Identifying research gaps is a fundamental goal of literature reviewing. While it is widely acknowledged that literature reviews should identify research gaps, there are no methodological guidelines for how to identify research gaps in qualitative literature reviews ensuring rigor and replicability. Our study addresses this gap and proposes a framework that should help scholars in this endeavor without stifling creativity. To develop the framework we thoroughly analyze the state-of-the-art procedure of identifying research gaps in 40 recent literature reviews using a grounded theory approach. Based on the data, we subsequently derive a framework for identifying research gaps in qualitative literature reviews and demonstrate its application with an example. Our results provide a modus operandi for identifying research gaps, thus enabling scholars to conduct literature reviews more rigorously, effectively, and efficiently in the future.


Avocado ( Persea americana ) or locally called Phamfal is a subtropical, dicotyledonous, evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae. The avocado tree is originated from a broad geographical area stretching from the eastern and central highlands of Mexico through Guatemala to the Pacific coast of Central America. Avocado is a fruit, produced from tropical trees characterized by a pear shape and blackish green in colour with high nutritional value and creamy texture. Avocado crop can be used in several ways i.e for processed products, exportation and oil extraction, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries as a raw material thereby generating high value added products.High demand for information on avocado indicates that there is considerable interest in this crop in various parts of India as well as Eastern India. Moreover, avocado can be grown in Darjeeling hilly region and adjoining states of India as the soil and climatic condition is favourable for their growth and development. However, in this region avocado cultivation is very negligible in homestead garden, small and marginal orchard due to lack of scientific knowledge of farmers. So that in this context to identify and conservation of wild and farmers cultivated species of avocado is the major concern for all avocado growers and scientist.


Geomagnetic excursions are short-lived deviations of the geomagnetic field from the normal range of secular variation. Despite significant advances in geomagnetic excursion research over the past 20 years, fundamental questions remain concerning the typical duration and global morphology of excursional geomagnetic fields. To answer such questions, more high-resolution, chronologically well-constrained excursion records are required, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere. We present preliminary paleomagnetic records of the Laschamp (~41 ka) and Mono Lake (~35 ka) excursions from three marine sediment cores from the Bounty Trough, New Zealand margin, and complementary volcanic records of the Laschamp excursion from lavas of Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand. Relatively high sedimentation rates of 12 – 26 cm/kyr in the Bounty Trough during glacial periods allow identification of excursional field behavior at each of the studied core locations. Each core displays one or two excursional events, with rapid directional swings between stable normal polarity and reversed excursional directions, each associated with coincident relative paleointensity minima. These anomalous paleomagnetic directions are interpreted to represent the Laschamp and Mono Lake excursions, based on a combination of tephrochronology, radiocarbon dating, and cyclostratigraphy (defined from core-scanning X-ray fluorescence and magnetic susceptibility records). Beside these records, we present results from fourteen lava flows, on Mt Ruapehu, for which 40Ar-39Ar dating indicates ages of between 39 and 45 ka. The step heating 40Ar-39Ar experiments produced particularly flat age plateaus, with corresponding 2 s.d. errors mostly approaching 1 kyr. The youngest and oldest flows carry normal polarity magnetization, however six flows, dated between 41 and 43 ka, display transitional field characteristics. Three of these flows display a declination swing of around 180o, which coincides with a previously published result from the Auckland Basalt Field. Together, these data provide rare excursion records from the southern hemisphere, which will provide an improved view of geomagnetic field morphology during these excursions.


The article is focused on the issues of economic evaluation of Miscanthus cultivation on agricultural land in the Czech Republic. The methodology of economic assessment is based on the calculation of minimum production cost minimum price of heat in EUR/GJ of heat in biomass. The minimum production cost represents the threshold of economic efficiency of production for the investor and its determination utilizes an economic model capturing all processes related to the cultivation of biomass for energy purposes. Miscanthus vegetation is considered for the production of biomass for direct combustion (a so-called spring harvest after the winter). Input data used in the model come from the experimentally collected data from the research plots of Miscanthus and from the market valuation of the individual activities using 2010 prices. The minimum price of Miscanthus varies between 3-12 EUR/GJ (2010 prices) depending on the yields and the date of harvest.


Peripheral neuropathy is common and has many different etiologies. This is the last of three articles that review the less-common causes of peripheral neuropathy. Part III reviews the genetically coded causes of peripheral neuropathy, including those related to amyloidosis, neoplasm, paraproteinemias, as well as autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, and x-linked causes. The extrinsic causes of neuropathy and the reactive or induced causes of neuropathy are covered in separate articles, Part I and Part II, respectively. The brief series reviews unusual causes of neuropathy and describes common presentations and the constellation of clinical findings. The goal is to help the clinician increase the diagnostic yield when sorting out the unusual causes of peripheral neuropathy.


Dramatic increase of subthreshold, gate and reverse biased junction band-to-band-tunneling (BTBT) leakage in scaled devices, result in the drastic increase of total leakage power in a logic circuit. In this paper a methodology for accurate estimation of the total leakage in a logic circuit based on the compact modeling of the different leakage current in scaled devices has been developed. Current models have been developed based on the exact device geometry, 2-D doping profile and operating temperature. A circuit level model of junction BTBT leakage (which is unprecedented) has been developed. Simple models of the subthreshold current and the gate current have been presented. Here, for the first time, the impact of quantum mechanical behavior of substrate electrons, on the circuit leakage has been analyzed. Using the compact current model, a transistor has been modeled as a Sum of Current Sources (SCS). The SCS transistor model has been used to estimate the total leakage in simple logic gates and complex logic circuits (designed with transistors of 25nm effective length) at the room and at the elevated temperatures.


Based on the optimized design of the lattice for therapy synchrotron and considering the requirement of radiation therapy, the third order resonant extraction is adopted. Using the momentum-amplitude selection method, the extraction system is designed and optimized. An extraction efficiency of more than 97% and a momentum spread less than 0.11% are obtained.


cAMP and Ca(2+) are antagonistic intracellular messengers for the regulation of vascular smooth muscle tone; rising levels of Ca(2+) lead to vasoconstriction, whereas an increase of cAMP induces vasodilatation. Here we investigated whether Ca(2+) interferes with cAMP signaling by regulation of phophodiesterases (PDEs) or adenylyl cyclases (ACs). We studied regulation of cAMP concentrations by Ca(2+) signals evoked by endogenous purinergic receptors in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). The fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based cAMP sensor Epac1-camps allowed the measurement of cAMP levels in single-living VSMCs with subsecond temporal resolution. Moreover, in vitro calibration of Epac1-camps enabled us to estimate the absolute cytosolic cAMP concentrations. Stimulation of purinergic receptors decreased cAMP levels in the presence of the beta-adrenergic agonist isoproterenol. Simultaneous imaging of cAMP with Epac1-camps and of Ca(2+) with Fura 2 revealed a rise of intracellular Ca(2+) in response to purinergic stimulation followed by a decline of cAMP. Chelation of intracellular Ca(2+) and overexpression of Ca(2+)-independent AC4 antagonized this decline of cAMP, whereas pharmacological inhibition of Ca(2+)-activated PDE1 had no effect. AC assays with VSMC membranes revealed a significant attenuation of isoproterenol-stimulated cAMP production by the presence of 2 muM Ca(2+). Furthermore, small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of AC5 and AC6 (the two ACs known to be inhibited by Ca(2+)), significantly reduced the decrease of cAMP upon purinergic stimulation of isoproterenol-prestimulated VSMCs. Taken together, these results implicate a Ca(2+)-mediated inhibition of AC5 and 6 as an important mechanism of purinergic receptor-induced decline of cAMP and show a direct cross talk of these signaling pathways in VSMCs.


ABSTRACT Children and adolescents treated with antidepressants (ADs) are at higher risk for developing hypomania and mania compared with adults. It was suggested that AD-induced mania represent a predisposition to bipolar disorder (BD) so it may accelerate the course of BD in this risky population. According to the literature, susceptibility to manic conversion with the use of ADs is higher in BD patients treated with tricyclic ADs compared with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and placebo. Here, we report a six-year-old girl who was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and primary nocturnal enuresis who developed manic symptoms after imipramine treatment. While using tricyclic antidepressants or SSRIs for different indications in the paediatric population, clinicians should be alert for the manic switch or behavioural activation symptoms, which may show a bipolar predisposition.


C 27 This paper presents a high-performance silicon condenser microphone fabricated with a new process using single-crystalline silicon. This simple fabrication process, which requires only two photolithography steps and two wet-etching steps, is suitable for low-cost mass-production. We designed the structure of a high-performance microphone and simulated it with an equivalent acousticcircuit model. We then fabricated a prototype microphone based on this design, and experimental measurements on the prototype confirmed its excellent acoustic characteristics such as high sensitivity of 43.5dB, wide frequency range of 30Hz to 20kHz, and high maximum sound pressure level (1kHz at 1% THD) of 122dBSPL. The measured equivalent noise (A-weighted) is 30.5dBASPL. The measured frequency responses showed good agreement with those estimated from the simulation, indicating that the high controllability of the process enabled us to fabricate the prototype as we designed it. These results show that it is feasible to economically mass-produce such high-performance microphones for purposes ranging from broadcasting to consumer use. High-performance Condenser Microphone with Single-crystalline Silicon Diaphragm and Backplate


The identification of early biological changes associated with the psychotic disorder (PD) is important as it may provide clues to the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. We undertook the first proteomic profiling of blood plasma samples of children who later develop a PD. Participants were recruited from the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort who also participated in psychiatric assessment interviews at age 18. Protein expression levels at age 11 were compared between individuals who developed PD at age 18 ( n = 37) with population-based age-matched controls ( n = 38). Sixty out of 181 plasma proteins profiled were found to be differentially expressed ( P < .05) in children with an outcome of the PD. Thirty-four of these proteins were found to be differentially expressed following correction for multiple comparisons. Pathway analysis implicated the complement and coagulation cascade. A second, targeted proteomic approach was used to verify these findings in age 11 plasma from subjects who reported psychotic experiences at age 18 ( n = 40) in comparison to age-matched controls ( n = 66). Our findings indicate that the complement and coagulation system is dysregulated in the blood during childhood before the development of the PD.


