In autumn 2010 funding was secured to pilot a bespoke Parent and carer befriending model designed around the specific needs of parents and carers who use the hospice. Befriending is recognised as a successful model for providing emotional, psychological and practical support. Befriending models are used nationally and internationally to help and support a wide variety of people, children, teenagers, parents. Aims of Befriending Improve the social well-being and psychological health of parents and their families. Reduce parental isolation Ensure that parents who discover their child has a life shortening illness are supported, through befriending to understand their child's special needs and their own feelings about them. Parents become empowered and better able to manage their family's new situation Parents are able to communicate better with professionals Approach Used Five parents were recruited and trained to become Parent and Carer befrienders. This is a volunteer role and is designed to be flexible to respond to the ever changing needs of the befrienders own unique family situation. All the recruits undertook a 40 hour training programme to provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to be a professional parent befriender. Parents or staff can refer to the service; information is in the family information packs, around the hospice and on the hospice website. Outcomes Between Jan 2011 and Jan 2012, 11 parents/ carers were befriended. An average of 40 hours per month of support is being offered to families. All parents who have used the befriending service reported benefitting from the service and would recommend it to another parent. Parents rated the befriending service on a scale of 1-10 the average score was 9.3. Application to Hospice Practice This service user led/ volunteer based model is transferable across all hospice settings. It is a low cost, high return service development in terms of value added for befrienders and the befriended.


Emotions have not often been studied in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Most existing studies have assessed the psychopathological manifestations involved, essentially depression and less frequently anxiety. The results have shown that major depressive episodes and anxious episodes are not frequent in ALS patients, although moderate depressive or anxious symptoms are often observed, but less frequently than in other diseases like multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease. Depressive symptoms are not correlated to the duration or severity of the disease. This has led us to investigate the coping mechanisms involved in ALS. Results of previously published studies have shown that they did not differ from those observed in other somatic diseases, but ALS patients show more frequent concern with spirituality and religious preoccupations. It thus appears necessary to make a more detailed study of how ALS patients cope with the disease and its ominous consequences. Emotional processing difficulties may be a factor underlying quite diverse somatic and psychological disorders. The Baker's model propose five stages in emotional processing: emotional experience, emotional expression, labelling, linkage and awareness. Assessment of the emotional processing used by ALS patients should improve our comprehension of their adaptive functioning. The patients' caregivers play an essential role, and studies have shown that they often suffer themselves from depression and the burdens involved, and that the perceived social support has an impact on the quality of life and on the depression of the patients. Therefore, it seems important to assess the emotional processing not only of patients but also of their caregivers.


An improved serial computation method is proposed for simulating ceramic grain growth at an atomic scale. The data structure of a ternary tree is used to store orderly the atomic information and speed up the editing of data. Combining with the idea of space partition, an index for space searching is established to reduce the computation time. Simulation results demonstrate that the speed of the serial computation is increased significantly and simulated images are in good agreement with micrographs of practical ceramics. It is illustrated that kinetic exponents and fractal dimensions during the simulation of grain growth are also reasonable in compare with quantitative analyses.


The goal of this work is to develop a general framework for transparently managing the interactions and dependencies among input files, development tools, and output files. By unobtrusively monitoring the execution of unmodified programs, we are able to track process lineage---each process''s parent, children, input files, and output files, and file dependency---for each file, the sequence of operations and the set of input files used to create the file. We use this information to implement Transparent Result Caching (TREC) and describe how TREC is used to build a number of useful user utilities. Unmake allows users to query TREC for file lineage information, including the full sequence of programs executed to create a particular output file. Transparent Make uses TREC to automatically generate dependency information by observing program execution, freeing end users from the need to explicitly specify dependency information (i.e., Makefiles can be replaced by shell scripts). Dynamic Web Object Caching allows for the caching of certain dynamically generated web pages, improving server performance and client latency.


Information technology (IT) course support plays an important role in modern classrooms. Developing nations have rather more at stake in the diffusion of IT support in the classrooms of higher education than do advanced nations, as this technology diffusion process is often the economic level upon which national competitive advantage will reside. This study compares perceptions of students in an American university information systems program with Jordanian students enrolled in similar programs, and determines that the expectations developed from over a decade of research on the nature of technology diffusion and educational support in the developing world do not necessarily support predictions about key differences between American and Jordanian IT students. Though this research is an initial exploratory foray into the nature of emerging economies and their use of IT support in technology education, important implications for future research are uncovered as part of the process.


