air Station Pensacola (NASP), Escambia County, Florida. The project are includes an estimated 50 acres near the existing Fort Barrancas National Cemetery. We recorded and evaluated one archaeological site (8ES1435 and seven isolated finds during our field investigations. Site 8ES1435 is a historic/modern refuse dump. The site was previously identified in the 198 Archaeological Sensitivity Map Survey conducted by the University of West Florida (UWF). However, the site was mis-plotted on maps generated from that survey. According to the site form, 8ES1435 is the remains of the Old Hospital and a historic/modern trash dump. The site has been heavily impacted by earth-moving activities and does not likely contain intact deposits. It is questionable as to whether the deposits are even associated with a medical facility. Further, some looting of deposits has occurred. Site 8ES1435 is not recommended eligible for the National Register of Historic Place (NRHP) and no further archaeological investigations should be required at this location.


This work investigates the range of pragmatic contexts in which the Polish distal deictic TAM 'there' appears and argues that these environments share the feature of epistemic uncertainty, which is the semantic common denominator to all sub-modes of irrealis. The use of TAM in contexts of epistemic uncertainty is motivated by its central meaning. TAM can not only convey semantic distance (spatial) with respect to a proposition, but also epistemic distance, i.e. it can absolve the speakers from the responsibility for the truth of the utterance. Epistemic distance is the feature triggering the expansion of uses from one conceptual domain to another.


Abstract The hypothesis that primary branchiogenic carcinoma originates from a branchial cleft cyst is controversial. Many reports regarding primary branchiogenic carcinoma failed to provide sufficient evidence to distinguish it from metastatic cervical lymph nodes arising from previously unrecognized primary tumours. The radiological appearance of malignant transformation from a branchial cleft cyst has not been reported previously in the English literature. A radiological study is presented that confirms the primary branchiogenic carcinoma. The management in suspected cases would be wide surgical excision of the tumour including ipsilateral radical neck dissection followed by radiation therapy.


In this work, we present the design, development, and evaluation of a real-time target tracking system for wireless embedded nodes, capable of effectively tracking manoeuvring targets. The proposed tracking system is designed to operate solely on range measurements obtained with the use of a two-way time-of-flight method without the need for additional hardware being incorporated in the nodes. To address the challenge of coping with manoeuvring targets, the tracking problem is formulated as a dynamical estimation problem where an adaptive multiple-model approach is employed to represent the motion pattern of manoeuvring targets. The ranging observations are produced in real time and used as inputs to a particle filter algorithm that produces the estimates of the target's kinematic variables. Simulations are provided to assess the effect of several factors on the system's performance. Ultimately, the entire system is implemented on commercially available hardware and tested in an outdoor deployment. A total of 25 experiments demonstrate an average RMS accuracy of 2.6 m for position and 1.9 m/s for velocity, in a 15 m × 15 m area. Such performance, which is additionally confirmed from simulation results, reveals the potential of the proposed range-only system in application scenarios where real-time tracking of mobile targets is needed.


The Settsass/Richthofen Reef carbonate platform system, together with the other central-western Dolomites postvolcanic carbonate complexes, forms the palaeogeographic scenario of the Lower Carnian. These Lower Carnian platforms were dwelled by coral patch-reefs and sponge mounds separated by small lagoons characterized by muddy sedimentation. The Settsass/Richthofen Reef is a small platform system (3-4 km 2 in plain view and about 150 m thick) and is characterized by two superimposed carbonate complexes (DC 1 and DC 2) showing different geometric features: a) the lower complex, known as the Richthofen Reef (DC 1), shows a plane-convex geometry where the core is constituted by coral patch-reefs and sponge bodies, while the lateral portion is represented by the slope sediments interfingering with the basinal deposits (San Cassiano Formation); b) the upper complex, the proper Settsass relief (DC 2), shows a tabular geometry and/or some thickening basinward. This upper complex covers a variety of depositional settings, from inner platform deposits (back-reef) at the southwestern side, to slope deposits at the southeastern side. Its slope deposits are formed by clinostratified breccias with slope angles ranging from 20° - 25° in the proximal area, to 10° - 15° more distally. The Settsass platform complex shows a basinward progradation (NE direction) which can be traced in outcrops for almost 2 km.


We use data collected as part of a baseline survey in 2012 and a survey 5 months post-intervention in 2014 to assess the short-term outcomes of a water supply intervention in Ribáuè, Mozambique. This intervention included the rehabilitation and expansion of a piped water system, revitalization of water committees, and creation of and capacity building for small-scale private water enterprises. Quantitative results suggest that the intervention led to an immediate significant increase in the use of piped water supply at the expense of unprotected wells and other non-revenue generating forms of unimproved water supply with more than a 2.5-fold increase in the usage of yard taps and water kiosks/standpipes and a two-fold decrease in the use of unprotected wells. Family water consumption also increased by approximately 40 L/d, and the point-of-use treatment of water nearly tripled. Economic opportunities were generated for business and small enterprise owners due to the new water supply infrastructure, and piped water infrastructure had additional positive effects for both public and private sanitation facilities.
 This article has been made Open Access thanks to the generous support of a global network of libraries as part of the Knowledge Unlatched Select initiative.


A model for the Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter is presented. Our model predicts a bandwidth of 0.6 GHz and a transmission peak of 0.98 for a filter operating on the Cs (D(2)) line. The model includes hyperfine effects and is valid for arbitrary magnetic fields.


Cycle-time distribution is shown to take the form of a linear combination of M Erlang-N density functions in a cyclic queueing network of M servers and N customers. For paths of m servers in tree-like networks, the components in the more complex linear combination are convolutions of Erlang-N with at most m − 1 negative exponentials.


In this study, Turkish Sweetgum bark was used as a new biosorbent to investigate the removal of hazardous 2,4 dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) from aqueous solutions in batch biosoption experiments. The effective usage of Turkish sweetgum bark is a meaningful work for environmental utilization of agricultural residues. The effects of experimental parameters like solution pH, contact time, initial concentration of adsorbate and amount of bisorbent dosage were investigated in a series of batch studies at 25 o C.  Taguchi's Orthogonal Array (OA) analysis was used to find the best experimental parameters for the optimum design process in this study. The functional groups and surface properties of biosorbent were characterized by using Fourier transformer infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The experimental data were fitted to Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich isotherm models. There is a good agreement between the parameters and this confirms the monolayer adsorption of 2,4-DCP onto sweetgum bark. As a result of kinetic studies, the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to be suitable for all the data. Also, the results of the study show that Turkish Sweetgum bark can be potential as a low-cost alternative commercial adsorbents for removal 2,4 dichlorophenol from aqueous solutions.


This article examines and explains the adoption of gender main- streaming by the European Union (EU), and traces its implementation in five issue-areas of EU policy: Structural Funds, employment, development, competition, and science, research and development. The EU decision to adopt gender mainstreaming, as well as its variable implementation across issue-areas, can be explained in terms of three factors derived from social movement theory: the political opportunities offered by EU insti- tutions in various issue-areas; the mobilizing structures, or European networks, estab- lished among the advocates of gender equality; and the efforts of such advocates to strategically frame the gender-mainstreaming mandate so as to ensure its acceptance by EU policy-makers.


Dose distributions that result from treating a patient with orthovoltage beams are best determined with a treatment planning system that uses the Monte Carlo method, and such systems are not readily available. In the present work, the Monte Carlo method was used to develop a computer code for determining absorbed dose distributions in orthovoltage radiation therapy. The code was used in planning treatment of a patient with a neuroendocrine carcinoma of the maxillary sinus. Two lateral high-energy photon beams supplemented by an anterior orthovoltage photon beam were utilized in the treatment plan. For the clinical case and radiation beams considered, a reasonably uniform dose distribution is achieved within the target volume, while the dose to the lens of each eye is 4 - 8% of the prescribed dose. Therefore, an orthovoltage photon beam, when properly filtered and optimally combined with megavoltage beams, can be effective in the treatment of cancers below the skin, providing that accurate treatment planning is carried out to establish with accuracy and precision the doses to critical structures.


This study examines the effect of incentives to claim Social Security benefits early originating in the labor market. Using synthetic matched survey and administrative data it first documents large increases in the fraction of earnings of less educated workers replaced by Social Security benefits in the 1990s. Exploiting variation in replacement rates at the level of year and education groups, we then show that these increases have significantly contributed to the contemporaneous decline in claiming ages of less educated workers. We argue that the rise in replacement rates can be explained by an increase in earnings inequality, and that trends in earnings inequality are likely to lead to increases in replacement rates in the future. We also examine a second channel through which labor market trends affect early claiming, the rise and decline in educational attainment across cohorts. We conclude that changes in replacement rates are likely to play a bigger role than changes in the education distribution.