The behavior of a non-canonical scalar field within an anisotropic Bianchi type I, spatially homogeneous Universe in the framework of the intermediate inflation will be studied. It will be examined on the condition that both the anisotropy and non-canonical sources come together if there is any improvement in compatibility with the observational data originated from Planck 2015. Based on this investigation, it can be observed that automatically a steep potential which can manage inflation in a better way will be obtained. Additionally, as a common procedure for an inflationary study, we shall try to calculate the related inflationary observables such as the amplitude of the scalar perturbations, scalar and tensor spectral indices, tensor-to-scalar ratio, the running spectral index and the number of e-folds. As an exciting part of our results, we will find that our model has a good consistency compared to data resulting from CMB and different Planck results. To justify our claims, the well-known canonical inflationary scenario in an anisotropic Bianchi type I Universe will also be evaluated.


Starting from the assumption that there is a large population (> 10^8) of isolated, stellar-mass black holes (IBH) distributed throughout our galaxy, we consider the detectable signatures of accretion from the interstellar medium (ISM) that may be associated with such a population. We simulate the nearby (radius 250 pc) part of this population, corresponding to the closest ~35 000 black holes, using current best estimates of the mass distribution of stellar mass black holes combined with two models for the velocity distribution of stellar-mass IBH which bracket likely possibilities. We distribute this population of objects appropriately within the different phases of the ISM and calculate the Bondi-Hoyle accretion rate, modified by a further dimensionless efficiency parameter \lambda. Assuming a simple prescription for radiatively inefficient accretion at low Eddington ratios, we calculate the X-ray luminosity of these objects, and similarly estimate the radio luminosity from relations found empirically for black holes accreting at low rates. The latter assumption depends crucially on whether or not the IBH accrete from the ISM in a manner which is axisymmetric enough to produce jets. Comparing the predicted X-ray fluxes with limits from hard X-ray surveys, we conclude that either the Bondi-Hoyle efficiency parameter \lambda, is rather small (< 0.01), the velocities of the IBH are rather high, or some combination of both. The predicted radio flux densities correspond to a population of objects which, while below current survey limits, should be detectable with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Converting the simulated space velocities into proper motions, we further demonstrate that such IBH could be identified as faint high proper motion radio sources in SKA surveys.


PURPOSE
Although neglected by science for a long time, the sense of olfaction has received increasing attention from research areas including psychology, neuroscience, clinical medicine and nutrition. With the rise of psychophysical and neuroimaging re- search into olfaction, psychometric tools (e.g. questionnaires and scales) are the basis for the quantitative exploration of inter-in- dividual variability regarding olfactory related responses. The current systematic review is to summarize existing olfaction related questionnaires and/or scales.

METHODS
Peer-reviewed literature on scales and questionnaires related to perception of odors were searched from online databa- ses (PubMed, Web of Science and PsycINFO). Twenty-one articles that meet the following criteria were included in the review: "hu- man species", "no physical odor stimuli" and "describing the original development of the tool", and "with specific focus on olfaction or odor related responses or behaviors". The psychometric properties, advantages and possible disadvantages were discussed.

RESULTS
Existing psychometric measures focus on various aspects of olfactory related responses and behaviors, including af- fective experiences of odor perception, awareness and attitude towards olfaction, olfactory function and the quality of life change due to olfactory dysfunction, and the ability to create vivid mental odor images. While most of them have been tested to have good reliability and validity, some were relatively time-consuming due to the number of questionnaire items. Besides, although many measures have been used in clinical populations, few have provided information on the predictive validity regarding effecti- veness of clinical intervention on changes of certain responses or behaviors.

SUMMARY
The current review provides an overview of olfactory related questionnaires and scales, highlighting the emotional and affective impact of olfaction and the impact on quality of life due to olfactory dysfunction. With growing interest in olfaction as an important sense, the development and use of psychometrically sound measurements in conjunction with objective assess- ments will advance our understanding of human olfaction and olfactory dysfunction. The review provides a guide for researchers and clinicians alike to select olfactory scales suitable for olfactory research with different experimental purposes and specific samples.


The goal of petrochronology is to extract information about the rates and conditions at which rocks and magmas are transported through the Earth's crust. Garnering this information from the rock record greatly benefits from integrating textural and compositional data with radiometric dating of accessory minerals. Length scales of crystal growth and diffusive transport in accessory minerals under realistic geologic conditions are typically in the range of 1–10's of μm, and in some cases even substantially smaller, with zircon having among the lowest diffusion coefficients at a given temperature (e.g., Cherniak and Watson 2003). Intrinsic to the compartmentalization of geochemical and geochronologic information from intra-crystal domains is the requirement to determine accessory mineral compositions using techniques that sample at commensurate spatial scales so as to not convolute the geologic signals that are recorded within crystals, as may be the case with single grain or large grain fragment analysis by isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS; e.g., Schaltegger and Davies 2017, this volume; Schoene and Baxter 2017, this volume). Small crystals can also be difficult to extract by mineral separation techniques traditionally used in geochronology, which also lead to a loss of petrographic context. Secondary Ionization Mass Spectrometry, that is SIMS performed with an ion microprobe, is an analytical technique ideally suited to meet the high spatial resolution analysis requirements that are critical for petrochronology (Table 1).

View this table:

Table 1
Advantages and limitations of in-situ SIMS analysis for petrochronology in comparison with other isotope selective methods

In SIMS, bombardment of solid targets with an energetic ion beam removes atoms from the sample where primary ions are implanted into the target material to a depth of < 5–10 nm. Lateral resolution is controlled by primary ion beam dimensions (sub-μm to few 10's of μm) with an upper limit set by the acceptance …


We generated, on titanium surfaces, self-assembled layers of vertically oriented TiO2 nanotubes with defined diameters between 15 and 100 nm and show that adhesion, spreading, growth, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells are critically dependent on the tube diameter. A spacing less than 30 nm with a maximum at 15 nm provided an effective length scale for accelerated integrin clustering/focal contact formation and strongly enhances cellular activities compared to smooth TiO2 surfaces. Cell adhesion and spreading were severely impaired on nanotube layers with a tube diameter larger than 50 nm, resulting in dramatically reduced cellular activity and a high extent of programmed cell death. Thus, on a TiO2 nanotube surface, a lateral spacing geometry with openings of 30-50 nm represents a critical borderline for cell fate.


Landsliding phenomena occurring on pyroclastic fall deposits during earthquake had been widely reported. Some of them are in small scale but very catastrophic due to their rapid post failure movement. For example, the Hanokidaira landslide triggered by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake had replaced the debris of about 100, 000 m 3 and killed 13 people. The 1949 the Imaichi earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 had also triggered more than 80 landslides (Morimoto, 1951), resulting great damages to local properties and lives. However, the initiation and movement mechanism of such kind of catastrophic landslides had not been fully understood. In this study, we surveyed some typical landslides triggered by the 1949 Imaichi earthquake, and examined the geological features of these landslides. We also took samples from the field and kept them in natural moisture state by putting them in plastic bags. We sheared them in both natural moisture state and fully saturated state under undrained or natural drained condition. We did not dry the sample in all the tests to avoid the possible change in clay mineral (halloysite). Our test results showed that all these samples had their residual shear resistance lowering to a very small value with progress of shearing after failure, indicating that the landslide occurring on this kind of pyroclastic fall deposits can suffer from rapid movement. The lower permeability of the sample retarded the dissipation of high excess pore-water pressure generated with the shear zone and then would enable the long runout of the displaced materials. The initiation process of the samples also indicated that strong ground motion during the earthquake would be the prerequisite and the strong ground motion might have resulted from the nonlinear site response features of unsaturated soil layers.


Around 1500 England's society and economy had reached a turning point. After a long period of slow change and even stagnation, an age of innovation and initiative was in motion, with enclosure, voyages of discovery, and new technologies. It was an age of fierce controversy, in which the government was fearful of beggars and wary of rebellions. The 'commonwealth' writers such as Thomas More were sharply critical of the greed of profit hungry landlords who dispossessed the poor. This book is about a wool merchant and large scale farmer who epitomises in many ways the spirit of the period. John Heritage kept an account book, from which we can reconstruct a whole society in the vicinity of Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. He took part in the removal of a village which stood in the way of agricultural 'improvement', ran a large scale sheep farm, and as a 'woolman' spent much time travelling around the countryside meeting with gentry, farmers, and peasants in order to buy their wool. He sold the fleeces he produced and those he gathered to London merchants who exported through Calais to the textile towns of Flanders. The wool growers named in the book can be studied in their native villages, and their lives can be reconstructed in the round, interacting in their communities, adapting their farming to new circumstances, and arranging the building of their local churches. A Country Merchant has some of the characteristics of a biography, is part family history, and part local history, with some landscape history. Dyer explores themes in economic and social history without neglecting the religious and cultural background. His central concerns are to demonstrate the importance of commerce in the period, and to show the contribution of peasants to a changing economy.


