The mechanism and chemoselectivity in the cycloaddition of ynamides and isoxazoles have been explored by the density functional theory (DFT) in model systems composed of a Bronsted acid (HNTf2), gold(I) [IPrAuNTf2] or platinum(II) (PtCl2/CO) catalyst, either with or without the presence of H2O. The DFT calculations reveal that all these catalysts entail similar nucleophilic attack of isoxazole on the catalyst-ligated ynamide forming a vinyl intermediate, which can isomerize to an α-imino intermediate upon cleavage of the isoxazole N–O bond. The completely distinct reaction pathways are observed after the formation of the α-imino intermediate. For the Bronsted acid catalyst, [5 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition with H2O is the favorable way to generate O-bridged tetrahydro-1,4-oxazepines. If the Bronsted acid is replaced by a gold(I) catalyst, a [3 + 2] cycloaddition product is produced, either in the absence or in the presence of H2O. Regarding the Pt(II) catalyst, 1,3-oxazepines are formed through [5 + 2] annulation. Furthermore, the [5 + 2] annulation product in this Pt(II)-catalyzed system can also be predicted upon addition of H2O. The unique properties of the three selected catalysts were explored in detail through distortion/interaction analysis. The obtained theoretical data account for an observed disparate product formation when using three catalytic systems and provide a theoretical foundation to choose the optimal catalyst for the title reaction. These results can be of particular significance for synthetic chemists toward the design of catalytic systems and cycloaddition transformations involving ynamides, isoxazoles and related derivatives.


Achieving software reuse to a significant extent has been an important goal for decades. However, as new techniques and methodologies are developed they seem invariably to fall short of expectations. Recently, component-based software construction has been promoted as an outstanding approach in terms of software reuse. Building applications by composing software components much in the same way as we put together Lego bricks seems appealing, indeed. Unfortunately, this is not as simple as the metaphor might suggest. This paper builds on our experience in building software components for financial institutions. Most of the components have been developed in C++ and rely on Microsoft OLE/COM mechanisms for inter-component communication and interaction. OLE/COM with their extensive support for programming language independence and standard inter-component communication mechanisms go a long way in promoting componentware as a practical discipline. OLE/COM is based on a component model wherein a component appears essentially as a collection of interfaces. The interfaces expose the services provided by a component. As such they represent the essential resource for reuse. Interface-centered reuse has been the prevailing approach since the advent of object-oriented systems. The prominent role played by the components' interfaces leads naturally to the standardization of interfaces as a way of expressing common functionality among a set of components. In this paper we explore another direction where the major role for reuse is played by protocols. A protocol is a mechanism that allows for the specification of patterns of interaction among components. Protocols have a state of execution and define the sequence of operations performed on the participating components. In order to be eligible to participate in activities governed by a protocol, components must expose interfaces that comply with the protocol's requirements. In protocol-based systems, protocols become the unit of reuse. In fact, protocols express the dynamics of components interactions while interfaces represent components' services. So by standardizing protocols instead of interfaces we set the focus on the reuse of interaction patterns rather than the reuse of services.


We propose HOI Transformer to tackle human object interaction (HOI) detection in an end-to-end manner. Current approaches either decouple HOI task into separated stages of object detection and interaction classification or introduce surrogate interaction problem. In contrast, our method, named HOI Transformer, streamlines the HOI pipeline by eliminating the need for many hand-designed components. HOI Transformer reasons about the relations of objects and humans from global image context and directly predicts HOI instances in parallel. A quintuple matching loss is introduced to force HOI predictions in a unified way. Our method is conceptually much simpler and demonstrates improved accuracy. Without bells and whistles, HOI Transformer achieves 26.61% AP on HICO-DET and 52.9% AProle on V-COCO, surpassing previous methods with the advantage of being much simpler. We hope our approach will serve as a simple and effective alternative for HOI tasks. Code is available at https://github.com/bbepoch/HoiTransformer.


An alkali-soluble random copolymer (ASR), poly(styrene/α-methylstyrene/acrylic acid), was used as a polymeric emulsifier in the emulsion polymerization of styrene. The calorimetric technique was applied to study the kinetics of emulsion polymerization of styrene using ASR and a conventional ionic emulsifier, sodium dodecyl benzenesulfonate (SDBS). ASR could form aggregates like micelles, and the solubilization ability of the aggregates was dependent on the neutralization degree of ASR. The rate of polymerization in the ASR system was lower than that in the SDBS system. This result can be explained by the creation of a hairy ASR layer around the particle surface, which decreases the diffusion rate of free radicals through this region. Although a decrease in particle size was observed, the rate of polymerization decreased with increasing ASR concentration. The higher the concentration of ASR is, the thicker and denser ASR layer may be, and the more difficult it would therefore be for radicals to reach the particle through this layer of ASR. The rate of polymerization decreased with increasing the neutralization degree of ASR. The aggregates with high neutralization of ASR are less efficient in solubilizing the monomer and capturing initiator radicals than that of the lower neutralization degree, which leads to decrease in rate of polymerization. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 2865–2872, 1998


An intelligent network interface card (INIC) or communication processing device (CPD) works with a host computer for data communication. The device provides a fast-path that avoids protocol processing for most messages, greatly accelerating data transfer and offloading time-intensive processing tasks from the host CPU. The host retains a fallback processing capability for messages that do not fit fast-path criteria, with the device providing assistance such as validation even for slow-path messages, and messages being selected for either fast-path or slow-path processing. A context for a connection is defined that allows the device to move data, free of headers, directly to or from a destination or source in the host. The context can be passed back to the host for message processing by the host. The device contains specialized hardware circuits that are much faster at their specific tasks than a general purpose CPU. A preferred embodiment includes a trio of pipelined processors devoted to transmit, receive and utility processing, providing full duplex communication for four Fast Ethernet nodes.


The development of novel hybrid materials of cellulose fibres and substrates with nanoparticles, conducting polymers and quantum dots, opens up novel application for new packaging materials and paper based products for the 'smart packaging' and 'functional products' areas that are emerging in the paper and packaging industries. Examples of these materials which have been developed here include cellulose fibres and substrates functionalised with magnetic nanoparticles, electrically conducting polypyrrole, and photoluminescent zinc sulfide quantum dots.  Such materials were synthesised and then characterised using Alternating Gradient Magnetometry (AGM), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AA), Cotec Profilometer Measurements, DC Conductivity Measurements, Photoluminescence Spectroscopy (PL), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), SQUID Magnetometry, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Vibrational Sample Magnetometry (VSM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).  Ferrimagnetic magnetite nanoparticles (particle size 12-26 nm) were synthesised by a simple aqueous precipitation method and had a magnetic saturation of approximately 60 emu g⁻¹, a coercive field of approximately 12-120 Oe, and a remnant magnetisation of approximately 11 emu g⁻¹.  Magnetite coated Kraft fibres (1.2 – 3.15 wt. % Fe) were synthesised by adding a colloidal suspension of magnetite nanoparticles to a suspension of Kraft fibres. The fibres retained their inherent properties, such as tensile strength and flexibility, but inherited the magnetic properties of the magnetic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles remained unchanged on bonding - presumably through hydrogen bonding between the surface hydroxyl groups of the cellulose and the oxygen present in the magnetite.  Newsprint, Kraft Board and Cotton fabric were coated with polypyrrole using a chemical polymerisation method. SEM shows a complete coating, whereby the fibres are completely encapsulated by the polymer, including individual fibrils. Again, bonding is facilitated through hydrogen bonding between the surface hydroxyl groups of the cellulose and the lone pairs of the nitrogen in the polypyrrole backbone. Samples were doped with p-toluenesulfonic acid to increase conductivity, of which up to 4 S cm⁻¹ was achieved.  The samples were coated with magnetite nanoparticles using a starch binder, and tested for their application in EMI shielding. A maximum shielding effectiveness of 43 % in the 1-18 GHz range and 47 % in the 16-40 GHz range was obtained using cotton fabrics coated with both polypyrrole and magnetite. A synergistic effect is observed on using a polypyrrole and magnetite coating.  Photoluminescent ZnS quantum dots, synthesised using an aqueous precipitation method, were doped with Mn²⁺ and Cu²⁺ to achieve emissions at approximately 600 nm (Mn²⁺) and 530 nm (Cu²⁺) on irradiation with UV light. The quantum dots had a particle size of approximately 2 nm, and were present in the zinc blende phase.  Doped ZnS-coated Kraft fibres (5 – 30 wt. % Zn) were synthesised by a number of methods, the most successful being the 'in-situ' method, in which a uniform and complete coating was afforded. The fibres retained their inherent properties, such as tensile strength and flexibility, but inherited the photoluminescent properties of the ZnS quantum dots. The quantum dots remained unchanged on bonding - presumably through hydrogen bonding between the surface hydroxyl groups of the cellulose and the sulfur present in the ZnS quantum dots.  ZnS quantum dots doped with Mn² and Cu²⁺ were successfully formulated for inkjet printing by capping with mercaptosuccinic acid. Upon irradiation with UV light, emissions at approximately 600 nm (Mn²⁺-doped) and 530 nm (Cu²⁺-doped) were observed. These were successfully inkjet printed in intricate patterns onto a number of substrates, including photographic quality inkjet paper, cotton, and wool.