Just in time, quality management, and supply chain management have in recent years been proposed as means of improving product quality and responsiveness, while simultaneously reducing cost. The three can also be used as complementary elements of an integrated strategy aimed at improving an organization's competitiveness. This study proposes and tests a structural equation model that examines linkages between just in time, quality management, supply chain management and supplier management, and their impact on business performance. Results show that while just in time, quality and supply chain management efforts are indeed mutually supportive, it is a firm's efforts in the area of quality management that directly drive business performance. Activities related to just in time and supply chain management impact business performance only via their impact on quality management. Results also indicate that while supplier management is directly influenced by quality and supply chain management efforts, it does not influence performance.


Background: Chronic infections by one of the oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are responsible for near 5% of the global cancer burden and HPV16 is the type most often found in cancers. HPV genomes display unexpected levels of variation when deep-sequenced. Minor nucleotide variations (MNVs) may reveal HPV genomic instability and HPV-related carcinogenic transformation of host cells. Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate HPV16 genome variation at the minor variant level on persisting HPV16 cervical infections from a population of young Dutch women. Study design: 15 HPV16 infections were sequenced using a whole-HPV genome deep sequencing protocol (TaME-seq). One infection was followed over a three-year period, eight were followed over a two-year period, three were followed over a one-year period and three infections had a single sampling point. Results and conclusions: Using a 1% variant frequency cuto ff , we fi nd on average 48 MNVs per HPV16 genome and 1717 MNVs in total when sequencing coverage was>100×. We fi nd the transition mutation T > C to be the most common, in contrast to other studies detecting APOBEC-related C > T mutation pro fi les in pre-can-cerous and cancer samples. Our results suggest that the relative mutagenic footprint of HPV16 genomes may di ff er between the infections in this study and transforming lesions. In addition, we identify a number of MNVs that have previously been associated with higher incidence of high-grade lesions (CIN3+) in a population study. These fi ndings may provide a starting point for future studies exploring causality between emerging HPV minor genomic variants and cancer development.


The regulation of glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase) catalytic subunit and glucose 6-phosphate (G-6-P) transporter gene expression by insulin in conscious dogs in vivo and in tissue culture cells in situ were compared. In pancreatic-clamped, euglycemic conscious dogs, a 5-h period of hypoinsulinemia led to a marked increase in hepatic G-6-Pase catalytic subunit mRNA; however, G-6-P transporter mRNA was unchanged. In contrast, a 5-h period of hyperinsulinemia resulted in a suppression of both G-6-Pase catalytic subunit and G-6-P transporter gene expression. Similarly, insulin suppressed G-6-Pase catalytic subunit and G-6-P transporter gene expression in H4IIE hepatoma cells. However, the magnitude of the insulin effect was much greater on G-6-Pase catalytic subunit gene expression and was manifested more rapidly. Furthermore, cAMP stimulated G-6-Pase catalytic subunit expression in H4IIE cells and in primary hepatocytes but had no effect on G-6-P transporter expression. These results suggest that the relative control strengths of the G-6-Pase catalytic subunit and G-6-P transporter in the G-6-Pase reaction are likely to vary depending on the in vivo environment.


Incidence of diabetes in children is on the rise due to both Type 1 and Type2 Diabetes Mellitus(DM). This retrospective study was conducted among 432 children diagnosed to have DM at less than 12 years of age. The profile of diabetes at presentation was studied in all these children. Type 1 DM was encountered in 81% of children. Two children were Type 2 DM. Age and gender did not show any statistical difference. BMI was less than 85 th percentile in all but two children. 58.6% of children presented with Diabetic keto acidosis. 93 % of the children presented with osmotic symptoms. Incidental diagnosis of DM was encountered in 45%. Missed diagnosis was encountered in 60% of children with DKA. 12.5 % were found to have autoimmune thyroid antibodies. Hypercholesterolemia was encountered in 16% and hyperlipidemia in 19%. Mortality at initial diagnosis was 2.7%. Type 1 DM is the commonest type encountered in children under 12 years of age from a lower socioeconomic strata and nearly 60% present with DKA at onset. 60% children with DKA have their diagnosis missed at first physician contact.


World War I dismantled Imperial Germany and, long after the fighting had ceased, continued to shape the newly-born Weimar Republic. This paper argues that a war over the memory of the Great War in Germany led to Weimar's downfall. The Weimar Republic's lack of a collective memory of the first total war became the center of the political debate on the republic's viability and Germany's future. This war debate was potently wielded in the arenas of literature and art to heighten political conflict and ensure that the war's memory seeped into every aspect of society. Ultimately, Weimar's inability to promote any consensus on the war's meaning in the face of opposition from the conservative and extremist right weakened the republic significantly and led to its downfall.


Electroactive hybrid and layered oxides and related materials where the inorganic phase is the host, offering the conductivity characteristics of semiconductors, have been used in thin film transistors and related electronic devices where the host–guest interaction offered conductivity with improved processability. We describe the synthesis and characterization of a nanocomposite that shows large conductivity anisotropy when deposited as a thin film. We prepared the material by inserting quasi 1-dimensional potassium tetracyanoplatinate metal complexes with insulating electrical properties in between stacked nanosheets of vanadium oxide xerogels. Detailed structural and compositional analysis using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms that the hybrid material forms from a topotactic reaction and the framework of the layered host oxide structure is maintained. The hybrid film demonstrates a ∼1000-fold conductivity change between transport parallel and perpendicular to the film at room temperature. Temperature dependent transport measurements confirm Ohmic conduction perpendicular to the stack and small polaron hopping conduction parallel to the layering direction of the film. The conductivity anisotropy and simple synthesis demonstrate that nanostructured layered hybrids can provide alternative materials for thin film complementary logic and resistive memory.


Late Tertiary marine strata of the Waiouru Formation were unconformably deposited on a dissected Late Cretaceous peneplain surface of unusually high relief formed on Torlesse Supergroup greywacke at Waiouru. Central North Island, New Zealand. Waiouru is uniquely located on the southern boundary of the Taupo Volcanic Zone and the northern margin of the Wanganui Basin, an infilled Pliocene basin now subject to Plio-Pleistocene uplift. Two transgressive episodes are identified. The first involved submergence of the peneplain in the Neogene, when Kapitean mudstone was deposited. Then a general marine shallowing occurred around the New Zealand landmass which saw uplift of Waiouru towards the end of the Kapitean Stage, followed by a period of sub-aerial erosion. The second transgressive episode was initiated by subsidence of the Wanganui Basin in the Pliocene, which led to onlap of coarse shallow-water sandstones during the Opoitian Stage. Basement subsidence tended to result in vertical rather than horizontal migration of the shoreline. No evidence has been found for previously recognised eustatic sealevel cycles, due possibly to masking by strong tidal conditions throughout the Opoitian sequence; Waiouru being located on the northern edge of the Pliocene Kuripapango Strait. Eventually, shallow seas supported a faunal population sufficient to produce widespread carbonate skeletal fragments that formed extensive shell limestone beds at the top of the Waiouru Formation. Rapid lateral and vertical changes in the facies are interpreted as due to rapidly changing local depositional conditions. These were caused by the submerging basement initially forming a steep coast with at least two offshore islands. Marine infilling occurred within former incised river valleys 3 km wide and over 300 m in depth. Erosion of local greywacke contributed to the Opoitian sedimentation, as did a granitic source, probably in North-west Nelson, with materials transported from this latter source by currents propagating through the Kuripapango Strait. The presence of abundant granite-derived micas in Opoitian strata, yet their absence in the Kapitean strata provide a limiting age for the arrival of micas in Wanganui Basin strata. As the Wanganui Basin depocentre moved southwards, offlap and emergence occurred with Plio-Pleistocene uplift. The paleo-Moawhango River established its course in the newly uplifted strata, forming superimposed gorges where it cut into exposed basement. Except for initially deposited basal strata, dips in the Neogene marine strata are almost all uniformly consistent with the regional dip. Mapping of the shell limestone beds has shown post-Opoitian development of a small scale (<2 km wide) anticline and a minor associated fault. To the south of the study area, the Waipipian age Taihape Mudstone overlies the Waiouru Formation. The contact between the two is interpreted to be the Opoitian-Waipipian boundary and thus the Waiouru Formation was deposited within the Opoitian Stage.


type="main" xml:id="twec12164-abs-0001"> Recently, the apex environmental agency of India observed that domestic industrial pollution has been increasing at an alarming rate over the last two decades, and the need to rein in traditional polluting industries. This raises the pertinent question of whether the poor domestic pollution regime has affected the pattern of India's trade in dirty manufactured products in the post-liberalisation era since 1991. We find that on the whole, India has remained a net importer of pollution-intensive manufactured goods; however, there is a distinct trend of increasing specialisation in specific dirty industries especially in the bilateral trade with high-income countries, and to a lesser degree with low-income countries. The USA being India's single largest country trading partner in the post-liberalisation era, we test for pollution offshoring at the finer industry level in US-India bilateral trade. While we find that the pollution haven effect is not significant, India's specialisation in certain dirty manufacturing industries through the last decade remains a disturbing trend. India needs to integrate environmental sustainability within industrial growth urgently, and it is pertinent to implement policies which would reflect the true pollution costs in an industry that is increasingly competing in the international market.