This paper documents and analyzes the rise of emerging East Asian economies as major international investors. Foreign direct investment (FDI) from these economies is rising faster than their economic growth, trade, and inward FDI, and the region is by far the most important investor from the developing world. We develop an analytical interpretation of the behaviour and competitive strategies of major developing East Asian outward investors. We conclude that the drivers of this outward FDI are generally consistent with the international investment literature. But in addition particular factors are at work, including the desire for natural resource security, and exceptionally high domestic savings rates. The major challenge for the rest of the world is to accommodate these FDI flows, as part of the global reorientation of economic activity towards East Asia.


There is an increasing need for automated conversion of high-level design descriptions into hardware. We present a flow that converts a software application written in the Brook streaming language into a hardware description targeting FPGAs. We use a combination of our source-to-source compiler and a commercial C2H behavioral synthesis compiler. Our approach results in a significant through-put increase compared to software and ordinary C2H results (up to 8.9X and 4.3X, respectively). The throughput can be further increased by using more hardware resources to exploit data parallelism available in streaming applications.


Eukaryotic hosts must exhibit control mechanisms to select against ineffective bacterial symbionts. Hosts can minimize infection by less-effective symbionts (partner choice) and can divest of uncooperative bacteria after infection (sanctions). Yet, such host-control traits are predicted to be context dependent, especially if they are costly for hosts to express or maintain. Legumes form symbiosis with rhizobia that vary in symbiotic effectiveness (nitrogen fixation) and can enforce partner choice as well as sanctions. In nature, legumes acquire fixed nitrogen from both rhizobia and soils, and nitrogen deposition is rapidly enriching soils globally. If soil nitrogen is abundant, we predict host control to be downregulated, potentially allowing invasion of ineffective symbionts. We experimentally manipulated soil nitrogen to examine context dependence in host control. We co-inoculated Lotus strigosus from nitrogen depauperate soils with pairs of Bradyrhizobium strains that vary in symbiotic effectiveness and fertilized plants with either zero nitrogen or growth maximizing nitrogen. We found efficient partner choice and sanctions regardless of nitrogen fertilization, symbiotic partner combination or growth season. Strikingly, host control was efficient even when L. strigosus gained no significant benefit from rhizobial infection, suggesting that these traits are resilient to short-term changes in extrinsic nitrogen, whether natural or anthropogenic.


THE PURPOSE of this paper is to review the causes of violence and the various ways in which violence might be prevented or reduced. In doing this the theories of violence will be considered under three major categories: (1) aggression as an inherent part of human nature, (2) violence as a consequence of social learning, and (3) violence as a consequence of frustration and other situational factors. Recommendations as to the prevention of violence will be made explicit, and the feasibility and possible secondary consequences of such recommendations will be considered. The Crisis of Violence.— Before continuing, several overriding questions must be dealt with: First, why control violence? After all, man has found it to be functional, as a means of adapting to his environment, throughout the ages. In regard to this question, a value judgment is being made—that maintenance of


Background: Adolescent childbearing is a major public health problem worldwide especially in South Asian Countries. Adolescent pregnancy especially below 17 years of age has been considered to have a higher risk than adult pregnancy, because of biological immaturity of the teenager. In this study it is conduct the systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the adverse birth and health outcomes associated with adolescent pregnancy. Methods: We adopted the PRISMA consensus statement. PubMed database were searched on February 13, 2016. 24 studies were included, 10 studies go to the quantative synthesis and others go to narrative reviews. Meta –analysis was used to pool the result of the individual studies. Results: Adolescent pregnancy found to be significantly associated with higher risk of low birth weight (LBW), (OR, 1.50; 95% CI 1.27 – 1.78), preterm birth (PTB) (OR, 1.49;95% CI 1.15 – 1.93), small for gestational age (SGA) (OR, 1.33; 95% CI 1.13 – 1.56) and neonatal mortality (OR,1.45; 95% CI 1.20 – 1.76) . Lower risk of cesarean delivery (OR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.60 – 0.98) also reported among the adolescent mothers. Risk of perinatal mortality also found lower (OR, 0.80; 95% CI 0.42 – 1.51) among adolescent mothers, however, the risk was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The findings concluded that adolescence pregnancy increase the risk of LBW, PTB, SGA, neonatal mortality. The risk of cesarean delivery and perinatal mortality found lower among adolescent mothers. Increase awareness about the adverse effect of adolescent pregnancy outcomes may protective rules in adolescent marriage help to reduce such outcomes for the welfare of mother as well as children.


A variety of design‐process and design‐methods courses exist in engineering education. The primary objective of such courses is to teach engineering design fundamentals utilizing repeatable design techniques. By so doing, students obtain (1) tools they may employ during their education, (2) design experiences to understand the "big picture" of engineering, and (3) proven methods to attack open‐ended problems. While these skills are worthwhile, especially as design courses are moved earlier in curricula, many students report that design methods are typically taught at a high‐level and in a compartmentalized fashion. Often, the students' courses do not include opportunities to obtain incremental concrete experiences with the methods. Nor do such courses allow for suitable observation and reflection as the methods are executed. In this paper, we describe a new approach for teaching design methods that addresses these issues. This approach incorporates hands‐on experiences through the use of "reverse‐engineering" projects. As the fundamentals of design techniques are presented, students immediately apply the methods to actual, existing products. They are able to hold these products physically in their hands, dissect them, perform experiments on their components, and evolve them into new successful creations. Based on this reverse‐engineering concept, we have developed and tested new courses at The University of Texas, MIT, and the United States Air Force Academy. In the body of this paper, we present the structure of these courses, an example of our teaching approach, and an evaluation of the results.


Understanding public risk perceptions and their underlying processes is important in order to learn more about the way people interpret and respond to hazardous emergency events. Direct experience with an involuntary hazard has been found to heighten the perceived risk of experiencing the same hazard and its consequences in the future, but it remains unclear if cross‐over effects are possible (i.e., experience with one hazard influencing perceived risk for other hazards also). Furthermore, the impact of objective risk and country of residence on perceived risk is not well understood. As part of the BeSeCu (Behavior, Security, and Culture) Project, a sample of 1,045 survivors of emergencies from seven European countries (i.e., Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, and Italy) was drawn. Results revealed heightened perceived risk for emergency events (i.e., domestic and public fires, earthquakes, floods, and terrorist attacks) when the event had been experienced previously plus some evidence of cross‐over effects, although these effects were not so strong. The largest country differences in perceived risk were observed for earthquakes, but this effect was significantly reduced by taking into account the objective earthquake risk. For fires, floods, terrorist attacks, and traffic accidents, only small country differences in perceived risk were found. Further studies including a larger number of countries are welcomed.


Concerns about allergic side‐effects of vaccines and about a possible promotion of allergic diseases contribute to incomplete vaccination rates in childhood. This article reviews the current understanding of these issues. There is evidence that pertussis and diphtheria/tetanus antigens elicit immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody formation as part of the immune response. In murine models, pertussis toxin is an effective adjuvant for IgE formation against simultaneously administered antigens. In children, however, sensitization to unrelated antigens or development of allergic diseases do not seem to be augmented. In contrast, bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) and measles vaccination have been proposed as suppressors of allergy because of their T helper 1 (Th1)‐fostering properties. In the murine system, BCG inhibits allergic sensitization and airway hyper‐reactivity. Some epidemiological studies in humans suggest an inhibitory effect of tuberculosis on allergy. BCG vaccination in children, however, has no or merely a marginal suppressive effect on atopy. Other vaccine components such as egg proteins, gelatin, and antibiotics are a potential hazard to children with severe clinical reactions to these allergens. These rare children should be vaccinated under special precautions. In conclusion, vaccination programs do not explain the increasing prevalence of allergic diseases, but individual children may uncommonly develop an allergic reaction to a vaccine. The risks of not vaccinating children, however, far outweigh the risk for allergy. Therefore, childhood vaccination remains an essential part of child health programs and should not be withheld, even from children predisposed for allergy.


In National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court exhaustively analyzed Congress's constitutional power to enact the watershed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare"). At issue in that case was the validity of the "Individual Mandate" (IM) which forces Americans to buy medical insurance or pay a "penalty." Although the Court held that the IM had exceeded the bounds of the Commerce Clause, the Court found that the IM could be construed as a "tax" on those who did not buy medical insurance and, therefore, could be sustained under Congress's power to "Lay and Collect Taxes." In this article, Professors Pushaw and Nelson analyze the likely impact of the Court's decision on Commerce Clause jurisprudence. Part I provides an overview of Commerce Clause precedent. Part II summarizes National Federation. Part III identifies the key problems with this decision and argues that its real-world effect will likely be minimal. Part IV proposes a different approach to the Commerce Clause that is rooted in its text, history, and underlying political theory. Those legal materials reveal that Congress can regulate only the voluntary sale of goods or services and all accompanying activities geared toward the market, and accordingly cannot mandate the purchase of insurance or anything else.


Clinical depression can be considered as a soft biometric trait that can help to characterize an individual. This mood disorder can be involved in forensic psychological assessment, due to its relevance in different legal issues. The automatic detection of depressed speech has been object of research in the last years, resulting in different algorithmic approaches and acoustic features. Due to the use of different algorithms, databases and performance measures, deciding which ones are more suitable for this task is difficult. In this work, the performance of different acoustic features for depression detection was explored in a common framework. To do so, a depression estimation approach in which the audio data is segmented and projected into a total variability subspace was used, and these projected data was used to estimate the depression level by performing support vector regression. The data and evaluation metrics were the ones used in the audiovisual emotion challenge (AVEC 2013).