A mathematical model has been developed to observe effect of crack on vibrating cantilever beam under forced vibrating conditions. Six variables considered in the present investigation and were correlated through dimensional analysis. Three dimensionless groups were obtained and were found pure numbers determined by the specific values of the defined problem parameters. Anticipation of behaviour of vibrating cantilever beam was made simple by assuming crack growth rate of the order of 0.01 micrometer/hour. Using the calculated values of G and experimental values of V, B, F, D, the values of threedimensional groups were calculated to know the characteristics behaviour of vibrating cantilever beam of Aluminium. Aluminium of 500mm x 50mm x 12mm were used to assure more prominent behaviour during experimental work. Readings were observed for the measurement of considered parameters of the beam at defined positions and different frequency. Experiments were conducted for the fixing length, 400mm of specimen. The value of crack growth rate and velocity for frequency 60 Hz, 80 Hz, 100 Hz and 120 Hz for various positions (i.e., 50 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm and 250 mm from the free end) of single accelerometer were compared and plotted to conclude.


Private and public higher education institutions have had the problem of financial un-sustainability in recent years. United Kingdom and European Union have instituted programs to work on financial sustainability of higher education. To achieve financial sustainability of higher education, institutions need to maintain or increase internally-generated funds that are regular, without future compromises. The paper establishes the legitimacy for future work needed for the variables to pursue sustainable growth. The study was designed to explore theories behind financial sustainability and established possible correlation between the sustainable growth rate and contributing factors that are sustaining the financing of higher education institutions. Quantitative research methodology was use for the research design with instrument on higher educational institutions across the globe. Results opened an important opportunity for discussion on financial sustainability in higher educational institutions. The outcome states that the predictive model is key to financial sustainability for higher educational institutions.


We study privacy-preserving exploration in sequential decision-making for environments that rely on sensitive data such as medical records. In particular, we focus on solving the problem of reinforcement learning (RL) subject to the constraint of (joint) differential privacy in the linear MDP setting, where both dynamics and rewards are given by linear functions. Prior work on this problem due to Luyo et al. (2021) achieves a regret rate that has a dependence of $O(K^{3/5})$ on the number of episodes $K$. We provide a private algorithm with an improved regret rate with an optimal dependence of $O(\sqrt{K})$ on the number of episodes. The key recipe for our stronger regret guarantee is the adaptivity in the policy update schedule, in which an update only occurs when sufficient changes in the data are detected. As a result, our algorithm benefits from low switching cost and only performs $O(\log(K))$ updates, which greatly reduces the amount of privacy noise. Finally, in the most prevalent privacy regimes where the privacy parameter $\epsilon$ is a constant, our algorithm incurs negligible privacy cost -- in comparison with the existing non-private regret bounds, the additional regret due to privacy appears in lower-order terms.


THISVOLUMEREPRESENTS the proceedings of the 3rd Fatigue in Transportation Conference held in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1998, with some additional invited papers. The contributors include prominent researchers from the academic, industry, civilian government, and military communities in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. (The omission of researchers from other nations is not explained.) The book is organized into four sections addressing the scope of the fatigue problem, sleep loss and other causes of operator fatigue, the assessment and monitoring of fatigue, and approaches to managing fatigue. The 24 chapters provide a fairly thorough review of recent research in each of the four areas addressed and make clear the complexity of operator fatigue issues and the challenges of managing fatigue in the transport industries in today's 24-hour society. The book is an excellent source of information for readers who need to "come up to speed" in the area of transportation operator fatigue and to familiarize themselves with the current state of research programs. It should be a valuable resource for researchers, transport industry managers, and regulators. Although most articles are written on an academic level, some are more practically oriented, especially in the final section on fatigue management strategies. Transportation modes represented here include commercial (trucks, taxis) and noncommercial road transport, commercial air transport, and maritime operations, but trucking is the mode given the greatest emphasis. Some chapters discuss more generic issues not related to a single transport mode (a survey of sleep in a commuter population, a work-related fatigue model, etc.). The scope of the papers varies from broad literature and research program reviews to reports of specific research projects. The production quality of the book is disappointing. Some articles have numerous typographical errors or poor graphics, and a few are in real need of technical editing. The rudimentary index might as well have been omitted. For the most pan, these flaws do not affect the utility of the volume, but a reader/buyer has a right to expect more in a book offered at this price.


Education is one of the largest investments America makes in reducing poverty and promoting economic mobility. From this perspective, education is perceived by many as a long-term strategy for achieving individual, family, and intergenerational prosperity; a tool for increasing overall productivity; and an engine of economic growth on which our collective fortunes depend. However, like poverty policies in America, education policies have largely focused on providing children with enough financial aid to survive, not enough to thrive. This brief will argue that to deliver on the promise of money, we posit that a better notion of free is to provide low-income and underserved students with targeted ongoing deposits into a Children's Savings Account from an early age. Further, we should consider integrating this long-term strategy with a long-term education investment, like College Promise (frequently referred to as "free college") programs, to reverse this damaging trend, build a college going culture within families and their communities, and remove economic barriers to higher education and adult success.


A sharp decline in inventory investment was an important contributor to the economic slowdown in Australia in 2008/09. I identify the extent to which this was due to a tightening in short-term credit constraints. In an experimental design setting, I identify the causal effect of short-term credit constraints on inventory investment by exploiting variation in the debt maturity structure of Australian companies just prior to the global financial crisis. I show that the companies that were forced to refinance or repay a relatively large share of debt in 2008/09 reduced inventory investment by significantly more than companies that were due to refinance or repay their debt at some other time. A case study on the Australian motor vehicle industry supports the hypothesis that a decline in the availability of short-term credit significantly hampered corporate investment in inventories in 2008/09. JEL Classification Numbers: C31, C33, D92, E22, E32, E51, G32


The design and development of a screw-drive in-pipe robot is presented. The robot is composed of power-driving module, walking orientation module, universal joints, and accessories. The application of automatic spring structure on the robot improves its adaptability. The robot is able to move smoothly in the vertical, inclined, or horizontal pipelines, or even when the cross-section of the pipe is not strictly circular. The calculation formulae of robot walking speed and motor driving torque are derived in this paper. According to the geometries at the bend and the motion constraints, the robot turning capacity and turning condition are also analyzed. The vertical, bend, and other tests are performed on the experimental prototype, demonstrating that the screw-drive in-pipe robot provides sufficient tractive forces and good maneuverability and adaptability.


The Keg Mtn. Ranch 7.5 ~ quadrangle is in west-central Utah and includes the eastern part of Keg Mountain. The oldest rocks exposed in the quadrangle are Cambrian quartzite and limestone. These rocks were deformed during the Sevier orogeny, which produced thrust faults and folds that are exposed in adjacent quadrangles. Most of the quadrangle is underlain by Tertiary volcanic and intrusive rocks. Several calderas and cauldrons are in and near the Keg Mtn. Ranch quadrangle; they are part of a large, late Eocene to early Oligocene igneous center that spans the Thomas Range, Keg Mountain, and northern Drum Mountains. The major volcanic units of this age in the quadrangle (and sources) are, from oldest to youngest: the Keg Tuff (Keg cauldron); Mt. Laird Tuff (Thomas caldera); Joy Tuff (Dugway Valley cauldron); and Dell Tuff (unknown source). Late Miocene rhyolite of Keg Mountain and Topaz Mountain Rhyolite were erupted from scattered local vents. Lake Bonneville covered much of the quadrangle during the late Pleistocene and produced most of the surficial deposits. The lake left distinctive sediments and landforms, including marl, V-bars of the "Snow Plow," and prominent Bonneville and Provo shorelines. Other surficial deposits include stream alluvium, colluvium, and several generations of alluvial fan deposits. Potential mineral resources in the quadrangle include gold, sand and gravel, cement rock, high-calcium limestone, zeolites, crushed stone, and dimension stone.


The concept of the surface of a protein in solution, as well of the interface between protein and 'bulk solution', is introduced. The experimental technique of small angle X-ray and neutron scattering is introduced and described briefly. Molecular dynamics simulation, as an appropriate computational tool for studying the hydration shell of proteins, is also discussed. The concept of protein surfaces with fractal dimensions is elaborated. We finish by exposing an experimental (using small angle X-ray scattering) and a computer simulation case study, which are meant as demonstrations of the possibilities we have at hand for investigating the delicate interfaces that connect (and divide) protein molecules and the neighboring electrolyte solution.


Knowledge Graph Embedding (KGE) is the task of jointly learning entity and relation embeddings for a given knowledge graph. Existing methods for learning KGEs can be seen as a two-stage process where (a) entities and relations in the knowledge graph are represented using some linear algebraic structures (embeddings), and (b) a scoring function is defined that evaluates the strength of a relation that holds between two entities using the corresponding relation and entity embeddings. Unfortunately, prior proposals for the scoring functions in the first step have been heuristically motivated, and it is unclear as to how the scoring functions in KGEs relate to the generation process of the underlying knowledge graph. To address this issue, we propose a generative account of the KGE learning task. Specifically, given a knowledge graph represented by a set of relational triples (h,R, t), where the semantic relation R holds between the two entities h (head) and t (tail), we extend the random walk model (Arora et al., 2016a) of word embeddings to KGE. We derive a theoretical relationship between the joint probability p(h,R, t) and the embeddings of h, R and t. Moreover, we show that marginal loss minimisation, a popular objective used by much prior work in KGE, follows naturally from the log-likelihood ratio maximisation under the probabilities estimated from the KGEs according to our theoretical relationship. We propose a learning objective motivated by the theoretical analysis to learn KGEs from a given knowledge graph. The KGEs learnt by our proposed method obtain state-of-the-art performance on FB15K237 and WN18RR benchmark datasets, providing empirical evidence in support of the theory.


