: INTRODUCTION PTEN loss is frequently observed in NSCLC and associated with both PI3K activation and tumoral immunosuppression. PTEN immunohistochemistry is a valuable read-out, but lacks standardized staining protocol and cut-off value. METHODS Following an external quality assessment (EQA) using SP218, 138G6 and 6H2.1 anti-PTEN antibodies, scored on webbook and tissue microarray, the ETOP cohort samples (n=2245 NSCLC patients, 8980 TMA cores) were stained with SP218. All cores were H-scored by pathologists and by computerized pixel-based intensity measurements calibrated by pathologists. RESULTS All 3 antibodies differentiated 6 PTEN+ versus 6 PTEN- cases on EQA. For 138G6 and SP218, high sensitivity and specificity was found for all H-score threshold values including prospectively defined 0, calculated 8 (pathologists) and calculated 5 (computer). High concordance among pathologists in setting computer-based intensities and between pathologists and computer in H-scoring was observed. Due to over-integration of the human eye, pixel-based computer H-scores were overall 54% lower. For all cut-off values, PTEN- was associated with smoking history, squamous cell histology and higher tumor stage (p<0.001). In adenocarcinomas, PTEN- was associated with poor survival. CONCLUSION Calibration of immunoreactivity intensities by pathologists, following computerized H-score measurements has the potential to improve reproducibility and homogeneity of biomarker detection regarding epitope validation in multi-centre studies. ABSTRACT Introduction: Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) loss is frequently observed in NSCLC and associated with both phosphoinositide 3-kinase activation and tumoral immu-nosuppression. PTEN immunohistochemistry is a valuable readout, but lacks standardized staining protocol and cutoff value. Methods: After an external quality assessment using SP218, 138G6 and 6H2.1 anti-PTEN antibodies, scored on webbook and tissue microarray, the European Thoracic Oncology Platform cohort samples (n ¼ 2245 NSCLC patients, 8980 tissue microarray cores) were stained with SP218. All cores were H-scored by pathologists and by computerized pixel-based intensity measurements calibrated by pathologists. Results: All three antibodies differentiated six PTEN þ versus six PTEN- cases on external quality assessment. For 138G6 and SP218, high sensitivity and speci fi city was found for all H-score threshold values including prospectively de fi ned 0, calculated 8 (pathologists), and calculated 5 (computer). High concordance among pathologists in setting computer-based intensities and between pathologists and computer in H-scoring was observed. Because of over-integration of the human eye, pixel-based computer H-scores were overall 54% lower. For all cutoff values, PTEN- was associated with smoking history, squamous cell histology, and higher tumor stage ( p < 0.001). In adenocarcinomas, PTEN- was associated with poor survival. Conclusion: Calibration of immunoreactivity intensities by pathologists following computerized H-score measurements the potential to improve reproducibility and homogeneity of biomarker detection regarding epitope validation in multicenter studies.


Invasive mucormycosis is an uncommon but increasing life‐threatening fungal infection. The present study investigated clinical characteristics and mortality among patients diagnosed as invasive mucormycosis infection. We retrospectively reviewed a total of 24 histologically proven cases of invasive mucormycosis at two tertiary care referral hospitals between November 2005 and February 2014. Overall survival was 50% (n = 12). The time between onset of symptom and diagnostic procedure proved to be associated with mortality (P = 0.009). In addition, preexisting renal failure and thrombocytopenia demonstrated trends toward a poor outcome in our study (P = 0.089 and 0.065, respectively). On multivariate regression analysis, delayed diagnostic procedure (more than 16 days after the onset of symptoms) was an independent predictor of mortality (OR= 12.34, 95% CI, 1.43–10.64; P = 0.022). Mucormycosis is a destructive fungal infection that is associated with high mortality rates, ranging from 40% to 100% depending on the form of disease. When a clinician suspects invasive mucormycosis infection, an early diagnostic procedure performed within 16 days from the onset of symptom and early initiation of antifungal therapy will lead to successful management of this highly fatal disease.


Objectives Contact dermatitis is widely present among construction workers. The risk of developing occupational contact dermatitis among this group is probably related to occupational exposure to chemicals. In addition, frequency of glove use and exposure to water during hand washing may also influence the prevalence of hand eczema. The aim of this project was to validate questionnaire items on hand dirtiness and glove use by comparing with direct workplace observations. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at 13 different construction sites in the Netherlands. The questionnaire covered general information such as age, gender, occupation and specific questions regarding hand conditions, glove use, glove types, glove replacement, frequency of hand washing and possible symptoms of hand eczema during the last 12 months. Data of 177 participants (95% response rate) were analysed. Agreement between observation and questionnaire was assessed by calculating Cohen's kappa. In addition, the sensitivity and specificity were determined. Multivariate analysis was conducted to assess the association between hand eczema and workplace determinants. Results Observation of hand dirtiness, glove use and glove types were found to agree well with questionnaires, with kappa's of 0.75, 0.61 and 0.88 respectively. The 1-year prevalence of hand eczema was 45.8%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis with hand eczema as dependent variable showed a statistically significant correlation with 'hand cream use' (PR 2.4 (95% CI: 1.6 to 3.8)) and 'hand washing efforts' (PR 1.5 (95% CI: 1.1 to 2.0)). There was also a significant positive association between hand eczema and 'hand dirtiness' and 'glove use'. Conclusions There is a strong correlation found between direct observations and questionnaire. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider that these questionnaire items are suitable to be used in future epidemiological studies. Hand eczema was often reported and was positively associated with potential determinants of exposure asked for in the questionnaire.


Current theory and experimental research suggests that children's discovery of false beliefs at around 4 years of age allows the development of intentional deception. Anecdotal evidence of earlier lies has been dismissed with the argument that they may be 'blind' learned strategies rather than genuine deception. This paper presents two studies of everyday deception in comparison with false-belief task performance in young children. Study 1, a longitudinal study of 24 children, shows that the variety and incidence of everyday deceptions reported by mothers did not relate to success or failure on a battery of false-belief tasks, either between different children or over time in the same children. In Study 2 the deceptions of a 21/2-year-old child over a 6-month period were shown to be varied, flexible, context appropriate and too complex to be 'blind' learned strategies. It is argued that children's deceptive skills develop from pragmatic need and situational exigencies rather than from conceptual developments; they may learn to lie in the same way as they learn to speak.


Purpose: The ultimate objective of the study is to examine the determinants of the urban land lease market in an emerging economy with empirical evidence from Ethiopia. Design/Methodology/Approach: A nomothetic methodology with a standardized and quantitative method of data analysis was adopted for this study. The data was gathered from the Mekelle municipality between 2014-2019. The data was analyzed using the pooled ordinary least square technique. The model produced robust relationships and consistent results with previous studies. Findings: The study found both supply and demand-driven factors associated with plot markup price. The findings revealed that plot size, payment period, monthly income, plots accessible to basic services, plot location, land use type, and land lease auctioned period associated positively and significantly with the urban land lease markup price. Auctioneers paid a premium for plots having a larger size, extended payment period, access to basic services, and specified for residential housing. On the other hand, distance, and plot inaccessible to basic services associated negatively and significantly with the urban land lease markup price. Practical Implication: The rapid urbanization in Ethiopia has generated intensified supply and demand-driven challenges for public policy. Hence, the municipality should enhance infrastructure development across all plot locations and exercise strict control of land speculation to increase municipal revenue, and address supply and demand-driven challenges. Moreover, the municipal government should ensure equitable access to urban land by controlling land speculation. Originality/Value: Several studies that have assessed urban land expansion and administration, however, paid less attention to the urban land lease market. Furthermore, in an economic sense, it is crucial to examine the urban land value determinants from both demand and supply side at a time when less attention has been paid thereto in the literature.


A One-Dimensional (One-D) numerical model to calculate transient temperature distributions in a liquid-piston compressor with porous inserts is presented. The liquid-piston compressor is used for Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), and the inserted porous media serve the purpose of reducing temperature rise during compression. The One-D model considers heat transfer by convection in both the fluids (gas and liquid) and convective heat exchange with the solid. The Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is used in the model to deal with the moving liquid-gas interface. Solutions of the One-D model are validated against full CFD solutions of the same problem but within a two-dimensional computation domain, and against another study given in the literature.The model is used to optimize the porosity distribution, in the axial direction, of the porous insert. The objective is to minimize the compression work input for a given piston speed and a given overall pressure compression ratio. The model equations are discretized and solved by a finite difference method. The optimization method is based on sensitivity calculations in an iterative procedure. The sensitivity is the partial derivative of compression work with respect to the porosity value at each optimization node. In each optimization round, the One-D model is solved as many times as there are optimization nodes, and each time the porosity value at a single optimization node is changed by a small amount. From these calculations, the sensitivity of changing the porosity distribution to the total work input (objective) is obtained. Based on this, the porosity distribution is updated in the direction that favors the objective. Then, the optimization procedure marches to the next round and the same calculations are completed iteratively until an optimum solution is reached. The optimization shows that porous media with high porosity should be used in the lower part of the chamber and porous media with low porosity should be used in the upper part of the chamber. An optimal distribution of porosity over the chamber is obtained.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


BACKGROUND
Wide local excision (WLE) of anorectal melanoma is associated with a high incidence of local recurrence. There is a paucity of literature on adjuvant radiation in this malignancy.

AIM
To identify the optimal method of local treatment in anorectal melanoma.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN
Retrospective study in a tertiary cancer centre.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Records of 63 patients who presented between 1980 and 2004 were reviewed.