Internet surveys of American Evaluation Association (AEA) members are a common method for studying evaluation practice. Response rates obtained from Internet surveys of AEA members are, however, frequently very small. To investigate whether or not material incentives increase response rates to Internet surveys of AEA members, a between-subjects three-treatment and one control randomized experiment in which a randomly selected sample of AEA members were randomly assigned to a no-incentive control condition, lottery condition, token incentive condition, or philanthropic donation incentive condition was utilized. The overall response rate to the survey was 39.66% and the response rates for each of the four conditions were control = 36.24%, lottery = 44.39%, token incentive = 43.28%, and philanthropic donation = 34.67%, respectively. The cost-effectiveness of each of the four conditions also was examined, demonstrating that the lottery was the most cost-effective. Other factors potentially influencing response or nonresponse decisions also are discussed.


As is widely recognized in Lyapunov analysis, linearized Hamilton's equations of motion have two marginal directions for which the Lyapunov exponents vanish. Those directions are the tangent one to a Hamiltonian flow and the gradient one of the Hamiltonian function. To separate out these two directions and to apply Lyapunov analysis effectively in directions for which Lyapunov exponents are not trivial, a geometric method is proposed for natural Hamiltonian systems, in particular. In this geometric method, Hamiltonian flows of a natural Hamiltonian system are regarded as geodesic flows on the cotangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold with a suitable metric. Stability/instability of the geodesic flows is then analyzed by linearized equations of motion that are related to the Jacobi equations on the Riemannian manifold. On some geometric settings on the cotangent bundle, it is shown that along a geodesic flow in question, there exist Lyapunov vectors such that two of them are in the two marginal directions and the others orthogonal to the marginal directions. It is also pointed out that Lyapunov vectors with such properties cannot be obtained in general by the usual method that uses linearized Hamilton's equations of motion. Furthermore, it is observed from numerical calculation for a model system that Lyapunov exponents calculated in both methods, geometric and usual, coincide with each other, independently of the choice of the methods.


In human diploid fibroblasts (HDFs), expression of lamina-associated polypeptide 2 α (LAP2α) upon entry and exit from G0 is tightly correlated with phosphorylation and subnuclear localization of retinoblastoma protein (Rb). Phosphoisoforms of Rb and LAP2α are down-regulated in G0. Although RbS780 phosphoform and LAP2α are up-regulated upon reentry into G1 and colocalize in the nucleoplasm, RbS795 migrates between nucleoplasmic and speckle compartments. In HDFs, which are null for lamins A/C, LAP2α is mislocalized within nuclear aggregates, and this is correlated with cell cycle arrest and accumulation of Rb within speckles. Nuclear retention of nucleoplasmic Rb during G1 phase but not of speckle-associated Rb depends on lamin A/C. siRNA knock down of LAP2α or lamin A/C in HDFs leads to accumulation of Rb in speckles and G1 arrest, probably because of activation of a cell cycle checkpoint. Our results suggest that LAP2α and lamin A/C are involved in controlling Rb localization and phosphorylation, and a lack or mislocalization of either protein leads to cell cycle arrest in HDFs.


Communicable diseases have always a public health concern, globally as well as locally. While we have made tremendous steps in diseases surveillance and sharing of information, there are still areas or situations where such knowledge and practices are faced with uncertainty. This uncertainty came to us in a form a multibillion dollar Project where 65000 workers (mainly foreigners) work, stay and play on a 6,000+ acres of land. Since there has never been a project of such a scale in the country where it is constructed in a district famously known for its oil palm plantations and beach scenery rather than multistory steel structure and hydrocarbon vapors, the basic infrastructure of the health facilities and services were assessed, and reassessed, planned and executed to ensure the balanced development did not jeopardize the health of the locals, as well as the workers. It was with these assessments, judgement calls as well as networking that the health plan for the Project and the system was put in place to tackle the biggest, and most important health concerns – that is the communicable diseases. Issues can be unexpected, like the cases of Malaria among the foreign workers who are supposedly screened before coming; to administrative when it comes to managing medical service providers who are not directly under the Project owners. All in all, managing the communicable diseases in such project requires a lot of collaboration, clear communication, robust procedure and good strong team to withstand the expected as well as the unexpected.


It has long been observed that in many languages around the world possessive relations and benefactive relations are expressed by the same morphemes. There are examples of functional extension in both directions, with possessive constructions developing from benefactive ones, and vice versa. But there are also claims in the literature about the unidirectionality of this process, predicting that the development from possessive to benefactive constructions should not occur. This paper presents a detailed case study of the development of specialized benefactive expressions in Oceanic languages, where they commonly derive from expressions of attributive possession. The development starts with a possessive construction carrying a pragmatically implicated benefactive reading that gradually becomes grammaticalized and manifested in the morphosyntax of the language. This process may finally result in a benefactive construction that is syntactically and/or morphologically distinct from the expression of possession from which it originates. Syntactically, the process sets off from an object NP consisting of a noun and its modifier. In the process of grammatical change, this modifier is reanalyzed as a separate constituent, syntactically and semantically independent of the object noun. Based on data from Oceanic languages, three stages in the extension from possession to benefaction are identified. Also discussed are the contextual prerequisites for the benefactive implicature to arise in the first place.


Angiotensin II binding sites in a rabbit ventricular myocardial particulate fraction were identified and characterized with the radioligand 125I-angiotensin II. The order of potency in competing with 125I-angiotensin II for these sites was similar to that observed in physiological studies. Computer-assisted analysis of the competition of binding sites for 0.3 nM 125I-angiotensin II by unlabeled angiotensin II (3 X 10(-11) M to 1 X 10(-5) M) demonstrated that optimal fitting of the competition curves was attained with a two-site model having one site of high affinity (KA1 = 2.4 +/- 0.6 X 10(9) M-1), low capacity (N1 = 7.8 +/- 0.8 fmoles/mg of protein) and a second site low affinity (KA2 = 9.6 +/- 0.6 X 10(6) M-1) and high capacity (N2 = 219 +/- 128 fmoles/mg of protein). Analysis of competition by Sar1-Ile8 angiotensin II for 125I-angiotensin II binding sites indicated that the antagonist interacted with the first site with high affinity (KA1 = 8 X 10(9) M-1), but interacted minimally with the second site (KA2 = 10(5) M-1). Monovalent cations (Na+, K+, Li+, NH4+) were roughly equipotent in decreasing 125I-angiotensin II binding by reducing the number of high-affinity sites (N1 = 2.6 +/- 0.7 fmoles/mg of protein with 100 mM Na+) without changing the affinity of either site or the number of low-affinity sites. The number of high-affinity sites was increased to 14.4 +/- 1.5 fmoles/mg of protein by 5 mM Mg2+. In the presence of divalent cations, nucleotides reduced binding of 125I-angiotensin II with the potency order guanosyl-5'-yl-imidodiphosphate greater than GTP greater than GDP greater than ATP greater than GMP. Guanosyl-5'yl-imidodiphosphate significantly reduced the affinity of the high-affinity site (KA1 = 1.0 +/- 0.2 X 10(9) M-1) and perhaps of the low-affinity site (KA2 = 1.0 +/- 2.2 X 10(6) M-1). Computer-assisted assessment of dissociation of 0.3 nM 125I-angiotensin II from rabbit myocardial membranes corroborated the equilibrium data: dissociation was biphasic (K-1 = 0.19 +/- 0.2 min-1 for a rapidly dissociating site, k-1 = 2.5 +/- 2.1 X 10(-3) min-1 for a slowly dissociating site); 5 mM Mg2+ did not significantly change either dissociation rate; but guanosyl-5'-yl-imidodiphosphate significantly increased dissociation rates from both sites. Despite the indirect evidence that these angiotensin II receptors interact with guanine nucleotide regulatory proteins, angiotensin II (10(-6) M) failed to influence adenylate cyclase activity. The physiological implications of the presence in ventricular myocardium of two distinct angiotensin II receptors and in particular the implications of a receptor-associated guanine nucleotide regulatory protein which does not couple to adenylate cyclase require further investigation.


Patients with Friedreich ataxia typically die of cardiomyopathy, marked by myocardial fibrosis and abnormal left ventricular (LV) geometry. We measured procollagen I carboxyterminal propeptide (PICP), a serum biomarker of collagen production, and characterized genotypes, phenotypes, and outcomes in these patients. Twenty-nine patients with Friedreich ataxia (mean age, 34.2 ± 2.2 yr) and 29 healthy subjects (mean age, 32.5 ± 1.1 yr) underwent serum PICP measurements. Patients underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and outcome evaluations at baseline and 12 months. Baseline PICP values were significantly higher in the patients than in the control group (1,048 ± 77 vs 614 ± 23 ng/mL; P <0.001); severity of genetic abnormality did not indicate severity of PICP elevation. Higher PICP levels corresponded to greater LV concentric remodeling only at baseline (r=0.37, P <0.05). Higher baseline PICP strongly indicated subsequent increases in LV end-diastolic volume (r=0.52, P=0.02). The PICP levels did not distinguish between 14 patients with evident myocardial fibrosis identified through positive late gadolinium enhancement and 15 who had no enhancement (1,067 ± 125 vs 1,030 ± 98 ng/mL; P=0.82). At 12 months, cardiac events had occurred in 3 of 14 fibrosis-positive and none of 15 fibrosis-negative patients (P=0.1); their baseline PICP levels were similar. We conclude that PICP, a serum marker of collagen synthesis, is elevated in Friedreich ataxia and indicates baseline abnormal LV geometry and subsequent dilation. Cardiac magnetic resonance and PICP warrant consideration as complementary biomarkers in therapeutic trials of Friedreich ataxia cardiomyopathy.