The internet technology and cloud computing development are increasing the opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be able adopt information technology at an affordable and does not require an expensive investment. By using cloud computing. SMEs only need to subscribe a service from an application without need to invest in the purchase of software or expensive hardware such as servers and other network devices. Cloud computing is a technology that provides a service for users to be able to choose what services you want to use both Platform As a Service (PaaS) or Software As a Service (SaaS), the advantages of using cloud computing is the customers have the flexibility to choose what services to be used without the need of how much investment is required when trying to build a system for business that they do. This research will build an information system that is required by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) based cloud computing, the research is expected to appear a solution for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in building an information system at an affordable cost but still in accordance with the needs of SME, and still make SMEs competitive to face global competition.


The WiMAX technology based on the IEEE802.16-d standard is a broadband wireless access (BWA) technology and considered to be an important ingredient of the composition of the next generation networks (NGN). Till date, due to lack of deployment, not enough data is available in terms of its operational capabilities and efficiencies. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate, analyze and compare the performance of a WiMAX link under different load and traffic conditions. For this purpose an experimental WiMAX test-bed has been deployed at the Communication Network Institute (CNI), University Dortmund and several experiments and stress tests are carried out over this CNI WiMAX test-bed in the uplink and downlink directions for various service and traffic types and at various distances from the base station. The results of these experiments are presented in this paper.


Leadership and decision making processes shape, influence and develop companies to gain competitive advantage, be profitable, promote sustainability and ultimately develop business. In the wake of globalisation, business are more susceptible to financial, legal, political, environmental, social and economic crises due to external and internal forces within and outside companies. The main objective of the research paper was to critically analyse the statement 'Leadership & decision making in crisis in the global era: how leadership nowadays can encourage the development of business?'. An overview of leadership and decision making models applied in organizations are presented outlining challenges and issues that hinder business development. The study explores on the issues that might cause crisis in organizations and make leaders' decision making process more difficult. Moreover, it elaborates on the actions and the skills that a leader nowadays must acquire with the ultimate purpose to avoid future mistakes and develop organisations. A qualitative research methodology is applied based on critical literature review. The study concludes that the crises facing business discredit the current leadership practice, however they also provide a platform to formulate new paradigms to develop business.


Illegal logging, perpetuated by corruption, is a serious problem in developing countries, specifically Brazil, Indonesia, and Uganda. Development projects focused on fighting illegal logging have not adequately been analyzed to assess the approaches taken in fighting corruption in addition to an academic literature review. Through a literature review and analysis of development problems, this research focused on the roles of the project donor, implementer, cost, duration, participants, levels of participation, mechanisms, and success. Next, a summary of observations for success from the projects were compiled to provide a thorough understanding of projects fighting illegal logging in the three focus countries. The results of the literature review produced causes and effects of illegal logging in states, as well as recommended methods for combatting and preventing illegal logging with a focus on the corruption that can drive illegal logging. The analysis of reviewed projects observed that none of the components identified appeared to be strongly necessary or unnecessary for a project to be successful or unsuccessful across countries, but some useful observations within countries were identified. The summary of reasons for the successfulness and unsuccessfulness of projects produced five themes: ineffective relocation, successful economic mechanisms, coordination, satellite technology, and appropriate community management. Building on this, a theoretical framework was created that prepared hypotheses focusing on state capacity, classification of corruption, and implementing partner, as well as focusing on coordination and close relationships with stakeholders while utilizing satellite imagery to function as a check to ensure integrity between all actors.


BACKGROUND
The choice between 2 or 3 implants to support a 3-unit implant-supported fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) still generates doubt in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to evaluate stress distribution in 3-unit implant-supported FDPs according to the implant number and load direction.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A numerical simulation was performed to analyze stress and strain according to the implant number (2 or 3) and load direction (axial or oblique). A model of a jaw was created by means of the modeling software Rhinoceros, v. 5.0 SR8. External hexagon implants, micro-conical abutments and screws were also modeled. The final geometries were exported to the computer-aided engineering (CAE) software Ansys, v. 17.2, and all materials were considered homogeneous, isotropic and elastic. Different load directions were applied for each model (300 N) at the center of the prosthesis.

RESULTS
The von Mises stress and strain values were obtained for the titanium structures and the bone, respectively. The implant number influenced the prosthesis biomechanics, with higher stress and strain concentrations when 2 implants were simulated. The oblique load also affected the mechanical response, showing higher stress and strain in comparison with the axial load, regardless of the implant number.

CONCLUSIONS
It was concluded that for a 3-unit implant-supported FDP, a greater number of implants associated with axial loads can result in a better mechanical response during chewing.


Since the U.S. 2016 presidential election, journalists and news organizations have been forced to confront shifting racial, social and political climates, and re-evaluate practices and norms. However, news coverage of racism is complex, especially because the conceptualization of racism in society is discordant, and the parameters of racism are heavily debated. News coverage can contribute to this debatability, specifically when it presents issues of racism with certain linguistic and topical features. In a content analysis of social media posts from six of the Facebook pages maintained by national broadcast and newspaper organizations, the present study explores contextual and linguistic representations of racism, and how social media users on Facebook engage with news posted by these organizations. Results suggest representations in news coverage signal a public debate about what is and is not racism. Coverage heavily emphasized prominent figures, while social media audiences amplified Trump's presence in social networks.