RESULTS
Of the 63 patients, 18 were treated by either surgery with or without adjuvant radiation, or by radiation alone. The remaining had advanced disease and were offered only symptomatic treatment. The median overall survival in stage I patients was 12 months, while it was seven and four months in those with stage II and III disease respectively. The median survival in patients treated by WLE with adjuvant radiation (RT), WLE alone or Abdominoperineal resection (APR) was 34, 12 and 10 months respectively. Patients in whom the disease was confined to the mucosa had a better median overall survival than those in whom it had infiltrated beyond the mucosa (102 vs 11 months). The pattern of recurrence following WLE with adjuvant RT or APR was similar. None of the patients who received adjuvant RT after wide excision had a local or nodal recurrence.

CONCLUSION
Local treatment of anorectal melanoma should be individualized. WLE with adjuvant radiation seems to offer good locoregional control without reducing the survival and may be an option of treatment for patients with small, superficial anorectal melanoma. However, APR should be offered for patients with locally advanced disease or as a salvage following recurrence.


Some of the social and cultural aspects of marine fishing communities, as they emerge in the course of the pursuit for food and livelihood, are the subjects of this paper. The focus is on the marine fishery of Kerala State, India and attempts to show how these dimensions evolved in the context of very specific resource and ecological determinants. Social and cultural dimensions have been often considered a "drag" on the transformation of societies into modern entities. However, the numerous failures encountered when development is given an exclusively techno-economic orientation, provide the basis for a new search to give meaning to hitherto neglected socio-cultural norms. This search is all the more relevant in this era of globalisation that set into momentum the tendency to homogenize social and cultural specificity. The sustainability of any society will depend in large measure on the degree of diversity and self-reliance that it is able to maintain with regard to reproducing its social and cultural concomitants. At the core of this are issues pertaining to the food and livelihood security of its people. The paper examines the visible manifestations of deeper social and cultural attributes in the marine fishery sector, which have been fashioned over a very long history. The list includes: the nature of the sharing patterns in the fishery; traditional knowledge and technology; the old and new institutional arrangements in fishing communities; fish and the question food security; and the role of women.


BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
Preoperative evaluation is important in the detection of patients at risk for difficult tracheal intubation. Thyromental distance (TMD) is often used for these purposes, but its value as an indicator for difficult intubation is questionable, as it varies with patient size and body proportions. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate and compare the accuracies of the ratio of patient's height to TMD (ratio of height to TMD = RHTMD) and TMD alone in the prediction of difficult tracheal intubation in Thai patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The authors collected data on 382 consecutive patients scheduled to receive general anesthesia requiring endotracheal intubation for elective surgery. Thyromental distance and RHTMD were evaluated preoperatively. Difficult intubation was defined in the present study by Cormack and Lehane grade 3 or 4. The optimal predictive value was chosen using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The areas under the ROC curves (AUC) of TMD and RHTMD were compared to determine the performance of the different predictive tests used. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of each of the predictive tests were calculated according to standard formulae.

RESULTS
Difficult intubation occurred in 42 patients (10.9 %). The predictive advantage of RHTMD has a similar specificity with improved sensitivity in comparison with TMD. The AUC of RHTMD was significantly greater than the AUC of TMD (p = 0.00). The authors concluded that RHTMD had better accuracy in predicting difficult intubation than TMD.


Special hunting seasons were first implemented in 1992 to help reduce the growth rate of Pennsylvania's rapidly expanding resident Canada goose (Branta canadensis) population. Special seasons timed to occur before and after fall migration were successful in harvesting resident and not migrant Canada geese. Since 1992, September and late season hunting opportunities have been gradually expanded to include the entire state. The special season harvest of resident Canada geese has increased from about 13,000 birds in 1992 to over 68,000 in 1999. Special hunting seasons now account for over 80% of the entire Canada goose kill in Pennsylvania. Despite the harvest increase, the resident goose population in Pennsylvania has continued to grow from 95,000 to over 250,000 since special seasons were first implemented. Canada goose direct band recovery and harvest rates have increased since the inception of special seasons in Pennsylvania. However, there is little evidence that harvest rates of suburban geese have increased and appear to be below that necessary to stabilize population growth. This limits the effectiveness of special seasons to remove problem geese in suburban settings, where most nuisance and damage complaints originate. Regulated hunting is the most cost effective method of controlling resident geese, but in suburban areas where hunting is often restricted, additional methods are needed to resolve nuisance and damage complaints.


Mud volcano (MV) is one of the most important passageways for deep seated volatile materials to migrate back to Earth's surface in sedimentary basins and subduction zones. Waters of MV fluid emitted from 18 mud pools in MV Luo-Shan (LS) in eastern Taiwan were sampled from the year 2002 to the year 2021. Major and trace components as well as H, triple O (δ18O and Δ17O) and triple Sr isotopes (87Sr/86Sr and δ88Sr) were measured. The results show that major components of water are Cl-, Na and Ca. Compared with seawater, water of MV LS reveals similar chemical characteristics with low-temperature ridge-flank hydrothermal spring and marine pore water in reducing condition. Limited spatial and temporal variation of major components as well as H, triple O and 87Sr/86Sr indicates waters emitted by mud pools come from the same source regionally. Slightly radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr at southern mud pools and before the year 2003 denotes different fluid reservoir from northern ones. Small 87Sr/86Sr variation in waters of northern mud pools indicates near surface mixing from 2 fluid reservoirs. The correlation among all components reveals sediment component addition is the major factor and evaporation is the key factor for conservative elements. In summary, waters expelled by MV LS mud pools originate from the same regional source, and their trace element composition such as Mg, K, Sr as well as 87Sr/86Sr slightly varies, depending on the location of the reservoir they are <Ac cept ed M anu scrip t> hosted. A stable source with small vibration of fluid reservoir of MV LS is indicated during the 19-years investigation period.


Benchmarking on innovation policies allows less developed territories to adjust their learning processes along with the experiences of others. There are successful territories in Europe where innovation policies have become key to their development, but there are others where this is not the case, as in most Spanish regions. The purpose of this article is to benchmark the Valencian Innovation System, at three levels of analysis: (a) Spanish; (b) Mediterranean; and (c) European regions. Our results highlight its main strengths and weaknesses, which are indicative of the deficiencies in the Valencian industrial structure and the difficulties involved in absorbing newly qualified, highly educated people. The Valencian Community shows relative strengths in those aspects related to public funding while its weaknesses are related to private activities. This structural imbalance drives us to categorize the Valencian Innovation System as weak, unarticulated and unbalanced, which makes us question the real existence of a regional innovation system in the Valencian Community.We consider that support from the regional government should be oriented first towards the definition of some common consensus-based targets in which the main actors are involved. Then second, entrepreneurial activities should be fostered, which may link the existing industrial structure to the public research system in the region. Third, a structural change should be promoted in Valencian universities, with greater emphasis on cooperation with regional firms, and knowledge transfer to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) so as to increase their competitiveness.


A wide range of pathogens can cause meningitis or meningoencephalitis.Guiding symptoms of meningitis are headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and meningism.Guiding symptoms of meningoencephalitis are headache, fever, qualitative or quantitative disturbances of consciousness, signs of meningism are possible, optional focal neurological signs can occur.Crucial prognostic factor in treatment of acute meningitis and meningoencephalitis is rapid diagnosis and early initiation of therapy. An early start of therapy is crucial. In addition to rapid pathogen-specific treatment, specialized neurological intensive care medicine is life-saving.


Argumentation theory (AT) has been gaining momentum in the health care arena thanks to its intuitive and modular way of aggregating clinical evidence and taking rational decisions. The basic principles of argumentation theory are described and demonstrated in the breast cancer recurrence problem. It is shown how to represent available clinical evidence in arguments, how to define defeat relations among them and how to create a formal argumentation framework. Argumentation semantics are then applied over the built-framework to compute arguments justification status. It is demonstrated how this process can enhance the clinician decision-making process. A encouraging predictive capacity is compared against the accuracy rate of well-established machine learning techniques confirming the potential of argumentation theory in health care.


From 1950 onwards the ethnic and cultural structure of Dutch society has been radically changing. The influx of people from the former colonies, of refugees and foreign labour is especially noticable in the large towns and in industrial areas. Their children attend the regular Dutch schools; if necessary these schools receive facilities for extra language tuition and guidance.The institutes for teacher training have to accommodate themselves to this new situation in the schools, where Dutch is no longer the self-evident medium and where cultural differences have their effects in the classroom.The necessary changes in the teacher training curriculum must be effected by means of an innovation process emphasizing the links between socio-cultural issues and policies, and educational measures.To mention a few aspects:There is a continuing discussion about the question to what extent ethnic groups have to assimilate to the dominant culture, or if they have a right to preserve their own language and culture within a national and international context. In the U.S. there is a strong trend towards multi-cultural (intercultural) education offering possibilities for identification to all pupils.In the Netherlands intercultural education is promoted by the authorities as a way to create mutual understanding and respect between children of different ethnic backgrounds.The schools have problems in trying to implement the idea of intercultural education and the teaching of Dutch as a second language. Teaching staff are not prepared for this task, materials and guidelines are hardly available. In the shadow of these technical difficulties lies another less tangible problem: will all those concerned come to accept the new multicultural situation?NLO (New Teacher Training) Institutes in the Netherlands are nowworking on four problem areas:1) establishing the educational needs of both allochthonous and autochthonous pupils with respect to intercultural education;2) establishing criteria for learning materials in the sphere of intercultural education, including second language acquisition which is especially difficult when it comes to the technical languages connected with various school-subjects;3) establishing the necessary professional preparation for teaching in a multicultural and multilingual situation; in terms of skills to be mastered and curricular materials for the training of these skills;4) further changes in the curriculum of teacher training institutes to improve their functioning in a multicultural and multiethnic society.