Introduction SCOPE OF PAPER This paper is an outline and summary of the salient features of the geology of the Rocky Mountain front ranges in Montana. It is based on the results of field studies by the writer, supplemented by data obtained from the literature cited. Most of the features considered have been observed by the writer. A few areas have been examined in detail, but the exigencies of reconnaissance mapping prevented detailed work in much of the region; hence certain details of the stratigraphy, including the thickness of most of the formations, have been taken from published descriptions. The chief results of these studies have been to obtain a general knowledge of the geology of the region and to outline some of its major problems for detailed investigation. The opinions expressed should be considered tentative, for much detailed field-work must be done before many of the problems can be . . .


the meaning of certain words, mostly common words, in Isocrates is discussed. None of them seems to raise any serious problem. In some words Levi sees a peculiarly Isocratean meaning, although a glance at Liddell and Scott would show that this meaning was already well established; e.g. ISICUTTJS in the sense of one without professional or specialized knowledge and apery denoting moral virtue are found long before Isocrates. Under the heading 'Politeia' Isocrates' views on political theory are discussed, mainly with reference to the Areopagiticus. In the final chapter Levi sets out to show that the political and social conditions in the fourth century as seen in Isocrates' works pointed the way to those of the Hellenistic Age. It does not seem to me that Professor Levi has anything new of importance to say about Isocrates. Much of what he does say is based on insufficient or unsatisfactory evidence. His method of argument is in striking contrast with the hard reasoning found in Edmund Buchner's book on the Panegj/ricus, which was published in 1958.


By actively endorsing remedies that favor a city-suburb divide, the Supreme Court has failed to allow regional development. The Supreme Court's federalism jurisprudence is unresponsive to the myriad issues pervading society. Ultimately, individuals must take action, through a process formulated in this article, to change the way in which governments and the courts respond to the needs of populations. A battery of cases including Brown v. Board of Education and its progeny, Missouri v. Jenkins and Milliken v. Bradley, reached the Supreme Court during the tumultuous 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. A vast array of environmental laws and housing regulations also emerged onto the national legal stage. The Supreme Court embodied a strong sense of judicial activism and concern for national remedies to address national issues. The result was a plethora of legislation on discriminatory conduct, environmental regulations, and living standards. While this time period saw much in the way of progressive answers to current metropolitan problems, the Court substantially erred when it held in Milliken that interdistrict remedies for school desegregation were unconstitutional. The current Supreme Court can mediate the competing desires of judicial restraint and local control with the realities of problems which exist on a much larger scale, requiring more than a solution built on precedent and intolerance, by carefully rethinking and revaluating ideas about effective governance.


Elementary School: Implications for Preschool Curricula Nicholas Zill, Gary Resnick, and Kevin O'Donnell Westat This report addresses the following research questions about the growth of young children's literacy skills: • How does growth in cognitive development and emergent literacy that children show in preschool compare with the growth they exhibit once they reach elementary school? • What is the relationship between the level of skill attained in preschool programs and the amount of growth children display in elementary school? • How do growth patterns vary across different skill areas? The research was meant to test at least partially three underlying hypotheses. The first was that children who leave preschool with more developed language and decoding skills will do better in elementary school and be further along the path to reading by the end of kindergarten. The second was that the amount of benefit children derive from a preschool program is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of language-related activities in the program. The third hypothesis concerned the compensatory qualities of preschool. This proposition was that children who have received less language stimulation at home stand to gain more from literacyrelated activities in preschool. Note that proponents of the whole language approach to reading, and more extreme proponents of Piagetian and discovery-learning approaches to the preschool curriculum would take exception to the first two hypotheses. These theorists see little importance in children acquiring specific literacy skills at early ages. They hold that children will rapidly acquire these skills and catch up once they are ready to learn them, which does not have to happen until elementary school. They emphasize the socialization functions of preschool and the value of activities that increase children's motivation to read, as opposed to the teaching of specific skills like letter recognition and phonics.


Abstract Background: Journal Impact Factor (JIF) has several intrinsic flaws, which highlight its inability to adequately measure citation distributions or indicate journal quality. Despite these flaws, JIF is still widely used within the academic community, resulting in the propagation of potentially misleading information. A critical review of the usefulness of JIF is needed including an overview of the literature to identify viable alternative metrics. The objectives of this study are: (1) to assess the usefulness of JIF by compiling and comparing its advantages and disadvantages; (2) to record the differential uses of JIF within research environments; and (3) to summarize and compare viable alternative measures to JIF. Methods: Three separate literature search strategies using MEDLINE and Web of Science were completed to address the three study objectives. Each search was completed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Results were compiled in tabular format and analyzed based on reporting frequency. Results: For objective (1), 84 studies were included in qualitative analysis. It was found that the recorded advantages of JIF were outweighed by disadvantages (18 disadvantages vs. 9 advantages). For objective (2), 653 records were included in a qualitative analysis. JIF was found to be most commonly used in journal ranking (n = 653, 100%) and calculation of scientific research productivity (n = 367, 56.2%). For objective (3), 65 works were included in qualitative analysis. These articles revealed 45 alternatives, which includes 18 alternatives that improve on highly reported disadvantages of JIF. Conclusion: JIF has many disadvantages and is applied beyond its original intent, leading to inaccurate information. Several metrics have been identified to improve on certain disadvantages of JIF. Integrated Impact Indicator (I3) shows great promise as an alternative to JIF. However, further scientometric analysis is needed to assess its properties.


Spectroscopic ellipsometry, ranging from 35 meV to 6 eV, was used to determine the dielectric functions of a series of molecular beam epitaxy-grown Hg1−xCdxSe thin films deposited on both ZnTe/Si(112) and GaSb(112) substrates. The fundamental band gap as well as two higher-order electronic transitions blue-shift with increasing Cd composition in Hg1−xCdxSe, as expected. Representing the free carrier absorption with a Drude oscillator, we found that the effective masses of Hg1−xCdxSe (grown on ZnTe/Si) vary between 0.028 and 0.050 times the free electron mass, calculated using the values of carrier concentration and the mobility obtained through Hall measurements. Using these effective masses, we determined the carrier concentrations of Hg1−xCdxSe samples grown on GaSb, which is of significance as films grown on such doped-substrates posit ambiguous results when measured by conventional Hall experiments. These models can serve as a basis for monitoring Cd-composition during sample growth through in-situ sp...


A p-type silicon (Si) nano-wire piezoresistor, whose minimum cross-sectional area is 53 nm/spl times/53 nm, was fabricated by combination of thermal diffusion, EB (electron beam) direct writing and RIE (reactive ion etching). The maximum value of longitudinal piezoresistance coefficient /spl pi//sub l[011]/ of the Si nano-wire piezoresistor was found to be 48/spl times/10/sup -5/ (1/MPa) at surface impurity concentration of 5/spl times/10/sup 19/ (cm/sup -3/) and it has enough sensitivity for mechanical sensor applications. The longitudinal piezoresistance coefficient /spl pi//sub l[011]/ of the Si nano-wire piezoresistor increased up to 60% with a decrease in the cross sectional area, while transverse piezoresistance coefficient /spl pi//sub t[011]/ decreased with a increase in the aspect ratio of the cross section. These phenomena were briefly investigated based on a hole energy consideration and FEM (finite element method) stress analysis.


We propose a novel neural network architecture for point cloud classification. Our key idea is to automatically transform the 3D unordered input data into a set of useful 2D depth images, and classify them by exploiting well performing image classification CNNs. We present new differentiable module designs to generate depth images from a point cloud. These modules can be combined with any network architecture for processing point clouds. We utilize them in combination with state-of-the-art classification networks, and get results competitive with the state of the art in point cloud classification. Furthermore, our architecture automatically produces informative images representing the input point cloud, which could be used for further applications such as point cloud visualization.


Influence of two methods of crop establishment viz., direct seeding and transplanting on the incidence of rice blue beetle, Leptispa pygmaea on rice varieties Jyothi (short duration) and Aiswarya (medium duration) were studied during wet and dry season, 2005. A scoring method for the estimation of damage by L. pygmaea was standardized. Transplanting method of rice establishment was observed to suffer more damage by L. pygmaea than direct seeding method in both the rice varieties during the two seasons. Highest damage of blue beetle was observed at the early tillering stage in both direct seeding and transplanting methods with damage ranging from 31.51 to 45.71 per cent in Jyothi and 19.57 to 29.57 per cent in Aiswarya under direct seeded condition and 68.54 to 75.32 per cent in Jyothi and 36.15 to 46.14 per cent in Aiswarya under transplanted crop. Direct seeding resulted in 34–58 per cent reduction of blue beetle damage in Jyothi, whereas in Aiswarya 36–46 per cent damage was reduced by this method.


Eimeria tenella, an intracellular protozoan parasite of the cecal epithelium of chickens, developed asexually in monolayer cultures of mammalian fibroblasts, mammalian epithelial cells, and avian fibroblasts mintained under various mediums at 41�C. Sexual stages of the parasite were not seen. Established cell lines and secondary cell cultures were equally suitable for cultivation of the parasite.