In this paper, free vibration analysis of rotating functionally graded cylindrical shells with orthogonal stiffeners is presented. Based on Love's first approximation theory, using energy approach, the governing equations of motion which take into account the effects of initial hoop tension and also the centrifugal and Coriolis forces due to rotation are derived. To validate the present analysis, comparisons are made with those available in the literature for particular cases; very good agreements are achieved. The influence of the power law index and rotating speed on the natural fundamental frequency of the simply supported rotating stiffened functionally graded shell are investigated.


This study aims to examine the different dimensions of online citizen participation for the purpose of delving into the types of engagement that are being developed in order for citizens to benefit from the opportunities offered by the Internet. A self-administered survey has been carried out with 420 students from a Spanish public University (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos) from its five campuses in Madrid. A typology of attitudes has been developed, firstly with factor analysis, and then with a varimax rotation. Moreover, a hierarchical linear regression has been applied in order to discover the variables that might predict the typology of participation. The study shows that online participation is a complex phenomenon influenced by multiple personal and social factors. The results have revealed three points of view: 1. Scepticism toward the ability to exert influence; 2. Social networks as a channel for maintaining social contact and expressing opinions; and 3. Capability of empowering users. Certain attitudes toward social networks can predict online participatory behaviour in different types of profiles on these networks. Furthermore, age does not affect online participation, and gender only has an influence on sports and media profiles.


In Malaysia, there are about 650 000 oil palm smallholders who rely on the oil palm industry for their livelihoods. The fluctuation in world palm oil prices directly affects the oil palm industry in Malaysia, especially the smallholders. At the moment, the government promotes the integration of oil palm plantation with crops and livestock through MPOB to improve the oil palm smallholders' income. Nevertheless, some smallholders integrate their oil palm farm with agro-tourism. Smallholders' involvement in integration involving other crops has long been studied; however, the integration between oil palm smallholdings with agro-tourism has yet to be studied. Therefore, this study aims to examine the extent to which the integration between oil palm smallholdings and agro-tourism would increase the smallholders' income by using a cost-benefit analysis. This study which focuses in Perak had showed that whether smallholders integrate their farm with agro-tourism or concentrate on oil palm farming alone, both options have the potential to provide smallholders with consistent returns. The cost-benefit analysis conducted showed a positive net present value (NPV) and high internal rate of return (IRR) for both options. This study also revealed that for the oil palm-based agro-tourism model, although the occupancy rate was reduced to between 70% and 50% of the current level, the agro-tourism model was still viable. Nevertheless, if the occupancy rate was reduced to 20% of the current level, this study showed that the NPV and IRR for the model with agro-tourism were lower than that of the model without agro-tourism. Therefore, to ensure the maximisation of their income, the oil palm smallholders should diversify their activities to include other activities, such as agro-tourism.


The archaeological record represents a potentially critical source of information on past relationships between human hunters and populations of game animals. Archaeological research in the last 40–50 years has produced two alternative views on these relationships: one that Native people were knowledgeable, benevolent conservators of game and an alternative that suggests that they depleted and suppressed game populations through overhunting. A brief review of the history of this research shows that neither position is well-supported by empirical facts and that researchers have demonstrated a certain overzealousness in attempting to support one or the other of these interpretations. The facts are that after more than 13,000 years of non-conservative hunting, game populations were still extremely high across North America. This suggests that populations of Native hunters were relatively low, and that the former productivity of North American ecosystems may be under-estimated by modern conservators.


Web (2.0) is the place where people can upload, share and access various sources of information. Web (2.0) has given rise to information overloading problem and knowledge starvation. Recommender Systems (RS) helps in alleviating this overloading problem and gaining the exact information what we need. RS suggest user items or products based on their browsing or purchasing history. RS suggest list of items by identifying similar users with explicit user-item rating. But, in real time applications most users do not rate items. In current web (2.0) social tagging applications help us to find useritem ratings implicitly based on the user's interest and preferences they give for the list of items. In this paper we have proposed a model based resource recommendation on social tagging information which has improved the performance of the RS. In the proposed system the topic is identified from the tagged data, based on the topic user profile is constructed by semantic approach and the recommendation is done for the user.


Abstract Since the installation of the 25-element GERman Experimental Seismic System (GERESS) array in southeastern Germany in 1990, 36 presumed nuclear tests were recorded by this system: 16 from Nevada, 12 from the Tuamotu Archipelago, 7 from Lop Nor, and 1 from Novaya Zemlya. Also, a chemical calibration experiment at Nevada Test Site (NPE) was observed at the array in 1993. In addition, two presumed nuclear events from Nevada, four from the Tuamotu Archipelago, and six from eastern Kazakhstan were recorded on temporary stations close to the GERESS array during the site survey (1988 to 1989). These latter 12 events were carefully included in this study to broaden the data set. This has been done since the number of underground nuclear tests observable at the GERESS site is not expected to increase significantly in the future because most nuclear powers have adhered to a moratorium on nuclear testing. In addition, we also do not expect that peaceful nuclear explosions (PNE) will be detonated in the future due to reasons of environmental hazard. Concentrating on Nevada Test Site and the Tuamotu Archipelago, a cross-correlation method and a cluster analysis indicate subgroups of the data. These empirical methods clearly discriminate presumed nuclear tests on the islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa. In addition, detection thresholds at GERESS were estimated based on bodywave magnitudes published by ISC: m b = 4.3 for the Nevada Test Site, m b = 3.9 for the Tuamotu Archipelago, m b = 4.6 for Lop Nor, m b = 4.3 for Novaya Zemlya, and m b = 4.4 for eastern Kazakhstan. Clearly, these path-specific detection thresholds deviate substantially from those derived from global amplitude-distance relations (i.e., Gutenberg-Richter). This indicates that a network of seismic stations used for global monitoring purposes may need careful calibration.


In the report by E. Matin et al. "Metacontrast and Saccadic Suppression" (Science 178, 179-182, 13 Oct. 1972), there were several errors in the first two columns on page 180. These were the result of changes made by the editors after the authors had returned the galley proofs. 1) The size of each of the five squares in the fixation array was 6 minutes of arc by 6 minutes of arc (6' by 6' visual angle); it was not 1.8 by 1.8 m or 6 by 6 feet as printed. 2) The size of the slit beneath the target square was 2 minutes of arc (horizontal) by 30 minutes of arc (vertical); it was not 0.6 m by 9 m as printed.


California The European Wars of religion (real and imagined) are a legacy that inform the American attitude towards religion in some fairly major ways. Indeed, religion is often thought of as something from which society must be protected, it being the job of the state to provide this protection. In this light, given the contemporary optics and global conflicts involving Muslims today, this attitude of fear is all the more keen when it comes to the religion of Islam. The question of American Muslims contributing to an American common good is often unthinkable, especially given the racial and ethnic make-up of the American Muslim community. This article takes on the question of if and how American Muslims can, in good religious conscience, contribute to and uphold an American common good. It takes an 'emic' approach to this question, however, in that it assumes that America is no less home to American Muslims than it is to any other group of Americans. It also seeks to ground its articulations in the religious sources and Tradition of


The aim of this study was to delve into the effect of context-based approach (CBA) over traditional instruction (TI) on students' chemical literacy level related to thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. Four eleventh-grade classes with 118 students in total taught by two teachers from a public high school in 2012 fall semester were enrolled in this particular study. The treatments were randomly assigned to the already formed classes; experimental groups were treated as CBA, the control groups as TI. Each teacher had one experimental and one control group. Open-ended contextual item sets were developed to assess students' chemical literacy level in thermochemical and thermodynamics concepts. The test was administered to both groups as a post-test at the end of the implementation. Students' responses to item sets were analyzed based on the rubric prepared as the answer key. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used for interpreting the data. The results reveal that CBA is superior to TI on improving students' chemical literacy levels, implying that CBA, as a discussion platform for concepts through real-life experiences, has a significant role in increasing students' chemical literacy levels in abstract and difficult concepts regardless of the gender difference.


The purpose of this reseach was to determine the service quality level that was held by Gajayana University of Malang. The method used in this research was quantitative descriptive method using questionnaires. The statement in the questionnaire were arrange based on the 5 dimention of service quality. Those were tangibles, reliabilities, responsiveness, assurances and emphaty. This study was on Gajayana University with 100 active student on 3 period late as respondent. The analysis equipment used in this research was IPA (Importance Performance Analysis) there were gap analysis, compability analysis level and cartesius chart. The gap analysis showed that all attributes get a negative response which means that student's perception was less than the student's expectations. Compability analysis level between perception and expectation showed presentation less than 100% on all attributes wich mean the students was dissatisfaction of service quality. As for the cartesius chart showed some attributes that become priority to improved there performance was the institution provided equipment and modern technology (tangible), the institutions gives services as promised (reliability), institutions was responsible for the occurrence of service errors (reliability), institutions provide fast and precise services (responsiveness) and Institution employees were always willing to help students (responsiveness).