The middle-income trap (MIT) describes systemic growth obstacles shared by various countries that occur typically at the middle-income level of their development. The following analysis relies on Rostow's classification of the stages of economic development. We focus on Rostow stages three and four, where moving from labor intensive, import and foreign direct investment (FDI) driven growth to reliance on high value-added output and exports with embedded high content of capital and technology can render sustainable long-term growth problematic. To examine MIT we study Poland, which has relied on relatively low labor costs, imported technologies, funding from the European Union and FDI to attain middle-income status. A recent slowing in Poland's growth may signal that it has exhausted some of these growth factors and is more vulnerable to MIT. To assess this vulnerability, we analyze changes in Poland's factor productivity, investment patterns, FDI, labor force educational attainments, new technology/product development, imports, export diversification, product complexity, and other factors. We conclude that certain conditions consistent with MIT are gaining importance in Poland and represent a challenge to its future economic growth.


The authors discuss the study of the top quark at future experiments and machines. Top`s large mass makes it a unique probe of physics at the natural electroweak scale. They emphasize measurements of the top quark`s mass, width, and couplings, as well as searches for rare or nonstandard decays, and discuss the complementary roles played by hadron and lepton colliders.


1. The activities of six enzymes (hexokinase, phosphoglucose isomerase, phosphofructokinase, aldolase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and amylase) in extracts of pea cotyledons were determined. The activities during the first 10 days after germination showed individual and characteristic changes that indicate a specific control of both synthesis and destruction of enzymes. 2. Tissue contents of glucose, inorganic phosphate, glucose 6-phosphate, fructose 6-phosphate, ATP, ADP, AMP, NAD and NADP were also determined, and a correlation is reported between the substrate concentrations at day 1 and the subsequent enzymic activity. 3. The initial NAD(+)/NADH ratio value of 1 changed to about 3 by day 4; the NADP content was lower and changes in the oxidation state were less striking. The ratio of ATP to ADP and AMP remained virtually constant.


Conceptual clarification is one of the tasks of philosophy. In this paper, clarification will be given on the word 'womanhood'. Womanhood means the state of being a woman, as different from being a man or a girl. It is also a universal term used to refer to women in general. Some feminist writers who advocate gender neutrality have denied the reality of womanhood. The place of the woman, her power, her prospects and her problems are said to be socially prescribed. How true is this assertion?
The reality of the individuality of the woman is a combination of some factors such as cultural, sociological, psychological, environmental and religious. Our common experience in Nigeria points to the fact that these factors have not been static. They are further conditioned by the facts of our national history, our exposure and the level of indoctrination we have imbibed or are prepared to accept and force on others and ourselves. The main issue raised in this paper is, what actually determines the reality of a woman? Is it her biological make-up, her sociological experience or her religious experience? The view postulated in this paper is that, a woman is first, an individual living in a society, whose character, traits, capabilities and abilities are not limited by her sex. Secondly, she is definitely the product of her environment to the extent she allows her environment to determine her abilities. She can affect her environment for good only when she knows that her God-given being is both unique and necessary to the making of her environment and herself.
 SOPHIA: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 9 (1) 2006: pp. 68-73


Background Impetigo and scabies are endemic diseases in many tropical countries; however the epidemiology of these diseases is poorly understood in many areas, particularly in the Pacific. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted three epidemiological studies in 2006 and 2007 to determine the burden of disease due to impetigo and scabies in children in Fiji using simple and easily reproducible methodology. Two studies were performed in primary school children (one study was a cross-sectional study and the other a prospective cohort study over ten months) and one study was performed in infants (cross-sectional). The prevalence of active impetigo was 25.6% (95% CI 24.1–27.1) in primary school children and 12.2% (95% CI 9.3–15.6) in infants. The prevalence of scabies was 18.5% (95% CI 17.2–19.8) in primary school children and 14.0% (95% CI 10.8–17.2) in infants. The incidence density of active impetigo, group A streptococcal (GAS) impetigo, Staphylococcus aureus impetigo and scabies was 122, 80, 64 and 51 cases per 100 child-years respectively. Impetigo was strongly associated with scabies infestation (odds ratio, OR, 2.4, 95% CI 1.6–3.7) and was more common in Indigenous Fijian children when compared with children of other ethnicities (OR 3.6, 95% CI 2.7–4.7). The majority of cases of active impetigo in the children in our study were caused by GAS. S. aureus was also a common cause (57.4% in school aged children and 69% in infants). Conclusions/Significance These data suggest that the impetigo and scabies disease burden in children in Fiji has been underestimated, and possibly other tropical developing countries in the Pacific. These diseases are more than benign nuisance diseases and consideration needs to be given to expanded public health initiatives to improve their control.


Greenhouse growers increasingly consider conversion, because of fluctuating market prices and decreasing expected margins. Molecular farming (MF), using genetically modified (GM) plants as protein factories, is one of the eligible options to enhance profitability. Given current legislation and public opinion on GM plants, in particular in the EU, the containment production in greenhouses and its stable production conditions are seen as an opportunity for MF. This paper focuses on Arabidopsis thaliana as seed-specific production platform. To evaluate the factors which may be crucial for possible conversion of greenhouse companies and the possible impact of conversion at firm level, simulations are carried out based on individual data from greenhouse companies belonging to the Flemish Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Estimations of protein yields are based on experiments with Arabidopsis thaliana. Conversion simulations are carried out for different types of greenhouse companies (ornamental plants, vegetables) and for different yield levels of proteins. The results show that the impact of conversion to MF in greenhouse horticulture is highly firm specific. For each greenhouse company in the sample, on the basis of an opportunity cost perspective, a threshold price for conversion is calculated, allowing to construct supply curves for both ornamental plant and vegetable growers. These findings reveal feasibility for certain greenhouse growers to produce high-value recombinant proteins in limited amounts, such as medication for rare diseases and clinical trials. Sensitivity analyses show that threshold prices are influenced by productivity fluctuations, indicating that greenhouse MF has potential to improve competitiveness through technological progress. This opens perspectives for further profitability increases, while learning by doing, and for more growers to step into the MF system innovation.


Modern image classification systems are often built on deep neural networks, which suffer from adversarial examples--images with deliberately crafted, imperceptible noise to mislead the network's classification. To defend against adversarial examples, a plausible idea is to obfuscate the network's gradient with respect to the input image. This general idea has inspired a long line of defense methods. Yet, almost all of them have proven vulnerable. We revisit this seemingly flawed idea from a radically different perspective. We embrace the omnipresence of adversarial examples and the numerical procedure of crafting them, and turn this harmful attacking process into a useful defense mechanism. Our defense method is conceptually simple: before feeding an input image for classification, transform it by finding an adversarial example on a pre-trained external model. We evaluate our method against a wide range of possible attacks. On both CIFAR-10 and Tiny ImageNet datasets, our method is significantly more robust than state-of-the-art methods. Particularly, in comparison to adversarial training, our method offers lower training cost as well as stronger robustness.


Hyperhomocysteinemia represents elevated homocysteine (Hcys) concentrations in blood above the normal range. In humans, the normal range of homocysteine is 5.0–15.9 mM/ml. High levels of homocysteine disturb the normal epithelial functions and correlate with cardiovascular diseases even at slightly increased concentrations. In homocysteine metabolism, vitamins play an important role. The mechanism through which homocysteine triggers these effects is not yet elucidated, but the involvement of reactive species may be the answer. It is not known whether the intra- or extracellular antioxidant system is more affected by elevated homocysteine levels. We studied the effects of hyperhomocysteinemia on the intra- and extracellular antioxidant defense systems in two different types of diet in rats. Type I was food with low folic acid and vitamin B12 content and type II was food with normal amounts of these two vitamins. Hyperhomocysteinemia was experimentally induced by oral administration of methionine 2 mg/kg body weight, single daily dose, for a 15-day period. Plasma concentrations of homocysteine were measured using an HPLC method. In the response of the intracellular antioxidant defense system against hyperhomocysteinemia, we determined the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in red blood cells, using RANDOX kits for manual use. For the extracellular response we determined the plasma total antioxidant status (TAS) also using a RANDOX kit for manual use. Our data show that methionine load induces hyperhomocysteinemia despite normal vitamin supply in rats. SOD activity rose with simultaneous decrease in GPx activity independently of diet; this might suggest that the intracellular defense system was disturbed by the rise in homocysteine level. TAS decrease suggests that the extracellular antioxidant defense was also affected. We assume that hyperhomocysteinemia is directly linked to reactive species generation and the intracellular space seems to be more affected than the extracellular one.


In a context of rapid economic growth, skills development systems have become increasingly important to countries in Southeast Asia in response to skills gaps generated by changing labour-market conditions. Countries in the region have no alternative but to invest in the development and maintenance of these systems. This paper asserts that in doing so they should recognise the importance of adopting a definition of skills that encompasses cognitive and soft skills as well as technical skills, they should regard as being essential to the development of effective labour market information systems, and they should adopt and institutional frameworks that are adequate to the task of managing complex and effective national skills development systems.