A high incidence of venous thromboembolism has been reported in patients who have had renal transplantation especially within the early postoperative period. Herein, the management of a 31year-old renal graft recipient with the diagnosis of combined left central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and cilioretinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is presented. Although detailed work-up for inherited as well as acquired thrombophilic disorders was performed in our case, none of the definite prothrombotic and predisposing risk factors for venous thromboembolism was identified. The case under review or the index case had a remarkable visual recovery within 3 weeks after the referral, since anterior chamber paracentesis was immediately scheduled after performing ocular massage in order to achieve acute resolution of venous stasis.


Paracetamol (also called acetaminophen, or APAP) overdose causes acute damage to the liver and kidneys in both humans and experimental animal models via the induction of the oxidative stress pathway. We sought to determine whether the com bined antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, resveratrol (RES) and quercetin (QUR) can protect against kidney injury induced b y a toxic dose of APAP in a rat model of APAP-induced acute kidney injury. Rats were either received a single dose of APAP (2 g/kg) before being sacrificed after 24 hours or were pre-treated for 7 days with combined doses of RES (30 mg/kg) and QUR (50 mg/kg) before being given a single dose of APAP and then sacrificed 24 hours post APAP ingestion. Harvested kidney tissues were prepared for light microscopy staining, and tissue samples were assayed for (i) biomarkers of oxidative stress and antioxidant, malondialdehyde (MDA) and sup eroxide dismutase (SOD); and (ii) biomarkers of inflammation, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained images showed that APAP overdose induced acute kidney injury as demonstrated by widening of glomeruli space (Bowman space), tubular dilatation, numerous cellular debris in the renal tubules with tubular epithelial degeneration, and vac uolization, which were effectively protected by RES+QUR except a partial protection of the glomeruli space was observed. In addition, APAP significantly (p<0.05) modulated tissue levels of MDA, SOD, TNFα, and IL-6, which were protected by RES+QUR. Furthermore, a significant (p<0.0001) positive correlation was observed between glomeruli space and TNFα, (r=0.8899), IL-6 (r=0.8986), and MDA (r=0.8552), whereas glomeruli space scoring versus SOD showed negative correlation (r= 0.7870). We conclude that resveratrol plu quercetin substantially protects against APAP-induced acute kidney injury in rats, possibly via the augmentation of antioxidant s and inhibition of oxidative stress and inflammation.


SIR,-Readers may be grateful to Dr J S Garrow (10 November, p 1171) for his useful summary of the use of the body index W/H2 in relation to mortality. He asks the question "Is the excess weight fat or some other component ?" To assess desirable weight Dr Garrow suggests that values of W/H2 from 20 to 25 are best. This range corresponds approximately to 12 0-13-7 on the scale Ht/ 3Wt (in inches and pounds) and, in terms of Sheldon's somatotypes, includes almost all mesomorphs at the age of 20. Those with W/H2 ratios above 25 would be mainly endomorphs. As age increases they blossom, as can be seen from their skinfold measures, but there is little or no evidence of increase in bone size or calf or biceps girth if allowance is made for skinfold fat. Women are notably fatter than men. In the most overweight persons diabetes is commoner in women. Does not this suggest greater association with overweight in the form of fat ? In the most overweight men the mortality ratio was only 195, much the same as for the most overweight women (207). But the greatest disposition to coronary disease is found in mesomorphs, actually endomorphic mesomorphs, rather than endomorphs; and the mechanism, to which I have referred earlier,'1 is almost certainly different. Incidentally, genetic predisposition does not, of course, imply that environmental change is impossible or that all treatment must be ineffective. R W PARNELL


Author(s): Cordell, Katharan Duggento | Advisor(s): Snowden, Lonnie R; Berrick, Jill D | Abstract: This dissertation examines the children's public mental health Full Service Partnership (FSP) program established by the California's Mental Health Services Act of 2004 in order to provide mental health and social services and supports not otherwise available to the underserved. Utilizing a California statewide dataset of all public county mental health system provisions linked from two sources of data, including FSP program exposure data (Data Collection and Report dataset) and mental health service data (Client Services Information dataset) from the California Department of Health Care Services (CDHCS), analyses compare the FSP program to usual care within county mental health systems. Synthesizing records summarizing each month a child was served, the final dataset encompasses 36 counties (61%) inclusive of 623,031 (70%) children (ages 6l18) served within county mental health systems over 102 months between July 1, 2004 and December 31, 2012, reflecting 15,723 children served by the FSP program. To evaluate whether the FSP program was meeting its goals as established in statute and guidelines, three research questions were addressed: 1) Do FSP programs reach underserved children, as intended? 2) Do FSP programs provide a different array of services as compared to usual care, as intended? 3) Does participation in the FSP program result in positive outcomes as intended, measured by a decrease in the use of mental health emergency service? Adjusting for demographics, indicators of clinical severity, and county of residence, three respective analytical models were developed to compare FSP served children to those in usual care including: 1) hierarchical logistic regression modeling for the odds of a child enrolling into an FSP versus remaining in the pool of those served by usual care in each county, 2) t-tests contrasting service provision arrays for FSP served children as compared to those in intensive (service on g= four days per month) usual care, and 3) longitudinal hierarchical Poisson regression modeling the pre-post matched change in incidence rate of mental health emergency services use before, after and without FSP enrollment.As intended by policy, results indicate that FSPs reach the underserved, provide a different array of service intensity and result in reductions of crisis care for the children and families it served. Compared to others concomitantly served in usual care, FSP enrollees had more clinical indicators of severe disorder and had encountered the mental health system at younger ages (OR=.94, Pl.001), but had received fewer total lifetime months of services before enrolling into FSP (OR=.99, Pl.001), especially in the six months before beginning an FSP program (OR=.19, Pl.001). FSP served children also received an array of services generally more intensive than usual care, even when considering only those children served at least four days per month in usual care. The comparison of service types suggested that the FSP program followed policy guidelines which direct FSPs to offer a heightened focus on linkages to community resources (+80%, Pl.001) and to support needs of caregivers and other family members (+60%, Pl.001). Improved outcomes were evidenced by changes in emergency service use rates for FSP served children, given that before enrolling in the FSP program, these children showed increasing rates of mental health emergency service use over time which were then reduced or reversed after enrolling in FSP programming and throughout the remainder of the study period – a pattern unlike what was experienced by similar children in usual care. After enrollment, the older groups of FSP served children showed significant improvement in contrast to their mental health emergency service use rates before treatment and to rates of all other comparable children in usual care (ages 11l15 IRR=.83 , Pl.001; and 15l18 IRR=.79, Pl.001).FSPs are customized programs which address, at least in part, two significant challenges in children's mental health: (1) outreach and engagement of underserved populations and (2) provision of community-based stabilizing care for children at high risk for psychiatric crises. There is evidence that FSP programs might have benefits for children by (a) more effectively enrolling into care some of the 2/3 of the population with need who are unserved or underserved; (b) providing an intensive array of services inclusive of family care and linkages to external resources; and (c) resulting in improved crisis-related outcomes for children and families. FSP programs incorporate a variety of innovate components, any of which could contribute to increased success in identifying, enrolling and engaging underserved children; improving the availability of an appropriate intensity of services; or delivering positive outcomes across a lasting developmental trajectory. Left unserved and underserved, children with severe mental disorders and their families may lack the appropriate tools to manage or improve symptoms of the disorder leading toward a progression into mental illness in adulthood. A key aspect of FSP programs is their ability to provide a combination of social and mental health services, likely helping underserved families living in poverty to overcome prior barriers to treatment. Supported by the existing infrastructure built around the FSP program, research in California is poised to make a significant contribution toward evidencing methods which increase successful treatment of undertreated children's mental disorders potentially altering their progression. Results from this dissertation provide justification for putting effort forth toward further evaluation to identify the FSP program components which result in these program successes.


In this paper microstrip patch antenna is designed for ultra wide band application. Giuseppe Peano algorithm is applied on microstrip patch antenna with rectangular patch of size 30× 24 mm 2 . Coaxial Feed line is used with the patch antenna and results are carried out by using FR-4 as dielectric substrate. The proposed antenna obtained an ultra wide band of 4.94GHz bandwidth having minimum return loss of –32.73dB. The maximum gain produced by the proposed antenna in this ultra wide band range is 2.37 dBi. Hence, the proposed antenna covers C and X band so it can be used for RADAR applications. The change in antenna height is also analysed. Design and simulation is carried out using IE3D simulation software.