Abstract Background United States guidelines recommend that all adolescents and adults be tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and that persons born between 1945 and 1965 be tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods We used electronic medical record (EMR) data to identify patients in 3 primary care clinics in Seattle, Washington who met national criteria for routine HCV or HIV testing and had no documented history of prior testing. Clinic staff received daily lists of untested patients with scheduled appointments. We used generalized linear models to compare the percentage of patients tested and newly diagnosed with HIV and HCV in the 18 months before and during the intervention. Results A total of 16784 patients aged 18–64 and 9370 patients born between 1945 and 1965 received care from January 2011 to December 2015. Comparing the preintervention and intervention periods, the percentage of previously untested patients tested for HIV and HCV increased from 14.9% to 30.8% and from 18.0% to 35.5%, respectively (P < .0001 for both). Despite this increase in testing, there was no change in the percentage of patients newly diagnosed with HIV (0.7% in both periods, P = .96) or HCV (3.6% vs 3.7%, P = .81). We estimate that 1.2%–15% of HCV-infected primary care patients in our medical center are undiagnosed. Conclusions EMR-based HCV/HIV testing promotion increased testing but not case finding among primary care patients in our medical center. In our institution, most HCV-infected patients are already diagnosed, primarily through risk-based and clinical screening, highlighting the need to concentrate future efforts on increasing HCV treatment.


Studies comparing adult and peer imitation are rare and have to date provided mixed results. The aim of the present study was to investigate 14-month-olds' imitation of different actions (novel versus familiar) performed by televised models of different age groups (peers, older children or adults). In two experiments, we investigated infants' imitative performance when observing a novel action (Experiment 1) and familiar actions (Experiment 2). The results showed that the likelihood of imitating a novel action increased as the age of the model increased. The opposite was true for familiar actions where infants imitated the peer more frequently than either the older child or the adult model. These findings are discussed in relation to infants' ability to take into account a model's characteristics such as age when imitating actions.


Software process improvement is gaining momentum throughout the software industry. Many cities now have nonprofit SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) groups. In a visible sign that process improvement is now a mainstream technology, SPIN's national conference in Boston last spring drew several thousand attendees. Another sign is the frequency of journal articles devoted to process improvement. However, as often happens with software, process improvement articles tend to be theoretical. Comparatively little solid, empirical data is being published on three important topics: what does it cost to improve software processes? How long will it take to make tangible improvements? What kind of value can be expected in terms of better quality, productivity, or user satisfaction? The paper condenses some of my findings, which are based on studies of leading software producers in the United States, Europe, South America, and the Pacific Rim.


Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), commonly known as Sleeping Sickness, is endemic in over 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by the parasitic subspecies Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which is transmitted to humans by the tsetse fly. The World Health Organisation estimates that 0.5 million people are currently infected with the disease, with a further 60 million at risk. HAT is lethal if left untreated and there is no vaccine available. There are only four accessible drugs, which are all inadequate and highly toxic. Thus there is a vital need for novel anti-parasitic agents.

Compounds interfering with polyamine biosynthesis or function have shown potential use as anti-cancer, anti-HIV, anti-fungal and antiparasitic agents. The overall aim of this work was to synthesise novel macrocyclic polyamines containing different substituents to increase the toxicity against T. brucei.

Twenty racemic substituted tetraazamacrocycles B have been synthesised using an iron template method in good yields (54-100%) from triethylenetetraamine and aromatic glyoxal derivatives A. The R-groups were aromatic or heteroaromatic and were selected to give compounds with varying electronic demand and a broad range of log P values. Two derivatives contain parasite-specific recognition motifs were also prepared. The compounds were tested against T. brucei and several of the analogues displayed high activity. Some of these azamacrocycles were also tested for activity against the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and for oligopeptidase B (OPB) inhibition, with a number of compounds exhibiting promising results.


The goal of gaze detection is to locate the position (on a monitor) where a user is looking. Previous researches use one wide view camera, which can capture the user's entire face. However, the image resolution is too low with such a camera and the fine movements of user's eye cannot be exactly detected. So, we propose the new gaze detection system with dual cameras (a wide and a narrow view camera). In order to locate the user's eye position accurately, the narrow-view camera has the functionalities of auto focusing/panning/tilting based on the detected 3D eye positions from the wide view camera. In addition, we use the IR-LED illuminators for wide and narrow view camera, which can ease the detecting of facial features, pupil and iris position. To overcome the problem of specular reflection on glasses by illuminator, we use dual IR-LED illuminators for wide and narrow view camera and detect the accurate eye position, which is not hidden by the specular reflection. Experimental results show that the gaze detection error between the computed positions and the real ones is about 2.89 cm of RMS error.