BACKGROUND
Less nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping has been associated with greater odds for the metabolic syndrome (MetS), a constellation of risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Little work has examined this association in Hispanics, who have elevated rates of MetS, or investigated differences in this relationship by level of acculturation. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between BP dipping and MetS in Hispanic women and to determine if this association is moderated by acculturation status.

METHODS
Two hundred eighty-six Mexican American women underwent assessment of MetS components (BP, waist circumference, fasting glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides) and completed a 36-hour ambulatory BP monitoring protocol, during which systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP readings were obtained. Nocturnal BP dipping was calculated as the percentage difference between average daytime and nighttime BP. Acculturation was defined by the language (Spanish, English) in which participants preferred to complete study instruments.

RESULTS
Although no significant main effects for BP dipping or acculturation emerged for MetS, the SBP dipping by acculturation interaction was significantly related to MetS (P < 0.01). Simple slope analyses revealed that less SBP dipping related to greater odds of MetS in high-acculturated women, but SBP dipping and MetS were unrelated in low-acculturated women.

CONCLUSIONS
The strength of the association between BP dipping and CVD risk (as measured by MetS) appears to vary by acculturation in Hispanic women. Future studies should explore mechanisms behind the BP dipping and CVD risk association and relevant modifying factors.


Abstract This article brings new perspectives on state–citizen relations in African petro-states by analysing the role of Nigerian trade unions in the recurring fuel subsidy protests. Nigerian trade unions have played an instrumental role in protests against fuel subsidy removals since the mid-1980s, most recently in the massive 2012 protest known as 'Occupy Nigeria'. Based on the idea that the fuel subsidy forms part of a social contract in Nigeria, and through revisiting T. H. Marshall's seminal work on citizenship and industrial citizenship, I propose that the protests are sites for popular assertions of broader citizenship, as people rally behind the fuel subsidy as a social right and affirm political rights to participate and civil rights to bargain. This article further argues that the trade unions act as a mediator between state and citizens – that is, embedded in their industrial citizenship with collective forms of representation, organizing and bargaining. In this way, Nigerian trade unions have kept their relevance for workers and beyond, despite eroded labour rights. However, this social contract is fragile, contextual and contradictory, and the mediating role of the unions carries challenges and ambiguities, which became particularly clear in the 2012 protest.


The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the labor shortage is described at the national level and how these problematizations correlate to gender and diversity politics. The paper is overview of the governance of staff shortages in elderly care, how it is articulated and how the governmental scenario of solutions, which includes the channeling of unemployed migrants into elderly care. Politicians and public media describe the situation as desperate and the issue of the staff shortages in elderly care is described as a state of crisis. A highly profiled solution is to open up elderly care for unemployed migrants.,By analyzing specific management strategies for controlling a phenomenon, the paper will also be able to highlight values surrounding the phenomenon. The ambition is to understand how institutions, authorities and organizations handle practical forms of knowledge that are aimed to implement a particular policy or working method within the welfare system.,One important aspect of the findings is the ways in which these official political discourses link the issues of migration and the shortages of staff in elderly care. But also visualize factors in how the government bodies with the formal responsibilities and authorities express their concerns about these links and the quality of the elderly care more generally.,It is well-known that migrants are employed to take care of the growing population of elderly in Europe. In Spain and Italy, for example, immigrants are frequently employed directly by families to care for their elderly family members. This type of employment entails a series of new social risks. The most important of those risks is the global "care chain" that these arrangements incur for the sending families, who lose a family member on whom they depend. This paper is connecting the international research on the global "care chain," but focuses on the Swedish context, where the migrants already are established and elderly care work is not linked to migration in the same way. However, the experience of migration and the importance of transnational and cultural knowledge can be influential in understanding the changing processes in Swedish elderly care, not the least as the question of staff recruitment has been linked to migration by the highest political levels.


Rotating convection is analysed numerically in a cylinder of aspect ratio one, for Prandtl number about 7. Traditionally, the problem has been studied within the Boussinesq approximation with density variation only incorporated in the gravitational buoyancy term and not in the centrifugal buoyancy term. In that limit, the governing equations admit a trivial conduction solution. However, the centrifugal buoyancy changes the problem in a fundamental manner, driving a large-scale circulation in which cool denser fluid is centrifuged radially outward and warm less-dense fluid is centrifuged radially inward, and so there is no trivial conduction state. For small Froude numbers, the transition to three-dimensional flow occurs for Rayleigh number R ≈ 7.5 × 103. For Froude numbers larger than 0.4, the centrifugal buoyancy stabilizes the axisymmetric large-scale circulation flow in the parameter range explored (up to R = 3.5 × 104). At intermediate Froude numbers, the transition to three-dimensional flow is via four different Hopf bifurcations, resulting in different coexisting branches of three-dimensional solutions. How the centrifugal and the gravitational buoyancies interact and compete, and the manner in which the flow becomes three-dimensional is different along each branch. The centrifugal buoyancy, even for relatively small Froude numbers, leads to quantitative and qualitative changes in the flow dynamics.


From the simple device to complex assembly, protection against corrosion is the most important treatment. As well as known, this treatment could be done in different varieties in the function of available resources and depending on economic price. Most of the time, protection is made with the use of one material, that holds the highest anti-corrosion characteristics, through a form of a thin film layer. Among various materials, zinc may be considered as one. Zinc could be applied under the thin layer during the hot dip galvanized steel process. During this procedure of steel coating, some cracks are initiated in the intermetallic layer δ and spread in the layered surface of the zinc coating. For the simulation of this process we use the finite element method (FEM). The realization of modelling is done in the bi-material steel-zinc model, using the computer software application Abaqus 6.10.1. Kljucne reci


Policing has never been an easy job. Police Officers are often required to perform physically demanding tasks as part of their police duty. For this they need a reasonable level of physical fitness to deal effectively with situations as well as defending themselves or others against attack. It is essential that they possess a standard of physical fitness which will enable them to perform these tasks pro:fessionally, and without the risk of injury, when the need arises. It is for this reason that minimum standards of physical fitness must be achieved by candidates wishing to join the Police Service as well as serving officers. This paper examines the perceptions of the Police Recruits on the physical training programmes offered at the Kenya Police Training College, Kiganio. It is intended that by understanding the perceptions of the programmes, suggestions for improvement will be made.


Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which affects peripheral nerves, skin and mucous membranes. The impairment of neural function as well as sensory or sensory-motor disabilities in leprosy continue to be a problem that requires careful attention in the management of patients with the aim to avoid or minimize their progression to prevent sequelae. One of the most common characteristics of these ulcers is the tendency to chronicity, with variable therapeutic response. In this article, we shall discuss the therapeutic management of thirteen trophic leprosy ulcers in eight patients using polyhexanide 0.2% products.


As medical and pharmacological technology advances, new and complex modalities of disease treatment that are more personalized and targeted are being developed. Often these modalities must be validated in the presence of critical components of the human biological system. Given the incongruencies between murine and human biology, as well as the human-tropism of certain drugs and pathogens, the selection of animal models that accurately recapitulate the intricacies of the human biological system becomes more salient for disease modeling and preclinical testing. Immunodeficient mice engrafted with functional human tissues (so-called humanized mice), which allow for the study of physiologically relevant disease mechanisms, have thus become an integral aspect of biomedical research. This review discusses the recent advancements and applications of humanized mouse models on human immune system and liver humanization in modeling human diseases, as well as how they can facilitate translational medicine. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Volume 10 is February 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Challenges Perceived by Cooperating Teachers when Supervising Student Teachers in Agricultural Education Samantha L. Cogle Cooperating teachers face challenges when supervising student teachers. This study aimed to identify perceived challenges by secondary agricultural educators when supervising a student teacher from West Virginia University's Agricultural Education and Extension department. The cooperating teachers were asked to identify perceived challenges that their student teachers encountered along with the challenges they encountered as a cooperating teacher. The study also aimed to discover how significant the cooperating teachers felt those challenges were and how frequently they occurred with student teachers they had. Using a descriptive research modified Delphi study the population was able to list the challenges and express the significance and frequency of those challenges. The results from all three phases produced different challenges that cooperating teachers perceived. Phase II produced 14 challenges related to the student teacher and three challenges rated to the cooperating teacher. These included discipline procedures, content knowledge, preparation, time management, and time commitment to the student teaching experience. The three challenges cooperating teachers identified themselves encountering were related to needed materials and time commitment associated with being a student teacher in the agricultural education field. Based on the results of the study department faculty is able to address them before sending student teachers out. The study also opened other windows for research.


The Q system provides interoperability support for multilingual, heterogeneous component-based software systems. Initial development of Q began in 1988, and was driven by the very pragmatic need for a communication mechanism between a client program written in Ada and a server written in C. The initial design was driven by language features present in C, but not in Ada, or vice-versa. In time our needs and aspirations grew and Q evolved to support other languages, such as C++, Lisp, Prolog, Java, and Tcl. As a result of pervasive usage by the Arcadia SDE research project, usage levels and modes of the Q system grew and so more emphasis was placed upon portability, reliability, and performance. In that context we identified specific ways in which programming language support systems can directly impede effective interoperability. This necessitated extensive changes to both our conceptual model and our implementation of the Q system. We also discovered the need to support modes of interoperability far more complex than the usual client-server. The continued evolution of Q has allowed the architecture of Arcadia software to become highly distributed and component-based, exploiting components written in a variety of languages. In addition to becoming an Arcadia project mainstay, and has also been made available to over 100 other sites, and it is currently in use in a variety of other projects. This paper summarizes key points that have been learned from this considerable base of experience.