In today's world, COVID-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented global health, humanitarian, socio-economic, and human rights crises Across the globe, the pandemic has adversely affected a large number of people including children It has multifaceted impacts on children including the psychological, mental, physical, social, and cultural It has posed a serious threat to children's rights to survival and development and the highest attainable standard of health The pandemic has also exposed children to an increased risk of experiencing physical and psychological violence, including maltreatment and sexual violence The shutting down of schools and the decision of shifting traditional classroom to a digital platform is not only increasing learning inequality among children but also pushing a large number of children out of schools due to the digital divide All these factors together have contributed towards the violation of the rights of children The present paper, therefore, is an attempt to examine the extent of violation of child rights during the COVID-19 pandemic For the present study, all relevant information is collected from the secondary sources of data


During tumultuous fiscal years of the past few decades, the World Bank, acting in its capacity as lender of last resort, granted unsecured loans to debt-ridden sovereigns. Instead of taking a lien over the state's assets, the World Bank protected its interests via a broadly-worded Negative Pledge Clause. This clause ensures that any lien created on any public assets as security for external debt which results in a priority for a third-party creditor equally and ratably secures all amounts payable by the borrowing state. In short, should such a lien be granted, the World Bank shares in the amounts paid out to the third party creditor, thus preventing the creditor from enjoying senior creditor status and undermining the value of any later-granted lien. Including the Negative Pledge Clause in the World Bank loan agreements helps mitigate the World Bank's risk of providing unsecured loans by ensuring that a developing nation will not give a later creditor priority over its assets. In theory, such a pledge protects both the World Bank, as a creditor, and the sovereign nation, as debtor. However, the barrier that the Negative Pledge Clause constructs around a state's ability to engage with other creditors is so formidable that the clause ends up preventing the state from attracting commercial investment for project financings. As currently drafted, the Negative Pledge Clause dissuades commercial lenders from investing in exactly the kinds of projects that might further development and enrich a nation (thus strengthening the nation's ability to pay back its debts). This is not only unfortunate for the developing countries involved, but also challenge the raison d'etre of the World Bank, a multilateral institution designed to promote development. This article proposes reforming the Negative Pledge Clause by clarifying the language of the text and the consequences of a breach in the way which narrows the breadth of the clause. This article also argues that the World Bank would better achieve its overall purpose of promoting development by including a project finance exception to the Negative Pledge Clause to attract investors to projects that help expand national infrastructure.


Focusing on the characteristic of hard-to-grind for titanium alloy, experiments were conducted about grinding TC4 titanium alloy under high speed deep grinding (HSDG) condition. The changing of grinding force per unit area with maximum undeformed chip thickness hmax and equivalent cutting thickness aeq are analyzed in this paper. The effect of maximum undeformed chip thickness hmax and specific material removal rate Zw' on specific grinding energy es, material removal mechanism and consumption of grinding power in HSDG process are also discussed. The experiment results reveal that application of HSDG can improve machining efficiency of grinding TC4.


Purpose
To provide real-world data on the world-wide-web for patient and doctor awareness.

Methods
From December 2017 to January 2020, consecutive patients with choroidal melanoma (CM), iris ciliary body melanoma (ICM), and ocular surface squamous carcinoma (OSSC) had specific outcomes recorded at each return visit. Each result was anonymized, entered in an online portal, and sent to a unique software program where it was used to create real-world data of number of patients, mean vision, local tumor control, eye salvage, systemic metastases, and length of follow-up for our eye cancer center.

Results
A HIPAA compliant, internet-based software program was developed and linked to public access web page to collect and analyze near-real-time data pertaining to the treatment, vision, life, and follow-up time of patients. During this period, CM radiation plaque tumor control was 99.7%, median vision 20/25 (mean 20/50) and eye salvage 95.8%. ICM tumor control was 99.1% and the median vision 20/20 (mean 20/20). OSSC tumor control was 100% and the most common vision was 20/20 (mean 20/25). Rates of primary enucleation as treatment were 4.2% for CM, 2.8% for ICM, and 0% for OSSC. All patient results were updated by the ophthalmic oncology fellow at each patient visit as to reflect near-real-time outcomes at our center.

Conclusion
Prospective data collection of returning patients was found to be a simple method to reflect patient care outcomes. This method of reporting doctor outcomes offers a measure of transparency for patients and an opportunity to compare results with other clinical practices.


We evaluated serum cationic trypsinogen as a marker of exocrine pancreatic function in children without cystic fibrosis. The ability of this test to determine steatorrhoea of pancreatic origin, and its relationship to a wide range of exocrine pancreatic function were assessed. Serum trypsinogen was measured in 32 children with steatorrhoea, 10 with pancreatic and 22 with non-pancreatic causes. In patients with pancreatic steatorrhoea, serum cationic trypsinogen was 4.9 +/- 4.9 micrograms/l (mean +/- SD), significantly below values in patients with non-pancreatic steatorrhoea (47.0 +/- 22.1 micrograms/l, p less than 0.001) and 50 control subjects (31.4 +/- 7.4 micrograms/l, p less than 0.001). Serum cationic trypsinogen values in patients with pancreatic steatorrhoea all fell below the lower limit of our control range and below all values for patients with non-pancreatic steatorrhoea. Serum cationic trypsinogen was also evaluated against pancreatic trypsin output in 47 patients (range 0.2-17.0 yr who underwent a hormonal pancreatic stimulation test. In 17 patients, serum cationic trypsinogen was low (less than -2SD or less than 16.6 micrograms/l), and associated with greatly impaired pancreatic trypsin output, ranging from 0-8% of mean normal trypsin output. Five of these 17 patients did not have steatorrhoea. In 30 patients with normal or raised serum cationic trypsinogen (greater than or equal to 16.6 micrograms/l), pancreatic trypsin output ranged from 15-183% of mean normal values. In conclusion, low serum cationic trypsinogen suggests severely impaired exocrine pancreatic function, with sensitivity extending above the steatorrhoeic threshold. In the presence of steatorrhoea, low serum cationic trypsinogen indicates a pancreatic aetiology. Normal serum cationic trypsinogen, however, does not exclude impaired pancreatic function, above the steatorrhoeic threshold.


The influence of pre-existing structural anisotropy on faulting in the continents is best tested in recently exhumed crust (e.g. Nanga Parbat Massif, NW Himalayas), where earlier brittle structures have been annealed. The kinematics of young faults, formed in a single, continuing tectonic regime (NNW compression), are distinctly different, depending upon the orientation of the early ductile foliations around them. Faulting is subparallel and statistically simple where foliation is moderately dipping but highly complex where foliation is steeply dipping. Thus structural anisotropy does control faulting in the continental crust, a result with important implications for seismogenesis, fluid flow and basin evolution.


Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women. One of the early signs of the disease is the appearance of microcalcifications clusters, which often show up as bright spots in mammograms. It is important to be able to distinguish between the shapes of these clusters to increase the reliability and accuracy of the diagnosis. In this paper, a new method to extract features to classify the microcalcification clusters using steerable pyramid decomposition is presented. The method is motivated by the fact that microcalcification clusters can be of arbitrary sizes and orientations. Thus, it is important to extract the features in all possible orientations to capture most of the distinguishing information for classification. The proposed method shows a clear improvement in the classification performance when compared to the wavelet transform; the most commonly used multiscale analysis technique at present.


A disastrous flooding in December 1993 and January 1995, the Etablissement Public d'Amenagement de la Meuse et de ses Affluents. (EPAMA - public body for the development of the Meuse river and its tributaries) was created in order to carry out a complete modelling study of flooding on the Meuse - a pre-requisite to any future action. The study used a suite of models (hydrology, hydraulics, cartography and damage costs) coupled with a GIS and applied to the whole of the French stretch of the Meuse. The hydraulic model - STREAM, pseudo-2D, "cell " model covering a linear distance of nearly 500 km of valley - formed the core of the study. When this was used in conjunction with other models, it was possible to address every aspect of flood studies on the scale of a large basin - i.e. understanding origins of floods, critique and validation of hydrometric data, understanding of hydraulics, risk mapping, flood damage cost, study of development scenarios, and implementation of a model for real-time forecasting of floods. In this context, use of a hydraulic model such as STREAM makes it possible to meet the multiple objectives of a client, cover long stretches of valley, and attain a high degree of accuracy - the work for the Meuse was carried out at scales of 1/2500 and 1/5000. It also allowed the EPAMA to obtain extremely good knowledge of flooding on the Meuse and of its impacts, starting with very little knowledge and in a very short time (3 years).


Microbe-mineral interactions can produce unique composite materials, which can preserve biosignatures. Geological evidence suggests that iron sulfide (Fe-S) minerals are abundant in the subsurface of Mars. On Earth, the formation of Fe-S minerals is driven by sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) that produce reactive sulfide. Moreover, SRM metabolites, as well as intact cells, can influence the morphology, particle size, aggregation, and composition of biogenic Fe-S minerals. In this work, we evaluated how simple and complex organic molecules-hexoses and amino acid/peptide mixtures, respectively-influence the formation of Fe-S minerals (simulated prebiotic conditions), and whether the observed patterns mimic the biological influence of SRM. To this end, organo-mineral aggregates were characterized with X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy coupled to near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Overall, Fe-S minerals were found to have a strong affinity for proteinaceous organic matter. Fe-S minerals precipitated at simulated prebiotic conditions yielded organic carbon distributions that were more homogeneous than treatments with whole SRM cells. In prebiotic experiments, spectroscopy detected potential organic transformations during Fe-S mineral formation, including conversion of hexoses to sugar acids and polymerization of amino acids/peptides into larger peptides/proteins. In addition, prebiotic mineral-carbon assemblages produced nanometer-scaled filamentous aggregated morphologies. On the contrary, in biotic treatments with cells, organic carbon in minerals displayed a more heterogeneous distribution. Notably, "hot spots" of organic carbon and oxygen-containing functional groups, with the size, shape, and composition of microbial cells, were preserved in mineral aggregates. We propose a list of characteristics that could be used to help distinguish biogenic from prebiotic/abiotic Fe-S minerals and help refine the search of extant or extinct microbial life in the martian subsurface.