The working concept of a horizontal-axis tidal current turbine (HATCT) is similar to
that of wind turbines. The technology used in wind turbine can be readily transferred to
tidal current turbines. This is exactly what is going on at the moment in HATCTs
industry. Malaysia is a country that can benefit from tidal current turbine, especially in
the Straits of Malacca. The current flow in the Straits of Malacca varies from 0.5m/s to
1.5m/s, and reaches 2.0m/s or above at some localities. Considering the benchmark of
economic power generation for tidal current turbines to be around 1.5m/s, harnessing
tidal current energy looks promising for Malaysia. However, to-date, no study on
creating a workable turbine has been reported for Malaysia. Therefore, it is the aim of
the current research to study workability and performance of an operational tidal current
turbine for Malaysia. The testing and modification of turbine were done with the
sponsor and help of Laison Engineering Sdn. Bhd. A 800mm five-bladed turbine was
tested at Pangkor Island. The original setting of the prototype turbine was not able to
produce steady power output. But after a few modifications on the generator and shaft, a
power coefficient of approximately 0.32 was achieved with current velocity of 0.25m/s.
Besides the fabrication and testing of the turbine, an innovative method to improve the
efficiency of tidal current turbine has also been studied. The innovative method was the
use of hydrophobic antifouling paint. Antifouling paint is an important protection
measure for tidal current turbine to against marine bio-fouling. Marine bio-fouling has
deteriorating effects on the performance of tidal current turbine once they are attached
on the turbine blades. Hydrophobic anti-fouling paint is one of the common types of
anti-fouling paint that is used. Interestingly, its hydrophobicity has the ability to reduce
friction drag over a surface. As such, hydrophobic anti-fouling can potentially provide
performance enhancement for a tidal current turbine, meanwhile protects turbine blades from marine bio-fouling. Two commercial hydrophobic antifouling coatings, Biocyl and
a normal hydrophobic coating, Always Dry were used. Experiment has been conducted
to understand the effects of hydrophobic coating on hydrofoils and a 350mm diameter
three-bladed turbine. It was found that both Biocyl and Always Dry lower the drag
coefficient of NACA 63418 by an average of 3% and 3.5%. Biocyl has improved the
revolution per minute of the turbine by an average of 1.3%, whereas Always Dry has
improved the revolution per minute of the turbine by an average of 2.5%. Last but not
least, two commercial antifouling paints, namely Bioycl and Palccoat, have been tested
to understand their ability to protect tidal current turbine from marine bio-fouling
activities in Pangkor Island. The field test results show that with these anti-fouling
paints, the development of thin film on turbine blade can be postponed to 3~4weeks. Up
to this stage, the thin film can still be cleaned. However, when barnacles started to grow
on the blade, it is difficult to remove the barnacle by simple cleaning.


Dental wear and intrabony lesions were evaluated in a sample of 225 skulls (136 male) of pre-contact New Zealand Maoris. The degree and direction of surface wear was scored according to the method of Molnar (Molnar 1971. Human tooth wear, tooth function and cultural variability. American Journal of Physical Anthropology34: 175–190) and revealed severe surface loss in both males and females with horizontal wear being the dominant pattern (62.4% male, 57.5% female). The width of coronal tissue above the pulp chamber, as well as the maximum depth and width of periapical lesions, was measured from both standard radiographs and digital images. The high prevalence of periapical pathology in the Maori underlined the extreme nature of dental wear in these people. It is postulated that this degree of tooth loss may be attributable to a change in diet from large birds to marine-dependence, the introduction of the kumara to New Zealand, dental erosion and finally, to the excessive masticatory forces exerted by a robust facial complex on normally sized teeth. Fenestrated lesions were highly prevalent (83% of skulls) and were centered mostly on the maxilla, with an even distribution among tooth classes. The finding of periapical lesions in teeth with minimal observable wear was attributed to traumatic occlusion. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We have designed experiments that distinguish centrosomal , nuclear, and cytoplasmic contributions to the assembly of the mitotic spindle. Mammalian centrosomes acting as microtubule-organizing centers were assayed by injection into Xenopus eggs either in a metaphase or an interphase state. Injection of partially purified centrosomes into interphase eggs induced the formation of extensive asters. Although centrosomes injected into unactivated eggs (metaphase) did not form asters, inhibition of centrosomes is not irreversible in metaphase cytoplasm: subsequent activation caused aster formation. When cytoskeletons containing nuclei and centrosomes were injected into the metaphase cytoplasm, they produced spindle-like structures with clearly defined poles. Electron microscopy revealed centrioles with nucleated microtubules. However, injection of nuclei prepared from karyoplasts that were devoid of centrosomes produced anastral microtubule arrays around condensing chromatin. Co-injection of karyoplast nuclei with centrosomes reconstituted the formation of spindle-like structures with well-defined poles. We conclude from these experiments that in mitosis, the centrosome acts as a microtubule-organizing center only in the proximity of the nucleus or chromatin, whereas in interphase it functions independently. The general implications of these results for the interconversion of metaphase and interphase microtubule arrays in all cells are discussed.


Several studies have been carried out on the role of exercise echocardiography for risk stratification after uncomplicated myocardial infarction. However, the diffusion of thrombolysis has entailed a remarkable change in the characteristics of these patients, with a major incidence of recurrent ischemic events or reinfarction in the follow-up. To test whether the predictive value of exercise echocardiography may be modified by thrombolytic treatment, we have studied 62 patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing lytic therapy (Group A), compared to 153 conventionally-treated patients (Group B). All patients were asymptomatic at the time of the test, performed by cycloergometer 14 days after hospital admission. In 125 patients (47 Group A and 78 Group B) predischarge coronary angiography was performed. The exercise test showed a lower, but not significant, rate of positive tests in Group A patients (51.6 vs 58.8%). However, a positive test was more frequent in the homozonal area among patients who underwent thrombolytic therapy (50% of positive tests vs 18% in Group B; p < 0.001). Follow-up data (23 +/- 17 months) showed a higher but not significant rate of coronary events (cardiac death, reinfarction, severe angina, coronary bypass or angioplasty) in Group A patients with a positive test (62 vs 39% in Group B); however, in the subgroup with homozonal positive test, the event rate was much higher in Group A (77 vs 18% in Group B; p < 0.01). Furthermore, among patients with negative exercise test, coronary events were observed in 8% Group A and in 10% Group B patients. Therefore, our results show a higher percentage of homozonal exercise-induced ischemia with subsequent higher rate of coronary events in the thrombolyzed patients with respect to controls. This pattern is probably due to a higher rate of significant infarct-related residual stenosis, as coronary angiography have demonstrated. In conclusion, exercise echocardiography is useful in thrombolyzed patients, since it may better explore, rather than ECG, peri-necrotic areas.


Abstract Historically nurses have lacked significant input in end-of-life decision-making, despite being an integral part of care. Nurses experience negative feelings and moral conflict when forced to aggressively deliver care to patients at the EOL. As a result, nurses participate in slow codes, described as a limited resuscitation effort with no intended benefit of patient survival. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the process nurses followed when making decisions about participation in limited resuscitation. Five core categories emerged that describe this theory: (1) recognition of patient and family values at the EOL; (2) stretching time and reluctance in decision-making; (3) harm and suffering caused by the physical components of CPR; (4) nurse's emotional and moral response to delivering aggressive care, and; (5) choosing limited resuscitation with or without a physician order. Several factors in end-of-life disputes contribute to negative feelings and moral distress driving some nurses to perform slow codes in order to preserve their own moral conflict, while other nurses refrain unless specifically ordered by physicians to provide limited care through tailored orders.


Readily available temperature sensing in boilers is necessary to improve efficiencies, minimize downtime, and reduce toxic emissions for a power plant. The current techniques are typically deployed as a single-point measurement and are primarily used for detection and prevention of catastrophic events due to the harsh environment. In this work, a multi-point temperature sensor based on wavelength-multiplexed sapphire fiber Bragg gratings (SFBGs) were fabricated via the point-by-point method with a femtosecond laser. The sensor was packaged and calibrated in the lab, including thermally equilibrating at 1200 °C, followed by a 110-h, 1000 °C stability test. After laboratory testing, the sensor system was deployed in both a commercial coal-fired and a gas-fired boiler for 42 days and 48 days, respectively. The performance of the sensor was consistent during the entire test duration, over the course of which it measured temperatures up to 950 °C (with some excursions over 1000 °C), showing the survivability of the sensor in a field environment. The sensor has a demonstrated measurement range from room temperature to 1200 °C, but the maximum temperature limit is expected to be up to 1900 °C, based on previous work with other sapphire based temperature sensors.


Background Reports of return to play(8–80%) and subsequent injury(15–30%) are variable following arm injuries in baseball players with no known risk factors. Objective We aimed to prospectively examine the influence of injury history, return to sport criteria, and baseball participation as risk factors in youth and adolescent baseball players returning to sport following rehabilitation. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Youth through adolescent baseball leagues. Patients (or Participants) Injured baseball players (n=60;age=15.3±2.5 months) were followed for atleast 1 year (15.8±9.6 months) after returning to sport. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) All players' ROM, strength and outcome scores were measured and met predetermined criteria for return to sport. Players were surveyed monthly for participation, competition level, and the development of injuries. All subsequent injuries were verified as overuse time-loss injuries by team athletic trainer, physical therapist, or physician. Main Outcome Measurements Bivariate correlations were used to evaluate the relationship between injury history, return to sport criteria, and baseball participation. Forward stepwise logistic regression using significant (r>.25; P<0.05) associations with advancing completion level and subsequent injury were then used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from the final model (α=0.05). Results Seven players reported an injury prior to the index injury. Twenty players suffered a subsequent time-loss arm injury. Development of a subsequent arm injury was correlated with previous injury(r=.45; P=0.002) and advancing one competitive level(r=.32; P=0.01). The final regression model revealed that players reporting an prior injury to the index injury were 20.5 (1.8–147.5 95% CI) times greater risk of a subsequent overuse arm injury than in players without a previous injury history. Conclusions Injury history and advancing competition levels increases the risk of a subsequent arm injury despite achievement of evidence based return to sport criteria. Clinicians should consider counseling and monitoring of youth and adolescent baseball players returning back to sport, especially after multiple arm injuries.