We study the numerical integration of nonholonomic problems. The problems are formulated using Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. We review briefly the theoretical concepts used in geometric mechanics. We reconstruct two nonholonomic variational integrators from the monograph of Monforte. We also construct two one-step integrators based on a combination of the continuous Legendre transform and the discrete Legendre transform from an article by Marsden and West. Inintially these integrators display promising behavior, but they turn out to be unstable. The variational integrators are compared with a classical Runge-Kutta method. We compare the methods on three nonholonomic systems: The nonholonomic particle from the monograph of Monforte, the nonholonomic system of particles from an article by McLachlan and Perlmutter, and a variation of the Chaplygin sleigh from Bloch.


Regular service audits since 2008 gave a stoma care department confidence in the service it provides. In 2016 the department undertook a new audit to benchmark its services, using the Association of Stoma Care Nurses (ASCN) UK Revised Stoma Care Nursing Standards and Audit Tool (2015). Of the 60 questionnaires given out, 43 were returned (71%). The results highlighted areas of good practice with positive patient feedback. However, it also identified that the team needed to improve documentation when offering patients the opportunity to meet a visitor preoperatively and when discussing lifestyle issues. The results demonstrated poor preoperative compliance; this was lower than expected and did not concur with department statistics. The audit highlights the importance of clarity when developing a questionnaire to ensure all respondents not only interpret its meaning in the same way, but also only answer the questions specific to them.


Dwarf carbon (dC) stars (main-sequence stars showing carbon molecular bands) were initially thought to be an oxymoron because only asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars dredge carbon into their atmospheres. Mass transfer from a former AGB companion that has since faded to a white dwarf seems the most likely explanation. Indeed, a few types of giants known to show anomalous abundances—notably, the CH, Ba and CEMP-s stars—are known to have a high binary frequency. The dC stars may be the enhanced-abundance progenitors of most, if not all of these systems, but this requires demonstrating a high binary frequency for dCs. Here, for a sample of 240 dC stars targeted for repeat spectroscopy by the SDSS-IV's Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey, we analyze radial velocity (RV) variability to constrain the binary frequency and orbital properties. A handful of dC systems show large velocity variability (>100 km s−1). We compare the dCs to a control sample with a similar distribution of magnitude, color, proper motion, and parallax. Using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, we use the measured ΔRV distribution to estimate the binary fraction and the separation distribution assuming both a unimodal and bimodal distribution. We find the dC stars have an enhanced binary fraction of 95%, consistent with them being products of mass transfer. These models result in mean separations of less than 1 au corresponding to periods on the order of 1 yr. Our results support the conclusion that dC stars form from close binary systems via mass transfer.


It has been pointed out to me that some of the statistical ideas employed in the following investigation have never received a strictly logical definition and analysis. The idea of a frequency curve, for example, evidently implies an infinite hypothetical population distributed in a definite manner; but equally evidently the idea of an infinite hypothetical population requires a more precise logical specification than is contained in that phrase. The same may be said of the intimately connected idea of random sampling. These ideas have grown up in the minds of practical statisticians and lie at the basis especially of recent work; there can be no question of their pragmatic value. It was no part of my original intention to deal with the logical bases of these ideas, but some comments which Dr Burnside has kindly made have convinced me that it may be desirable to set out for criticism the manner in which I believe the logical foundations of these ideas may be established.


Abstract
Arsenic contamination in shallow groundwater aquifers in the lower Gangetic basin constitutes a major health hazard in the Bengal basin extended over Bangladesh and India. It has been estimated that at least 35 million people in Bangladesh and 6 million people in India are severely affected by arsenic-contaminated water. More so, about 57 and 9 million people in Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively, are exposed to arsenic-contamination risk. The use of hazardous, arsenic-bearing groundwater for drinking, cooking, and irrigation in West Bengal and Bangladesh has led to what has been described by the WHO as the worst case of mass poisoning in human history. In case of West Bengal, the problem of arsenic contamination was discovered in the 1980s; since then several mitigation measures were adopted by the provincial and federal governments, community organizations, and NGOs. Yet, poor infrastructural arrangements, dire poverty, lack of awareness, and education increased the risk of arsenic exposure over the decades. In this chapter, an effort has been made to critically analyze the extent of mitigation measures adopted so far in the state of West Bengal. It discusses in detail the chronological responses of the provincial government in arsenic risk mitigation, implementation of adopted mitigation measures, and the consequent response and actions of arsenic-affected communities in West Bengal. The chapter also highlights the emerging challenges of arsenic risk mitigation in West Bengal and proposes a "system-based" framework for risk mitigation.


Freelance journalists constitute a flexible workforce for contemporary media companies. This paper analyzes ten working life interviews with freelance journalists from Norrbotten, the northernmost county of Sweden. It focuses on the informant's ethical considerations concerning information work. Previous research mainly focuses on other forms of ethical considerations. My results show that there is a tendency among the freelancers to take on non-journalism assignments, with nine out of ten informants telling about experiences of information work. The discussions about information work are analyzed using discourse theory and narrative theory. The ethics expressed by the freelancers are individual ethics, rather than professional principles. Informant's main concern are their own credibility and integrity, and boundaries are set up to maintain these. Boundaries however seem to be under negotiation, and personal survival for their business in some cases override ethical considerations. According to my own analysis, the purpose of these boundary settings is to mantain the journalist's biographical narrative and self-identity as a stand-up person, who is critical to those in power and has principles and integrity. These are characteristics commonly associated with journalist professional identity.


The midge Belgica antarctica is the only insect endemic to Antarctica and has the southernmost range of any insect. In its natural environment, B. antarctica frequently faces desiccating conditions, as environmental water is frozen for up to 9 months annually. The molecular mechanisms by which B. antarctica tolerates extreme dehydration are poorly understood, but recent work from our laboratory reports genome-wide expression changes in response to extreme dehydration (~40% water loss), the first genome-scale transcriptome reported for an Antarctic animal. Among transcripts differentially regulated during dehydration, there is coordinated upregulation of numerous genes involved in autophagy, including genes responsible for autophagosome synthesis and autophagy-associated transcription factors. Also, several genes and pathways that interact with and regulate autophagy, e.g., sestrins and proteasomal genes, are concurrently upregulated. This suggests that autophagy and related processes are key elements regulating stress tolerance in this extreme environment.


The flexible ramp reserve of dispatchable generators is a key effective means to compensate the fast fluctuation of wind power generators and the forecast error of demand. This article proposes a stochastic network-constrained unit commitment (NCUC) model to determine, on daily horizon, the optimal schedule of generation units along with the required flexible ramp and spinning reserves under uncertainties of wind power and demand. Point estimate method (PEM) is utilized to reduce the number of scenarios that model wind power and demand uncertainties. In addition to PEM scenarios, some worst-case scenarios based on regional wind and demand variations are defined and incorporated in the proposed model. The NCUC model includes for these scenarios various technical constraints of generation units and operation constraints of the network. To ensure computational tractability of NCUC model, the ac network operation constraints are linearized. The proposed mixed integer linear programming NCUC model is tested using the IEEE 118-bus system. The obtained results show better units scheduling than the conventional (deterministic) NCUC model.


ABSTRACT Optimal mobility is fundamental for healthy ageing and quality of life. This study is part of a cross-sectional population-based study of 85-year-old people residing in Linköping municipality, Sweden. The purpose was to describe 85-year-old peoples' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in relation to mobility and fall risk while adjusting for gender and body mass index. Data collection included a postal questionnaire, a home visit and a reception visit. HRQoL was assessed with EQ-5D-3L, mobility with the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and fall risk with the Downton Fall Risk Index (DFRI). All those who completed the DFRI, TUG and EQ-5D-3L were included in the present study (N = 327). Lower HRQoL was associated with longer time taken to complete TUG and higher fall risk in both genders but not with body mass index. Women had higher risk of falling, took a longer time to complete TUG and reported less physical activity compared with men. Health-care professionals should address mobility capacity and fall risk in order to maintain quality of life in elderly people. This is of utmost importance, especially for elderly women because impaired mobility, high risk of falling and occurrence of pain are common among women, and related to lower HRQoL.


Damage prediction of buried pipeline under earthquake environments is the first stage for the seismic risk analysis. In this paper, we use a Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) method for the pipeline damage prediction even though many studies have been performed so far with the aid of empirical, statistical, and/or theoretical methods. By employing the KDD method, much higher accurate damage prediction could be done for better understanding of pipeline damage distribution. Related factors were analyzed by a GIS based model of the Kobe water buried pipelines in the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, and a decision tree of pipeline damage classification was developed based on the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) method. A verification of the method was focused to the modeled area, and accuracy of the proposed prediction method was confirmed in comparison with an actual damage as well as predicted ones by commonly used formula of damage estimation. Results of the developed KDD model showed that the model could predict correctly the number of damage in pipeline network. The proposed method by KDD turned out the distribution of damage better than other damage estimation methods.


