At their best, museums are institutions that create transformative experiences for their visitors. Therefore, many scholars and museum professionals have advocated for museums that do not only display narratives through their exhibitions but also take part in social change. This task becomes even more relevant when digital platforms and social media, today's predominant sources of information as well as prime providers of spaces for social and political interactions, have proven to have negative effects for society. Despite their beneficial outcomes, new media technologies promote commoditization, ephemerality, immediacy and individualism, effects that disturb the sense of solidarity, empathy and sense of community necessary for social justice struggles. The goal of the current research project is to augment this discussion of the political relevance of museums within the current media environment approaching it from a Media Studies perspective and provide arguments that clarify this perspective's relevance for museum professionals. Therefore, the research question that guides this paper is as follows: to what extent do media theory frameworks help us understand the political relevance of museums in their current struggles for social justice issues? To answer this question, this research conducts participant observation during two and-ahalf years working at the Casa de la Memoria Museum [House of Memory Museum] in Medellín, Colombia, and a theory analysis in the materialist media tradition. In particular, media theorists Harold Innis, Friedrich Kittler, and Marshall McLuhan were consulted for correspondences between their reflections and the case study of the Casa de la Memoria Museum's exhibitions MEDELLIN|ES 70 80 90 [Medellin is 70 80 90] and MEDELLIN|ES Memoria Viva [Medellin is living memory].


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of frontline service employees (FSEs) motivation (enjoyment of work and driven to work) and ability (customer service ability) in the relationship between TFL and employee service performance.

Design/methodology/approach
This is a survey-based study which involves 534 FSEs and 135 supervisors in a hair salon setting. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Findings
Results show that TFL is significantly related to employee service performance; this relationship is enhanced with the presence of driven to work; yet, it is neutralized with the presence of enjoyment of work. Further, the three-way interaction of TFL, enjoyment of work and customer service ability as well as TFL driven to work, and customer service ability are negatively associated with employee service performance.

Practical implications
The results advance service managers' understanding of the importance of FSEs motivation and ability if they are to fully reap the benefits from their FSEs. The role of leader is not always effective in all situations. FSEs with high level of enjoyment of work and customer service ability would least rely on the guidance and support from the supervisors.

Originality/value
This research is one of the first to examine the role of subordinate's characteristics (motivation – enjoyment of work and driven to work and ability – customer service ability) as the key moderators in the relationship between TFL and employee service performance.


Glucocorticoids influence vagal parasympathetic output to the viscera via mechanisms that include modulation of neural circuitry in the dorsal vagal complex, a principal autonomic regulatory center. Glucocorticoids can modulate synaptic neurotransmitter release elsewhere in the brain by inducing release of retrograde signalling molecules. We tested the hypothesis that the glucocorticoid agonist dexamethasone (DEX) modulates GABA release in the rat dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV). Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings revealed that DEX (1-10 µM) rapidly (i.e. within three minutes) increased the frequency of tetrodotoxin-resistant, miniature IPSCs (mIPSCs) in 67% of DMV neurons recorded in acutely prepared slices. Glutamate-mediated mEPSCs were also enhanced by DEX (10 µM), and blockade of ionotropic glutamate receptors reduced the DEX effect on mIPSC frequency. Antagonists of type I or II corticosteroid receptors blocked the effect of DEX on mIPSCs. The effect was mimicked by application of the membrane-impermeant BSA-conjugated DEX, and intracellular blockade of G protein function with GDP βS in the recorded cell prevented the effect of DEX. The enhancement of GABA release was blocked by the TRPV1 antagonists, 5'-iodoresiniferatoxin or capsazepine, but was not altered by the cannabinoid type 1 receptor antagonist AM251. The DEX effect was prevented by blocking fatty acid amide hydrolysis or by inhibiting anandamide transport, implicating involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the response. These findings indicate that DEX induces an enhancement of GABA release in the DMV, which is mediated by activation of TRPV1 receptors on afferent terminals. The effect is likely induced by anandamide or other 'endovanilloid', suggesting activation of a local retrograde signal originating from DMV neurons to enhance synaptic inhibition locally in response to glucocorticoids.


The unprecedented measures of quarantine regulation have led philosophers and lawyers around the world to speak of the fragility of democratic freedoms and the return of the state of emergency as a political reality described in the writings of 20th century theorists. However, the imposed restrictions are considered in the works either in relation to the legal mechanism of their imposition, or through the prism of political philosophy. In addition, the Russian experience has not been sufficiently highlighted in the publications. This article attempts to synthesize legal analysis with political-legal philosophy in order to show that the extension of the legal order is always embedded in its logic. The first part of the article shows how what has been mentioned at the level of philosophical reflection and in relation to foreign legal orders that have been implemented in Russia, using the example of substantive legal practice. The second half of the text draws attention to the logic of protest which coincides with the logic of both the police and the state. Since the rights to which the protesters draw attention to have their source precisely in the existing legal order, both the actions of the law-enforcement authorities and the actions of the protesters are aimed at protecting it. The conclusion is that the danger of this situation is that the normative system could poten-tially replace social reality in the future.


Abstract Background of the Article: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common human malignancies worldwide. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is considered curative option in selected patients; efficacy is severely limited by lesion size and lesions bordering a large vessel. On the other hand, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is not limited by lesion size and arterial occlusion of the tumor feeding vessels leads to increase the volume of the ablative zone. Combination treatments using both intraarterial liver-directed therapy and percutaneous ablation seek to overcome the disadvantages of the individual treatments alone, theoretically improving response to therapy and survival. Material and Methods: This is a single-center retrospectively study in which patients who received TACE plus RFA for HCC were evaluated for technical success, local tumor progression rates, distant intra and extrahepatic recurrences and survival. Results: The study included 22 patients, 21 patients had a solitary HCC of size 3–7 cm and one patient had three target lesions. Technical success achieved after first session of combination treatment was 100% (24/24). At 1 and 3 months follow-up 100% patients (24 target lesions) had complete response and at 6 months; 21 (87.5%) had complete response, one (4.2%) had local tumor progression and two patients (8.3%) developed progressive disease. No major difference in complication was noted. The event-free survival as shown by Kaplan–Meier graph analysis at 6 and 12 months were 90.7% and 66.4% with mean time to event-free survival was 11.1 months. Conclusion: The combined use of TACE and RFA is a safe and effective option in the treatment of patients with single large or multinodular HCC when surgical resection is not feasible and this approach provides better results than RFA or TACE alone.


We report a novel structural hierarchy where a flow-aligned hexagonal self-organized structure is combined with a polyelectrolytic self-organization on a smaller length scale and where the two structures are mutually parallel. Polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-block-P4VP) is selected with a short P4VP block, which is protonated with p-toluenesulfonic acid (TSA) and further hydrogen bonded with 3-n-pentadecylphenol (PDP). To suppress the amount of free (uncomplexed) acid which we expected to have adverse effects during the extended shearing at the elevated temperatures, a safely less than stoichiometric amount of TSA was used, i.e., PS-block-P4VP(TSA)(0.9)(PDP)(1.0). The formation of the supramolecules and the resulting structures were investigated using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As the weight fraction of P4VP(TSA)(0.9)(PDP)(1.0) is ca. 20%, hexagonal self-organization occurs, as shown by SAXS. Shear flow leads to remarkably well-aligned structures. SAXS also indicates an internal structure within the P4VP(TSA)(0.9)(PDP)(1.0) blocks with a long period of 41 Angstrom. In contrast to the previously observed structural hierarchies in diblock copolymer/amphiphile supramolecules, which contained mutually perpendicular structures, e.g., lamellae within cylinders, in the present case SAXS in combination with models suggests internal polyelectrolytic layers parallel to the hexagonally ordered microphases. These aligned conducting nanochannels also manifest as a slight overall conductivity anisotropy.


etc., 'V. GILL, Captain, Australian Army Medical Corps. April 21, 1942. SIR: I do not wish to waste space or argue over a trlvlal matter, but a possible misapprehension regarding hospital policy should be corrected. In his interesting letter published in your columns of April 18, F. W. Simpson quotes an earlier letter of mine (February 28, 1942) as implying that the general practice at Sydney Hospital is to treat burns with Ururuentwm: Acidi Borici (B.P.). But what I said was that it had been used for some time in the casualty ward for burns of the hands and fingers. What he says about it seeming neither ideal nor rational may be true, but many of us have to treat these injuries at times and in places when "ideal" measures are not available, and boracic ointment and lint are available almost anywhere. As to rationale, it has been judged by the results' it gives, which (for burns of the hands and fingers) are very good indeed. 'Yours,


Article history: Received September 18, 2014 Accepted 15 December 2014 Available online December 16 2014 This paper concentrates on the evaluation of reliability measures of a computer system of twoidentical units having independent failure of h/w and s/w components. Initially one unit is operative and the other is kept as spare in cold standby. There is a single server visiting the system immediately whenever needed. The server conducts preventive maintenance of the unit after a maximum operation time. If server is unable to repair the h/w components in maximum repair time, then components in the unit are replaced immediately by new one. However, only replacement of the s/w components has been made at their failure. The priority is given to the preventive maintenance over repair activities of the h/w. The time to failure of the components follows negative exponential distribution whereas the distribution of preventive maintenance, repair and replacement time are taken as arbitrary. The expressions for some important reliability measures of system effectiveness have been derived using semi-Markov process and regenerative point technique. The graphical behavior of the results has also been shown for a particular case. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 5 © 201


The growth mechanism of air-processed c-oriented large grain Nd–Ba–Cu–O/Ag superconductor prepared with the hot-seeding technique was studied. We prepared NdBCO by adding 10–30 mol% Nd210 (or 25 wt% Nd422) and 0–10 wt% Ag. Small amounts of CeO2 have been added to refine the non-superconducting Nd422 inclusions. The melt-texture growth was performed in air with an Ag-free NdBCO seed at an elevated temperature. A c-oriented grain of 20 mm diameter has been obtained, which contained some sub-grains and residual liquid phase. It is found that the residual liquid phases lead to the disintegration of the Nd210-added bulks after melt-growth. The Nd422 size in Nd210-added samples was much smaller than that in Nd422-added samples. The results show that Tc may be depressed with the addition of Ag. However, after a high-temperature Ar heat treatment, the Tc and Jc (H, T) of the Ag-added samples reach 91 K and 2.0 × 104 A cm−2 at 77 K without external field. These values are higher than those of the Ag-free samples with Nd210 addition.