Several compounds were studied for possible therapeutic activity in experimental herpes simplex keratitis. Of the 5-halogenated 2'-deoxyuridines the iodo and bromo were active and their activity was antagonized by thymidine. The chloro was less effective and the fluoro was not active. Iodoand fiuorouracil and 5-aminouracil mustard were also inactive. These results are in agreement with the hypothesis that a requisite for antiviral activity is the ability to block the final step of nucleotide incorporation into DNA. Blockade of more preliminary steps is not sufficient. The incorporation of drug into fraudulent DNA may also be important for antiviral activity. The final assembly of nucleic acids into DNA is the one step that must be virus specific and it may be here that therapeutically active antivirals must act.


Lemon grass essential oil is used in manufacture of soaps, beauty products, and mosquito repellents. Nearly, 40% of world lemon grass oil is produced in India and Kerala state plays a major role. Valaramkunnu is a village in Wayanad district of Kerala, situated on the top of a hill with 300 inhabitants. The villagers walk for 8 km down the hill for daily wages as there is no other source of income. 25 acres of land is available, where lemongrass is grown naturally. The village had a history of extracting lemon grass oil, has two problems a) Batch operation — oil extraction is limited by equilibrium and b) Fire wood is used as energy source — this results in deforestation and therefore not a sustainable energy source. To address these challenges, a semi-continuous lab scale distillation was set up to overcome the limitation of equilibrium and was tested. The proposed system was initially tested at lab scale. A prototype lemon grass essential oil is setup in Valaramkunnu. For the prototype, a solar steam generation system is chosen. Effects of process parameters such as drying time, steam temperature, distillation time and packing density on oil yield were studied. It was found that 8 times more essential oil can be extracted, when compared to existing commercial methodologies. It is also estimated that, nearly 55 litres of oil per acre per annum may be produced in Valaramkunnu. Based on the current price of lemon grass oil, the villagers are estimated to earn INR 800,000 per annum. The report will describe the socioeconomic disadvantages faced by the study population, limitations of their attempts to address these disadvantages, and the analysis to rationalize projected benefits from the proposed technological and social interventions.


The decision of whether to release transgenic crops in the EU is one subject to flexibility, uncertainty, and irreversibility. We analyse the case of herbicide tolerant sugar beet and reassess whether the 1998 de facto moratorium of the EU on transgenic crops for sugar beet was correct from a cost-benefit perspective using a real option approach. We show that the decision was correct, if households value possible annual irreversible costs of herbicide tolerant sugar beet with about 1 Euro or more on average. On the other hand, the total net private reversible benefits forgone if the de facto moratorium is not lifted are in the order of 169 Mio Euro per year.


The main goal of this study is to determine the composition, diversity and ecology of benthic diatoms in Karagöl Lake in Karagöl-Sahara National Park. Monthly sampling (from sediments, stones and aquatic plants in littoral zone of the lake) taken in three consecutive years revealed 57 diatom taxa with Gomphonema and Pinnularia being the most abundant species while other genera are represented with three or fewer species. Lindavia ocellata was the most dominant taxon in the samplings examined throughout the whole study. The values of diversity and evenness indices are high during the spring and early summer. Based on cluster analysis for monthly samples of epipelic diatom, there are two different groups at the lowest similarity level. The associations between August 2010 and September 2010 months are the most significant with 86.02%. The organism number of epipelic diatoms showed positive correlation (P<0.01) with dissolved oxygen, while negative correlation (P<0.05) with temperature. Detailed floristic and ecological examination of the benthic diatom communities has not been carried out before this study in this lake. Therefore, this study is the first to our knowledge towards revealing aquatic benthic diatom biodiversity of Karagöl-Sahara National Park and provides basis for future investigations.


In this work, the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) with Paul wavelet was improved as a tool for determination of refractive index dispersion of dielectric film by using the reflectance spectrum of the film. The reflectance spectrum was generated theoretically in the range of 0.8333 - 3.3333 μm wavenumber and it was analyzed with presented method. Obtained refractive index determined from various resolution of Paul wavelet were compared with the input values, and the importance of the tunable resolution with Paul wavelet was discussed briefly. The noise immunity and uncertainty of the method was also studied.


The paper presents the data of semi-empirical and theoretical calculations of molecules in the medium of the solvent, their absorption spectrum and the optimized structure with the value of the total energy of the system.


This paper describes Operator Distribution Method for parallel Planning (ODMP), a parallelization method for efficient heuristic planning. The method innovates in that it parallelizes the application of the available operators to the current state and the evaluation of the successor states using the heuristic function. In order to achieve better load balancing and a lift in the scalability of the algorithm, the operator set is initially enlarged, by grounding the first argument of each operator. Additional load balancing is achieved through the reordering of the operator set, based on the expected amount of imposed work. ODMP is effective for heuristic planners, but it can be applied to planners that embody other search strategies as well. It has been applied to GRT, a domain-independent heuristic planner, and CL, a heuristic planner for simple logistics problems, and has been thoroughly tested on a set of logistics problems adopted from the AIPS-98 planning competition, giving quite promising results.


During the last few years, we have seen an avalanche of new technologies for personal health monitoring of patients and elderly people in their homes. A driving force behind this development is the demographic time-bomb, i.e., the substantial demographic shift that is underway in terms of a rapidly growing proportion of elderly in society. Health care decision-makers argue that in order to provide good care to these elderly people it will be increasingly necessary to provide this care at home through personal health monitoring rather than at institutions. This is necessary for reasons of cost and efficiency. Critics maintain, on the other hand, that we must never forget the needs of the patients and the elderly. They may not want a technological invasion of their homes leading to reduced personal contacts with care providers. In this paper, I discuss issues of priority-setting raised by this new development. It appears that four clusters of values are relevant: (1) independence and privacy, (2) health security and safety, (3) social contact with relatives and care providers, and (4) reasonable costs and efficiency. I argue that we should be aware of the variety of preferences of individual care recipients. To some patients and elderly people the independent living made possible by remote monitoring is more important than social contact with care providers, to others social contact is more valuable than independence. We should take the preferences of this latter category seriously. I therefore support an approach that is more sensitive to individual differences than the approach of more generally replacing close encounters by remote monitoring.


The repulsive guidance molecule (RGM) is a membrane‐bound protein originally isolated as an axon guidance molecule in the visual system. Recently, the transmembrane protein, neogenin, has been identified as the RGM receptor. In vitro analysis with retinal explants showed that RGM repels temporal retinal axons and collapses their growth cones through neogenin‐mediated signaling. However, RGM and neogenin are also broadly expressed at the early embryonic stage, suggesting that they do not only control the guidance of visual axons. Gene expression perturbation experiments in chick embryos showed that neogenin induces cell death, and its ligand, RGM, blocks the pro‐apoptotic activity of neogenin. Thus, RGM/neogenin is a novel dependence ligand/receptor couple as well as an axon guidance molecular complex.


Tools are exposed to severe working conditions during the hot extrusion process. In particular, dies and mandrels can be subjected to an excessive amount of deformation as a result of the developed high cyclic loads and temperatures. In this scenario, a physical experiment reproducing the thermo-mechanical conditions of a mandrel in a porthole die was performed with the Gleeble machine on the AISI H11 tool steel with the aim to investigate the mechanisms that influence the die deformation. The design of experiment consisted of 4 levels of temperature, 3 levels of stress and 3 types of load, i.e. pure creep, pure fatigue and creep-fatigue. In all the testing conditions, a comparable pattern of the mandrel displacement-time curve was found reproducing the 3 stages of softening typical of the strain evolution in a standard creep test but with a marked primary phase. Thus, with the aim to identify an easy-applicable equation to estimate the die deformation, the time hardening creep law was chosen. Coefficients of the time-hardening law were optimized, for each testing condition, on the basis of experimental data starting from values for similar alloys taken from the literature. Results in terms of mandrel displacement were then compared to experimental data for the creep-fatigue condition at different stress and temperature levels. The values found were validated against additional experimental data performed with different specimen geometries. A good average agreement was found between experimental and numerical results. The developed procedure was then applied to an industrial die.


This research seeks to determine the organoleptic quality of fresh vaname shrimp which are marketed in modern market of Makassar City. The research was conducted from December 2019 to February 2020, in three modern markets with each representing the eastern, central, and western parts of Makassar. Samples were taken three times in each market during 10.00-11.00. The organoleptic testing consisted several parameters; appearance, smell, and meat/texture, and was performed at the Laboratory of Fisheries Product Quality Implementation Agency (BPMPP) of South Sulawesi Province. In addition, shrimp temperature and pH tests were performed shortly after sampling. The data obtained were analyzed descriptively and presented in tabular form. The research results showed that vaname shrimp marketed in three modern markets of Makassar City were categorized as fresh shrimp which were within the safe limit for consumption. Compared to the Indonesian National Standard (01-2728.1-2018) regarding the organoleptic safety of fresh shrimp, this results showed values meeting safety standards.