A study was conducted between October 2004 and April 2005 in Kampala District, with the objective of investigating the feasibility of making sawdust-cement composites using saw dust. A total of 48 bricks were made in the Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation laboratory based on volume ratios of sawdust to cement (3:2 and 2:1). Mass was measured using a weighing balance and density calculated from mass and volume of the bricks. The composites were tested for compressive strength using a universal testing machine, as they cracked due to compression. The mean compressive strength values were 1.61 N mm -2 and 1.986 N mm -2 for 50 x 50 x 50 mm composites with sawdust to cement ratios of 3:2 and 2:1 respectively; and 1.778 N mm -2 and 2.21N mm -2 for 100x100x100mm composites with sawdust to cement ratios of 3:2 and 2:1 respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant differences (P<0.05) in strength values of the two compositions. Soaked composites swelled irrespective of the cement to sawdust ratio. The compressive strength for the soaked bricks was approximately 40% of the dry weight strength. The composite bricks were found to be unfit for paving and medium heavy load wall construction. Due to their light weight, by imparting decorative mosaics they can be used for interior wall paneling and decoration, where minimal wetting is experienced.


Purpose: To investigate the safety and immediate efficacy of 2 different doses of tenecteplase (TNK) in peripheral catheter-directed thrombolytic therapy of arterial occlusions and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Methods: Over a 20-month period, 63 nonconsecutive patients underwent catheter-directed thrombolytic therapy with either 0.25 mg/h or 0.50 mg/h of TNK in a nonrandomized, open-label study. Of these, 55 patients (60 limbs) were treated for DVT (36 limbs in 16 men and 15 women; mean age 41 years, range 21–73) or peripheral arterial occlusions (24 limbs in 16 men and 8 women; mean age 63 years, range 32–91). The primary endpoints were major bleeding complications and angiographic reduction in clot burden. Results: The mean duration of infusion was 18 ± 4 hours in patients with arterial occlusions and 30 ± 13 in those with DVT. Twenty-one (87.5%) patients with occlusive disease had marked or complete lysis of clot. Thirty (83.3%) limbs with DVT had either marked or complete resolution of thrombus. There were 4 (7.3%) episodes of minor bleeding with 1 (1.8%) major hemorrhagic event. Fibrinogen levels dropped by an average of 23%. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that TNK doses of 0.25 mg/h to 0.50 mg/h appear to be safe and effective. The potential benefits of TNK therapy warrant further investigation.


In recent years, visible-spectrum face verification systems have been shown to match the performance of experienced forensic examiners. However, such systems are ineffective in low-light and nighttime conditions. Thermal face imagery, which captures body heat emissions, effectively augments the visible spectrum, capturing discriminative facial features in scenes with limited illumination. Due to the increased cost and difficulty of obtaining diverse, paired thermal and visible spectrum datasets, not many algorithms and large-scale benchmarks for low-light recognition are available. This paper presents an algorithm that achieves state-of-the-art performance on both the ARL-VTF and TUFTS multi-spectral face datasets. Importantly, we study the impact of face alignment, pixel-level correspondence, and identity classification with label smoothing for multi-spectral face synthesis and verification. We show that our proposed method is widely applicable, robust, and highly effective. In addition, we show that the proposed method significantly outperforms face frontalization methods on profile-to-frontal verification. Finally, we present MILAB-VTF(B), a challenging multi-spectral face dataset that is composed of paired thermal and visible videos. To the best of our knowledge, with face data from 400 subjects, this dataset represents the most extensive collection of publicly available indoor and long-range outdoor thermal-visible face imagery. Lastly, we show that our end-to-end thermal-to-visible face verification system provides strong performance on the MILAB-VTF(B) dataset.


Interest in constitutionalism and in the relationship among constitutions, national identity, and ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity has soared since the collapse of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Since World War II there has also been a proliferation of new constitutions that differ in several essential respects from the American constitution. These two developments raise many important questions concerning the nature and scope of constitutionalism. The essays in this volume—written by an international group of prominent legal scholars, philosophers, political scientists, and social theorists—investigate the theoretical implications of recent constitutional developments and bring useful new perspectives to bear on some of the longest enduring questions confronting constitutionalism and constitutional theory.

Sharing a common focus on the interplay between constitutional identity and individual or group diversity, these essays offer challenging new insights on subjects ranging from universal constitutional norms and whether constitutional norms can be successfully transplanted between cultures to a consideration of whether constitutionalism affords the means to reconcile a diverse society's quest for identity with its need to properly account for its differences; from the relation between constitution-making and revolution to that between collective interests and constitutional liberty and equality.

This collection's broad scope and nontechnical style will engage scholars from the fields of political theory, social theory, international studies, and law.

Contributors . Andrew Arato, Aharon Barak, Jon Elster, George P. Fletcher, Louis Henkin, Arthur J. Jacobson, Carlos Santiago Nino, Ulrich K. Preuss, David A. J. Richards, Michel Rosenfeld, Dominique Rousseau, Andras Sajo, Frederick Schauer, Bernhard Schlink, M. M. Slaughter, Cass R. Sunstein, Ruti G. Teitel, Robin West


Low temperature processed, metal-oxide free planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) were fabricated on glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using polyetherimide (PEI) modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxylenethiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as the cathode. The modification by PEI significantly changed the work function of PEDOT:PSS from −5.06 to −4.08 eV, yielding better electron transportation. The rigid cell on the glass substrate exhibited a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.42% without significant hysteresis and comparable to the PCE of PSCs with metal oxide cathodes. Moreover, the stability in air was higher by 32% than that of the devices with metal-oxide cathodes. The flexible device on the PET substrate exhibited a PCE of 9.73% and good bendability. Our results indicate that the flexibility of the PEDOT:PSS/PEI cathode is promising for use in large-scale roll-to-roll production of PSCs.


The problem of RNA design attempts to construct RNA sequences that perform a predefined biological function, identified by several additional constraints. One of the foremost objective of RNA design is that the designed RNA sequence should adopt a predefined target secondary structure preferentially to any alternative structure, according to a given metrics and folding model. It was observed in several works that some secondary structures are undesignable, i.e. no RNA sequence can fold into the target structure while satisfying some criterion measuring how preferential this folding is compared to alternative conformations. In this paper, we show that the proportion of designable secondary structures decreases exponentially with the size of the target secondary structure, for various popular combinations of energy models and design objectives. This exponential decay is, at least in part, due to the existence of undesignable motifs, which can be generically constructed, and jointly analyzed to yield asymptotic upper-bounds on the number of designable structures.


Burkholderia terrae strain BS001, obtained as an inhabitant of the mycosphere of Laccaria proxima (a close relative of Lyophyllum sp. strain Karsten), actively interacts with Lyophyllum sp. strain Karsten. We here summarize the remarkable ecological behavior of B. terrae BS001 in the mycosphere and add key data to this. Moreover, we extensively analyze the approximately 11.5-Mb five-replicon genome of B. terrae BS001 and highlight its remarkable features. Seventy-nine regions of genomic plasticity (RGP), that is, 16.48% of the total genome size, were found. One 70.42-kb RGP, RGP76, revealed a typical conjugal element structure, including a full type 4 secretion system. Comparative analyses across 24 related Burkholderia genomes revealed that 95.66% of the total BS001 genome belongs to the variable part, whereas the remaining 4.34% constitutes the core genome. Genes for biofilm formation and several secretion systems, under which a type 3 secretion system (T3SS), were found, which is consistent with the hypothesis that T3SSs play a role in the interaction with Lyophyllum sp. strain Karsten. The high number of predicted metabolic pathways and membrane transporters suggested that strain BS001 can take up and utilize a range of sugars, amino acids and organic acids. In particular, a unique glycerol uptake system was found. The BS001 genome further contains genetic systems for the degradation of complex organic compounds. Moreover, gene clusters encoding nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and hybrid polyketide synthases/NRPS were found, highlighting the potential role of secondary metabolites in the ecology of strain BS001. The patchwork of genetic features observed in the genome is consistent with the notion that 1) horizontal gene transfer is a main driver of B. terrae BS001 adaptation and 2) the organism is very flexible in its ecological behavior in soil.


We outline SleepCompete: a bedside device that encourages and promotes healthy sleeping behaviour in families, with a particular focus on children, in a fun and useful way. SleepCompete encourages children and their parents to monitor sleeping habits by introducing a 'sleep score'. By sharing this score with others we propose that SleepCompete persuades its users to improve sleeping habits. We outline the concept of our device and the preliminary study we conducted.


BACKGROUND The Joint Theater Trauma System (JTTS) was developed with the vision that every soldier, marine, sailor, and airman injured on the battlefield would have the optimal chance for survival and maximum potential for functional recovery. In this analysis, we hypothesized that injury and complication after injury surveillance information diffusion through the JTTS, via the dissemination of clinical practice guidelines and process improvements, would be associated with improved combat casualty clinical outcomes. METHODS The current analysis was designed to profile different aspects of trauma system performance improvement, including monitoring of frequent posttraumatic complications, the assessment of an emerging complication trend, and measurement of the impact of the system interventions to identify potential practices for future performance improvement. Data captured from the Joint Theater Trauma Registry on patients admitted to military medical treatment facilities as a result of wounds incurred in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2010 were retrospectively analyzed to determine the potential impact of complication surveillance and process improvement initiatives on clinical practice. RESULTS Developed metrics demonstrated that the surveillance capacity and evidence-based quality improvement initiatives disseminated through the JTTS were associated with improved identification and mitigation of complications following battlefield injury. CONCLUSION The Joint Trauma System enables evidence-based practice across the continuum of military trauma care. Concurrent data collection and performance improvement activities at the local and system level facilitate timely clinical intervention on identified trauma complications and the subsequent measurement of the effectiveness of those interventions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic study, level III.