When a team of researchers in 2018 found that plants exposed to anesthesia appeared to lose consciousness, the press reported that plants might have a consciousness to lose. The ensuing debate revealed a gap between scientific and literary approaches to human and nonhuman consciousness that this article traces back to the botanical writing of the Romantic period. These concerns, I argue, are central to Elizabeth Kent's Flora Domestica (1823) and Sylvan Sketches (1825), both botanical works that double as literary anthologies in order to expose a productive gap between literary and scientific knowledge. In a time when the distinction between science and poetry could frequently blur, Kent's works navigate these boundaries with particular attention to the kinds of relationships each entails. In so doing, I argue, she advances an ethics of care attuned to consciousnesses beyond our understanding, rooted in the contested borderland between scientific and poetic knowledge.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
A monoclonal killer anti-idiotypic antibody (mAbK10) and a synthetic killer peptide, acting as internal images of a microbicidal, wide-spectrum yeast killer toxin (KT) have been recently shown to express candidacidal in vitro and an in vivo therapeutic activity against experimental mucosal and systemic candidosis models caused by a reference strain of Candida albicans (10S).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The in vitro candidacidal activity of mAbK10 and synthetic killer peptide was compared using a colony forming unit assay against a large number of isolates of different Candida spp., obtained from oral saliva of adult diabetic (type 1 and 2) and nondiabetic subjects from Parma (Italy) and London (UK).

RESULTS
Both the KT-mimics exerted a strong dose-dependent candidacidal activity, probably mediated by the interaction with beta-glucan KT receptors on target yeast cells, against all the tested strains, regardless of their species and pattern of resistance to conventional antifungal agents.

CONCLUSIONS
These observations open new perspectives in the design and production of candidacidal compounds whose mechanism reflects that exerted in nature by killer yeasts.


With just over 3 months remaining, it looks like 2015 could be a record-breaking year for wildfires in the United States. So far this year, more than 8.5 million acres have burned and severe fires often happen in October. For the first time, the U.S. Forest Service will spend over 50% of its budget on fire management. Ironically, this is directing resources away from projects and research that would reduce the risk of forest fires. This must be fixed.


Recruitment of the mRNA Capping Enzyme (CE/RNGTT) to the site of transcription is essential for the formation of the 5' mRNA cap, which in turn ensures efficient transcription, splicing, polyadenylation, nuclear export and translation of mRNA in eukaryotic cells. The CE is recruited and activated by the Serine-5 phosphorylated carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. Through the use of molecular dynamics simulations and enhanced sampling techniques, we provide a systematic and detailed characterisation of the human CE-CTD interface, describing the effect of the CTD phosphorylation state, length and orientation on this interaction. Our computational analyses identify novel CTD interaction sites on the human CE surface and quantify their relative contributions to CTD binding. We also identify differences in the CTD binding conformation when phosphorylated at either the Serine-2 or Serine-5 positions, thus providing insights into how the CE reads the CTD code. The computational findings are then validated by binding and activity assays. These novel CTD interaction sites are compared with cocrystal structures of the CE-CTD complex in different eukaryotic taxa, leading to the conclusion that this interface is considerably more conserved than previous structures have indicated.


Web service composition is an emerging paradigm for enabling application integration within and across organizational boundaries. Model checking is a promising technique for the verification and validation of software systems. In this paper, we present a model checking framework to specifying and verifying the compositions of Web services workflow based on BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services). By using annotation layers, a BPEL4WS model can be extended with constraints (properties) information. An underlying BPEL4WS model and one or more constraint annotation layers compose a complete specification of a business process imposed specific constraints. By transforming the annotated BPEL4WS model to an extended TPPN(Timed Predicate Petri-net) model, a business process can be automatically verified and analyzed. The method allows us to add conveniently constraints information to a business process model, and state whether a process satisfies given properties without actual execution based on its specification.