Peri-urban areas in Ethiopia, like that of other African countries, are places where much of urban growth is taking place and new urban built-up properties have been formed rapidly. They are geographic places where the competition for land between agriculture and non-agriculture (urban built-up property) is intense leading to the vanishing of rural agricultural land rights. In this chapter an attempt has made to assess and create an understanding of the process of new urban built-up property formation in the transitional peri-urban areas of Ethiopia. Case study and desk review approaches were employed. The findings of this study show that formal and informal actors play a significant role in the process of converting periurban agricultural lands into urban built-up non-agricultural properties. Finally, this study also shows that urban built-up properties in the peri-urban areas are the results of land use conversion through the informal and formal channels.


The chapter "Specific Learning Disability and its Types" is an effort to educate the readers, specially the educators about a developmental disorder that begins by school age, although it may not be recognized until later. It involves on-going problems learning key academic skills, including reading, writing, and math. The chapter makes an attempt to bring about understanding of SLD, brief historical perspective and its classification. The chapter elaborately discusses the seven types of specific learning disability according to Learning Disabilities Association of America. The chapter centers around seven learning disabilities namely, dyslexia ,dysgraphia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorder, language processing disorder, non-verbal learning disabilities , visual perceptual deficit; their causes and symptoms to give a holistic understanding about the disability for the teachers and parents to understand the individual differences.


The pulmonary neuroendocrine system includes pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs) and neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) that are distributed throughout respiratory epithelium, and regulate lung growth and maturation antenatally. Abnormalities in this system have been linked to many hypoxia-associated pediatric pulmonary disorders. Hemoglobin (Hb) Bart disease is a severe form of α-thalassemia resulting in marked intrauterine hypoxia with hydrops fetalis (HF) and usually death in utero. Affected fetuses can serve as a naturally occurring human model for the effects of intrauterine hypoxia and we postulated these effects should include changes in the pulmonary neuroendocrine system. Bombesin immunostaining was used to assess PNECs and NEBs in stillborn fetuses with Hb Bart HF (n =16) and with HF from other causes (n =14) in comparison to non-HF controls. Hb Bart HF showed a significant increase in the proportion of PNECs in respiratory epithelium (p=0.002), mean number of NEB nuclei (p=0.03), and mean size of NEBs (p=0.002), compared to normal non-HF controls. Significant differences were not observed between HF due to other causes and non-HF controls with normal lungs. Non-HF controls with pulmonary hypoplasia showed significant increases in PNECs compared to HF cases not due to Hb Bart HF, implying HF alone does not cause such increases. In contrast, no significant differences were noted between non-HF controls with pulmonary hypoplasia and Hb Bart cases. Hb Bart HF may provide a useful model for studying the pulmonary neuroendocrine system under chronic intrauterine hypoxia.


During the last few years, some donor countries (especially the US and the UK) have been increasingly outsourcing services in post-conflict operations to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and private military and security companies (PMSCs). These states have also adopted 'integrated approaches' to their policy interventions, contributing to the emergence of an 'aid and security market'. The article uses ideas from both development and defence studies and re-problematises the contracting states' relationship with PMSCs and INGOs. It argues that although INGOs and PMSCs are very different types of non-state actors, there are striking similarities in outsourcing practices. Moreover, it demonstrates that the leading contracting states have poorly managed their contracts with both INGOs and PMSCs, and have not seriously reflected on the unintended consequences of their contracting practices on the recovery of war-affected countries.


1Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand; 2Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand; 3Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of using atorvastatin PIL on patients' medication knowledge, perceptions of the PIL usefulness, their anxiety about the medication, and factors related to these aspects. Patients and Methods: A pre-post intervention study was conducted in outpatients at a university hospital. Patients prescribed atorvastatin were enrolled using systematic random sampling. Participants were asked to complete Self-Administered Questionnaire to assess atorvastatin knowledge at baseline. An atorvastatin-PIL produced by the manufacturer was introduced to the participants as the intervention. One month after receiving the PIL, the participants were re-assessed. Ten questions were developed to assess atorvastatin knowledge and visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess perceived benefits of using the PIL and patient anxiety about the medication. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the related factors. Results: Of 450 questionnaires distributed, 370 were returned. Atorvastatin knowledge significantly increased with mean score of 5.06±1.92 at baseline to 8.34±1.79 at 1-month after intervention. Reading all sections of the PIL (p=0.017) and working for civil service (p=0.006) were associated with higher knowledge scores at baseline and after intervention. Low educational level was associated with lower knowledge scores at baseline (p=0.002), but experience of allergy (p=0.042) was associated with higher knowledge scores after the intervention. Patients had high level of perceived usefulness from the PIL (average scores=8.87±1.83) and low level of anxiety (average scores=3.69±3.06). Reading all sections of the PIL (p=0.007) and taking more than 5 medications (p=0.012) were related to perceived usefulness of the PIL. Females (p<0.001) and herbal supplement users (p=0.048) were related to anxiety about the medication. Conclusion: PILs could improve medication knowledge in patients. Patients' perceptions of benefits of PILs were high and anxiety about medication was low. Use of PILs should be encouraged to improve patients' knowledge and appropriate use of medications.


1. The rabbits of a commercial stock were immunized by the intravenous inoculation of live Cryptococcus neoformans of the Ishino strain at the concentration of 1 mg per cc. The antigen was injected thrice a week for 3 consecutive weeks. The immune serum with the agglutination titer of 1:1, 024 against the homologous organism was obtained 5 weeks after the last inoculation.
2. The tube agglutination test with this immune serum gave the following agglutination titers, 1:128 against Cryptococcus neoformans (C2-4 strain), 1:32 against Cryptococcus diffluens and 1:8 against Torulopsis sake and Torulopsis pinus, respectively.
3. The slide agglutination test showed that the differentiation between Cryptococcus species and Torulopsis species was made if the antiserum was diluted to 1:10.
4. The γ-globulin concentation of the fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled antibody solution was 0.52% which was completely able to differentiate between Torulopsis pinus and Cryptococcus species if diluted to 1:8. The fluorescent antibody technic was able to afford us making a diagnosis without difficulty when the fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled antibody was prepared from the immune serum with agglutination titer as high as possible and diluting it to some extent. (In the author's experiment, diluting to 0.0165% of γ-globulin was most effective.)


Succinylacetone (4,6-dioxoheptanoic acid) is an abnormal metabolite produced in patients with hereditary tyrosinemia as a consequence of an inherited deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase. It is known that patients with this hereditary disease excrete excessive amounts of delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) in urine and that certain patients have an accompanying clinical syndrome resembling that of acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). In order to elucidate the relation of succinylacetone to the heme biosynthetic pathway, we have examined the effects of this metabolite on the cellular heme content of cultured avian hepatocytes and on the activity of purified ALA dehydratase from normal human erythrocytes and from mouse and bovine liver. Our data indicate that succinylacetone is an extremely potent competitive inhibitor of ALA dehydratase in human as well as in animal tissues. By using purified preparations of the enzyme from human erythrocytes and mouse and bovine liver, an inhibitor constant ranging from 2 x 10(-7) M to 3 x 10(-7) M was obtained. In cultured hepatocytes, succinylacetone also inhibited ALA dehydratase activity, decreased the cellular content of heme and cytochrome P-450, and greatly potentiated the induction response of ALA synthase to drugs such as phenobarbital, chemicals such as allylisopropylacetamide and 3,5-dicarbethoxy-1,4-dihydrocollidine, and natural steroids such as etiocholanolone. Four patients with hereditary tyrosinemia have been studied and all were found to have greatly depressed levels of erythrocyte ALA dehydratase activity and elevated concentrations of this inhibitor in urine. These findings indicate that tyrosinemia is a disorder of special pharmacogenetic interest because succinylacetone, an abnormal product of the tyrosine metabolic pathway, resulting from the primary gene defect of the disease, profoundly inhibits heme biosynthesis in normal cells through a blockade at the ALA dehydratase level, leading to clinical and metabolic consequences that mimic another genetic disease, AIP.