The safety control of large concrete dams, involving monitoring data and numerical modelling, is an important challenge being faced by all stakeholders involved in the exploration and safety of these structures with high social and economic value. In this context, the main concern is the detection of possible malfunctions as early as possible so as to ensure the real-time assessment of the structural behaviour under operation conditions. The structural response observed in large concrete dams is generated by the combination of the effects imposed mainly by the hydrostatic loading and by the temperature variations. The assessment of the observed structural responses, like displacements, is usually performed through its comparison with values obtained by statistical models, also known as quantitative interpretation models, or by numerical models, composed of finite elements or other. The purpose of the research work presented herein is the development of a new methodology, coupled with a computational application, capable of properly assessing the structural behaviour of large concrete dams. This methodology is based on computing quantitative interpretation models and wavelet transforms from monitoring data obtained on site and in relating this type of information, extracted from variables related to the actions' effects and to the structural responses. The testing and validation of the proposed strategy is carried out using data acquired hourly from several years in a large concrete dam. In particular, the relations between the values of displacements and the main loads (water level and temperature) are presented and analysed using multivariate statistical methods and wavelets transform. From this analysis it is shown that the consideration of data in the time frequency domain, based on wavelets, can be of great use for real-time estimation and assessment of dams' structural response.


Abstract. This presentation concerns the numerical approximation of a PDE system which models cell movements according to a chemoattractant concentration. The system under consideration turns out to couple a hyperbolic system with a diffusive equation. The solutions of such a model satisfy several properties to be preserved at the numerical level. Indeed, the solutions may contain vacuum, satisfy steady regimes and asymptotic regimes. By deriving a judicious approximate Riemann solver, a finite volume method is designed in order to exactly preserve the steady regimes of particular physical interest. Moreover, the scheme is able to deal with vacuum regions and it preserves the asymptotic regimes.


OF DISSERTATION THE DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUATION OF A CAMPUSBASED CULINARY NUTRITION PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS College students, on average, do not consume enough fruits and vegetables. Contributing to poor eating habits is an overall decline in young adults' cooking skills as compared to previous decades, with today's college students often relying on ubiquitous convenience food options. The detriments associated with these food choices are linked to a number of chronic diseases, including obesity. Though programming for college students which incorporates both nutrition education and hands-on cooking opportunities is rare, programs which have been implemented have had positive outcomes associated with increased self-efficacy with cooking and eating healthfully, and improved eating behaviors. This research utilized a mixed methods approach driven by the social cognitive theory to develop, implement, and assess the impact of a culinary nutrition education program, The College CHEF. The first phase of the research included conducting a PRECEDEPROCEED model-driven primary and secondary needs assessment to develop programming. The second phase consisted of program implementation and evaluation. The program was evaluated through a Qualtrics survey to determine participants' changes preto –postwith cooking and eating attitudes, behaviors, self-efficacy and knowledge. Preand –postmeasures consisted primarily of Likert-type scales, in addition to demographic questions. Research participants were students living on University of Kentucky's campus who were part of particular Living Learning Programs (LLPs), through which they lived, socialized, and often took classes together. Participants from two intervention groups (N = 15) attended four weekly 2-hour sessions, completing the measures online before and after the program. An inclusion criteria to be included in the study was that participants must have attended at least three of the four sessions. Control group participants (N = 17) did not partake in programming, but completed both preand post-surveys at the same time as the intervention groups. The study's results indicated that campus-based, hands-on culinary nutrition education programming was impactful in improving college students': 1) self-efficacy for using fruits, vegetables, and seasonings (p = .015); 2) fruit and vegetable consumption (p = 0.03); and 3) knowledge of cooking terms and techniques (p = .000). Given the limited research studying the impact of culinary nutrition education programming on college students, especially as it applies to those living in the same environment and reciprocally influencing one another, this study provides a unique perspective to the field of health promotion. Its findings can support campus-based, culinary nutrition programming for the college population in an effort to improve eating and cooking attitudes, behaviors, self-efficacy, and knowledge, and subsequently, overall health.


Although RANS (Reynolds averaging of the Navier-Stokes equations) turbulence models provide adequately accurate solutions for many engineering problems at a reasonable computational cost, there is no single RANS model of universal applicability. Moreover, in many important applications the RANS model predictions for flow distributions, heat transfer coefficients, and thermal mixing can be significantly off. Examples of such applications are flows in pressurized water reactor rod bundles with mixing vanes and flows in gas cooled reactors where buoyancy effects are significant. Because direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulence for large Reynolds numbers and for system-size scales of interest are not still computationally practical, LES (large eddy simulation) and coarse DNS models of turbulence, which are computationally less demanding than DNS, hold the promise to remedy the shortcomings of the RANS models in many important applications. LES is predicated on a scale separation mechanism, usually in the form of a filter, to isolate the resolved (simulated) scales from the subgrid scales (SGS). An essential part of LES is to account for the effects of the missing SGS terms; these typically appear as enhanced diffusion in the Navier-Stokes equations.


Straipsnyje nagrinejama vadybininko informacine elgsena organizacijoje ir socialinio tinklo naudojimas informacijos ieðkai. Darbe apibudinama organizacijos aplinkos stebejimo sistema ir pagrindiniai sistemos elementai, analizuojamas vadybininko informacines elgsenos modelis ir informacines elgsenos veiksniai. Apþvelgiamos vadybininko, kaip informacijos vartotojo, socialinio tinklo naudojimo informacijos ieðkai prieþastys, trukumai ir pranaðumai*.

Managers information behaviour in an organization: use of social networksErika Janiūnienė
SummaryA modern organization cannot exist as a closed system. It has to be in contact with the environment so as to conceive changes that occur outside the organisation and adjust to the ever-changing social and economic situation. Environmental scanning makes it possible for an organization to envisage development and improvement, to assess its market situation and ability to compete as well as to identify its business-related risks. In order to conceive its exposure to various factors and envisage its long-term prospects, an organization should at all times scan the environment.The environment may be defined as the totality of physical and social factors that have a direct impact on decision-making within an organization (Choo, 2002).The article deals with the conception and system of environmental scanning, giving special consideration to the analysis of information behaviour of the manager viewed as a user of information. The work examines the model of the manager's information behaviour as well as the elements having an effect on information seeking, i.e. the manager's role in an organization, the activity that he or she is engaged in, the context of information behaviour as well as the nature of problems to be resolved.Considering the importance of environmental scanning in the activity of an organization and the fact that the information behaviour is one of the components of environmental scanning, there are solid grounds to say that the manager's information behaviour becomes a Critical Success Factor (CSF) in the activity of an organisation (Tibar, 2005) The manager's proficiency in finding true and accurate information and making the most of it in decision-making contributes to the organization's ability to pursue its goals and enhance its competitiveness on the market. Yet, in the emerging knowledge society, information seeking by the manager – a user of information – is being complicated by the ever-growing information flow within the organization as well as by the manager's lack of skills and knowledge to cope with the task. In order to meet the demand for information and resolve the arising problems, managers most frequently make use of social networks. The article discloses the factors that force the manager to engage social networks in information seeking. It also gives an analysis of the related difficulties and benefits.


SPECT reconstructed images are degraded by photon attenuation, the limited spatial resolution of the gamma camera, and scatter. Iterative reconstruction with the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm provides an attractive solution for SPECT in that the physics of photon transport can be modeled into the projector and backprojector operations. Unfortunately, the implementation of this algorithm (including modelling of the physics) requires a large computational load which makes it unsuitable for routine clinical use. One acceleration method that has been suggested is to use a mis-matched projector and backprojector pair. By doing this, the computational time can be greatly reduced. Barrett et al. (1994) have recently presented a theory which describes how noise in the projection data is propagated to the reconstructed image when using the EM algorithm. The authors have used this theory to evaluate and compare the differences in pixel mean and variance, as well as performance for the task of estimating activity within a region-of-interest, when reconstructing using the EM algorithm with a matched and mismatched projector-backprojector pair. Results indicate that EM reconstruction can be accelerated by not modeling attenuation into the backprojection process, with little penalty in terms of estimating activity in regions-of-interest.


plications, but the best technique cannot reduce it below a certain minimum level. This is because anaesthesia, if any reasonable technique is used, is not an important factor in the causation of the condition. The cause of nearly all postoperative chest complications is the gross interference with respiratory mechanics and in particular with the cough mechanism which results from certain operative procedures -notably upper abdominal incisions, hernia repair, thoracotomy, and thyroidectomy. When the operation does not involve one of these incisions post-operative chest complications (apart from hypostatic pneumonia in the old, enfeebled patient) are practically non-existent. I recently anaesthetized a patient suffering from chronic bronchitis for repair of a ventral hernia using a ventral sheath block combined with a small dose of thiopentone. Post-operatively he developed a well-marked basal segmental collapse with pyrexia and mucopurulent sputum. It is difficult to see how the anaesthetic could have caused this, but one had only to watch the patient for a few minutes to appreciate the very real difficulty he had in coughing up his sputum.


In this paper, we describe a modified solenoid coil that efficiently generates high amplitude alternating magnetic fields (AMF) having field uniformity (≤10%) within a 125-cm3 volume of interest. Two-dimensional finite element analysis (2D-FEA) was used to design a coil generating a targeted peak AMF amplitude along the coil axis of ~ 100 kA/m (peak-to-peak) at a frequency of 150 kHz while maintaining field uniformity to >; 90% of peak for a specified volume. This field uniformity was realized by forming the turns from cylindrical sections of copper plate and by adding flux concentrating rings to both ends of the coil. Following construction, the field profile along the axes of the coil was measured. An axial peak field value of 95.8 ± 0.4 kA/m was measured with 650 V applied to the coil and was consistent with the calculated results. The region of axial field uniformity, defined as the distance over which field ≥ 90% of peak, was also consistent with the simulated results. We describe the utility of such a device for calorimetric measurement of nanoparticle heating for cancer therapy and for magnetic fluid hyperthermia in small animal models of human cancer.