This paper deals with the influence of the manufacturing process on the fatigue behavior of pearlitic steels with different degrees of cold drawing. The fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) is related to the stress intensity range (ΔK) by means a compliance method to evaluate the crack depth a in the samples at any instant during the tests. The analysis is focused on the Region II (Paris) of the fatigue behavior in which da/dN=C(ΔK)m, measuring the constants (C and m) for the different degrees of drawing. From the engineering point of view, the manufacturing process by cold drawing improves the fatigue behavior of the steels, since the fatigue crack growth rate decreases as the strain hardening level in the material increases. In particular, the coefficient m (slope of the Paris Law) remains almost constant and independent of the drawing degree, whereas the constant C decreases as the drawing degree rises. The paper focuses on the relationship between the pearlitic microstructure of the steels (progressively oriented as a consequence of the manufacturing process by cold drawing) and the macroscopic fatigue behavior. To this end, a detailed metallographic analysis was performed on the fatigue crack propagation path after cutting and polishing on a plane perpendicular to the crack front. It is seen that the fatigue crack growth path presents certain roughness at the microscopic level, such a roughness being related to the pearlitic colony boundaries more than to the ferrite/cementite lamellae interfaces.


This paper proposes anti-lock braking system to integrate with active suspensions system applied in a quarter vehicles model, and can use a road estimate to get the road condition. This estimate is based on the LuGre friction model with a road condition parameter, and can transmit a reference slip ration to slip ratio controller through a mapping function considering the effect of road characteristics. In the controller design, an observer-based direct adaptive fuzzy-neural controller (DAFC) for an ABS is developed. After, this paper will discuss that active suspension system influence on ABS. Active suspension systems are not ideal, unchanging, and certain, as many control systems assume. If parts of the suspension system fail, it becomes an uncertain system. In such cases, we need an approximator to remodel this uncertain system to maintain good control. We propose a new method to on-line identify the uncertain active suspension system and design a T-S fuzzy-neural controller to control it. Finally, integrating algorithm is constructed to coordinate these two subsystems. Simulation results of the ABS with active suspension system, and is shown to provide good effectiveness under varying conditions.


This is an overview of the NTCIR-13 OpenLiveQ task. This task aims to provide an open live test environment of Yahoo Japan Corporation's community question-answering service (Yahoo! Chiebukuro) for question retrieval systems. The task was simply defined as follows: given a query and a set of questions with their answers, return a ranked list of questions. Submitted runs were evaluated both offline and online. In the online evaluation, we employed optimized multileaving, a multileaving method that showed high efficiency over the other methods in our preliminary experiment. We describe the details of the task, data, and evaluation methods, and then report official results at NTCIR-13 OpenLiveQ.


Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is one of the most widely employed food taste enhancers and there is a safety concern on glutamate with respect to the obesity epidemics. The reported effects are attributed to the actions of MSG in the brain, which would affect food intake, body weight and lipid metabolism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the addition of MSG to the rat chow on body weight, food intake, plasma glucose and aminotransferases and plasma and liver lipids in adult obese and diabetic IIMb/ Beta rats. Twelve male, 70-days-old rats randomly divided in two groups -Control and MSG (with 1 mg MSG/g of feed)were housed in individual cages and allowed food and water ad libitum during 40 days. At day forty glycemia, total cholesterol and fractions, triacylglycerols (TAG), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT) were quantified. Animals were euthanized, and abdominal fat pads and livers were excised and weighed. Liver lipids were extracted and quantified. There were no significant differences in feed intake, final body weight, perigonadal fat depots, plasmatic glucose and lipids, AST and ALT between groups. Retroperitoneal fat depots and liver relative weights as well as liver total lipid content were significantly higher in the MSG group. A relevant effect of MSG intake on abdominal fat and liver weight as well as liver lipid content was demonstrated in this study.


Artificial riboflavin receptors adapted to aqueous environments were studied for their ability to selectively extract riboflavine (Rf) from three types of beverages i.e. milk, beer and a multivitamin mixture. The basic receptor was first prepared by molecular imprinting in nonaqueous medium using a hydrogen-bond donor–acceptor-donor functional monomer (2,6-bis(acrylamido)pyridine), complementary to the imide motif of the template, riboflavin tetra-acetate as template and pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA) as a hydrophilic cross-linking monomer. The polymer was then packed in columns and used for extraction of riboflavine from beverages. Riboflavine (Rf) was selectively removed from milk and an artificial vitamin mixture but the nonspecific binding was still significant, as judged from the binding of Rf to a control nonimprinted polymer. In order to suppress this nonspecific binding, attempts to hydrolytically hydrophilize the polymer matrix were performed. The preferred approach consisted in a controlled base hydrolysis of pendent unreacted acrylate groups, using hydroxides with differently sized counterions as reagents. This resulted in a decreased binding of Rf to both polymers, but to an equal extent implying a preferential suppression of the nonspecific contribution to the binding. The hydrophilized polymers, when subjected to beer, showed larger imprinting factors at lower phase ratios compared to the nontreated polymers and a maximum removal of 86% compared to 47% for the nonimprinted control polymer.