Mind‐the‐Gap (MTG) is required for neuronal induction of Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ) postsynaptic domains, including glutamate receptor (GluR) localization. We have previously hypothesized that MTG is secreted from the presynaptic terminal to reside in the synaptic cleft, where it binds glycans to organize the heavily glycosylated, extracellular synaptomatrix required for transsynaptic signaling between neuron and muscle. In this study, we test this hypothesis with MTG structure‐function analyses of predicted signal peptide (SP) and carbohydrate‐binding domain (CBD), by introducing deletion and point‐mutant transgenic constructs into mtg null mutants. We show that the SP is required for MTG secretion and localization to synapses in vivo. We further show that the CBD is required to restrict MTG diffusion in the extracellular synaptomatrix and for postembryonic viability. However, CBD mutation results in elevation of postsynaptic GluR localization during synaptogenesis, not the mtg null mutant phenotype of reduced GluRs as predicted by our hypothesis, suggesting that proper synaptic localization of MTG limits GluR recruitment. In further testing CBD requirements, we show that MTG binds N‐acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) in a Ca2+‐dependent manner, and thereby binds HRP‐epitope glycans, but that these carbohydrate interactions do not require the CBD. We conclude that the MTG lectin has both positive and negative binding interactions with glycans in the extracellular synaptic domain, which both facilitate and limit GluR localization during NMJ embryonic synaptogenesis. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2012


The toxicity of DDT, dieldrin, endrin, malathion, parathion, Systox and P4 to larvae and pupae of Culex fatigans has been studied. Two colonies of mosquitos were maintained for the purpose-one at 88 degrees +/-2 degrees F (31.1 degrees +/-1.1 degrees C) and 70%-80% relative humidity, and the other at 72 degrees +/-3 degrees F (22.2 degrees +/-1.7 degrees C) and 45%-55% relative humidity.For test purposes 25 larvae or pupae were exposed to acetone solutions of insecticides in 25 ml of water, and mortality counts were taken at the end of 24 and 48 hours. The percent mortality was plotted on a logarithmic dosage-probit paper and the LC(50) (the concentration required to kill 50%) was read from the slopes obtained. The confidence limits for LC(50) and the slope functions were worked out statistically.Of the insecticides tested, parathion was found to be the most toxic to larvae. The others in their order of toxicity were endrin, dieldrin, DDT, malathion, P4 and Systox. The LC(50) at 24 hours ranged from 0.003 parts per million (p.p.m.) for parathion to 0.18 for Systox. The third-instar larvae were more susceptible to insecticides than those in the fourth-instar stage.Pupae were more resistant to insecticides than larvae. Parathion and endrin gave LC(50)'s of 0.034 and 0.04 respectively. P4 and malathion gave very poor results. Dieldrin and Systox acted slowly on pupae, and the 48-hour mortality is given for these. DDT showed extremely low toxicity to pupae.DDT, dieldrin, endrin and parathion were more toxic to larvae reared and tested at the lower temperature than to those reared and tested at the higher. The temperature after exposure to DDT altered toxicity to a greater extent than the temperature at which the larvae had been reared.


Solving optimal design problems through crowdsourcing faces a dilemma: On one hand, human beings have been shown to be more effective than algorithms at searching for good solutions of certain real-world problems with high-dimensional or discrete solution spaces; on the other hand, the cost of setting up crowdsourcing environments, the uncertainty in the crowd's domain-specific competence, and the lack of commitment of the crowd, all contribute to the lack of real-world application of design crowdsourcing. We are thus motivated to investigate a solution-searching mechanism where an optimization algorithm is tuned based on human demonstrations on solution searching, so that the search can be continued after human participants abandon the problem. To do so, we model the iterative search process as a Bayesian Optimization (BO) algorithm, and propose an inverse BO (IBO) algorithm to find the maximum likelihood estimators of the BO parameters based on human solutions. We show through a vehicle design and control problem that the search performance of BO can be improved by recovering its parameters based on an effective human search. Thus, IBO has the potential to improve the success rate of design crowdsourcing activities, by requiring only good search strategies instead of good solutions from the crowd.


'narrative consists not in communicating what one has seen but in transmitting what one has heard'
– Deleuze and Guattari

Our contribution to 'Murmuration', an online 'Festival of Drone Culture' comes in two interconnected parts. The first part is a photographic typology of protestors: http://murmurationfestival.tumblr.com/post/51975909322/commonly-un-grounded-photo-by-rob-coley
These images were produced at the 'Ground the Drones' rally outside the gates of RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire (in April, 2013), the new base of the UK military's Remotely Piloted Aircraft Squadron. To date, this event stands as the largest public protest in the UK specifically responding to drone warfare.
The second part of our submission is an audio piece assembled from stretched and edited recordings made on the march from Lincoln to RAF Waddington. This soundtrack, of protest slogans and chants, has been interwoven with the sound of drone activity over Gaza (sampled from a recording made by Rosa Schiano): http://murmurationfestival.tumblr.com/post/51975909354/commonly-un-grounded-sound-by-rob-coley

In the production of this work, the drone is taken to be a symptom of what McKenzie Wark calls 'telesthesia', a mediated transformation of perception brought about by the movement of information at rates faster than people or things. The typology of images and audio soundtrack emerge from a commons immanent to the abstract communicational spaces of this media-ecological battlefield.
 The photographic typology is, of course, a strategy of data collection and analysis, a technique through which difference – and potential difference – can be revealed from within a set of apparently uniform components. In the small history of photography, we are familiar with such techniques as employed by August Sander, who sought to classify German society in the midst of an emerging Nazism, and with Bernd and Hilla Becher's attempts to document a changing industrial landscape. We can, though, identify a similar logic of pattern and relation analysis underlying drone warfare itself. Targets of aerial attacks are moved up a 'kill list' on the basis of (typically automated) pattern-of-life analysis; threats which often exist only in potential are indentified and controlled preemptively. Here, we render the power of the typology – the exposure of a collective potential incapable of representation by its constituent parts – as a social and political tool.
 This occurs in the relation between the images and audio recording. Though, in response to the threat of drone warfare, we as activists seek to verify and document the consequences of its 'invisible' actions, the real drone escapes such representation. The real drone operates on the level of rumour, beyond the order words of state rhetoric and liberal opposition. Just as the drone functions in a complex zone beyond objective definition, the collectively generated perception of its form and activity is the product of a buzz, a murmur, a hum. All of which means that the drone operates as much through hearsay – what we've heard – as it does through what we have seen. In our recordings of the Ground the Drones march, collective chants and slogans become drones in themselves, critical drones which resonate through a newly terrifying background of spatio-temporal collapse. We contend that these virtual drones act as a non-representational mode of perception, a collective attunement to the affective refrains performed in the murmurous intensities of protest instead of through the mere interpretation of evidential fact.


While it is often critical for indoor-location- and proximity-aware applications to know whether a user is in a space or not (e.g., a specific room or office), a key challenge is that the difference between standing on one side or another of a doorway or wall is well within the error range of most RF-based approaches. In this work, we address this challenge by augmenting RF-based localization and proximity detection with active ultrasonic sensing, taking advantage of the limited propagation of sound waves. This simple and cost-effective approach can allow, for example, a Bluetooth smart-lock to discern whether a user is inside or outside their home in order to lock or unlock doors automatically. We describe a configurable architecture for our solution and present experiments that validate this approach but also demonstrate that different user behavior and application needs can impact system configuration decisions. Finally, we describe applications that could benefit from our solution and address privacy concerns.


Benefiting from rapid development of imaging sensor technology, modern optical technology, and a high-speed computing chip, the star tracker's accuracy, dynamic performance, and update rate have been greatly improved with low power consumption and miniature size. The star tracker is currently one of the most competitive attitude measurement sensors. However, due to restrictions of the optical imaging system, difficulties still exist in moving star spot detection and star tracking when in special motion conditions. An effective star tracking method based on optical flow analysis for star trackers is proposed in this paper. Spot-based optical flow, based on a gray gradient between two adjacent star images, is analyzed to distinguish the star spot region and obtain an accurate star spot position so that the star tracking can keep continuous under high dynamic conditions. The obtained star vectors and extended Kalman filter (EKF) are then combined to conduct an angular velocity estimation to ensure region prediction of the star spot; this can be combined with the optical flow analysis result. Experiment results show that the method proposed in this paper has advantages in conditions of large angular velocity and large angular acceleration, despite the presence of noise. Higher functional density and better performance can be achieved; thus, the star tracker can be more widely applied in small satellites, remote sensing, and other complex space missions.


The Dharan–Mulghat area of the eastern Nepal can be divided into three tectonic units: the Higher Himalayan Crystallines, the Lesser Himalayan Sequence and the Siwaliks from north to south separated by the Main Central Thrust (MCT) and Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), respectively. The Lesser Himalayan Sequence is divided into two groups separated by Chimra Thrust: the Bhedetar Group and the Dada Bajar Group. The Bhedetar Group includes the Raguwa Formation, the Phalametar Quartzite, the Churibas Formation, the Sangure Quartzite, and the Karkichhap Formation from the bottom to top, respectively; overthrusted by the Dada Bajar Group consisting: the Ukhudanda Formation, the Mulghat Formation, the Okhre Formation, and the Patigau Formation, from lower to upper sections, respectively along the Chimra Thrust and the Bhorleni Formation as an individual formation overthrusted by Bhedetar Group along the Chhotimorang Thrust. The Main Central Thrust, the Main Boundary Thrust, the Chimra Thrust and the Chhotimorang Thrust are the major faults in Dharan–Mulghat area. The Leutiphedi Anticline and the Malbase Syncline are the major folds in the study area plunging towards east. The trend/plunge of anticline and syncline are 131o/24o and 096o/09o respectively. The microstructural study in the quartz grains reveals a sharp difference in the history across the MCT; dynamic in the rocks of the Lesser Himalayan Sequences and static in the rocks of the Higher Himalayan Crystallines.


Ternary single crystals Pb(In0.5Nb0.5)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 with monoclinic phase poled along [011] direction show single domain state (1O state) with macroscopic mm2 symmetry. The complete set of material constants was determined using the combination of impedance and ultrasonic methods. The thickness shear vibrations in the single domain state give the highest piezoelectric coefficients, with values being on the order of d15 = 4550 pC/N and d24 = 4100 pC/N. The rotated value of d33* along [001], calculated using the single domain data, is in good agreement with the [001] poled multidomain crystal, being 1790 pC/N versus 2010 pC/N, exhibiting the high longitudinal piezoelectric in multidomain comes from the high shear properties in single domain state, with the extrinsic contribution about ∼11%, induced by the phase boundary motion.