The title compound, C18H22N2O3, represents a (4S,5R,6S)-stereoisomer, crystallizing as a racemate in a centrosymmetric space group. The six-membered aliphatic ring adopts a half-chair conformation, with the hydroxy- and acetyl-substituted C atoms deviating by 0.458 (2) and −0.366 (2) Å, respectively, from the plane defined by other four ring atoms. The pyrazole ring is essentially planar [r.m.s deviation = 0.004 (2) Å]. In the crystal, the molecules are linked into chains along the b axis by N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. The chains are linked by O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds into layers parallel to the bc plane.


Fluid simulations require efficient dynamics, surface extraction and rendering in order to achieve real time interaction. We present a novel technique for the surface extraction of stream-shaped fluid simulations represented as particles. Typical surface extraction methods for particles combine implicit function evaluation with the marching cubes algorithm. In our approach, we dynamically update vertex positions in pre-generated geometry to efficiently construct and render fluid surfaces. Cylinders are wrapped to water streams composed of particles, with simulation and polygonization on the CPU, and shadows and lighting on the GPU. While limited to stream-shaped fluids, our technique is significantly faster than marching cubes, scales well with resolution and number of particles and, unlike point-based rendering, produces true 3D polygonal surfaces.


By taking advantage of its ability to be retained by ATP-agarose, we have demonstrated that nucleophosmin/B23 is capable of binding ATP. The specificity of the binding was confirmed by the absence of significant binding to AMP-agarose and by its loss when nucleophosmin/B23 in nuclear extracts was preincubated with ATP. Preincubation of the nuclear extracts with other ribonucleotide triphosphates (GTP, CTP, UTP) did not compete for the binding of nucleophosmin/B23 to ATP-agarose. The purified recombinant nucleophosmin/B23 was also able to be retained by ATP-agarose. The Kd for binding of ATP to the purified recombinant nucleophosmin/B23, on the basis of retention on a nitrocellulose membrane, was 86.5+/-8.3 microM; the number of binding sites was 0.68 per nucleophosmin/B23 protein molecule. To determine the possible ATP-binding site of nucleophosmin/B23, various deletion clones including the two mutants in which the putative ATP-binding sequence had been deleted were constructed. Deletion of the portions of the molecule (residues 83-152 and 185-240) had little effect on the ATP binding. The C-terminal deleted mutant (residue 242 to the C-terminus deleted) lost most of its ability to be retained by ATP-agarose and to bind [alpha-32P]ATP on a nitrocellulose membrane. The results indicate that the C-terminal portion (residues 242-294) contains the essential ATP-binding site of nucleophosmin/B23.


In recent years, curricula and pedagogical methods in medical education have undergone rapid and unprecedented changes globally. The emphasis has shifted from traditional, teacher-centred learning, characterised by the accumulation of non-integrated volumes of knowledge, to active, student-centred learning. The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) reports that there are 31 fully accredited and 6 partially accredited medical schools in Nigeria. The majority of these medical schools still offer undergraduate medical training based on a curriculum characterised by a distinct separation of preclinical and clinical training, with minimal or no integration. This approach is coupled with low-quality teaching by medical educators, as many medical colleges in Nigeria presently use specialists as lecturers who have little or no training in higher education practices; their only exposure to teaching is that obtained during their postgraduate specialty training. Similarly, very few medical schools in Nigeria have established medical education units (MEUs), as recommended by the World Health Organization and the World Federation for Medical Education. We discuss the shortcomings of the present medical education system in Nigeria and suggest ways to improve the quality of pedagogy among Nigerian medical educators, such as the establishment of clinical-skills centres and MEUs at Nigerian medical schools. In addition, this review highlights the role and importance of MEUs in facilitating quality assurance in health professions education, and the urgent need for more medical schools in Nigeria to establish MEUs to promote, co-ordinate and evaluate medical education reforms based on needs assessments and within the confines of MDCN standards.


Abstract For the next seven years, the digitalisation of higher education is one of the priority tasks of Latvia. An extensive review of information sources was performed, and an online survey with the technical staff of higher education institutions was conducted to evaluate the progress made towards education digitalisation in Latvia and compare these results with the countries of the Nordic-Baltic region. The paper presents the study results and identifies issues hindering the digitalisation progress, e.g., issues with the legislation, basic digital skills, and required competences for academic staff.


The spark ignition (SI) – controlled auto-ignition (CAI) hybrid combustion, also known as spark-assisted compression ignition (SACI), is achieved by utilizing the temperature and pressure rise from the early flame propagation induced by the spark-ignition to trigger the auto-ignition of the remaining unburned mixture. This hybrid combustion concept can be used to effectively extend the operating range of gasoline CAI combustion and achieve smooth transitions between SI and CAI combustion mode in gasoline engines. However, the significant cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) of the SI-CAI hybrid combustion hinders the practical application of the hybrid combustion. In order to understand the cause of its high CCVs, the SI-CAI hybrid combustion process in a gasoline engine was studied in this study by the large eddy simulations (LES). The turbulence is modelled by the sub-grid k model. The spark ignition and subsequent flame propagation were modelled by the ECFM-3Z LES model. A tabulated database of the gasoline auto-ignition chemistry was coupled with the CFD simulations to depict the subsequent auto-ignition process of the unburned mixture after the initiation of flame propagation. The LES simulation was validated and applied to analyze the hybrid combustion process in a single cylinder engine at 1500 rpm and 5.43 bar IMEP, which was characterized with a coefficient of variation (COV) of 11.81% in IMEP. The LES simulations of 15 consecutive cycles were performed and analyzed to evaluate the potential of LES simulations to predict the CCV of SI-CAI hybrid combustion. The analysis of the LES simulation results indicates that the average thermal and compositional parameters are not the main reason for the cycle-tocycle variations of the SI-CAI hybrid combustion. The temperature and residual gas fraction (RGF) in the spark zone is also very stable among different cycles. In comparison, the average velocity in the whole cylinder reduces from 7.8 m/s in the strong combustion cycle (Cycle 11) to 6.4 m/s in the weakest combustion cycle (Cycle 14) with 21.9% reduction, and the average velocity in the spark zone reduces from 6.3 m/s to 3.8 m/s with 60.3% reduction. Therefore, the variations of the in-cylinder flow velocity, especially around the spark plug, could be the main reason for the large variations of the hybrid combustion observed in the experiments.


I consider two new simple bargaining games in which two players bargain over division of a fixed amount of money. Both games are strategically equivalent to the dictator game, in that one player has the unilateral ability to determine the allocation. However, that player can instead choose to share decision-making power with the other. In this way, I take a broader view of fairness than past experiments, considering both distributive justice (how much I get) and procedural justice (the rules governing how I get it). First, players often decide to empower the other player, even though there is no strategic reason to do so, implying an innate concern with procedural justice. Second, divisions in these games are much more equitable than in traditional dictator games, suggesting that a fair procedure may elicit fair distribution. Thus, past rejection of the fairness hypothesis (arguing that fairness concerns would lead to similar distributions in the ultimatum and dictator games) may be due to a failure to account for fairness as both a distributive and procedural concern.


I attempt to present Denis Sargan's work in some kind of historical perspective, in two ways. First, I discuss some previous members of the Tooke Chair of Economic Science and Statistics, which was founded in 1859 and which Sargan held. Second, I discuss one of his articles, "Asymptotic Theory and Large Models," in relation to modern preoccupations with semiparametric econometrics.This research was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Personal Research Professorship and ESRC grant R000239252. I thank Peter Phillips for helpful comments and Javier Hualde for obtaining material employed in Section 2. Section 2 is based partly on my Doctor Honoris Causa investiture address at Carlos III Madrid University, in October 2000.


The lookup-table-based digital adaptive predistortion (DAPD-LUT) approaches are low cost and effective for power amplifier (PA) linearization in wireless applications. However, most existing DAPD-LUT schemes are sub-optimum because they adopt uniformly spaced LUTs regardless of the system state information (SSI), i.e., the PA characteristics and the input signal statistics. Other existing DAPD-LUT schemes assume either full or partial knowledge of the SSI to optimize and then to freeze the LUT spacing. Without prior knowledge of the SSI, we propose an SSI-learning low-complexity procedure to optimize the LUT spacing for a DAPD-LUT scheme. The proposed procedure is capable of online adapting the LUT spacing for PAs with various nonlinear characteristics, for input signals with various statistics, and for wireless environments with various time-varying properties.


Introduction: To explore the molecular mechanism of YSSXG regulates myeloid hematopoietic cell proliferation and differentiation.
Materials and methods: Male Kun-Ming mice (n=52) were randomized into four groups (n=13): blank, model, positive drug, YSSXG. With the exception of blank group, all mice were irradiated with 60Co-γ rays (3.5 Gy). Two days prior to modeling, 3 g/kg YSSXG was administered intragastrically to mice in YSSXG group, while groups of blank, model and positive drug were administered with distilled water. The next day after modeling, mice in positive drug group were hypodermically injected with 30 μg/kg recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; mice in the other groups received the same treatment as that prior to modeling, the duration of each course was 14 d. The contents of granulocytemacrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in bone marrow supernatant and blood serum were assessed with radioimmunoassay. The mRNA expressions of GM-CSF and GM-CSF receptor alpha (GM-CSFRα) in bone marrow cells were analyzed by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Protein expression of GM-CSF receptor beta (GM-CSFRβ) in bone marrow cell membranes was assayed via immunocytochemistry.
Results: YSSXG significantly increased GM-CSF contents in bone marrow supernatant and blood serum (all P<0.05), up-regulated mRNA expression of GM-CSF and GM-CSFRα in bone marrow cells (by 18.4 and 7.25 fold), and up-regulated GM-CSFRβ protein expression in cell membranes (P<0.05).
Discussion: The cell proliferation and differentiation of myeloid hematopoisis regulated by YSSXG were related to promoting the expressions of GM-CSF and GM-CSFR in bone marrow.