Interceptive timing is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g., ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remain poorly understood. Piaget suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e., mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of interceptive timing in 309 primary school children (5–11 years old), alongside scores for general motor skill and national standardized academic attainment. Bayesian estimation showed that interceptive timing (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after we controlled for age, reading, and writing attainment. This finding demonstrates that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independently of other forms of attainment and motor capability.


Purpose Loss of retinal ganglion cells in in non-optic neuritis eyes of Multiple Sclerosis patients (MS-NON) has recently been demonstrated. However, the pathological basis of this loss at present is not clear. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate associations of clinical (high and low contrast visual acuity) and electrophysiological (electroretinogram and multifocal Visual Evoked Potentials) measures of the visual pathway with neuronal and axonal loss of RGC in order to better understand the nature of this loss. Methods Sixty-two patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis with no previous history of optic neuritis in at least one eye were enrolled. All patients underwent a detailed ophthalmological examination in addition to low contrast visual acuity, Optical Coherence Tomography, full field electroretinogram (ERG) and multifocal visual evoked potentials (mfVEP). Results There was significant reduction of ganglion cell layer thickness, and total and temporal retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness (p<0.0001, 0.002 and 0.0002 respectively). Multifocal VEP also demonstrated significant amplitude reduction and latency delay (p<0.0001 for both). Ganglion cell layer thickness, total and temporal RNFL thickness inversely correlated with mfVEP latency (r = −0.48, p<0.0001 respectively; r = −0.53, p<0.0001 and r = −0.59, p<0.0001 respectively). Ganglion cell layer thickness, total and temporal RNFL thickness also inversely correlated with the photopic b-wave latency (r = −0.35, p = 0.01; r = −0.33, p = 0.025; r = −0.36, p = 0.008 respectively). Multivariate linear regression model demonstrated that while both factors were significantly associated with RGC axonal and neuronal loss, the estimated predictive power of the posterior visual pathway damage was considerably larger compare to retinal dysfunction. Conclusion The results of our study demonstrated significant association of RGC axonal and neuronal loss in NON-eyes of MS patients with both retinal dysfunction and post-chiasmal damage of the visual pathway.


Human sirtuin1 (SirT1), which is a member of the sirtuin family, plays an important role in a wide range of cellular processes. Here we demonstrate a new strategy for the photoelectrochemical assay of SirT1 in different cell lines based on a semiconductor-polymer hybrid system consisting of Au-polymer and TiO2-Au nanocomposites. Au-polymer (GC-HBAP) hybrids were synthesized from crosslinked hyperbranched azo-polymer and gold colloids and then used as an immobilization platform for SirT1 antibody. Gold-doped TiO2 (TiO2-Au) nanocomposites were prepared as the photoelectrochemical labels for signal readout in the sandwiched immunoassay. The integration of GC-HBAP with TiO2-Au facilitated the electron transfer and the photoelectrocatalytic reaction, resulting in good analytical performance with high sensitivity, selectivity and rapid response for the analysis of SirT1 levels in different cell lines. This proposed semiconductor-polymer system might open a new perspective for the development of a highly sensitive photoelectrochemical immunosensor, and have potentially promising applications in assays of other proteins.


UNLABELLED
We conducted a randomized trial to compare the incidence of vomiting and the quality of emergence from anesthesia associated with the use of remifentanil versus a nonopiate. It was expected that remifentanil would provide smoother emergence from anesthesia with a comparably low rate of vomiting. The study sample consisted of 115 pediatric patients undergoing dental restoration and extraction who were randomly assigned to the nonopiate or remifentanil groups based on their hospital admission numbers. The nonopiate patients received sufficient desflurane to prevent movement, typically 7%-9%. The remifentanil group received remifentanil 0.2 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1) and enough desflurane to prevent movement, typically 3.2%-3.6%. A trained postanesthesia care unit nurse, blinded to the anesthetic technique, assessed the quality of emergence and incidence of vomiting. Sixty-three patients received remifentanil and 52 received the nonopiate. The groups were not significantly different in either quality of emergence or incidence of vomiting. Remifentanil provided results comparable to a nonopiate with no increase in emesis.

IMPLICATIONS
A randomized, controlled clinical trial of 115 patients undergoing dental restoration indicated that an anesthetic technique using remifentanil provided quality of emergence comparable to and no greater incidence of vomiting than a nonopiate technique.


In this thesis report we consider k-token dissemination algorithms that makes use of network coding. The k-token dissemination problem consists of propagating a total number of k tokens to all nodes in the network. The tokens are distributed between one or more nodes before the algorithm is executed, and the final goal is that all nodes must eventually have the same set of k-tokens.
Network coding is a recent technique that, implemented in a proper way, helps to save bandwidth and improves the speed of distributed computation. The network model consists of a network that can change completely from round to round, therefore the nodes do not know anything about their neighbours. Moreover, when a node broadcasts a message, it does not know which are the receivers, thus, it is not possible for the nodes to know which are the tokens that their neighbours need. By using network coding, the time needed to achieve the final goal (all nodes possess the same k tokens) is drastically reduced in comparison to a simple random forwarding algorithm, which, as its name infers, randomly broadcasts the tokens possessed by a node.
We study the session management problem, and present two algorithms to solve it. The problem consists of limiting the total number of sessions that concurrently coexist in the system. In the context of dissemination problems and network coding, we consider a session as an index according to which the information is codded by the session initiator. Since in dynamic networks nodes can crash and recover, we wish to allow sessions to accomplish their tasks, while limiting the amount of overall system resources in use.
We propose solutions for the session management problem, and by that facilitate the solution of the k-token dissemination problem in dynamic networks. By solving the session management problem, we can also solve the k-token dissemination problem in a more robust way, in the sense that the algorithms can deal with several types of failures, such as, crashes and crashes-recoveries.


Direct power control with space vector modulation (DPC-SVM) features simple structure, fast dynamic performance, and little tuning work. However, the conventional DPC-SVM cannot achieve accurate power control under unbalanced grid conditions. A modified DPC-SVM is thus proposed for accurate power control under both ideal and unbalanced grid conditions. Though the power control accuracy is improved when compared with the conventional DPC-SVM, it still suffers highly distorted grid current and dc voltage oscillations with an unbalanced network. Therefore, a power compensation method is subsequently derived aiming at the following targets: eliminating dc voltage oscillations, achieving sinusoidal grid current, and obtaining unity power factor. To that end, average grid-side reactive power and oscillations in converter-side active power are controlled as zero by simply adding a compensation to original power reference. Additionally, the proposed method does not require extraction of a positive sequence or negative sequence component of grid voltage. Compared with the conventional DPC-SVM in an ideal grid, only additional compensation of power reference is required. As a result, control performance can be significantly improved without substantial increase in complexity. The superiority of the proposed method over the prior DPC-SVM is validated by both simulation and experimental results obtained on a two-level pulsewidth modulation voltage source rectifier.


The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is the primary federal statute governing millions of arbitration agreements that have mushroomed in every nook and cranny of modern American society. The Supreme Court of the United States has grossly erred when construing and applying the FAA in a long series of cases spanning the last few decades, and these flawed decisions have encouraged this explosion of arbitration agreements across America. In its most recent FAA decision from December 2015, DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia, 136 S. Ct. 463 (2015), the Supreme Court continued its awkward tradition of issuing preposterous FAA rulings. However, the Court in DIRECTV reached a new low, a result so extreme and "dangerous," according to the dissenting Justices, that the Court's DIRECTV decision turns arbitration law completely upside down. This Article explores the Supreme Court's deeply flawed interpretation of the FAA in DIRECTV. The Court's decision desecrates the most fundamental principle of arbitration law, that arbitration must be based on the agreement of the parties. The Court in DIRECTV overrides the intent of the parties in this case, as well as the intent of Congress in enacting the FAA. The first part of this Article explains the background of the DIRECTV case. The second part of the Article closely examines the deep, multiple flaws in the opinion. Finally, the Article concludes by addressing how DIRECTV's holding applies to some common hypotheticals in order to demonstrate the broader impact of this case in shutting off access to America's civil justice system.


The paper aims at exploring determinants of the university students' intentions to stay within their university region. At this, we presume that students' career choice motivations are related to their professional intentions, which again, along with demographic characteristics, affect their migration decision. Our analysis is based on a cross-sectional study of 2,353 students from three different higher education institutions, two of them located in Germany and one in Namibia. Results indicate that in Germany migration matters because a considerable proportion of students intend to leave the university region after graduation. At this, we found that the students' geographical provenance exerts the most significant effect on the intention to stay. Moreover, certain professional intentions were directly and some career choice motivations were indirectly linked with the intention to remain at the university location. We present several conclusions and implications.


This article reconciles two seemingly incompatible expectations about interpersonal interaction and social influence. One theoretical perspective predicts that an increase in interaction between two actors will promote subsequent convergence in their attitudes and behaviors, while another view anticipates divergence. We examine the role of political identity in moderating the effects of interaction on influence. Our investigation takes place in the U.S. Senate—a setting in which actors forge political identities for public consumption based on the external constraints, normative obligations, and reputational concerns they face. We argue that interaction between senators who share the same political identity promotes convergence in their voting behavior, while interaction between actors with opposing political identities leads to divergence. Moreover, we theorize that the consequences of political identity for interpersonal influence depend on the local interaction context: Political identity's effects on influence are greater in more divided Senate committees than in less divided ones. We find support for these hypotheses in analyses of data, spanning over three decades, of voting behavior, interaction, and political identity in the Senate. These findings contribute to research on social influence; elite integration and political polarization; and identity theory.