Fertilizer application is an important source to increase the production in agricultural practices. Among various cultural practices, foliar nutrition is one of the important methods as the spray of micronutrients and fertilizers facilitate easy and quick utilization of nutrients. In this study the plant growth attributes like height, number of root nodules and the chlorophyll content was observed by foliar spraying of 1% Foliar feed spray, 1% Humic acid liquid fertilizer, 2% NPK (20:20:20) and 2% MAP (12:61:00) in three replicate pots containing soil as control and in variable concentration of soil and compost in 2:1, 2:2, 3:1 and 4:1 ratio. The highest plant growth was recorded in spraying of foliar feed spray and MAP (12:61:00). Humic liquid fertilizer and NPK (20:20:20) in control conditions was found to be effective. Highest nodulation was recorded in plants treated with the foliar feed spray and MAP (12:61:00) in different soil and compost ratios. Like that in case of chlorophyll estimation it has been observed that the highest chlorophyll a (0.13 mg/g) content was found in the plants grown in foliar application of NPK fertilizers applied in soil and compost (3:1 ratio) and the highest chlorophyll b (0.22 mg/g) was recorded in the plants grown both in NPK fertilizers and humic acid fertilizer foliar application and the highest carotenoid content (1.608 mg/g) was estimated in foliar application of humic liquid fertilizer in control pots.


The intention of this paper is to review various face detection and recognition methods, sort them into different categories and distinguish innovative trends. In this connection the face detection and recognition in video streams is the foremost significant step of information drawing out in many computer vision and image processing applications. Detecting and recognition of face in video stream in generally being a challenging problem, provides an enormous attention for recognition, classification, and activity analysis, making these later steps more efficient. Naturally, assumptions are made to constrain the detection and recognition problem in the perspective of a particular application. In this survey, investigation of many existing schemes in the literature of recent developments and general strategies of all these stages are done and limitations of the various methods and outline promising directions of research are discussed.


The aim of this study was to perform a phytosociological survey of the weed community present in organic and conventional vegetable growing systems conducted in Alagoas state, in Brazil. The survey was carried out from February 2014 to January 2016, within which 30 samplings were made. The evaluated parameters were given by the calculation of frequency, density, abundance, relative frequency, relative density, similarity index (SI) and importance value index (IVI) for each species. In total, 299 weed species were identified, which were grouped into 11 botanical families: Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Commelinaceae, Cyperaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Malvaceae, Molluginaceae, Phyllantaceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae and Solanaceae.  The Euphorbiaceae family in conventional farming, stood out, since it showed an importance value index (IVI) more than, the Amaranthaceae family in the organic farming. In the conventional cultivation, IVI was of 91.53% for Asteraceae and 46.95% for Poaceae. Moreover, a major diversity of weed species was observed in organic cultivation, being superior to conventional one in all phytosociological parameters.

 Key words: Diversity, olericulture, weed community.


Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are increasingly used for a variety of applications related to INDOT's mission including bridge inspection, traffic management, incident response, construction and roadway mapping. UAS have the potential to reduce costs and increase capabilities. Other state DOTs and transportation agencies have deployed UAS for an increasing number of applications due to technology advances that provide increased capabilities and lower costs, resulting from regulatory changes that simplified operations for small UAS under 55 pounds (aka, sUAS). This document provides an overview of UAS applications that may be appropriate for INDOT, as well as a description of the regulations that affect UAS operation as described in 14 CFR Part 107. The potential applications were prioritized using Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a methodology used in the aerospace industry that clearly communicates qualitative and ambiguous information with a transparent framework for decision making. The factors considered included technical feasibility, ease of adoption and stakeholder acceptance, activities underway at INDOT, and contribution to INDOT mission and goals. Dozens of interviews with INDOT personnel and stakeholders were held to get an accurate and varied perspective of potential for UAVs at INDOT. The initial prioritization was completed in early 2019 and identified three key areas: UAS for bridge inspection safety as a part of regular operations, UAS for construction with deliverables provided via construction contracts, and UAS for emergency management. Descriptions of current practices and opportunities for INDOT are provided for each of these applications. An estimate of the benefits and costs is identified, based on findings from other agencies as well as projections for INDOT. A benefit cost analysis for the application of UAS for bridge inspection safety suggests a benefit cost over one for the analysis period.


AIMS
To describe the characteristics of infective endocarditis (IE) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

METHODS AND RESULTS
This study was performed using the GAMES database, a national prospective registry of consecutive patients with IE in 26 Spanish hospitals. Of the 739 cases of IE diagnosed during the study, 1.3% were post-TAVI IE, and these 10 cases, contributed by five centres, represented 1.1% of the 952 TAVIs performed. Mean age was 80 years. All valves were implanted transfemorally. IE appeared a median of 139 days after implantation. The mean age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index was 5.45. Chronic kidney disease was frequent (five patients), as were atrial fibrillation (five patients), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (four patients), and ischaemic heart disease (four patients). Six patients presented aortic valve involvement, and four only mitral valve involvement; the latter group had a higher percentage of prosthetic mitral valves (0% vs. 50%). Vegetations were found in seven cases, and four presented embolism. One patient underwent surgery. Five patients died during follow-up: two of these patients died during the admission in which the valve was implanted.

CONCLUSIONS
IE is a rare but severe complication after TAVI which affects about 1% of patients and entails a relatively high mortality rate. IE occurred during the first year in nine of the 10 patients.


Peru has historically been among the Latin-American countries with a low rural electrification rate. Aiming to improve this situation, the country conducted several electrification efforts in the last few decades that included off-grid photovoltaic (PV) solutions for remote areas (where the grid expansion was unviable). More recently, the government has also sponsored a 'massive program' that aims to deploy a minimum of 150,000 off-grid PV solutions in the upcoming years. In this paper, we assess the sustainability of rural electrification programs in Peru, paying special attention to the ongoing "massive program". Our assessment considers four dimensions of sustainability (institutional, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) and is based on an exhaustive qualitative document analysis complemented by semi-structured expert interviews. We found that the lack of strong formal institutions with a flexible and decentralized structure seriously compromises the sustainability of rural electrification efforts in Peru. Staff rotation and overlapping competences have caused disturbing changes and inhibited following a strategic line, while widespread outsourcing combined with weak controls have often affected the reliability of the deployed systems. Although cross subsidies have made off-grid PV systems affordable for users, systems often fell short of energy demand. Notably, we found that Peruvian officials appear to be unaware of the importance of local participation, and there is a significant mistrust between the government and the rural population (especially in areas where mining is extensive). As a consequence, most of the projects are still designed without the participation and engagement of the communities, which has frequently led to project failures, payment defaults, and inhibited seizing opportunities regarding productive uses of off-grid PV systems. We expect that our findings may help Peruvian institutions to address the most severe drawbacks affecting their rural electrification efforts based on off-grid PV systems.


1.5 mm, 0.7 mm and 0.3 mm thicknesses TiNP/2014Al composite sheets were obtained by hot rolling deformation carried out on as-extruded TiNP/2014Al composite rod. The effect of hot rolling deformation on high strain rate superplastic deformation behavior of the composite was researched by tensile experiment, OM, and SEM. Results show that 0.7mm thickness TiNP/2014Al composite sheet can gain the maximum elongation of 351% at 818 K and 3.3×10-1 s-1, and the m value is 0.43. The optimum strain rate increases with decreasing thickness of the TiNP/2014Al composite sheets. Flow stress and work hardening ability show contrary change tendency to optimum strain rate. The 0.7 mm thickness TiNP/2014Al composite sheet has medium flow resistance stress and shows excellent stability of plastic flow. Fracture surfaces show that the main superplastic deformation mechanism of the TiNP/2014Al composite includes in grain boundary sliding. Subgrain boundary sliding maybe another superplastic deformation mechanism.


In this paper, we study the performance of space modulation for Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless systems with imperfect channel knowledge at the receiver. We focus our attention on two transmission technologies, which are the building blocks of space modulation: i) Space Shift Keying (SSK) modulation; and ii) Time-Orthogonal-Signal-Design (TOSD-) SSK modulation, which is an improved version of SSK modulation providing transmit-diversity. We develop a single-integral closed-form analytical framework to compute the Average Bit Error Probability (ABEP) of a mismatched detector for both SSK and TOSD-SSK modulations. The framework exploits the theory of quadratic-forms in conditional complex Gaussian Random Variables (RVs) along with the Gil-Pelaez inversion theorem. The analytical model is very general and can be used for arbitrary transmit- and receive-antennas, fading distributions, fading spatial correlations, and training pilots. The analytical derivation is substantiated through Monte Carlo simulations, and it is shown, over independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading channels, that SSK modulation is as robust as single-antenna systems to imperfect channel knowledge, and that TOSD-SSK modulation is more robust to channel estimation errors than the Alamouti scheme. Furthermore, it is pointed out that only few training pilots are needed to get reliable enough channel estimates for data detection, and that transmit- and receive-diversity of SSK and TOSD-SSK modulations are preserved even with imperfect channel knowledge.