Anomalies are unexpected instances which significantly deviate from the normal patterns formed by the majority of a dataset. The more an observation deviate from the normal pattern, the more likely it is an anomaly. The continuous increase in the number of car models and configuration possibilities has led to continuous increase in the complexity of logistics supply chain and production. Consequently, it has become difficult to manage the whole IT Landscape, a small anomaly/failure somewhere in the system could lead to a huge loss of money. Therefore, to identify and ultimately resolve quickly a problem in such a system is highly important. This paper addresses the challenge of identifying anomalies in a scalable way. The new data collected suffers from the problem of lack of labels for training. This challenge is addressed in the developed solution by using multiple unsupervised algorithms and reporting those observation as anomalies which are commonly reported as anomalies by all the algorithms. The developed solution also tackles the problem of data heterogeneity and big size by using Spark underneath for scalable data processing. Scalability test results demonstrate the reduction in training time of 100 transactions by 80% when using 10 cores instead of using 1 core. The results of the study have also pointed out that increasing the number of cores does not necessarily means reduction in the overall execution time, there are other factors like communications between the cores, non-spark related processing tasks, etc which can also influence the execution time.


Cationic zirconium-doped nitrogen clusters were produced by laser ablation of a Zr : BN mixture target and were detected by TOF mass spectrometry. It is found that the mass peak of the ZrN12+ cluster is dominant in the spectrum. The ZrN12+ cluster was further dissociated with 266 nm photons. Extensive structure searches of a cationic ZrN12+ cluster indicate that the ground state structure of ZrN12+ consists of a central Zr atom and six N2 pairs with Oh symmetry. The calculated binding energy of the ZrN12+ cluster is about 0.96 eV, which is in accordance with the result of the photodissociation experiment. The neutral ZrN12 cluster has almost the same geometry, but with D3h symmetry. NBO analysis showed that the molecular orbitals of ZrN12+/0 clusters are mainly composed of Zr 4d and N 2p orbitals. These findings provide rich information for understanding the geometries and the electronic properties of zirconium-doped N clusters, which will offer valuable guidance for the exploration of other metal doped nitrogen clusters.


Clustering has been a widely pragmatic practice of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for innovation during the last two decades. Though its application is complicated due to the challenges and issues in low and middle-income countries, it is expected that all SMEs will benefit from the unique learning and innovative opportunities in a cluster. A systematic review and research agenda on how open innovation in a cluster could stimulate digitalisation in SMEs has not been addressed. Hence, this study seeks to review existing literature on the role of clusters in fostering SMEs' digitalisation through open innovation practices. The research objectives are to examine SMEs' practice of open innovation, analyse the benefits and assess the intermediate role of a cluster for digitalisation within the context of SMEs. The paper aims to provide a framework for future research by presenting propositions. The methodology and approach for the study with a discussion on data extraction and synthesis were articulated. A comprehensive review of the literature to justify the approach was applied. A detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria were presented. Also, the selection process for assessing the articles was provided. This review scrutinised published peer-reviewed papers between January 2014 and December 2021. Findings from the reviewed papers show that cluster development will increase specialisation and divide labour among participating firms. It reveals the process of open innovation in SMEs' practice and the management of open innovation practice in SMEs. Also, it will improve collaboration, shared infrastructure, and knowledge sharing for increased market competitiveness. In addition, collaboration in a cluster will reduce the cost of SMEs' digitalisation, promote new firms, and reduce operational costs. Some beneficiaries of this research were highlighted. Finally, directions for future research with suggestions were comprehensively provided.


We hypothesize that two distinct facets of religiosity—orthodoxy (an emphasis on belief) and orthopraxy (an emphasis on behavior)—predict differential sensitivity to an actor's intent when making moral judgments. Participants judged actors who performed misdeeds intentionally or unintentionally. In Study 1, high orthopraxy predicted harsher judgments of the unintentional actor, while high orthodoxy predicted more lenient judgments. In Study 2, we investigated a potential explanation for these effects, priming participants with either an "action focus" or a "thought focus." Action-focused participants judged the unintentional actor more harshly than did thought-focused participants. In Study 3, participants from an orthopraxic tradition (Hinduism) judged the unintentional actor more harshly than did those from an orthodox tradition (Protestantism). These findings contribute to a growing literature on the multifaceted nature of religion. They also carry broader implications for understanding people's responses to actions as a function of the actor's mental state.


Objective: This study addressed the issue of whether frequent exposure to life events is associated with aggravation or blunting of cardiovascular reactions to acute mental stress. Methods: In a substantial cohort of 585 healthy young adults, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded at rest and in response to a mental arithmetic stress task. Participants indicated, from a list of 50 events, those they had experienced in the last year. Results: There was an overall association between life events and blunted cardiovascular reactivity that was driven by variations in the frequency of exposure to desirable events. The total number of events and the number of personal events were negatively associated with systolic blood pressure and pulse rate reactions to acute stress, whereas the number of work-related events was negatively associated with diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate reactivity. The negative association between total events and systolic blood pressure reactivity was stronger for women than men, whereas men exposed to frequent undesirable events showed enhanced diastolic blood pressure reactivity. The blunting of pulse rate reactivity associated with frequent personal life events was evident particularly for those who had a relatively large number of close friends. Conclusion: The nature and extent of the association between life events exposure and stress reactivity in young adults depends on the valence of the events together with the sex of the individual and their social network size. SBP = systolic blood pressure; DBP = diastolic blood pressure; PR = pulse rate; PASAT = Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test.


Neutralizing antibodies against 10 serotypes of rotavirus were measured in sera from different age groups of German cattle. Only five of 143 sera did not neutralize heterologous serotypes. Sera from 64 of 76 calves younger than 1 year neutralized bovine rotavirus NCDV (serotype 6). From these calves, sera 54, 26, 51, 24, 12, 10 and 37, in neutralized addition, the heterologous serotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9, respectively. Thirty-eight of 46 rotavirus isolates from Bavarian calves with diarrhoea were serotyped by neutralization: 22, 2 and 14 isolates were typed as serotype 6, serotype 10 (B223) and a newly defined subtype of serotype 10 (V1005), respectively. All serotype 6 isolates and none of the serotype 10 or V1005-like viruses tested hybridized to a NCDV-specific cDNA probe. Eight isolates gave equivocal results by neutralization. We failed however to identify serotype 1, 2, 3, 4 or 8 bovine rotavirus isolates by neutralization with hyperimmune sera and dot blot hybridization with serotype-specific cDNA probes. Thus cross-reacting antibodies in cattle might not represent an anamnestic response, but the recognition of a cross-reacting neutralization epitope shared by many rotavirus serotypes.


Purpose

The understanding of the later stage (i.e. the exploitation phase) in the new product development (NPD) process by companies from emerging markets is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to address this lack and, by drawing upon a data set from Turkish firms, explore how different factors affect the exploitation phase of the NPD process.

Design/methodology/approach

Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were carried out on a sample of 671 Turkish firms operating in five industries (i.e. information and communication technologies, biomedical, machinery, chemical and plastic, and food and beverage) in the Izmir region (Turkey) to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Results reveal major differences regarding human capital, leadership, marketing capabilities, and business and institutional networks in terms of the commercialization of newly developed products in domestic and international markets.

Originality/value

By focusing on the exploitation stage, this paper extents the growing research efforts to study the NPD process of companies in emerging economies other than China by using primary data from Turkey.


There is increasing evidence supporting a link between cognitive dysfunctions and impaired brain insulin signalling. Insulin therapy has previously been tested as an approach to ameliorate brain insulin resistance and deficiency in patients with various brain disorders. However, current strategies for insulin delivery to the brain may induce severe hypoglycaemia when injected peripherally or show poor uptake when delivered intranasally. Recently, we have shown that intracranial transplantation of naked pancreatic islets increased insulin content in the brain and attenuated cognitive dysfunctions without altering peripheral glucose homeostasis in rats with schizophrenia‐like syndrome. In this study, we show that intracranial implantation of 50 pancreatic islets encapsulated in disc‐shaped alginate is sufficient to elevate insulin content in the rat brain. Three weeks after implantation, the islets displayed intact morphology, intensive hormone staining and glucose‐sensitive insulin release. The ultrapure alginate with high guluronic acid content used for islet encapsulation demonstrated good biocompatibility and stability after intracranial implantation. All implanted animals were normoglycaemic and normoinsulinaemic. In conclusion, the intracranial implantation of a small amount of alginate‐encapsulated islets is an efficient tool for metabolically regulated insulin delivery to the brain. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Crystalline Si solar cells based on thin wafers, with thicknesses in the range of 5–50 μm, can find applications in a wide range of markets where flexibility and bendability are important. For these cells, avoiding standard macroscopic texture is desirable to increase structural integrity. Herein, a nanopatterned SiN x antireflection (AR) coating that consists of 174 nm‐radius and 118 nm‐high SiN x nanodisks arranged in a square lattice on a thin (59 nm) SiN x layer is introduced. This geometry combines Fabry–Pérot AR and forward scattering by a resonant Mie mode to achieve high transmission into the Si absorber over a broad spectral band. The nanostructured coating is patterned on a commercial interdigitated‐back‐contact (IBC) Si solar cell, experimentally demonstrating a short‐circuit current density (J sc) of 36.9 mA cm−2, 2.3 mA cm−2 higher than for a single‐layer AR coated cell, and an efficiency of 16.3% at a thickness of around 100 μm. It is shown that light incoupling efficiency is comparable to that of pyramidal texturing, while the absorption in the infrared is lower, due to less‐effective light trapping. Overall, nanopatterned SiN x broadband AR coatings are an appealing option for improving light management in ultrathin solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.