A bidirectional zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) and zero-current-switching (ZCS) full-bridge dc-dc converter is proposed in this paper. The proposed full-bridge converter topology with low ripple input current, which converts the energy from battery to DC bus (or load) and vice versa. In order to improve the overall efficiency, the proposed bidirectional converter uses the leakage inductance of the transformer and a capacitor to achieve circuit resonance. The resonant frequency is operated in about double frequencies of the primary switch. In this paper, the main switches and output synchronous rectifiers are operated in ZVS and ZCS when being switched on and switched off. Converter description and operating principles of the proposed converter are discussed in this paper. Finally, a laboratory prototype with output power 250W in both buck/charge operation mode and boost/discharge operation mode is implemented to validate the theoretical analysis.


The treatment of self-injurious behavior in adults with mental retardation is a major challenge. A critical review of the literature compares sensory-based treatment studies by behavioral psychologists with sensory integrative treatment studies by occupational therapists. In general, therapists have used direct intervention in concentrated daily sessions. This report includes a single subject study that (a) demonstrates the clinical reasoning involved in the assessment and treatment planning process, (b) documents the efficacy of multiple short treatment sessions spread throughout the day, and (c) presents an alternative model of service provision in which direct care staff provide sensory and adaptive activities under the supervision of an occupational therapist. The use of sensory integration with adults with profound handicaps is presented as a valid application of a theory and treatment that was originally developed from work with higher functioning children with learning disabilities.


Background The diagnosis of pheochromocytoma is based on laboratory tests that demonstrate an increase in urinary excretion of catecholamines or their metabolites. Chromogranin A (CgA) is a member of the granin family and is widely distributed in neuroendocrine cells and particularly in chromaffin adrenal cells. Consequently, serum CgA increases in patients affected by pheochromocytoma and other diseases of the chromaffin system. Aim This study investigated the performance of serum CgA assay in the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma and compared serum CgA with 24-hour urinary epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and metanephrines (MNs). Methods We enrolled 15 patients with histologically proven pheochromocytoma; 100 healthy blood donors and 148 patients with essential hypertension were enrolled as controls. Serum CgA was assayed by a specific immunoradiometric method (IRMA). Urinary tests were done with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results Circulating CgA showed a higher sensitivity (1.00), specificity (0.96) and accuracy (0.96) than all other tests. Serum levels of CgA clearly increased from blood donors and patients with essential hypertension to patients with pheochromocytoma (p<0.0001). Furthermore, a strong relationship between serum CgA and tumor mass was found (p<0.0001). In conclusion, our data suggest that the CgA assay might be used as a single test for the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma.


Measures of the time-domain energy associated with the current and charge on thin wires, located over a conductive halfspace, are evaluated. The solution is obtained from a time-domain version of the Hallen integral equation, solved by a timemarching procedure. The energy measures involve spatially integrating the square of the current and charge along the wire as a function of time.


When John Updike died in 2009, tributes from the literary establishment were immediate and fulsome. However, no one reading reviews of Updike's work in the late 1960s would have predicted that kind of praise for a man who was known then as a brilliant stylist who had nothing to say. What changed? Why? And what is likely to be his legacy? These are the questions that Becoming John Updike pursues by examining the journalistic and academic response to his writings. Several things about Updike's career make a reception study appropriate. First, he was prolific: he began publishing fiction and essays in 1956, published his first book in 1958, and from then on, brought out at least one new book each year. Second, his books were reviewed widely - usually in major American newspapers and magazines, and often in foreign ones as well. Third, Updike quickly became a darling of academics; the first book about his work was published in 1967, less than a decade after his own first book. More than three dozen books and hundreds of articles of academic criticism have been devoted to Updike. The present volume will appeal to the continuing interest in Updike's writing among academics and general readers alike. Laurence W. Mazzeno is President Emeritus of Alvernia University. Among other books, he has written volumes on Austen, Dickens, Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold for Camden House's Literary Criticism in Perspective series.


More often than not biomarker studies analyze large quantities of variables with complicated and generally unknown correlation structure. There are numerous statistical methods which attempt to unravel these variables and determine the underlying mechanism through identification of causally related biomarkers. Results from these methods are generally difficult to interpret and nearly impossible to compare across studies. The FDA has currently called for a standardization of methods and protocol for biomarker detection. In response, we propose targeted variable importance (tVIM) as a standardized method for biomarker discovery. Through the use of targeted Maximum Likelihood, tVIM provides double robust estimates of variable importance along with formal inference. These measures are biologically interpretable as a causal effect under specified conditions, allowing for reproducibility across populations. In this analysis we compare tVIM to four different measures of importance provided by three different statistical methods: univariate linear regression (LM), LASSO penalized multiple regression (Q), and two importance measures from randomForest (RF1 and RF2). Their performance is compared in simulation under conditions of increasing correlation. We are interested in their ability to distinguish "true" relevant biomarkers from correlated decoy biomarkers. The comparisons are based on the resulting ranked variable list for each method using the importance measures and p-values when available. In simulation, tVIM coupled with a data-adaptive model selection method outperforms linear regression, LASSO, and randomForest and is more resilient to increases in correlation. In application we apply all methods to the Golub et al 1999 Leukemia data and compare the resulting gene lists based on biological relevance. Both LM and tVIM are also applied to the van't Veer breast cancer data. We compare them based on the top 10 most important genes. From these results, tVIM appears to rank more biologically relevant genes at the top its list than the other methods. Given extreme correlations, methods to reduce bias and provide realistic gene lists are also discussed.


The general distribution of benefit was skewed to major urban centers, educated individuals, employee and individuals headed by formal employee and employers. But in terms of income the economic environment was very effective in avoiding the destitution among the most impoverished but not to rise the over all income among the poor. The economic environment in period 1995 to 2000 seems to discourage the risk takers and failed to improve the welfare of those better off poor. So if better distribution was strong side of this period; inability to raise incomes and discouraged risk taking behavior were the main short comings.


Human prostate cells chronically infected with the Mantooth strain of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) virus multiply normally, fuse only occasionally to form giant cells, and yet have twisted intracytoplasmic nucleocapsids. These cells are able to support replication of vesicular stomatitis virus, although they release only small amounts of SSPE virus. To determine why carrier cells do not produce virus, they were examined with techniques for surface replication, freeze-fracturing, and immunoperoxidase labeling with SSPE antibody. The surface of carrier cells, like that of productive cells, is characterized by ridges crowned with viral antigens and devoid of the intramembrane particles revealed by freeze-fracture techniques. Since surface ridges form where nucleocapsids attach to the membrane, the shape and length of ridges are indicative of the shape and length of the underlying nucleocapsid. Whereas ridges on productive cells are serpentine in shape, those on carrier cells are typically straight or hairpin shaped, and the hairpin ridges are twice as long as serpentine ridges on productive cells. Furthermore, the spacing between ridges on carrier cells is never as small as that in productive infections, so that continuous sheets of viral membrane are never formed. The majority of carrier cells lack the round viral buds observed in productive cells but have, instead, many elongated processes attached to the cell surface. Each of these processes contains one or two hairpin ridges overlying hairpin-shaped nucleocapsids. These "hairpin buds" are restricted to a single region of the carrier cell surface, whereas viral buds are distributed over the entire surface of productive cells. Thus, there are several structural defects in carrier cells that depend on the specific interaction of a certain viral strain with a certain cell type. These defects prevent the deployment of viral antigen in some regions of the cell surface, the formation of nucleocapsids of normal length, the coiling of attached nucleocapsids, and the consolidation of sheets of viral membrane into spherical buds with the nucleocapsids coiled inside. These defects may account for the failure of carrier cells to shed infectious virus.


As events take place in the real world, e.g., sports games and marketing campaigns, people react and interact on online social networks (OSNs), especially microblog services such as Twitter, generating a large stream of data. Analyzing this data presents an opportunity for researchers and companies to better understand human behavior (both on the network and in real life) during the event's lifespan. Designing automated systems to conduct these analyses in fractions of minutes (or even seconds) is subjected to many challenges: the volume of data is large, the number of posts in future events cannot be predicted, and the system need to be always available and running smoothly to avoid information loss and delays on delivering the analytics results. In this paper, we present a scalable architecture for real-time analysis of microblogging data, with the ability to deal with large volumes of posts, by considering modular parallel workflows. This architecture, which has been implemented on the IBM InfoSphere Streams platform, was tested on a real-world use case to conduct sentiment analysis of Twitter posts during the games of the 2013 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Confederations Cup, and the system has successfully coped with the challenges of this task.


ISSUE ADDRESSED
To assess the effect of anti-tobacco television advertising in comparison to other anti-tobacco interventions for Aboriginal people in remote communities in the Northern Territory.

METHOD
This research was carried out as part of a large study evaluating the effect of multi-component, evidence-based tobacco interventions developed in three remote communities. Community surveys (assessing changes in smoking behaviour and exposure to tobacco interventions) were used to assess exposure to and effect of television advertising, relative to other interventions over the intervention year.

RESULTS
351 community members were interviewed. Exposure to anti-tobacco television advertising was high among both smokers and non-smokers (86% vs. 85%, p = 0.78). However, those who recalled seeing anti-tobacco advertising were no more likely to have quit than those who had not (11 exposed (6%) vs. 3 non-exposed (10%), Fisher's Exact Test p = 0.42). Logistic regression showed that exposure to individual tobacco interventions was not associated with an increased chance of cessation during the intervention year.