Myostatin (mstn) blockade, resulting in muscle hypertrophy, is a promising therapy to counteract age-related muscle loss. However, oxidative and mitochondrial deficit observed in young mice with myostatin inhibition could be detrimental with aging. The aim of this study was (a) to bring original data on metabolic and mitochondrial consequences of mstn inhibition in old mice, and (b) to examine whether 4-weeks of AICAR treatment, a pharmacological compound known to upregulate oxidative metabolism, may be useful to improve exercise capacity and mitochondrial deficit of 20-months mstn KO versus wild-type (WT) mice. Our results show that despite the enlarged muscle mass, the oxidative and mitochondrial deficit associated with reduced endurance running capacity is maintained in old mstn KO mice but not worsened by aging. Importantly, AICAR treatment induced a significant beneficial effect on running limit time only in old mstn KO mice, with a marked increase in PGC-1α expression and slight beneficial effects on mitochondrial function. We showed that AICAR effects were autophagy-independent. This study underlines the relevance of aged muscle remodelling by complementary approaches that impact both muscle mass and function, and suggest that mstn inhibition and aerobic metabolism activators should be co-developed for delaying age-related deficits in skeletal muscle.


The optimum aspect ratio at which maximum efficiency occurs is relatively low, typically between 1 and 1.5. At these aspect ratios, inaccuracies inherently exist in the decomposition of the flow field into freestream and endwall components due to the absence of a discernible freestream. In this paper, a unique approach is taken: a "linear repeating stage" concept is used in conjunction with a novel way of defining the freestream flow. Through this approach, physically accurate decomposition of the flow field for aspect ratios as low as ∼0.5 can be achieved. This ability to accurately decompose the flow leads to several key findings. First, the endwall flow is found to be dependent on static pressure rise coefficient and endwall geometry, but independent of the aspect ratio. Second, the commonly accepted relationship that endwall loss coefficient varies inversely with the aspect ratio is shown to be physically inaccurate. Instead, a new term, which the authors refer to as the "effective aspect ratio," should replace the term "aspect ratio." Moreover, not doing so can result in efficiency errors of ∼0.6% at low aspect ratios. Finally, there exists a low aspect ratio limit below which the two endwall flows interact causing a large separation to occur along the span. From these findings, a low-order model is developed to model the effect of varying aspect ratio on compressor performance. The last section of the paper uses this low-order model and a simple analytical model to show that to a first order, the optimum aspect ratio is just a function of the loss generated by the endwalls at zero clearance and the rate of change in profile loss due to blade thickness. This means that once the endwall configuration has been selected, i.e., cantilever or shroud, the blade thickness sets the optimum aspect ratio.


This chapter discusses the enabling role of internal marketing in adoption of knowledge management in the non-profit sector. The chapter considers the novel concept of transcultural marketing that strengthens transcultural diffusion and discusses the cultural complexities of the non-profit sector and the cultural barriers requiring consideration in the adoption of knowledge management. Transcultural marketing encompasses the promotion and development of oneness through diffusion of transcultural ideas and technologies from diverse philosophies within the one environment while respecting and embracing diversity in thinking. The chapter presents the case of a large charitable non-profit sector firm and then offers specific discussion on the knowledge management culture and the role of internal marketing in implementation. This chapter advances understanding of the relationships of knowledge management, the role of internal marketing in generating, sustaining, and strengthening transcultural diffusion of knowledge in nonprofit firms and offers a basic framework of "Must Have" and "Nice to Have" for Knowledge Management implementation in not for profit organizations. Trans-cultural diffusion is the dissemination and exchange of cultural rudiments including ideas, styles, and technologies, and is deeply embedded in the success and philosophy of knowledge management.


BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) continues to spread all over world and is outpacing the resources and capacity of health care systems. This rapidly spreading COVID-19 infection is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and has been challenging the medical community and keeping the whole world in great threat to an unprecedented degree.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review article is to describe details of social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing face masks including there role in controlling the current COVID-19 pandemic.
METHOD: We conducted an electronic search of Google Scholar, Scopus, Medline and PubMed databases for articles between June to September 2021.
RESULTS: The novel SARS-CoV-2 virus is transmitted from person to person by respiratory droplets or contact with an infected person. There are no established medications and vaccine available until now to restrain the transmission of the COVID-19 infection. Currently, social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing a mask are key steps to lower the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in COVID-19 pandemic. As this infection is highly contagious via a respiratory pathway through coughing, sneezing and contact with an infected surface, the spread can be reduced by the proper practice of social distancing, hand hygiene or frequent hand washing and wearing mask. These universal precautions should be done as COVID-19 patients may be asymptomatic.
CONCLUSION: Social distancing, hand washing and wearing face masks are cheap and widely acceptable methods for the prevention of the COVID-19 infection. The goal of this review paper is to discuss social distancing, hand hygiene and face mask information, including its role in managing the current COVID-19 pandemic


The development of optical fibers with two-dimensional patterns of air holes running down their length has reinvigorated research in the field of fiber optics. It has greatly - and fundamentally - broadened the range of specialty optical fibers, by demonstrating that optical fibers can be more 'special" than previously thought. Applications of such special fibers have not been hard to find. Fibers with air cores have made it possible to deliver energetic femtosecond-scale optical pulses, transform limited, as solitons, using single-mode fiber. Other fibers with anomalous dispersion at visible wavelengths have spawned a new generation of single-mode optical supercontinuum sources, spanning visible and near-infrared wavelengths and based on compact pump sources. A third example is in the field of fiber lasers, where the use of photonic crystal fiber concepts has led to a new hybrid laser technology, in which the very high numerical aperture available using air holes have enabled fibers so short they are more naturally held straight than bent. However, commercial success demands more than just a fiber and an application. The useful properties of the fibers need to be optimized for the specific application. This tutorial will describe some of the basic physics and technology behind these photonic crystal fibers (PCF's), illustrated with some of the impressive demonstrations of the past 18 months.


OutReach Networks is taught in Darden's Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity elective. A teaching note for this case is available for instructors as well as an Excel file for student analysis. This introductory case explores the venture capital (VC) and discounted cash flow (DCF) methods of valuing early-stage companies. OutReach Networks is an unusual start-up company in that it was profitable early in its development and did not have to seek VC funding to support its growth. The company has grown quickly and may soon be a candidate for an IPO. In November 2011, an experienced venture capitalist approaches the founder with an offer to invest $30 million in exchange for 30% of the company. While the founder sees some benefit from the VC's experience in preparing the firm for an IPO and the funding enabling it to scale more quickly, he cannot understand how the VC has arrived at this offer. The founder believes the funding should be worth no more than 15% of his firm. Potential reasons for the disagreement over the valuation are (1) differences in the founder's and investor's view of the company's risk, (2) disagreement over the appropriate set of comparable companies, and (3) differences in the methods used to calculate the percentage equity stake. The case is appropriate for use in courses covering entrepreneurial finance or venture capital.


This article presents the findings of a pilot study on natural helping among Mexican Americans conducted in a large urban area of the Southwest. Twelve community-identified natural helpers were interviewed using the "Natural Helper Interview Schedule" utilized in previous studies in other parts of the country with European American subjects. As expansion of the earlier studies, the interview schedule was translated into Spanish and assessed for cultural appropriateness. The similarities found between the findings of the Mexican American sample and previous samples may suggest that natural helping is a cross-cultural phenomenon. At the same time, the unique trends identified among Mexican American respondents may indicate a stronger family connection to natural helping processes in this community. Respondents narrated the helping incidents as if the recipients and providers of help were all family members. A series of common trends emerged from the data gathered on helping incidents. Some of these trends suggest that natural helpers assisting recent immigrants used a doing type of helping style, but a facilitating style of helping was also reported for other recipients. Although these findings cannot be generalized, they provide important information about community-based natural helping networks and provide beginning comparison about natural helping characteristics among different ethnic groups. These findings can be of use by practitioners and policy makers as they attempt to reach the Mexican American community in a culturally competent manner.


New technologies often pass through similar stages in development. First, the creators of the technology, driven by a vision to improve the world, push the technology forward. Once the technology reaches a critical threshold, society adopts it and pulls it in unexpected directions. The Web is no exception. Until recently, the Web was used primarily for fun by a small segment of society made up of folks who were comfortable with computers and networks and who thrived in the unmanaged, free spirit of the Internet. Now, as forces unite to integrate the Web into society, it's time for the Web to grow up. The strongest of these integrating forces, technological progress, is discussed. The author reviews various technological issues and describes some of the other forces fueling the Web's explosive growth.