Thank you very much for downloading juanita fights the school board. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search hundreds times for their favorite readings like this juanita fights the school board, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer. juanita fights the school board is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the juanita fights the school board is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Digital skills are becoming more relevant than ever, because of the digital revolution that we are experiencing in the labor market, but also due to the accelerated needs for them that COVID-19 lockdown measures brought about. There have been efforts to help develop and assess digital skills. Yet, despite these efforts, many people still face difficulties in developing an appropriate level of digital skills. In this brief, I will discuss why digital skills are relevant in the 21st century and what it means. Then, I will explain how we can develop, train, and measure digital skills. Lastly, I will discuss the implications of training and measurement of digital skills.


Today, as data sets used in computations grow in size and complexity, the technologies developed over the years to deal with scientific data sets have become less efficient and effective. Many frequently used operations, such as eigenvector computation, could quickly exhaust our desktop workstations once the data size reaches certain limits. On the other hand, the high-dimensional data sets we collect every day don't relieve the problem. Many conventional metric designs that build on quantitative or categorical data sets cannot be applied directly to heterogeneous data sets with multiple data types. While building new machines with more resources might conquer the data size problems, the complexity of today's computations requires a new breed of projection techniques to support analysis of the data and verification of the results. We introduce the concept of a data signature, which captures the essence of a scientific data set in a compact format, and use it to conduct analysis as if using the original. A time-dependent climate simulation data set demonstrates our approach and presents the results.


An array of inverted InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors has been integrated into a silicon substrate using a low temperature In-Au wafer bonding technique. The total thickness of the bonding metal layers is less than 1 μm. It is shown that the photocurrent of the back illuminated InGaAs MSM photodetectors after bonding increases by 70% compared to the front illuminated MSM measured prior to bonding while the dark current reduces slightly after bonding.


SrLiAl3N4:Eu2+ (SLA) phosphors have gained increasing attention worldwide due to their narrow emission bandwidth and excellent thermal stability. In this study, a series of SLA phosphors are synthesized at gas pressures ranging from 0.1 MPa to 100 MPa using gas pressure sintering and hot isostatic press systems. Upon elevating the gas pressure in synthesis, the volume of a unit cell slightly decreases while both the quantum efficiency and the particle size of SLA increase. The Eu2+/Eu3+ ratio also increases with applied pressure, thereby enhancing the luminescence intensity of the phosphor materials. The presence of Li defects in the host material is evidenced by inductively coupled plasma with atomic emission spectroscopy. The mechanism of controlling the oxidation state of Eu and defect formation is proposed to elucidate the behavior of phosphors under different applied pressure levels during synthesis. Finally, the LED package shows that SLA could be a potential candidate for backlighting.


This paper presents the rehabilitation project of Dabanshan highland road tunnel. Cause analysis is carried by insight into the information of climate, geological, hydrological condition, tunnel defects type and parameters. Water leakage, low temperature and poor rock condition are considered to be source of tunnel defects, and the essential of rehabilitation of highland road tunnel are water leakage treatment and heat preservation system reinstatement. Measures taken to solve the problems of cracks, water leakage and frost are introduced in detail, and results show that measures taken are proved to be effective. Knowledge and experience gained are helpful for similar projects in future.


Towards defining the function of Arabidopsis thaliana fatty acid hydroxylases, five members of the CYP86A subfamily have been heterologously expressed in baculovirus‐infected Sf9 cells and tested for their ability to bind a range of fatty acids including unsubstituted (lauric acid (C12:0) and oleic acid (C18:1)) and oxygenated (9,10‐epoxystearic acid and 9,10‐dihydroxystearic acid). Comparison between these five P450s at constant P450 content over a range of concentrations for individual fatty acids indicates that binding of different fatty acids to CYP86A2 always results in a higher proportion of high spin state heme than binding titrations conducted with CYP86A1 or CYP86A4. In comparison to these three, CYP86A7 and CYP86A8 produce extremely low proportions of high spin state heme even with the most effectively bound fatty acids. In addition to their previously demonstrated lauric acid hydroxylase activities, all CYP86A proteins are capable of hydroxylating oleic acid but not oxygenated 9,10‐epoxystearic acid. Homology models have been built for these five enzymes that metabolize unsubstituted fatty acids and sometimes bind oxygenated fatty acids. Comparison of the substrate binding modes and predicted substrate access channels indicate that all use channel pw2a consistent with the crystal structures and models of other fatty acid‐metabolizing P450s in bacteria and mammals. Among these P450s, those that bind internally oxygenated fatty acids contain polar residues in their substrate binding cavity that help stabilize these charged/polar groups within their largely hydrophobic catalytic site. Proteins 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Several studies have investigated whether heterozygosity for a 32-basepair deletion in the CC chemokine receptor 5 gene (CCR5-Delta32 ) affects susceptibility to perinatal HIV-1 infection, but results have been inconclusive. We performed a meta-analysis of published data from 11 studies of HIV-1 perinatally exposed children who were genotyped for the CCR5-Delta32 polymorphism. The crude overall HIV-1 infection rates, by simple data pooling, were 20% (one of five) amongCCR5-Delta32 homozygote children, 39% (131 of 335) among CCR5-Delta32 heterozygote children, and 40% (1408 of 3526) among wild-type CCR5 homozygote children. Compared with wild-type homozygotes, the random effects risk ratio for heterozygotes was 1.04 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92-1.17) among all children (N = 3861) and 1.03 (95% CI, 0.90-1.17) among those of European descent (n = 2890). Results were similar when adjusted for the available data on the CCR2-641 polymorphism (n = 1542). The meta-analysis clarifies that perinatal infection is not significantly altered by heterozygosity for CCR5-Delta32 in the child.


In this paper, a novel concept called a uniquely factorable constellation pair (UFCP) is proposed for the systematic design of a noncoherent full diversity collaborative unitary space-time block code by normalizing two Alamouti codes for a wireless communication system having two transmitter antennas and a single receiver antenna. It is proved that such a unitary UFCP code assures the unique identification of both channel coefficients and transmitted signals in a noise-free case as well as full diversity for the noncoherent maximum likelihood receiver in a noise case. To further improve error performance, an optimal unitary UFCP code is designed by appropriately and uniquely factorizing a pair of energy-efficient cross quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations to maximize the coding gain subject to a transmission bit rate constraint. After a deep investigation of the fractional coding gain function, a technical approach developed in this paper to maximizing the coding gain is to carefully design an energy scale to compress the first three largest energy points in the corner of the QAM constellations in the denominator of the objective as well as carefully design a constellation triple forming two UFCPs, with one collaborating with the other two so as to make the accumulated minimum Euclidean distance along the two transmitter antennas in the numerator of the objective as large as possible, and at the same time, to avoid as many corner points of the QAM constellations with the largest energy as possible to achieve the minimum of the numerator. In other words, the optimal coding gain is attained by intelligent constellations collaboration and efficient energy compression. Computer simulations demonstrate that error performance of the optimal unitary UFCP code presented in this paper outperforms those of the differential code and the signal-to-noise-ratio-efficient training code.


Koreans have immigrated to Canada in the last twenty years seeking a better quality of life. The vast majority of recent Korean immigrants have been accepted under the economic class category, which indicates that they have either human capital or financial capital. However, most Korean immigrants experience downward mobility and reside in an ethnic bubble. Furthermore, mainly low confidence in English communication and cultural differences have impeded the participation in multicultural settlement services. Even some of the existing employment programs offered by settlement service providers are not approachable due to the limitation of eligibility.

This practical MRP attempts to find a pragmatic solution to address the skill under-utilization issues experienced by skilled Korean immigrants. A specialized mentoring program is examined as a support for skilled Korean immigrants. The program aims to give them access to the Canadian labour market by integrating multiple facets of settlement and employment services.

Key words: Skilled Korean Immigrants; Mentoring Services for Skilled Immigrants; Internet Based Employment Services; Labour Market Integration; Grant Proposal


Regional development banks (RDB) in Indonesia are constitutionally mandated to be the economic and social catalyst for local development, a role which requires banks to finance 'unprofitable' projects. The incompatible functions are resulted in reservations within RDB to maximize their resource allocation potential. This paper is aimed at evaluating RDB's catalyst role and at proposing a refinement to the current role which would enable RDBs to achieve their expected goals. This research uses descriptive statistics of RDBs' loan performance from 2012 to 2017 to establish RDBs' performance in economic and social areas. Accounts included in this research are third-party funds, productive loans, loan deposit ratio and small business loans. It is evident from the secondary data that RDBs have issues in contributing to local economy generator. Next, data from interviews with senior management team of four RDB's are analysed to identify critical pillars for formulation of RDBs' role. Referring to Thorne's and Du Toit's framework for development banks (2009) the reformulation of RDBs' catalyst role starts from stipulating their role in an exclusive and well-defined operating environment. This will allow RDBs to synergize their operations with local development programs. From governance and financial performance perspectives, RDBs can prepare efforts to make an initial public offering as part of a strategy for increasing capital, structuring corporate governance, and enhance corporate value.