This study, which was conducted in Arusha district, investigated the contribution of human and material resources on quality education. Three objectives that guided this study dissertation were: To determine the availability of human resources for the teaching and learning in community secondary schools, to determine the availability of material resources in the teaching and learning in community secondary schools and To ascertain the adequacy of available human and material resources using the minimum standard requirement of community secondary school teaching and learning. Data were collected using documentary review and observation techniques. The analysis involved qualitative data of records which were presented using tables. The study sample was 9 community secondary schools, comprising 9 heads of schools, 9 storekeepers, and 1 District education officer. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The study shows that, while human and material resource has a great contribution in the provision of quality education in secondary schools, these were not in tandem with the number of students. The study recommends that, mechanism be established to provide human and other resources in line with the number of students in order to provide quality education in Tanzania.


There is increasing evidence that membrane transporters for glutamine and glutamate are involved in control of liver metabolism in health and disease. We therefore investigated the effects of three catabolic states [starvation (60 h), diabetes (4 days after streptozotocin treatment) and corticosteroid (8-day dexamethasone) treatment] associated with altered hepatic amino acid metabolism on the activity of glutamine and glutamate transporters in sinusoidal membrane vesicles from livers of treated rats. In control preparations, L-[14C]glutamine uptake was largely Na(+)-dependent, but L-[14C]glutamate uptake was largely Na(+)-independent. Vmax. values for Na(+)-dependent uptake of glutamine and/or glutamate exceeded control values (by about 2- and 12-fold respectively) in liver membrane vesicles from starved (glutamine), diabetic (glutamate) or steroid-treated (glutamine and glutamate) rats. The Km values for Na(+)-dependent transport of glutamine or glutamate and the rates of their Na(+)-independent uptake were not significantly altered by any treatment. Na(+)-independent glutamate uptake appeared to include a dicarboxylate-exchange component. The patterns of inhibition of glutamine and glutamate uptake by other amino acids indicated that the apparent induction of Na(+)-dependent amino acid transport in catabolic states included increased functional expression of systems A, N (both for glutamine) and X-ag (for glutamate). The results demonstrate that conditions resulting in increased secretion of catabolic hormones (e.g. corticosteroid, glucagon) are associated with increased capacity for Na(+)-dependent transport of amino acids into liver cells from the blood. The modulation of hepatic permeability to glutamine and glutamate in these situations may control the availability of amino acids for intrahepatic metabolic processes such as ureagenesis, ammonia detoxification and gluconeogenesis.


Extrusion printing of interdigitated electrodes for flexible microsupercapacitors (fMSCs) offers an attractive route to the fabrication of flexible devices where cost, scalability, and processability of ink formulations are critical. In this work, highly concentrated, viscous, and water‐dispersible inks are developed based on graphene oxide (GO)/polyaniline (PANi) composite for extrusion printing. The optimized GO/PANi‐based all‐solid‐state symmetric fMSCs obtained by extrusion printing interdigitated microelectrodes can deliver outstanding areal capacitance of 153.6 mF cm−2 and volumetric capacitance of 19.2 F cm−3 at 5 mV s−1. It is shown that by fabricating asymmetric fMSCs using the GO/PANi as positive electrode and a graphene‐based negative electrode, the voltage window can be widened from 0.8 to 1.2 V and improvements can be achieved in energy density (from 3.36 to 4.83 mWh cm−3), power density (from 9.82 to 25.3 W cm−3), and cycling stability (from 75% to 100% capacitance retention over 5000 cycles) compared with the symmetric counterpart. The simple ink preparation and facile device fabrication protocols reported here make the scalable fabrication of extrusion printed fMSCs a promising technology.


The study of chitosan loading onto epoxidized natural rubber compounds were prepared by incorporation of chitosan into epoxidised natural rubber matrix using a two-roll mill. The effects of chitosan loading on the curing characteristics, tensile properties and morphology of the compounds were investigated. Results indicated that slight changes in curing time (t90), and scorch time (tS2) of the compounds with the incorporation of chitosan. An increment is observed in the maximum torque, tensile modulus and durometer hardness of the compounds while tensile strength and elongation at break declines with chitosan loading.


The quality of human resources in a country or region will exert a great impact on its economic development. With the development of high-end science and technology, this impact will become more obvious. However, in terms of China's investment in public education resources in recent years, there is a huge gap compared with developed countries and even the international average level. By summarizing the rapid economic development experience of the United States, Japan and South Korea, this paper studies the role of educational investment in China's economy based on coordinated development theory, and explores the factors that play a central role in China's future economic development. It is concluded that only by increasing investment in education, especially in primary education, and improving the quality of human resources can the economy in country continue to grow.