Blind spots as measured by three different testing instruments were shown to be significantly different. These size variations seem to be related to the target contrast provided by the instrumentation. The need for instrument standardization in perimetry is discussed.


"Errare humanum est". Clinicians, however smart, caring and meticulous they may be, are only human, all too human. So they are bound to occasionally make mistakes, diagnosis errors (i.e delayed/missed or wrong diagnosis) in particular. With a prevalence of misdiagnosis of 15% in most areas of medicine, of which about 32% are due to errors in clinician assessments, misdiagnosis is a major if overlooked problem which seems to have systemic roots rather than just being the problem a few isolated "bad apples". Assigning blame to individual health practitioners for diagnosis failures will not only fail to solve the systemic issues but will also ensure that the same avoidable mistakes are repeated. To devise solutions that minimize the occurrence of misdiagnoses and/or their impact, it is necessary to understand the root systemic causes of misdiagnosis since, as stated in the landmark 2000 Institute of Medicine report on medical errors,"Errors can be prevented by designing systems that make it hard for people to do the wrong thing and easy for people to do the right thing".
Misdiagnoses mostly occur because diagnosis is a decision-making process made under constraints that may conflict with the accuracy requirement. Such constraints include cost constraints, clinician time/availability and energy constraints, high data uncertainty as well the involvement of many clinicians/technicians in the process. Those constraints mean that clinicians have a hard time accessing all the patient data making it difficult for them to gather all the clues and evidence needed to reach a correct diagnosis and that clinicians have to rely on sometimes faulty cognitive shortcuts.
So how can we use database/data mining knowledge to support clinicians in diagnosis process and obviate the risks posed by data fragmentation and cognitive shortcuts and biases? In response to this question, we designed a medical data sharing platform, using EEG (electroencephalogram) data as a representative example of medical data, to meet the following objectives:
-sharing patient data and making it easily accessible
-helping researchers help clinicians by providing a standard trove of data, to ensure (semi)-automated medical data interpretation methods are more easily comparable and reproducible, and by providing a data processing platform
-making it easy to browse the data with similarity search requests (useful for differential diagnosis or diagnosis by comparison)
-combining evidence at hand to provide a set of diagnosis hypotheses and their attached likelihood
We showed that Hadoop would be a suitable medical data sharing and processing platform. We also proposed a Dempster-Shafer based framework to combine the pieces of evidence obtained during the diagnosis process so as to generate and/or update the list of possible diagnoses and their likelihoods throughout the process. Finally, we designed a feature-based similarity metric to perform similarity search on EEG data.


Despite accumulating data showing the various neurological actions of vitamin D (VD), its effects on brain neurochemistry are still far from fully understood. To further investigate the neurochemical influence of VD, we assessed neurotransmitter systems in the brain of rats following 6-week calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D) administration (50 ng/kg/day or 100 ng/kg/day). Both the two doses of calcitriol enhanced VDR protein level without affecting serum calcium and phosphate status. Rats treated with calcitriol, especially with the higher dose, exhibited elevated γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) status. Correspondingly, the mRNA expression of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) 67 was increased. 100 ng/kg of calcitriol administration also increased glutamate and glutamine levels in the prefrontal cortex, but did not alter glutamine synthetase (GS) expression. Additionally, calcitriol treatment promoted tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) expression without changing dopamine and serotonin status. However, the concentrations of the metabolites of dopamine and serotonin were increased and the drug use also resulted in a significant rise of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) expression, which might be responsible to maintain the homeostasis of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission. Collectively, the present study firstly showed the effects of calcitriol in the major neurotransmitter systems, providing new evidence for the role of VD in brain function.


The long-range movements of membrane ligand-receptor complexes into surface caps and into the pseudopods of cells performing phagocytosis, the uropods of motile cells and the cleavage furrows of dividing cells appear to be analogous processes. A common mechanism to explain these movements must take into account several recent observations. First, laser photobleaching studies have indicated that Concanavalin A-receptor movement occurs unidirectionally; and analyses of Con A redistribution by quantitative video intensification microscopy (QUAVIM) have shown that movement may exceed the maximum rates measured for protein diffusion in membranes. These are the results predicted for a process of directed migration but not for a process of diffusion with entrapment. In addition it has been found that membrane receptors may segregate out of as well as into cap, pseudopod, uropod and cleavage furrow regions and that topographical heterogeneity on asymmetric cells is not restricted to membrane molecular determinants but extends to a range of endocytic functions and to a macromolecular complex, the coated pit. All dynamic surface events are arrested during mitosis. A new model for the regulation of plasma membrane topography has been developed from these diverse quantitative, functional and morphological data. Its essence is the entrainment of selected membrane determinants on membrane waves directed towards regions such as caps, pseudopods, uropods and cleavage furrows. The waves are initiated by tension due to asymmetric microfilament-membrane interaction.


N2O fluxes in a wheat/maize rotation system were measured using flux gradient methods combined with gas chromatograph (GC) technique. The mean precision of two repeated GC analyses for N2O concentration achieved to 0.27–0.46 ppbv, which could resolve N2O concentration differences in a low range of 0.39–0.65 ppbv. To maximize measurable N2O concentration differences, gradient measurements were conducted only after fertilization or under low wind conditions. During observation period, N2O flux ranged from 4.41 to 4.84 mgN2O m 2 h 1 for maize field, and from 2.82 to 3.59 mgN2O m 2 h 1 for wheat field. When gradient observation changed from two layers to four layers, the temporal variation of N2O flux reduced but the mean value changed less. Many negative N2O fluxes were found in maize and wheat fields even after fertilization. Nearly all of them were caused by negative N2O concentration differences. During four days' observation in maize field, a mean N2O flux of 0.75 mgN2O m 2 h 1 was found in the daytime and could not be simply attributed to the temporal variation of N2O flux. N2O flux determined by the aerodynamic method (Fa) and the Bowen ratio/energy balance method (Fb) were in a good agreement and statistically significant. The ratio of Fa to Fb increased linearly with energy balance ratio (EBR) obtained by the aerodynamic method in the daytime when EBR is larger than 0.3. It is the first time to give a quantitative description for the impact of energy closure on N2O flux, and show a possible way to improve the data quality under the condition of poor energy balance. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


The aim of this study was to determine the difference of oral hygiene and teeth caries in children with asthma bronchiale, age 3-6 years with several levels of frequency of asthma attack. Fifty children with asthma bronchiale were chosen from Pulmonology Clinic University of Indonesia RSCM. This study used Green and Vermilion to assess the oral hygiene and def-t index for measured caries. The frequency of asthma attack was amount of attack of children using drugs per year. The sample was divided into 3 groups. The first group consists of children with asthma 2-6 attacks per year. Second group with 7-12 attacks per year, and the third group more than 12 times per year. One way ANOVA test showed that the oral hygiene and def-t had significant differences between the three groups (p>0.001). Tukey test showed that oral hygiene had significant differences between the group I-II, I-III, II-III respectively (p>0.001). There was a strong correlation between oral hygiene and frequency of asthma attack (r=0.68), def-t and frequency of asthma attacks (r-0.75), and oral hygiene and caries (r-0.85).


Power semiconductor devices have been used in development of various pulsed power generators for industrial applications. A repetitive pulsed high-voltage modulator using power MOSFETs has been developed for accelerator applications. It is capable of high-speed switching of 2kV at repetition rate of 1 MHz. This modulator, operating in continuous mode at average power level of 30 kW, has played an important role in the experimental demonstration of Induction Synchrotron. In the same time, SIThy is also tested for the same application since it has higher power capability than MOSFET. Initial experiments have demonstrated 1-MHz operation of SIThy at 2kV in burst mode. A pulsed high-voltage generator using SIThy has been developed for applications in flue-gas treatment. This generator uses a newly developed inductive-energy-storage circuit to achieve both output-voltage multiplication and pulse-width compression. It is very compact and it needs a 12-V (DC) battery as the only power supply to give output of 12 kV with pulse width of 100 ns at repetition rate of 2 kHz in continuous mode. A pulsed high-current modulator has been developed for extreme-ultraviolet generation. It uses IGBTs as the main switch and employs magnetic-pulse-compression to achieve pulsed high current. The output reaches 40 kA with pulse width of 240 ns while operating at repetition rate of 1 kHz in burst mode. This modulator is used in light source development for next-generation lithography. Semiconductor opening switches (SOS) are used in pulsed power generators for excimer laser pumping and flue-gas treatment. These developments are mostly international collaboration with Russian scientists, while efforts are being made to develop SOS devices in Japan.