We investigated by electron spectroscopy the strong-field multiphoton ionization of O-2 molecules with ultrashort laser pulses in the intensity range between the multiphoton and tunneling regimes. The ionization proceeds by at least three different mechanisms, in addition to the eight- and nine-photon nonresonant pathways. Transient multiphoton resonances with vibrational Rydberg levels give rise to direct Freeman-type peaks with sublaser linewidth and spin-orbit splitting. Some resonance levels actually become populated and yield extremely narrow lines because of postpulse vibrational autoionization. When the lowest photon order resonance channel for the Rydberg states is closed, a third contribution becomes dominant with a main peak at 0.4 eV that shares its main properties with the recently discovered universal low-energy structure in the electron spectra of atoms and molecules [C. I. Blaga et al., Nat. Phys. 5, 335 (2009); W. Quan et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 093001 (2009)]. The variation of the Freeman resonance spectrum with the laser peak intensity is well correlated with the vibronic Franck-Condon factors for the overlap of the intermediate Rydberg state with the O-2 ground state. Accordingly, the Freeman peaks could be unambiguously assigned to individual vibronic multiphoton resonances, and the disappearance of the Freeman resonances at a certain laser intensity could be explained. The population of the autoionizing Rydberg states could be assigned similarly to such vibronic resonances.


The international statuses of currencies shape a fundamental characteristic of the international monetary system, which has significant impacts on the world political economy by affecting the political as well as economic relationships among states. The study of international currencies has been long dominated largely by economists, however, with political economy research in this area quite underdeveloped. However, the 2008/9 global financial crisis, the subsequent European debt crisis and the recent active Chinese promotion of renminbi internationalization have spurred new and considerable interest among political economists on issues surrounding international currencies. Political economy study of international currencies has thus been gradually growing of late, and making notable progress. This study provides a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on international currencies—covering both political economy and economics—with the primary aim of building a useful groundwork to help develop a better research framework for the political economy study of them. In particular, it discusses the international currency concept, the costs and benefits of international currency issuance, the determinants of currency internationalization, and the future prospects of the current dollar-centered international monetary system. This research in addition highlights a group of important issues that need further investigation by future political economy study of international currencies, by drawing special attention to the following issues: historical events, the political determinants of currency internationalization, government policy strategies, and the consequences of international currency choice.


For general moving object (GMO) problems, when mass density of the moving object(s) under coupled motion is less than that of fluid, the existing explicit GMO method in FLOW-3D often fails due to stability difficulties. In this work, an implicit GMO method was developed and incorporated into FLOW-3D. The main difference between the implicit and the explicit GMO methods is that in each computational cycle, or time step, the former calculates the object motion and the fluid flow iteratively while the later calculates them separately. Unlike the explicit method, the implicit approach imposes no limitations on mass density of the moving objects. Tests show it possesses good stability for density of moving objects as low as 0.1% of that of fluid. Close matches between the computational and experimental results were obtained for simulations of a light boat under coupled motion in water stream.


Micro-chaos is a phenomenon when small amplitude chaotic oscillations are
caused by digital effects (sampling, round-off and processing delay). In
previous works, various digitally controlled unstable linear mechanical
systems were analysed and the corresponding micro-chaos maps were derived. It
was proven, that several chaotic attractors coexist in the state space of
these maps, and the distance of the farthest attractor from the desired state
can be quite large. This is why the phenomenon could be the source of
remarkable control error.
Cell mapping methods are tools for analysing the global behaviour of
nonlinear dynamical systems; determine fixed points, periodic cycles, chaotic
attractors and their domain of attraction. This paper shows the application
of such methods (Simple Cell Mapping and Generalized Cell Mapping) to
investigate micro-chaos maps.


Self-reported pain levels in patients with fibromyalgia may change according to weather conditions. Previous studies suggest that low barometric pressure (BMP) is significantly related to increased pain, but that the contribution of changes in BMP has limited clinical relevance. The present study examined whether BMP influenced variability in perceived stress, and if stress levels moderated or mediated the relationship between BMP and pain. Forty-eight patients with fibromyalgia enrolled in a randomized controlled trail (RCT) reported pain and emotional state three times daily with mobile phone messages for a 30-consecutive day period prior to the start of the treatment in the RCT. The patients were unaware that weather data were collected simultaneously with pain and emotional reports. The results showed that lower BMP and increased humidity were significantly associated with increased pain intensity and pain unpleasantness, but only BMP was associated with stress levels. Stress levels moderated the impact of lower BMP on pain intensity significantly, where higher stress was associated with higher pain. Significant individual differences were present shown by a sub-group of patients (n = 8) who reacted opposite compared to the majority of patients (n = 40) with increased pain reports to an increase in BMP. In sum, lower BMP was associated with increased pain and stress levels in the majority of the patients, and stress moderated the relationship between BMP and pain at the group-level. Significant individual differences in response to changes in BMP were present, and the relation between weather and pain may be of clinical relevance at the individual level.


Mitigating nutrient loss is a prerequisite of sustainable agriculture in the tropics. We evaluated three soil and water conservation technologies (mulching, minimum tillage and tied ridging) for two cropping seasons (long rains 2011, short rains 2011) at two sites in the central highlands of Kenya. The objectives were: to determine effects of the technologies on runoff, sediment yield and nutrient loads in sediment, and to assess influence of the technologies on maize yields. Experimental design was a randomized complete block with 3 treatments replicated thrice. At the beginning of experiment, soil was sampled at 0–15 cm depth and analyzed for pH, N, P, K, C, Ca and Mg. Mulch was applied at a rate of 5 t ha−1. Runoff was sampled, sediments extracted by drying in oven at 105 ◦C, and analyzed for NPK and C loads. Data were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS 9.1.3 and means separated using Fishers' LSD at 5% level of significance. Results showed reduced nutrient losses with the technologies. In Meru South, sediment yield was reduced by 41 and 7% during long rains 2011 (p = 0.03), and by 71 and 68% during short rains 2011 (p = 0.01) under mulching and minimum tillage, respectively. Runoff and maize yields were positively influenced by mulching. In Mbeere South, sediment yield was lower under soil and water conservation technologies. Runoff was reduced by 52 and 49% during long rains 2011 and by 51 and 30% during short rains 2011 under tied ridging and mulching respectively, compared with control. Total crop failure occurred during long rains 2011 due to erratic rains. During short rains 2011 tied ridging and mulching increased maize yield by 94 and 75%, respectively, compared with control. This study highlights the importance of analyzing soil and water conservation technologies within rain-fed farming systems perspective in response to declining food production and supports a focus on tied ridging and mulching.


Currently, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents and related compli- cations is considered one of the most important nutritional problems globally. The prevalence of childhood obesity in Europe is 10 times higher now than it was in the 1970s. Initial assessments of these patients should include taking a careful history (investigating comorbidities, family history and potentially modifiable behaviors) and physical exami - nation. The degree of investigation is dependent on the patient's age and severity of obesity, the findings on history and physical examination and associated familial risk factors. Childhood obesity treatment is based on sustained lifestyle changes with family involvement. Management intervention strategies include nutrition, physical activity, behavior and lifestyle changes, medication and surgical considerations.


Proper planning of on-site operations is critical to the effective delivery of a construction project. Many construction works, especially in high-rise buildings, require using tower cranes. In fact, early planning of tower crane operations before site execution helps reduce operational costs, enhance site safety, and optimize the works' schedule. Lean principles and look-ahead planning in particular, along with 4D scheduling (time and location) of tower crane activities allow achieving optimal use of cranes. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the use of two tower cranes by simulating the scheduling of tasks in the overlapping work zones to achieve shorter operation durations and higher crane utilization rates. Early experimentation with the system and real-time assessment of alternative solutions reduce on-site problems and delays. In this respect, an optimization model based on parametric variation is developed for studying two cranes by using, as input, the construction schedule detailed down to daily operations through look-ahead planning. The model is also applied on a pilot case study to demonstrate the logic and outcomes of the model. The research contributes towards providing engineers, planners, crane operators, superintendents, and foremen with a model that can be used daily to better plan, in advance, the tasks to be executed by the cranes. The model can therefore provide a balanced workload schedule for both cranes and achieve the best utilization rates while reducing idle times to ultimately boost the production of the cranes while reducing project duration and cost.


ABSTRACT Common bean forms a significant part of the diet in Africa and hence plays a critical role in human nutrition. In order to promote it, this study was designed to investigate the effects of fully substituting eggs with bean milk on the physical, nutritional and organoleptic properties of biscuits made with cassava flour. Replacement of egg by bean milk increased the biscuits' fat, carbohydrates, crude protein, and energy content. On the other hand, there were no significant differences in mineral contents between the cassava biscuits with eggs which served as the control and cassava biscuits with bean milk following substitution by bean milk. There was no significant difference (p < .05) in the Saponin and Phytate contents regarding anti-nutrients contents between bean milk and cassava bean milk biscuits. In contrast, Tannin contents were significantly higher in biscuits than in bean milk. Biscuit made with eggs, was rated as "very good," while the test biscuits were rated as "good." Substitution of egg by bean milk in cassava biscuits increased the biscuits' protein, the fat, and carbohydrates contents with an appreciable taste. These biscuits made with bean milk can be used as a food supplement to help fight protein malnutrition in vulnerable groups.