Abstract The myometrium undergoes dramatic changes as pregnancy progresses through phases of proliferation, hypertrophy, contractile state and labor. In this study, we showed that the composition of the muscle actin isoforms, a major component of the myometrial contractile apparatus and cytoskeleton, was modified during pregnancy. The expression of smooth muscle alpha-actin (Acta2, which we abbreviate as alpha-SM-actin) and gamma-actin mRNAs and proteins was examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western immunoblot, and was localized with immunohistochemistry, in the nonpregnant, pregnant, and postpartum rat uterus. Both alpha-SM-actin (vascular specific actin isoform) and gamma-actin (predominant in visceral smooth muscle) were detected in the rat myometrium. Myometrial expression of alpha-SM-actin mRNA and protein was high throughout pregnancy. The transcript and protein levels of gamma-actin were increased significantly in the second part of gestation (31.8-fold increase for mRNA and 16.7-fold increase for protein relative to nonpregnant). The localization of gamma-actin was markedly altered during pregnancy. In early gestation, myometria from empty and gravid uterine horns of the unilaterally pregnant rats showed abundant gamma-actin immunostaining in the longitudinal layer but weak staining in the circular layer. Gamma-actin immunostaining increased in only the circular layer of the gravid horn after midgestation and remained low in the empty one. Gamma-actin protein translocated to the membranous region of uterine myocytes at late gestation. The temporal alteration in gamma-actin expression and localization at late gestation suggested that this change in myometrial composition of contractile proteins is important to adequately prepare the myometrium for the development of optimal contractions during labor.


Degradable implant membranes designed to separate hard and soft tissues and to trigger the growth of underlying bone and with antimicrobial properties are needed for the management of bone defects, ridge augmentation and to facilitate dental implants. In this study, the composite scaffolds of poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(caprolactone) (PCL) blended with nano hydroxyapatite and cefixime‐β cyclodextrin (Cfx‐βCD) inclusion complexes were synthesized by electrospinning. The prepared electrospun fibrous membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Membranes were microporous with random fibers in the range of 0.2–0.37 µm. The data from FTIR spectral analysis helped to characterize the presence of PCL, PLA, Cfx, and βCD in the electrospun membranes. In addition, the mechanical properties (i.e., elastic modulus and tensile strength) of the scaffolds were investigated. The mechanical strength and suture retention ability of the membranes was comparable to that of skin grafts. Drug release assays confirmed the slow release of Cfx from the membranes in the presence of βCD and antimicrobial studies showed that the membranes possessed antibacterial properties. The interaction of cells with membranes was evaluated by culturing them with the mouse pre‐osteoblast cell line MC3T3 and assessment of bone formation was done using Alizarin Red Assay. Culturing MC3T3 cells on the scaffolds showed that cells attached and entered the membranes and increased in number over time. In summary, these membranes are flexible, strong, bactericidal and osteogenic, which are the ideal implant properties for dental and maxillofacial surgery.


Introduction: Oral cancer refers to malignant tumors, of which 90% are squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). These malignancies exhibit rapid progression, poor prognosis, and often mutilating therapeutical approaches. The determination of a prophylactic and/or therapeutic antitumor role of the polyphenolic extract Polypodium leucotomos(PL) would be relevant in developing new tools for prevention and treatment. Methods: We aimed to determine the antitumor effect of PL by treating OSCC cell lines with PL metabolites and evaluating its action during OSCC progression in vivo. Results: PL treatment successfully impaired cell cycling and proliferation, migration, and invasion, enhanced apoptosis, and modulated macrophage polarization associated with the tumoral immune-inflammatory response of tongue cancer cell lines (TSCC). PL treatment significantly decreased the expression of MMP1 (p < 0.01) and MMP2 (p < 0.001), and increased the expression of TIMP1 (p < 0.001) and TIMP2 (p < 0.0001) in these cells. The mesenchymal-epithelial transition phenotype was promoted in cells treated with PL, through upregulation of E-CAD (p < 0.001) and reduction of N-CAD (p < 0.05). PL restrained OSCC progression in vivo by inhibiting tumor volume growth and decreasing the number of severe dysplasia lesions and squamous cell carcinomas. Ki-67 was significantly higher expressed in tongue tissues of animals not treated with PL(p < 0.05), and a notable reduction in Bcl2 (p < 0.05) and Pcna (p < 0.05) cell proliferation-associated genes was found in dysplastic lesions and TSCCs of PL-treated mice. Finally, N-cad(Cdh2), Vim, and Twist were significantly reduced in tongue tissues treated with PL. Conclusion: PL significantly decreased OSCC carcinogenic processes in vitro and inhibited tumor progression in vivo. PL also appears to contribute to the modulation of immune-inflammatory oral tumor-associated responses. Taken together, these results suggest that PL plays an important antitumor role in processes associated with oral carcinogenesis and may be a potential phytotherapeutic target for the prevention and/or adjuvant treatment of TSCCs


Basic Medical Terminology- This course introduces elements of medical terminology such as the foundations of terms used to describe the human body and its conditions, terminology for medical procedures, and the names of commonly prescribed medications.


This study investigated the moisture distribution characteristics of a soil wetting body under different influencing factors to inform the design and management of a moistube irrigation system. A mathematical model of soil moisture movement under moistube irrigation was established based on Hydrus-2D software. The suitability of the Hydrus-2D simulation model was verified by laboratory experiments. Numerical simulations were carried out with Hydrus-2D to investigate the influence of soil texture, initial moisture content, moistube specific discharge and irrigation time on the moisture distribution of a soil wetting body. The soil moisture content is highest at the moistube, and its value is related to the moistube-specific discharge and soil texture. The soil moisture content at any point in the wetting body decreased linearly with increasing distance from the wetting front to the moistube in the five set directions (vertical downward, 45° downward, horizontal, 45° upward and vertical upward). This trend is applicable to fine-textured and coarse-textured soil. An estimation model of soil moisture content including soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, initial soil moisture, the specific flow rate of the moistube and the maximum value of the wetting front distance in all directions is proposed. The model estimation is good (root mean square error = 0.008–0.018 cm 3 · cm −3 , close to 0; Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient = 0.987, close to 1), and it can provide a practical tool for moistube irrigation design and agricultural water management.


This paper describes design and optimization of a Waste Heat Recovery Unit (WHRU) for a power cycle which uses CO2 as a working fluid. This system is designed for offshore installation to increase gas turbine efficiency by recovering waste heat from the exhaust for production of additional power. Due to severe constraints on weight and space in an offshore setting, it is essential to reduce size and weight of the equipment to a minimum. Process simulations are performed to optimize the geometry of the WHRU using different objective functions and thermal-hydraulic models. The underlying heat exchanger model used in the simulations is an in-house model that includes the calculation of weight and volume for frame and structure for the casing in addition to the thermal-hydraulic performance of the heat exchanger core. The results show that the for a set of given process constraints, optimization with respect to minimum total weight or minimum core weight shown similar results for the total installed weight, although the design of heat exchanger differs. The applied method also shows how the WHRU geometry can be optimized for different material combinations.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Neural network (NN) computation is computer modeling based in part on simulation of the structure and function of the brain. These modeling techniques have been found useful as pattern recognition tools. In the present study, data including age, sex, height, weight, serum creatinine concentration, dose, dosing interval, and time of measurement were collected from 240 patients with various diseases being treated with gentamicin in a general hospital setting. The patient records were randomly divided into two sets: a training set of 220 patients used to develop relationships between input and output variables (peak and trough plasma concentrations) and a testing set (blinded from the NN) of 20 to test the NN. The network model was the back-propagation, feed-forward model. Various networks were tested, and the most accurate networks for peak and trough (calculated as mean percent error, root mean squared error of the testing group, and tau value between observed and predicted values) were reported. The results indicate that NNs can predict gentamicin serum concentrations accurately from various input data over a range of patient ages and renal function and may offer advantages over traditional dose prediction methods for gentamicin.


Scene Understanding has been a major aspiration of computer vision from its early days. Its root lies in enabling the computer/robot/machine to understand, interpret and manipulate visual data, in similarity to what an average human eye does in front of a natural/artificial localized location/scene. This ennoblement of the machine have a widespread impact ranging from Surveillance, Aerial Imaging, Autonomous Navigation, Smart Cities and thus scene understanding have remained as an active area of research in the last decade. In the last decade, the scope of problems in the scene understanding community has broadened from Image Annotation, Image Captioning, Image Segmentation to Object Detection, Dense Image Captioning, Instance Segmentation etc. Advanced problems like Autonomous Navigation, Panoptic Segmentation, Video Summarization, Multi-Person Tracking in Crowded Scenes have also surfaced in this arena and are being vigorously attempted. Deep Learning has played a major role in this advancement/development. The performance metrics in some of these tasks have more than tripled in the last decade itself but these tasks remain far from solved. Success originating from deep learning can be attributed to the learned features. In simple words, features learned from a Convolutional Neural Network trained for annotation are in general far more suited for captioning then a non-deep learning method trained for captioning. Taking cue from this particular deep learning trend, we dived into the domain of scene understanding with the focus on utilization of prelearned-features from other similar domains. We focus on two tasks in particular: Automatic (multi-label)Image Annotation and (Road)Intersection Recognition. Automatic image annotation is one of the earliest problems in scene understanding and refers to the task of assigning (multiple) labels to an image based on its content. Whereas intersection recognition is the outcome of the new era of problems in scene understanding and it refers to the task of identifying an intersection from varied viewpoints in varied weather and lighting conditions. We focused on this significantly varied task approach to broaden the scope and generalizing capability of the results we compute. Both image annotation and intersection recognition pose some common challenges such as occlusion, perspective variations, distortions etc. While focusing on the image annotation task we further narrowed our domain by focusing on graph based methods. We again chose two different paradigms: a multiple kernel learning based non-deep learning approach and a deep-learning based approach, with a focus on bringing out contrast again. Through quantitative and qualitative results we show slightly boosted performance from the above mentioned paradigms. The intersection recognition task is relatively new in the field. Most of the work in field focuses on Places Recognition which utilized only single images. We focus on temporal information i.e. the traversal of the intersection/places as seen from a camera mounted on a vehicle.