An algorithm called Incremental Best Estimate Directed Search (IBEDS) was proposed for Takagi-Sugeno type fuzzy logic controller (FLC) automatic optimization. IBEDS starts with an initial training set that may be empty, an FLC with randomly initialized rule output parameters is trained by least mean square (LMS) learning algorithm in an iterative procedure. In each iteration, the trained FLC is evaluated with cell state space based global and local performance measures, the training set is then updated based on the evaluation under best kept policy, which only keeps the best control commands found so far. In this way, the training set is optimized in every iteration, and the FLC trained by the training set is also optimized progressively. The philosophy behind IBEDS is that the parameters of an FLC do not represent the performance of the controller directly although the goal of the optimization is to find an optimal controller parameter set so that the controller can have optimal global performance. However, the parameter set of an FLC with suboptimal performance may well represent a point in the parameter search space where the optimal one is nearby. Therefore the search algorithm should put more efforts in that area. LMS learning error is discarded in IBEDS as it does not represent the performance of the trained FLC either. This learning error can be reused when the training set is highly optimized and an exact approximation of the training set by an FLC is desired. To further speed up the optimization, in addition to suggesting the reuse of the LMS learning error, this paper also proposes to reuse the FLC parameter set during a search. A 4D inverted pendulum is studied, and the simulation results show that the search speed is improved.


In the present study, EEG spectral analysis was used to examine the brain mechanisms of imagination in student actors and student non-actors under three experimental conditions: when subjects created a coherent story based on a presented picture (STORY), listed the details of the presented picture (DETAIL) and executed simple calculation while they looked at neutral background (COUNT). Statistical comparison of STORY and DETAIL conditions revealed significantly higher spectral power in alpha1 (7.5-10 Hz) and alpha2 (10-12.5 Hz) bands in the most of investigated cortical areas in actors and non-actors. By contrast, in comparisons STORY-COUNT and DETAIL-COUNT significantly lower spectral power in the same frequency bands in all investigated cortical areas in both groups was obtained. The most prominent differences in comparison STORY-DETAIL were revealed over the central parietal area. The most prominent differences in comparisons STORY-COUNT and DETAIL-COUNT were revealed mainly over the occipital areas. These EEG changes were found in both groups of subjects. Taking this fact into account we consider parietal areas to be stable element of the brain system which maintain verbal creativity in actors and non-actors. The discussion of our results with respect to those obtained in previous studies leads to conclusion that parietal areas are involved into the mechanism of selective inhibition of visual information processing during imagination.


SummaryWorkers of two honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) geographical types, European and Africanized, in Venezuela were assayed for response to sting-associated alarm pheromone. Groups of young bees were exposed to either isopentyl acetate (IPA) or a mixture of 10 alarm chemicals, including IPA, at five concentrations. Africanized bees were more active before exposure to the pheromones, responded with greater intensity and in greater numbers, and continued to respond for a longer time. Europeans bees responded more quickly for concentrations of 1/100 and 1/1000; otherwise, the speed of response was the same as for Africanized bees. It was concluded that relatively more intense colony defence by Africanized bees is caused, in part, by greater responsiveness to alarm pheromones.


Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that affects a significant part of the population, especially school aged children and particularly boys. Nowadays, dysgraphia is insufficiently diagnosed, partly because of the cumbersomeness of the existing tests. This study aims at developing an automated pre-diagnosis tool for dysgraphia allowing a wide screening among children. Indeed, a wider screening of the population would allow a better care for children with handwriting deficits. This study is based on the world's largest known database of handwriting samples and uses supervised learning algorithms (Support Vector Machine). Four graphic tablets and two acquisition software solutions were used, in order to ensure that the tool is not tablet dependent and can be used widely. A total of 580 children from 2nd to 5th grade, among which 122 with dysgraphia, were asked to perform the French version of the BHK test on a graphic tablet. Almost a hundred features were developed from these written tracks. The hyperparameters of the SVM and the most discriminating features between children with and without dysgraphia were selected on the training dataset comprised of 80% of the database (461 children). With these hyperparameters and features, the performances on the test dataset (119 children) were a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 81% for the detection of children with dysgraphia. Thus, our tool has an accuracy level similar to a human examiner. Moreover, it is widely usable, because of its independence to the tablet, to the acquisition software and to the age of the children thanks to a careful calibration and the use of a moving z-score calculation.


ABSTRACT This study determined the phylogenetic groups and virulence factors of 37 Escherichia coli isolates producing types of CTX-M compared with those of 19 isolates producing different types of extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) in a well-defined North American population. Most CTX-M-14 producers (97%) were from phylogenic group D; 67% of the CTX-M-15 producers were from group B2. A single CTX-M-14-producing strain belonged to clonal group A. There were significant prevalence differences for individual virulence factors among CTX-M producers and nonproducers; however, aggregate virulence factor scores were similar. CTX-M producers more commonly caused repeat urinary tract infections. Our results indicate that CTX-M type predicts phylogenetic background, and the virulence potential of ESBL-producing E. coli isolates is a complex issue, requiring further study and ongoing surveillance.


Abstract. Akroman R, Nurhayati N, Suwasono S, Jayus J. 2019. Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of exopolysaccharide-producing fungi as a source of food additives. Biodiversitas 20: 2468-2474. As the demand for materials suitable for edible film in food processing is increasing, the exploration of exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing fungi is important. Some fungi had been reported to produce extracellular polysaccharide having rheological properties potential as thickener and or plasticizer useful for edible film raw material. Therefore, this study was focused on isolation and identification of EPS-producing fungi from the plantation area surrounding the University of Jember, Indonesia. The fungal isolate obtained was morphologically identified based on mycelia and spore type, while its genotype was determined using ITS1 and ITS4 primers. The optimum initial culture pH for EPS production was measured using shake flask culture fermentation. The rheological properties of the EPS were determined using Brookfield viscometer, and surface structure of EPS was observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The result showed that the mycelium of the isolate was reddish-brown and septated, its spores were formed as conidiospores. Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequence of the fungus showed that the isolate is a new species. Therefore, it was designated as C. lunata isolate RJ01. Optimum initial pH for EPS production was pH 6.0, achieved after 5 days fermentation yielded 2.6 g L-1 of EPS. The EPS from C. lunata isolate RJ01 have no cytotoxic activity on vero cell. The rheological behaviour of C. lunata EPS was viscous, and its surface structure of EPS was compact indicating its potency as thickening agent and plasticizer, a material required for edible film formation in food industries.


In this paper, I use a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium to evaluate, for the economy of Senegal, the dynamic effects of an economic Partnership Agreement between West African countries and the European Union. In the simulation, the liberalization scheme is designed in a way similar to the interim agreement signed by Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The effects described are the shifts from the baseline numbers. I found that the production of agricultural goods will decrease, affecting employment negatively, particularly in unskilled labor, since this sector is very labor intensive. In fact, employment drops at around 0.2 percent a year, during the simulation period (2012-2030). GDP grows on average by 1.9 percent a year. The effects of the economic partnership agreement closely mirror the results of a free trade agreement between Senegal and the European Union, implying that a customs union between West African countries is not necessary to reap of the benefit of the former.


Johannes Fabian was one of the first anthropologists to introduce the concept of popular culture into the study of contemporary Africa. Drawing on his research in the Shaba region of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), he has been writing for thirty years about the practices, beliefs, and objects that make up popular culture in an urban African setting: labor and language, religious movements, theater and storytelling, music and painting, grassroots literacy and historiography.In Moments of Freedom Fabian reflects on anthropological uses of the concept of popular culture. He retraces how his explorations of popular culture in this urban-industrial setting showed that classiclal culture theory did not account for large aspects of contemporary African life. Popular culture draws on various genres of representation and performance, and Fabian explores the notion of genre itself as it applies to Shaba religious discourse, painting, and the theater. He also addresses the element of time and how spatial thinking about culture, ethnicity, and globalization acts as an obstacle to appreciating the contemporaneity of African popular culture. The volume ends with a discussion of contestation in light of current calls for democratization.In Moments of Freedom, Johannes Fabian takes stock of decades of anthropological work on popular culture and examines the development of his own thought over time. Throughout the volume, he makes eloquent connections to other firelds such as history, folklore studies, and cultural studies, suggesting areas for further research in each.


AbstractCronkhite-Canada syndrome (CCS) is a rare nongenetic polyposis syndrome first reported by Cronkhite and Canada in 1955.1 Up to the present time, the literature consists of ∼400 cases of CCS with the majority being reported from Japan2 although 49 cases have been described in China.3CCS is characterized by diffuse polyposis of the digestive tract in association with ectodermal changes, such as onychomadesis, alopecia, and cutaneous hyperpigmentation. The principal symptoms of CCS are diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, and other gastrointestinal complications, such as protein-losing enteropathy and malnutrition.It has been traditional to consider that CCS is associated with a poor prognosis. This paper describes a relatively mild case and reviews the literature, which more recently, suggests that it may be a more benign condition that might actually be reversible with treatment.There is some evidence that infection or disturbed immunity may be involved in the pathophysiology and that targeting such abnormalities could have therapeutic potential.A strong case could be made for establishing an international case registry for this disease so that the pathophysiology, treatment, and prognosis could become much better understood.