Abstract:ABSTRACT.In the 1930s, Gilberto Freyre's praise of mixed-race people in Brazil challenged the idea of white supremacy, contributing to the building of a new Brazilian identity. In the 1950s, Freyre projected the idea of openness and racial mixture onto the Portuguese empire, fuelling Salazar's colonial propaganda. The idea of Lusotropicalism was contested by Marvin Harris and Charles Boxer, who demonstrated that there were very few mixed-race people in Angola and Mozambique, and exposed the long history of racism in the Portuguese colonies. However, the fashionable notions of hybridism and creolization have been putting Freyre back on the map. The article exposes the limits of Freyre's approach of inter-ethnic relations, structured around the flexibility (or otherwise) of white colonists. It engages with the much more interesting but problematic approach suggested by Linda Heywood and John Thornton, who shifted to Kongo and African agency the creolization of the Atlantic. It suggests a reassessment of the real Christianization of Kongo and its complex chronology, drawing attention to the royal interests of conversion, the limits of conversion among the population, and the conditions for erosion of Christianity in the long run.


The material collected from 57 specimens of 9 mammalian species in two localities of the Peruvian Amazonia includes 212 specimens of fleas belonging to four species (Polygenis klagesi, Ropalopsyllus lugubris, Rh. australis and Rothschildopsylla noctilionis). This is the first record of fleas in the Ucayali River basin. The majority of flea specimens were collected form three morphologically similar but karyotypically and electrophoretically distinct species of spiny rats of the genus Proechimys. These fleas belong to the species P. klagesi. The subspecies P. k. samuelis was collected from 32-chromosome spiny rats nearby Pucallpa (8 degrees 22' S, 74 degrees 43' W), whereas in the locality nearby the village Jenaro Errera (4 degrees 52' S, 73 degrees 39' W) only the nominative subspecies P. k. klagesi were collected from all three species of spiny rats. Other species of fleas have relatively less abundance. Six fleas Rh. l. lugubris were found on one specimen of Cuniculus paca; a single Rh. australis--on one specimen of Myoprocta pratti; and a single R. noctilionis--on one specimen of Eptesicus brasiliensis.


Construction workers are employed in a large and dynamic occupational sector and are exposed to hazardous substances during their work. This may cause diseases like contact dermatitis, one of the most prevalent occupational diseases in many countries. This thesis aims to assess the current prevalence and to discover risk factors of contact dermatitis in Dutch construction workers. The ultimate goal is to develop a prognostic tool for occupational physicians to detect contact dermatitis in an early, preferably preclinical, stage. Both self-reported and doctor-diagnosed prevalence of contact dermatitis among Dutch construction workers is high. The self-reported prevalence for (possible) contact dermatitis was 33%. A dermatological expert panel diagnosed mild contact dermatitis in 38% and severe contact dermatitis in an additional 23% of 751 investigated construction workers. Almost all cases of contact dermatitis were considered work-related (95%). Agreement between two occupational physicians and the expert panel's diagnoses was low but increased after a dermatological training. Carriage of loss-of-function mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG) is a well-studied endogenous risk factor for contact dermatitis. The risk of contact dermatitis was increased in carriers of at least one FLG variant (odds ratio (OR) mild contact dermatitis: 5.71, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.63-20.06; OR severe contact dermatitis: 8.26, 95% CI: 2.32-29.39). Despite the strong associations, the attributable fraction for contact dermatitis of the four FLG loss-of-function mutations was only 8.5%. A limited number of occupational determinants were associated with contact dermatitis: washing the hands with solvents (PR (Prevalence Ratio): 1.17, 95% CI: 1.03-1.34), performing job-related tasks at home (PR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04-1.26), and self-reported difficulties with cleaning the hands at the end of the working day (PR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.04-1.24). The lack of specific occupational determinants (e.g. materials like cement) and the fact that performing job-related tasks at home and difficulties with cleaning the hands at the end of the working day were significant determinants, might indicate that cumulative exposure to irritants is a key factor in the development of contact dermatitis in construction workers.A strong relation was found between loss-of-function mutations in the filaggrin gene and contact dermatitis, but the attributable fraction was relatively small. Moreover, ethical and practical issues preclude implementation of genetic testing in occupational health care. Based on the high contact dermatitis prevalence and the low agreement between the diagnoses of the occupational physicians and those of the dermatological expert panel, we conclude that occupational health care fails to successfully detect (early) contact dermatitis. We recommend that awareness of the risk to develop contact dermatitis in the construction industry should be increased, among occupational physicians as well as among employers and employees. In the ideal situation, as early as during their vocational training, construction workers should become familiar with the risk of skin problems and methods to prevent development of contact dermatitis.