CONCLUSION
Recall of anti-tobacco television advertising was high in these remote Aboriginal communities; more Aboriginal people recalled exposure to anti-tobacco television advertising than to any other cessation intervention. Although the overall cessation rate was low, a small number of smokers had given up as a result of seeing these television advertisements.


This paper describes work performed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency CORONET-funded Protocols and Architectures for Resilient Agile Global Optical Networks project to build an integrated IP/optical layer (OL) restoration architecture that combines transponder-shared mesh restoration at the OL with innovative methods of using router line cards and OL reconfigurability to restore from a layer 3 outage. This is a significant advancement over current restoration strategies, which typically add significant additional layer 3 capacity (i.e., additional IP links) to allow all failures to be restored at layer 3 alone. The network and restoration architectures in the integrated restoration method are described, as are design methodologies for each layer. A realistic cost model is applied to demonstrate that the proposed integrated IP/OL restoration strategy may have significant cost advantages for a core IP network when compared to the commonly used restoration strategies today.


Purpose

This paper aims to demonstrate that self-persuasion can be used as a marketing technique to increase consumers' generosity and that the efficacy of this approach is dependent on consumers' involvement with target behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental field-study was conducted to investigate the effects of self-persuasion versus direct persuasion attempts versus no persuasion attempts on consumers' tipping behavior in a lunchroom. Additionally, in a lab experiment, the moderating role of involvement on self-persuasion versus direct persuasion was tested.

Findings

The results reveal that self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion attempts or no persuasive messages in increasing consumers' generosity. This is moderated by consumers' involvement with the target behavior. For consumers with high involvement, self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion, while no differences were found for consumers with moderate or low involvement.

Practical implications

The scope of self-persuasion is not limited to the inhibition of undesired behavior, but it also extends to the facilitation of desired behavior, which considerably broadens the scope of this technique. Self-persuasion might be used as a marketing technique to influence consumers' purchase behavior. This might be particularly viable in situations in which consumers feel high involvement with products or behavior.

Originality/value

Recently, research in health psychology demonstrated that self-persuasion is a very effective way of inhibiting undesired, addictive behavior and being more successful than direct persuasion. Yet, insufficient knowledge is available about the efficacy of self-persuasion with regard to promoting other target behaviors. In particular, its potential as a marketing technique to influence consumers' behavior and its boundary conditions are still understudied.


Driven by public concern about sex offenses, in recent years Congress has repeatedly enhanced the penalties for federal sex offenders. In doing so, it has responded to the predominant portrayal of sex offenders as inhuman predators, and heeded the demand of victims rights groups for longer sentences. However, it has failed to consider the special make-up of the sex offender population sentenced in federal court. While only a small number of all sex offenders are sentenced in federal court, over half of them are Native Americans. The culpability and future risk of many Native American sex offenders, however, differs dramatically from that of non-Native American offenders. Many of them are situational rather than dispositional offenders. The guidelines fail to account for unique features, such as the high alcoholism rate on reservations, which may contribute to sex offenses committed by Native Americans. In addition, the federal sentencing regime does not consider the special impact of incarceration upon them. This article calls upon the U.S. Sentencing Commission to use its special expertise and institutional position to help create more equitable and fair sentencing policies for all, and to start by addressing the impact of current sentencing practices on Native American sex offenders. This request is based on the Commission's statutory obligation to assist Congress in creating a rational and humane sentencing policy. The article outlines a number of possibilities to address the plight of Native American sex offenders. Among them are the recognition of novel departure grounds and allowing federal courts to consider comparable state sentences in imposing punishment. While such proposals ask that fundamental tenets of guideline sentencing be reconsidered, they promise greater justice and fairness for all.


As a first step to deriving effective dynamics and ray op- tics, we prove that the perturbed periodic Maxwell operator in d = 3 can be seen as a pseudodifferential operator. This necessitates a better understanding of the periodic Maxwell operator M0. In particular, we characterize the behavior of M0 and the physical initial states at small crystal momenta k and small frequencies. Among other things, we prove that generically the band spectrum is symmetric with re- spect to inversions at k = 0 and that there are exactly 4 ground state bands with approximately linear dispersion near k = 0.


Association Rule mining plays an important role in the discovery of knowledge and information. Association Rule mining discovers huge number of rules for any dataset for different support and confidence values, among this many of them are redundant, especially in the case of multi-level datasets. Mining non-redundant Association Rules in multi-level dataset is a big concern in field of Data mining. In this paper, we present a definition for redundancy and a concise representation called Reliable Exact basis for representing non-redundant Association Rules from multi-level datasets. The given non-redundant Association Rules are loss less representation for any datasets.


The number of older Canadians is growing rapidly and many will continue to drive to meet their transportation needs. Most older drivers are safe drivers; however, with advancing age, some develop medical conditions and associated impairment that may affect their driving ability. Often these medical conditions are first recognized when they seek emergency care. In this cross-sectional study, we collected data on a sample of 92 older drivers (57 males and 35 females) aged >= 70 years, who were treated in an urban emergency department (ED) for acute illness or injuries. We asked about their perceived driving ability, driving habits, and transportation needs. About one third of respondents had never taken public transit in the past year. Most drove for grocery shopping, visiting family and friends, and medical appointments. Sixty eight drivers also agreed to take tests for cognitive ability, visual acuity and reaction time. All 68 drivers passed vision screening and no drivers showed severe cognitive impairment. However, ten drivers (10/68, 14.7%) failed the Trail Making Test B test and 14 drivers (14/68, 20.6%) had slow reaction time according to a ruler drop test. Medical chart review revealed that close to 40 percent were taking sedating medications that could impair driving and 20 percent had a discharge diagnosis of a medical condition that could potentially affect their driving. In conclusion, many ED older drivers depend on driving to meet their mobility needs. Screening tests and medical chart review suggest that some of these drivers may have conditions that could affect their ability to drive safely.


Three patients presented with cerebellar hemispheric astrocytic tumors which showed an exophytic growth pattern. The neuroimaging appearances of these cases mimicked a cerebellopontine angle tumor in two cases, and a posterior fossa extra-axial tumor in the other, which arose from the left cerebellar hemisphere with exophytic extension into the left crural and quadrigeminal cisterns and compressed the midbrain directly. All patients underwent surgical resection, and two patients also received adjuvant radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Intraoperative findings confirmed that the tumors had intramedullary origins from the cerebellar hemisphere, and extended exophytically into the subarachnoid space forming an extra-axial mass lesion. The histological diagnoses were mixed malignant oligo-astrocytoma (grade III), astrocytoma (grade II), and glioblastoma (grade IV). Cerebellar gliomas with exophytic growth to the cerebellopontine angle cistern should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cerebellopontine angle tumors.


With the development and penetration of business information systems, information systems outsourcing (IS Outsourcing) has attracted more and more interests from both managers and IT vendors. Meanwhile, there is an increasing number of theoretical research papers in academic journals. This paper reviews major theoretical research papers in this area and classifies them from the perspectives of research topics, research methods, journal categories, and theoretical foundations. Based on this review, we propose some directions for future research in IS outsourcing.


The research presented investigates the use of non-content features for effective information retrieval. We use the expression noncontent features to refer to the structural markup within a document or a collection and the document's surface features, i.e. document's (derived) metadata (e.g. size). Our main hypothesis is that the best use information retrieval systems can make of this type of information will be determined by the different types of search tasks and contextual factors. We focus our investigation on three main aspects: (1) The analysis of existing and the creation of new retrieval strategies on the use of noncontent features, (2) the use of relevance feedback techniques to refine the non-content information given a user need, and (3) the study of the relationships between user search tasks and contextual factors and the structural characteristics of the relevant information.


The ovine beta-lactoglobulin gene is expressed efficiently and at high levels in the mammary gland of transgenic mice. In contrast, when this gene is linked to a second gene construct comprising a mammalian cDNA or a CAT reporter sequence it fails to be expressed in the majority of transgenic lines generated. We suggest that mammalian cDNAs and prokaryotic reporter sequences can serve as active foci for gene silencing in the mammalian genome.


This article examines the touristic consumption of Paris in cinema, through a concept of the cinematic postcard as a commodification of history and place, arguing that film participates in and also illuminates touristic relations to the city. The article proposes two iterations of the cinematic postcard: a 'glossy' postcard that incorporates past and present into a cohesively framed urban space, and 'virtual collectibles' that encourage the serial accumulation of familiar signs of place. While connected through a nostalgic relation to the urban past, these iterations reflect different anxieties about the city and are emphasised in different aesthetic strategies, which the article pursues through close analysis of two films: Vincent Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2001). In the troubled Paris of the early postwar years, the tourist gaze of cinema provided a cohesive image constructed from a selective, cultural past, anticipating a postmodern aesthetic of nostalgia as identified by Fredric Jameson. In the age of what Boris Groys calls 'total tourism' and its proliferation of the collection and online display of images of place, the emphasis has shifted from transmission to the virtual collection of desirable, analogue images of Paris.