Abstract Wallace's and Lydekker's Lines both describe important biogeographic barriers in the Indo-Australian Archipelago, with Wallace's Line demarcating the boundary of the Greater Sunda Shelf and Lydekker's Line indicating the edge of the Sahul continental shelf. Despite their similarities, Wallace's Line has been much more heavily studied than has Lydekker's Line, yet provides an interesting system for testing the source of fauna into eastern Wallacea. New collections of Northern Water Dragons, Tropicagama temporalis, from several islands in Maluku, eastern Indonesia now allow for an assessment of the phylogeography of the species and the ability to test if New Guinean or Australian populations served as the source for over-water dispersal across Lydekker's Line into Maluku. We collected specimens from remote islands in eastern Indonesia, sequenced the mitochondrial ND2 gene, and aligned the data to previously sequenced specimens on GenBank. We conducted several phylogenetic and divergence time analyses to investigate the source population and timing of dispersal. We found low genetic diversity among the islands in Maluku, and these samples showed little genetic divergence from New Guinea samples. The New Guinea and Maluku populations diverged less than 1 million years ago (Ma) and together diverged from the Australian population between 2.3 and 4.7 Ma. These results, along with patterns in other taxa, illustrated that, despite Australia's close geographic proximity to many of the islands in southeastern Indonesia, New Guinea has been the more frequent source of Wallacean fauna from Sahul.


Iodine deficiency induces multiple intrathyroidal autoregulatory changes leading to an increased triiodothyronine (T(3)) production and secretion, at the expense of thyroxine (T(4)). It is characterized by low serum T(4), normal or slightly elevated T(3), and as a consequence of the latter, normal thyrotropin (TSH). Tissues are also hypothyroxinemic, but their T(3) concentrations are mostly normal and ensure clinical euthyroidism, except for those that depend to a high degree on local generation from T(4) by extrathyroidal mechanisms involving the iodothyronine deiodinases isoenzymes. Thus, unless iodine deficiency is so severe and chronic that intrathyroidal and extrathyroidal mechanisms are no longer sufficient to maintain a normal T(3) in most tissues, individuals are clinically and biochemically euthyroid, but some tissues may be selectively hypothyroid (i.e., the brain). In adults both the intrathyroidal and the extrathyroidal mechanisms reacting to the iodine deficiency are fully operative even when the latter is mild. They contribute jointly to the maintenance of elevated or normal T(3) in those tissues deriving most of it from the plasma, until iodine deficiency becomes very severe. Those depending to a large extent from local generation from T(4), mostly by an interplay between type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (D2) and type 3 (D3), may already be T(3)-deficient (and hypothyroid) with mild iodine deficiency. Therefore, thyroid status of the iodine-deficient individual not only depends on the degree of iodine shortage, but is mostly tissue-specific, and is difficult to define for the individual as a whole: elevated, normal, and low concentrations of T(3) are found simultaneously in different tissues of the same animal, even with severe deficiencies. Most effects of iodine deficiency are reversed in the adults with an adequate iodine prophylaxis, but the absence of T(4) during early fetal life leads to irreversible brain damage (neurologic cretinism). Thyroid hormones of maternal origin are available to the embryo early in development and continue contributing to fetal thyroid hormone status, even after onset of fetal thyroid secretion. In the case of congenital hypothyroidism and normal maternal T(4), the transfer of the latter, together with increased D2 activity, protects the fetal brain from T(3) deficiency, even when it may be insufficient to maintain euthyroidism in other fetal tissues. Practically all of the T(3) found in the fetal brain is derived locally from T(4), and not from circulating T(3). In the case of severe iodine deficiency, both the embryo and the mother are T(4)-deficient; therefore, the fetal brain is exposed to T(3)-deficiency, both before and after onset of fetal thyroid function. This leads to irreversible alterations and damage to the central nervous system (i.e. abnormal corticogenesis). Moreover, because intrathyroidal autoregulatory mechanisms are not yet operative in the fetus, both T(4) and T(3) continue to be very low until birth, and the fetus is not only hypothyroxinemic, similar to its mother, but also clinically and biochemically hypothyroid.


Circulating oxidised LDL (ox-LDL) is associated with obesity, insulin resistance (HOMA), metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease in adults. Little is known about relations in children. Aim To assess association of ox-LDL with fat distribution and insulin resistance in a group of obese Egyptian children. Methods Study is cross-sectional consisted of 68 obese children, mean age 9.96 ± 1.32. Each underwent a complete physical examination; blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and anthropometric measurements (weight, height, BMI; waist, hip circumferences, waist/hip ratio), biochemical tests of fasting blood glucose (FBS), insulin levels; lipid profile (TC, LDL, HDL, TG) and ox-LDL; calculated HOMA. Sample was classified according to waist/hip ratio into: group I with and groupII without central obesity. Results ox-LDL showed significant positive correlation with LDL and TC in all groups of obesity. After adjustment for age and sex, significant positive correlation was detected between ox-LDL with SBP, DBP, TC, LDL, insulin, and HOMA in groupII and with TC and FBS in groupI. Insignificant association was detected between ox-LDL and other anthropometric parameters including BMI in any group of obese children (p > 0.05). Conclusions ox-LDL, as a marker of oxidative stress is not correlated with BMI among all studied obese children (aged 6–12 years). Increased oxidative stress has causal effects on insulin resistance in obese children without central obesity and on fasting blood sugar in those with central obesity. These findings emphasise the importance of obesity during childhood and suggest that the metabolic complications of obesity and body fat distribution are detectable early in life.


The use and sale of smokeless tobacco (SLT) is prohibited in Uganda under the Tobacco Control Act (TCA), 2015. Nonetheless, SLT products remain available, and there are limited and inconsistent data on SLT users. Additionally, the perceptions of tobacco control stakeholders on SLT are unknown, making it difficult to determine barriers to enforcing the ban. This study examined perceptions of tobacco control stakeholders regarding SLT in Uganda. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders who were purposively selected from ministries, semi-autonomous government agencies and Civil Society Organizations. Interviews explored knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of SLT appeal, and user demographics. Data were analysed using Nvivo V.12 software. Participants demonstrated a general lack of awareness of SLT product types and the extent of their use. They believed SLT use was increasing among females and minors and was as harmful to health and the economy as smoking. SLT products were thought to be cheaper than cigarettes and to appeal to minors. Discreet use was thought to help users overcome the cultural aversion towards tobacco use among women and youth in Uganda. There is an urgent need to strengthen the implementation of the SLT ban whilst also increasing efforts to reduce tobacco smoking.


This paper uses a dynamic monopoly union model to analyse the joint determination of wages, employment and investment in the absence of binding contracts. The union maximizes a utilitarian utility function while the firm faces a neoclassical investment problem with adjustment costs. Concentrating on noncommitment equilibria, we solve for Markov strategies. When the model is tested for Greek manufacturing during the period 1954-1993, the data do not reject the theoretical predictions.


Objective: Early palate repair is recommended to minimize the development of disordered speech. We studied the speech outcome of late palate repair in 131 patients. The success of late palate repair is questioned because of the persistence of learned, compensatory misarticulations that are difficult to correct in spite of the establishment of correct palatal anatomy and a competent velopharyngeal mechanism. The objective of this study is to highlight the speech results following late primary repair of the palate. Settings and Design: Retrospective analysis of speech outcomes in 131 patients with cleft lip and palate who underwent primary palate repair after the age of 10 years between November 2000 and December 2004. None of the patients had received supervised institution-based speech therapy. However, all patients were counseled and oriented and demonstrated the correct place and manner of articulation for the phonemes misarticulated by them. Preoperative and 6to 12-month postoperative speech samples were assessed within the parameters of articulation, hypernasality, nasal air emission, and speech intelligibility. Outcome: The analysis indicated improvement in all speech parameters leading to an overall improvement in postoperative intelligibility for most patients. Conclusion: Although definite improvement occurs in all parameters of speech following late primary palate repair, residual speech problems persist in most patients, requiring further evaluation and appropriate treatment.


In young adults, most distal humerus fractures occur from highenergy trauma, sideswipe injuries, motor vehicle accidents, fall from height and gunshot wounds. In elderly persons with more osteoporotic bone most of these injuries occur from trivial falls. Surgeons who treat fracture of the distal humerus frequently have realized the challenges that arise related to poor bony quality, distal separation of the articular fragment from the columns of the distal humerus and fragmentation of the articular surface in one or more Even minor irregularities of the joint surface of the elbow usually cause some loss of function. Surgical treatment for these fractures has evolved significantly in the last 30 years. In the 1960's and 1970s, most surgeons condemned surgical treatment due to high failure rates with loss of fixation, non union and elbow stiffness.1 In the 1970s, treatment began to shift from casting and the "bag of bones" technique to surgical intervention with limited internal fixation. Again, results generally were poor due to lack of adequate stabilization for early motion. In the early 1980s, the AO-ASIF group reported good and excellent results in 27 of 39 patients with comminuted fractures of the distal humerus. These by far were the best results reported in the treatment of these difficult fractures at that time. This led to an increased enthusiasm for surgical reduction and fixation.


The 15 contributing authors accomplish the impressive task of reviewing 92 journals for this book. Year Book of Dermatology 1990 is introduced by a timely and scholarly essay on the ozone-depletion problem. This essay reviews the impact on the ecosystem, implications for dermatology, evolution of knowledge regarding ozone depletion, and the political aspects of solutions to the problem. I recommend that every dermatologist read this essay. Next are a series of tables containing statistics of interest for dermatologists, such as morbidity and mortality data on dermatological diseases, information on health care delivery and health care trends, and information on dermatologists in the United States. The number and distribution of dermatologists in the United States are included as well as the number of residents trained yearly. These tables are a very helpful way of keeping track of major trends in the United States in these areas and of monitoring the vital


High-fidelity nuclear power plant core simulations require solving the Boltzmann transport equation. In discrete ordinates methods, the most computationally demanding operation of this equation is the sweep operation. Considering the evolution of computer architectures, we propose in this paper, as a first step toward heterogeneous distributed architectures, a hybrid parallel implementation of the sweep operation on top of the generic task-based runtime system: PaRSEC. Such an implementation targets three nested levels of parallelism: message passing, multi-threading, and vectorization. A theoretical performance model was designed to validate the approach and help the tuning of the multiple parameters involved in such an approach. The proposed parallel implementation of the Sweep achieves a sustained performance of 6.1 Tflop/s, corresponding to 33.9% of the peak performance of the targeted supercomputer. This implementation compares favourably with state-of-art solvers such as PartiSN, and it can therefore serve as a building block for a massively parallel version of the neutron transport solver DOMINO developed at EDF.


The study aims to determine the relationship between university students' satisfaction with the university and the use of resource management and metacognitive self-regulatory learning strategies through structural equation modelling. This study was designed in the relational screening model, which is among the descriptive research methods and defines the relationships between variables. The data were collected from 364 undergraduate students at a university in Turkey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the model that showed the relationships between student satisfaction, resource management and metacognitive self-regulatory learning strategies, and the descriptive statistics of the variables and correlations were also calculated. Research results show that metacognitive and resource management self-regulatory learning strategies affect student satisfaction. significantly at a low level. Students' use of self-regulatory learning strategies positively affects their satisfaction from the institution they are studying. In addition, the mediating effect of resource management self-regulatory learning strategy between metacognitive learning and student satisfaction was examined, and the indirect impact of resource management on student satisfaction was also found to be significant.


Various analytical approaches to performance-based seismic design are in development. Based on the current Chinese seismic codes,elastic capacity calculation under frequent earthquake and ductile details of seismic design shall be performed for whether seismic design of new buildings or seismic evaluation of existing buildings to satisfy the seismic fortification criterion "no damage under frequent earthquake, repairable under fortification earthquake, no collapse under severe earthquake". However, for some special buildings which dissatisfy with the requirements of current building codes, elastic capacity calculation under frequent earthquake is obviously not enough. In this paper, the advanced performance-based seismic theory is introduced to solve the problems of seismic evaluation and strengthening for existing reinforced concrete structures, in which story drift ratio and deformation of components are used as performance targets. By combining the features of Chinese seismic codes, a set of performance-based seismic design method is established for reinforced concrete structures. Different calculation methods relevant to different seismic fortification criterions are adopted in the proposed method, which solve the problems of seismic evaluation for reinforced concrete structures.


The way Japanese animation has been spread outside Japan not only by entertainment companies but also by fan groups that have worked to produce fan subs—that is, subtitled translations of films and television shows produced without authorization and shared outside established commercial channels—has been one of the most powerful examples of transformative culture to take place in the last three decades or so. Much has already been written about anime and its global impact, but the process of fan sub creation and distribution, and in particular how these groups have been structured, has not yet been examined in depth. A question that is becoming prominent concerns what happens when the fan subbing culture finally clashes with authorized commercial content distributors. This essay explores the way fan sub distribution has changed over the years and draws on the concept of Net war to illustrate the conflict and the potential tools and methods animation distribution companies have used to engage, subvert, and interdict these groups. This has broad implications for understanding and predicting the flow of other emerging conflicts between networked actors, such as hackers, anarchists, and activists, and hierarchically organized traditional corporate entities.


abstract:This article explores the recent and growing invocation of the concept of ancestrality in a self-consciously ethicized critical practice. It commences by undertaking a genealogy of ancestrality and reflecting on the convergences and divergences between these two terms—genealogy and ancestrality. The article then draws upon both the canonical anthropological archive wherein relations to ancestors were discussed and the author's own extended research among people in southern Africa for whom ancestors are part of the cultural commonsense. On this basis, the author argues that, at least among those people with whom she is familiar, the ancestors are not figures of a past nor figures of moral virtue. Rather, they call from the future and orient action toward a community of recognition to which the living aspire. This community does not have a final judgment as the precondition of admission, and indeed, the article calls into question the deployment of the ancestral as the figure of an absolute judgment, while pointing to the risks of a primitivist nostalgia in the effort to make Africa not only of the site of irreparable loss but the name and locus of a lost wisdom that could ameliorate the social crises of our contemporaneity.


Smart homes have been proposed for senior citizens aiming to improve their quality of life. In order to monitor the seniors ' sleep condition in smart homes to protect them from sleep disorder, an automatic sleep staging system is necessary. Furthermore, measure selection is a crucial step in an automatic sleep staging system. In this paper, we present three advanced combination schemes among 15 sleep measures, which have been most commonly used in the automatic discrimination of sleep stages. For testing the validity of these combination schemes, we apply each combination of measures into a BP network to calculate the discrimination rates of NREM. The result of experiment shows that the combination method of two different ideologies of nonlinear measures is better than those including only one of them. And combining measures that have high accuracy rate in discriminating three sleep stages respectively can get effective results. Finally, we can get an optimum measure combination, composed of measures including EDGE, KK, delta, SaEn and LLE. By testing, the total accuracy rate of sleep staging reaches 85.23%, 69.57%, 86.11% and 100% in SI, S2 and SWS respectively. This result is desirable under the condition of only using EEG.


A theoretical formulation of the effective point spread function of a slat collimator on a strip detector has been derived. The used technique to obtain the geometric transfer function, which is the Fourier transform of the effective point source image, is based on the geometric characteristics of a single gap and it accurately describes the performance of the collimation system for system analysis. Valuable conclusions resulting from this geometric transfer function could be made on the sensitivity, on the spatial resolution, and on the line spread function of the imaging system. We found that the sensitivity was dependent on the angle of incidence and on the distance to the detector. The spatial resolution was constant in a plane at a fixed distance to the detector and closed analytical expressions were derived for transaxial line spread profiles. These results were confirmed by the appropriate Monte Carlo simulations. The presented formulation of the geometric transfer function will be useful with usage in iterative reconstruction algorithms to incorporate distance dependent effects.


Traditionally, education and training have been real-world phenomena, possibly challenged but mostly complemented by physical books and other texts. In our contemporary, increasingly digital world, ICT provides complements, but also increasingly virtual alternatives and challenges to same-time, same-place "real world" education. This paper explores how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other online educational resources (OERs) both bridge and disrupt institutional and individual teaching and learning discourse and cultural practice, partly because the real world is to a large extent digital.Previous research has tended to focus on OERs provided by institutional actors and on education as an area where learners aim for degrees. In this paper, the analysis is extended to include OERs provided by individuals and learners who aim to learn regardless of official degrees or certificates.


As a global medium of communication, the importance of English has increased a lot in the present social, political and commercial contexts. With the advancements of Information technology in various spheres of society, English has become the only language for the world citizen. In Uzbekistan, English has long been taught as a core subject from class 1 -12, yet it is very painful to watch that students are still lagging behind to achieve comprehensive productive skills, that is writing and speaking skills. For a long time, communicative method is followed at schools and colleges that aims at developing four skills reading, writing, listening and speaking. Proper planning, implementation and monitoring can make it possible to achieve students' language proficiency in four skills simultaneously. This paper focuses on the challenges and possible solutions on the way of effective application of productive skills


This study deals with the diminutive suffixes -chen and -elchen in the Moselfranconian base dialects on both sides of the Luxo-German state border. It covers the entirety of the state of Luxembourg as well as the Moselfranconian dialects of German within the area of investigation of the Linguistic Atlas of the Central Rhine (MRhSA). The study examines the Wenker questionnaires from the end of the 19th century that were collected by Georg Wenker and John Meier as well as a second and third series of data in the form of Wenker questionnaires that were collected in the 1920s by Richard Huss and data from the MRhSA collected in the 1980s. Building on Edelhoff (2016), who analyses the development of diminutive plurals and plural diminutives in German and Luxemburgish dialects, and Edelhoff (2017a, 2017b) this study provides a closer look on the forms of the diminutive suffix in the singular, particularly of the two lexemes Augenblickchen ,moment.dim' and Stückchen ,piece.dim'. It is not only a matter of general concern to show the spatial distribution of the suffix forms ‑chen and ‑elchen in the base dialects, but it attempts to shed some light on language-dynamic processes taking place. Specifically, this involves taking a closer look at the following questions: 1) Can language change in the direction of the prestige variety of Central Luxemburgish on the Luxemburgish and in the direction of Standard German on the German side of the state border be shown, in the sense of the Language Dynamics Approach (Schmidt/Herrgen 2011)? 2) Can Edelhoff's (2016) constatation that the state border has become a dialect border with regard to the use of the diminutive plural suffix also be demonstrated for the diminutive singular suffix variants ‑chen and ‑elchen? 3) Is there geolinguistic evidence for the thesis that the morphological variant ‑elchen is a fusion of the suffixes -lein and -chen? This article provides a preliminary answer to these questions and sketches some lines of inquiry for future research.