Network science provides a universal framework for modeling complex systems, contrasting the reductionist approach generally adopted in physics. In a prototypical study, we utilize network models created from spectroscopic data of atoms to predict microscopic properties of the underlying physical system. For simple atoms such as helium, an a posteriori inspection of spectroscopic network communities reveals the emergence of quantum numbers and symmetries. For more complex atoms such as thorium, finer network hierarchies suggest additional microscopic symmetries or configurations. Furthermore, link prediction in spectroscopic networks yields a quantitative ranking of yet unknown atomic transitions, offering opportunities to discover new spectral lines in a well-controlled manner. Our work promotes a genuine bi-directional exchange of methodology between network science and physics, and presents new perspectives for the study of atomic spectra.


Diaphyseal femoral fractures in cattle often are regarded as unsuitable for treatment. In the past 15 years, several surgical techniques have been described. The age, weight, fracture configuration, intended production use and economic value of the individual influence treatment options. Open reduction and internal fixation may be the treatment of choice in young, lightweight cattle. Medical treatment (stall rest and antiinflammatory drugs) may be an option for older cattle with selected fractures. We hypothesized that diaphyseal fractures in cattle can be successfully managed with proper case selection. The objectives of this study were to evaluate different surgical techniques, to evaluate the risk factors associated with the surgical repair and to evaluate the medical approaches in cases of femoral fractures.


Soft robots require seamless integration with sensors and actuators that are simple to manufacture at scale with low cost and minimum footprint. The sensor materials must be highly reliable, sensitive, and stable, and their mechanical features should match the sensing requirements of soft robots such as minimal response time and nonlinearity of hysteresis and relaxation. A resistive‐type sensor based on the synthesis of poly(glycerol secabate) (PGS) with a foam‐like structure and outstanding mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical properties is developed. These foam sensors present high sensitivity (gauge factor ≈ −9), very fast response (≤3 ms), negligible hysteresis, reliability, long lifetime (>1 200 000 cycles), and a pressure differential sensitivity of 34 Pa. They can accurately detect low and high frequency vibrations (up to 300 Hz) and small forces (200 mN) that cover the very low detection range of metallic strain gauges and the very large detection range of elastomeric strain sensors. These characteristics closely match those of the human fingertip, and hence pave the way toward tactile and compliant sensing elements embedded in prosthetic hands. Prospective applications for unexplored resistive‐type sensors to meet the sensory requirements of soft robotic systems are demonstrated.


Graves ophthalmopathy (GO) is the most common extrathyroid manifestation of Graves' disease (GD). This study aims to evaluate characteristic difference in terms of clinical appearance, thyroid hormones (TSHs, FT4 and FT3) and TSH receptor antibody profiles (TRAb and TSAb) in GD patients with and without clinical GO. This study using consecutive sampling methode on endocrine clinic dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital in December 2009 to Januari 2011. This was cross sectional study involving 75 GD patients. Subjects were divided into two groups, those with and without clinical OG. Graves ophthalmopathy were diagnosed clinically by Bartley's criteria. Thyroid hormones (TSHs, FT4 and FT3) and TRAb were measured by ELISA technique while TSAb were measured by RIA technique. There was no statistically significant difference in smoking history, blood pressure, age, and duration of illness between two groups. In terms of laboratory parameters, there were also no significant difference of TSHs, FT4, FT3, TRAb and TSAb between groups with and without clinical GO. The clinical OG group however, showed increasing trend of TSAb than those of without clinical OG (615.4 (295-1120.9) vs 972.4 (450-1648), p=0.06). If lower lid retraction were included as diagnosis of OG, there was significant difference of TSAb between two groups (596 [291-1120] vs 941 [454-1642], p=0.03). There were no significant difference in clinical appearances, thyroid hormones and anti-TSH receptor antibody profiles between GD patients with and without clinical GO. But there was incraesing tren of TSAB in GD patients with clinical GO.


With genomic data (generated by classical, functional, structural, proteo- and other `omic' approaches) accumulating at a stupendous rate, there is an ever increasing need for the development of new, more efficient and more sensitive computational methods. To highlight aspects of our computational needs, we will present results that emerged from the comparative genome analysis of mitochondria. Having originated from an alpha-proteobacterial endosymbiont, these eukaryotic organelles contain small and extremely variable genomes, and are thus perfect model systems for the much more complex eubacterial and archaeal genomes. We are currently in vestigating mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) in a lineage of unicellular, primitive protistan eukaryotes, the jakobids, with the aim to understand the evolution of mitochondrial genomes, genes and their regulation. Because these organisms are difficult to grow, biochemical approaches aimed at understanding gene regulation are laborious, thus it is possible to capitalize considerably from predictions on genome and gene organization, and regulatory elements. Contrary to approaches in which molecular data (gene order, sequence similarities) are used to infer the phylogenetic relationships among a group of organism, we know their phylogeny and employ this information to identify and model more or less conserved genetic elements and structural RNA genes that are difficult to spot by conventional methods, in a phylogenetic-comparative approach.


In this paper, WC-Ni60 alloy composite coating with different contents of WC particles was prepared on the 45steel substrate by high frequency induction cladding. The Composition and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA), the abradability and hardness were tested by UMT-2 tribometer and HV-50A durometer, respectively. The results showed that the hardness and wear resistance of coating were enhanced with the increasing of WC content. WC-Ni60 coating obtained the best wear resistance with the content of 50% WC. The hardness of the coating got the highest when the content of WC was 60%, but wear resistance decreased. The WC-Ni60 coating was reinforced for various hard phases and the metallurgical bonding layer about 10μm was formed between coating and 45steel substrate.


Soil N mineralized during 14-day anaerobic incubation at 30°C is evaluated as an index of forest soil fertility and site productivity. Mineralizable soil N determined under standard conditions correlates significantly with N mineralized anaerobically for 6 months in the field, with site index and yield potential of Pinus ponderosa L. growing on volcanic, metavolcanic, and metasedimentary soils, and with foliar concentrations of N. Soils testing less than 12 ppm of mineralizable N are judged clearly deficient, but stands of pine and fir on soils testing as high as 16 ppm of N still may respond well to fertilization. Absolute variability in mineralizable soil N decreases with soil depth and increases with the magnitude of the soil test mean, but relative variability is constant. Comparing ammonium produced during laboratory incubation with that mineralized over 6 months in the field shows that field soil temperature has a strong bearing on the interpretation of the laboratory test.


In spite of methodological, organizational and economical difficulties, it is necessary to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of obesity prevention policies and the resources that society allocates to fighting this epidemic. This paper reviews the economic reasoning behind these policies and presents a review of the scientific literature on the economic burden of disease and on the cost-effectiveness of individual and community interventions to prevent obesity.


Abstract Turkestanite, a rare Th- and REE-bearing cyclosilicate in the ekanite−steacyite group was found in evolved peralkaline granites from the Morro Redondo Complex, south Brazil. It occurs with quartz, alkali feldspar and an unnamed Y-bearing silicate. Electron microprobe analysis indicates relatively homogeneous compositions with maximum ThO2, Na2O and K2O contents of 22.4%, 2.93% and 3.15 wt.%, respectively, and significant REE2O3 abundances(5.21 to 11.04 wt.%). The REE patterns show enrichment of LREE over HREE, a strong negative Eu anomaly and positive Ce anomaly, the latter in the most transformed crystals. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry trace element patterns display considerable depletions in Nb, Zr, Hf, Ti and Li relative to whole-rock sample compositions. Observed compositional variations suggest the influence of coupled substitution mechanisms involving steacyite, a Na-dominant analogue of turkestanite, iraqite, a REE-bearing end-member in the ekanite−steacyite group, ekanite and some theoretical end-members. Turkestanite crystals were interpreted as having precipitated during post-magmatic stages in the presence of residual HFSE-rich fluidscarrying Ca, the circulation of which was enhanced by deformational events.


Over the years, corporate and institutional investors had suffered huge financial losses as a result of poor or wrong investment decisions taken on the basis of manipulated financial information. Studies have shown globally that the practice of financial report misrepresentation commonly leads to loss of credibility, integrity and confidence in accounting information and the earnings become questionable. This situation now calls for additional sources of information that would enhance the quality of corporate investment decision. This study investigated the impact of activity accounting adoption on corporate investment decisions in selected listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study adopted survey research designs with a population of 54 listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 510 respondents from a sample frame of 34 companies. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data validated using Cronbach Alpha with Coefficient ranging from 0.772 to 0.907 with 97.2% response rate. The data was analyzed and validated using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that activity accounting had significant influence on corporate investment decisions (Adj. R = 0.425, R =0.429,F( 5474) = 120.747; p<0.001). The study concluded that activity accounting influences corporate investment decisions for different stakeholders in selected listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The study recommended that investors and decision makers alike should consider and monitor the organizational structure, budgetary control system and performance report in addition to the audited financial statement when embarking on corporate investment decisions.


Goat's milk is white liquid derived from ruminant types of dairy goats. Milk is one of habitats of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). LAB have a potential as antimicrobial because capable to kill the pathogenic bacteria. LAB isolated from Etawa crossbreed goat's milk were characterized to stipulate the genus of the isolates. Characterization of LAB consists of colony, morphology and biochemical assay. The morphological examination of the colony, cell morphology and biochemical assay showed that three isolates were identified as Leuconostoc, Enterococcus and Lactobacillus. The antimicrobial activity assay showed that those isolates exhibited antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, but those isolates did not exhibit antifungal activity against Candida albicans.