The newly-discovered petroglyphs (at Tang-e Birzal) have located at a mountainous area, in 26 kilometers away from the northeastern point of Kohgiluye va Buier Ahmad Province, in pursuant of a nomadic trek road, and near Mondan village at Sarfaryab district of Charam town. These reliefs were found by a field consideration in 2013, but they have not introduced yet. These reliefs and drawings in this site (Tang-e Birzal) are divided into two categories: Geometric and Animal. The geometric reliefs and drawings have smallest number. These samples are like symbolic and meaningless signs and a personal name that has been possibly craved in the recent years. The animal reliefs and drawings like mountain goat have been created in the different sizes. These reliefs have been shallowly craved on the two lime rocks with the 5 meters away from each other. But some of these drawings have deeply carved at the first complex. These samples bring some questions to mind about their creators and their era and what kind goal has been behind them? A comparison between the petroglyphs' chronicle accrued to the Tang-e Birzal and other samples in the various points of Iran shows that some of these petroglyphs are related to the 2nd Iron Era (based on their carving type and morphology) and that some other samples are associated to the history period. This paper is aimed to consider the complex 1 and 2, their structural style, artistic motifs, pictures and their related era.


Energy resources are key to the economy. Firstly, any processes in the production sector are associated with energy consumption. Energy costs permeate all areas of material production, are the most important and integral part of both core and working capital. Secondly, energy resources are currently scarce and define the limits of economic development. At present, the issues of improving energy efficiency from the sectors of the economy are given great attention. For the implementation of programs to increase economic efficiency, the development of theoretical provisions and methodological foundations of energy economic assessment of production is of great importance, there is a variation in the energy equivalents per waste of production resources offered by standards for different types of energy. Considering energy issues in economic systems, economic energy is not found in the relevant classifications, but experts consider the allocation of such a category in the theory of economic development to be timely, and this category fully meets all economic indicators. To do this, it is necessary to determine the energy equivalent for each energy source. The article assumes the calculation of energy equivalents expressed by rational numbers. The use of energy equivalents allows you to move to a single measure of energy for all types. A single measure of energy allows you to move to a single international currency for financial and economic international cooperation.


In the present study bacteriophages isolated from rainbow trout farms and sewage treatment plants were genetically identified and their effectiveness on Yersinia ruckeri isolates from clinical cases of red mouth disease was investigated. Fish samples suspected to red mouth disease were collected from rainbow trout farms located in west Azerbaijan. Y. ruckeri, the causative agent of red mouth disease was initially identified using biochemical tests. The biotypes of all Y. ruckeri isolates were determined and their identity was confirmed by employing genus specific primers. Antimicrobial resistance of Y. ruckeri isolates were examined using common antibiotics in use in aquaculture. In order to isolating lytic bacteriophages, environmental samples mainly from rainbow trout farms and sewage treatment plants were collected in a period of six months. Isolated bacteriophages were titrated using two-layer agar method and their bactericidal effects were examined. For molecular characterization of bacteriophages, genomic DNA was extracted. Extracted genomic DNA from bacteriophages was digested using MspI endonuclease. The results revealed that 4.48% of examined fish were positive for Y. ruckeri. Bacteriophages isolated from urban sewage treatment plants were effective on Y. ruckeri isolates. Maragheh and Urmia sewage treatment plants had the maximum and minimum phage titers, respectively. The genomic DNA of all isolated phages were smaller than genomic DNA of Lambda phage and all examined phages showed similar genomic DNA digestion patterns. It was concluded that sewage treatment plants could be an important source for phages effective on Y. ruckeri and maybe other aquaculture bacterial pathogens.


Abstract Twenty-seven mature Quarter horses were used in a randomized design to determine the effects of bioactive protein supplementation on gait kinematics and systemic inflammatory markers in a 34-d trial. Treatments consisted of oral doses of 230 g/d of pelleted supplements containing 0 g (CON; n = 9), 40 g of bioactive protein (40BP; n = 9; LIFELINE, APC, LLC, Ankeny, IA), and 80 g of bioactive protein (80BP; n = 9) daily. Horses were fed a commercial concentrate at 0.5% BW (as-fed) and received ad libitum coastal bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) hay daily. On day 33, horses consistent in exercise (CON, n = 6; 40BP, n = 8; 80BP, n = 7) participated in a trailering and riding challenge. Kinematic gait analysis was performed on day 0 for use as a covariate, and on day 14, 28, and 34 to allow for the determination of potential time and dosage effects. Video footage was collected and analyzed using gait analysis software (EquineTec, Monroe, GA) for the determination of stride length (SL) and range of motion (ROM). Blood was collected via jugular venipuncture on days 0, 14, 28, and 34 for determination of systemic expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and IL-1β. Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS. A trend towards treatment × time interaction was observed in ROM of the knee at the walk (P = 0.10), due to the increasing ROM for 40BP and 80BP as time increased and decreasing ROM for CON. A treatment × time interaction was observed (P < 0.01) for hock ROM at a walk resulting from CON and 80BP decreasing from day 14 to 28 with 40BP increasing, while from day 28 to 34 ROM at a walk decreased for 40BP and increased for 80BP. The main effect of treatment on hock ROM at the walk was quadratic (P < 0.01) and characterized by higher ROM values for 40BP compared to CON or 80BP. Dietary treatment lengthened (P = 0.04) SL of the hind limb at the walk for 40BP and 80BP compared to CON on both days 14 and 28. A significant treatment × time interaction was observed in the expression of IL-1β (P < 0.01) and can be explained by lower concentrations of IL-1β for 80BP on day 34 compared to the other treatments, with 40BP being intermediate and CON being the highest. Increased articular ROM with decreased expression of IL-1β may indicate potential anti-inflammatory effects of 80 g/d of bioactive proteins.


This article describes how K-12 teachers may significantly improve student learning, engagement, and retention of mathematical concepts by creatively designing their course content around real-world problems, and employing Liberating Structures (LS)—simple protocols to organize classrooms through different spatial arrangements, group configurations, distribution of participation, and sequencing of steps. LS-inspired classrooms allow for equitable student participation, peer-learning, and building of connections, trust, and immediacy. The teacher assumes the role of facilitator—a partner in discovering solutions.


It was objectified to quantify the initial growth of varieties of castor bean with boron fertilization. Had been tested to cultivate they AL-Guarani, Mirante 10 and Nordestina to the doses of 0; 0.25; 0.50; 0.75 and 1.0 mg kg -1 of B in controlled environment of greenhouse in the Sector of Cafeicultura of the Department of Agriculture of the UFLA. The characteristics valued were: height of plants, length of roots, leaf number, diameter of stem, mass of dry substance (MS) of leafs, of stem, the root and total. To cultivate Mirante 10 it was the one that got minor growth of the system of root. For leaf number to cultivate AL-Guarani it was superior to Mirante 10 and Nordestina. Also to cultivate better AL-Guarani if it detached how much to the production of total mass of MS, while to cultivate Mirante 10 produced more mass of MS than Nordestina.


We explore the extent to which we can exploit interest point detectors for representing and recognising classes of objects. Detectors propose sparse sets of candidate regions based on local salience and stability criteria. However, local selection does not take into account discrimination reliability across instances in the same object class, so we realise selection by learning from weakly supervised data in the form of images paired with their captions. Through experiments on a wide variety of object classes and detectors, we show that modeling object recognition as a constrained data association problem and learning the Bayesian way by integrating over multiple hypotheses leads to sparse classifiers that outperform contemporary methods. Moreover, our learned representations based on local features leave little room for improvement on standard image databases, so we propose new data sets to corroborate models for general object recognition.


Background: The early years of life are crucial in shaping long term outcomes for children. The research consistently demonstrates that families have the greatest impact on the young. In this research traditional parenting is compared with parenting skills developed with an understanding of recent neurobiological research and its understanding of child development. These new parenting skills are taught through the training programme named BDB-MTP (Brain Development-based Maternal Training Package). Methods: The subjects consisted of 78 mothers and their 78 preschool children, divided into 2 equal groups. A non-equivalent control group design was used. A range of measures were taken before the commencement of the programme, on completion, and at follow-up 5 months later. For the parents, these measures included a parent questionnaire and the Parent Stress Index for the children, the Preschool Readiness Inventory and Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales were used. The data were analysed using MANCOVA and multiple regressions. Result: The findings revealed that the BDB-MTP yielded better results than the TPT (Traditional Parenting Technique) in various areas. As a whole, on average, the stress of the mothers in the former group is significantly less than those in the latter group in the posttest and their stress levels are insignificantly different in the follow-up study. The stress levels of the mothers in both groups were significantly different in 4 aspects in the posttest and 2 aspects in the follow-up study. The effect sizes of the trainings on the 2 aspects were moderate. Mother education had a significant effect on parenting techniques and child development in both groups, and most mothers in the experimental group agree that the BDB-MTP package was beneficial for them, and that further training should be provided. Conclusion: How can family best be supported when offering effective rearing experiences for their children? How can findings from the study in parent education, especially those relating to preschool child development best be used?


Malignant spindle cell tumours of the larynx are rare, of which the most common are Spindle Cell Squamous Carcinomas (SCSCs). Sarcomas are extremely infrequent in the larynx. Composite tumours, further, are quite unheard of, except for rare case reports. This case report describes a spindle cell malignancy of the larynx in an elderly male, which posed a diagnostic difficulty due to its unique morphological and immunohistochemical features. The tumour was superficial, polypoidal with the proliferation of malignant spindle cells and abundant mitoses under an ulcerated epithelium. Occasional squamous cell rests with keratin pearls were present. Spindle cells were strongly immunoreactive for vimentin, smooth muscle actin and squamoid cells were p63 positive. Desmin was negative. The dilemma in diagnosis was of a SCSC with smooth muscle differentiation against a composite tumour. The tumour also turned out to be positive for Epstein Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein-1 (EBV-LMP1), establishing a noteworthy association.