It is shown that, with the current understanding of basic arc physics, CAD tools based on a mathematical model encompassing all important physical processes can be developed to aid the design of auto-expansion circuit breakers. The model takes account of radiation transport, arc radiation induced inner wall ablation, turbulence enhanced momentum and energy transport and the moving parts of the breaker. With the aid of the PC based PHOENICS, a commercial general purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, the conservation equations for the gas and arc together with the relevant Maxwell's equations can be solved. The temperature, velocity and electric fields within the breaker can easily be visualised and the thermal interruption capability predicted. The effects of changing design parameters can be simulated in detail, thus reducing the number of short-circuit tests. Results are verified by available tests.


Catalase, a kind of redox enzyme and generally recognized as an efficient agent for protecting cells against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced cytotoxicity. The immobilization of catalase was accomplished by depositing the positively charged chitosan and the negatively charged catalase on electrospun cellulose nanofibrous mats through electrospining and layer-by-layer (LBL) techniques. The morphology obtained from Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) indicated that more orderly arranged three-dimension (3D) structure and roughness formed with increasing the number of coating bilayers. Besides, the enzyme-immobilized nanofibrous mats were found with high enzyme loading and activity, moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results further demonstrated the successful immobilization of chitosan and catalase on cellulose nanofibers support. Furthermore, we evaluated the cytotoxicity induced by hydrogen peroxide in the Human umbilical vascular endothelial cells with or without pretreatment of nanofibrous mats by MTT assay, LDH activity and Flow cytometric evaluation, and confirmed the pronounced hydrogen peroxide-induced toxicity, but pretreatment of immobilized catalase reduced the cytotoxicity and protected cells against hydrogen peroxide-induced cytotoxic effects which were further demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images. The data pointed toward a role of catalase-immobilized nanofibrous mats in protecting cells against hydrogen peroxide-induced cellular damage and their potential application in biomedical field.


Editor's Note: The following Software Description has been submitted by a reader in response to our call for an open exchange of information on software programs. It is offered without review or comment to provide a rapidly published, easily accessible avenue of communication. Other readers with relevant software packages are invited to complete and submit a Software Description Form (found at the end of this section).


Dimkova S., D. Ivanova, B. Stefanova, N. Marinova and S. Todorova, 2018 Chemical and technological characteristic of plum cultivars of Prunus domestica L., Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 24 (Suppl. 2): 43-47 During the period 2015-2016 the chemical composition was investigated and some biometric parameters were studied in fresh fruit of 8 plum cultivars in an experimental plantation of RIMSA, in the vicinity of the town of Dryanovo. 'Stanley' cultivar was used as a standard. The other cultivars included in this study are: 'Malvazinka', 'Green Renclode', 'Tegera', 'Hanita', 'Jojo', 'Čačanska Najbolja' and 'Čačanska rodna'. 'Malvazinka' is distinguished by the largest and most beautiful fruits – 48.88 g (2015), while the smallest fruit is found in 'Čačanska rodna' (16.06 g – 2015). For most cultivars, the relative share of the stone from the full weight of the fruit is higher in 2016, which we believe is due to the soil and climate conditions in the area. For 'Hanita' and 'Stanley' the stone is over 6% of the weight of the fruit. The fruits of the early cultivar 'Tegera' are distinguished with high content of dry matter – 24.3%/ 2015/, followed by 'Jojo' – 23.9%. The highest total sum of sugars is found in 'Stanley' (14.46%), followed by 'Tegera' – 14.01%. Regarding the content of organic acids, the fruits of 'Stanley' have the lowest content in both years. Tanning substance content ranges from 0.093% for 'Malvasinka to 0.451% for 'Stanley'. 'Stanley' cultivar shows the best chemical and technological indicators of fresh fruit in the conditions of Dryanovo, followed by 'Tegera'.


A model of an inhomogeneous accretion flow, in which cold clumps are surrounded by hot gas or corona, has been proposed to explain the spectral features of black hole X-ray binaries. In this work, we try to find possible observational features in the continuum that can indicate the existence of clumps. The spectra of an inhomogeneous accretion flow are calculated via the Monte Carlo method. Since the corresponding accretion flow is unsteady and complex, the accretion flow is described by a set of free parameters, the ranges of which can include the real cases. The influences of the parameters are investigated. It is found that the thermal component of the spectra deviates from multi-color black body spectra in the middle power-law part. On one hand, a warp appears due to the gaps between the clumps and the outer cold disk, and on the other hand, the slope of the line connecting the thermal peaks deviates from 4/3. The warp feature, as well as the correlation between the thermal peak at higher frequency and the spectral index, possibly indicate the existence of clumps, and are worthy of further investigation with more self-consistent models.


We show how multiplicatively syndetic sets can be used in the study of partition regularity of dilation invariant systems of polynomial equations. In particular, we prove that a dilation invariant system of polynomial equations is partition regular if and only if it has a solution inside every multiplicatively syndetic set. We also adapt the methods of Green-Tao and Chow-Lindqvist-Prendiville to develop a syndetic version of Roth's density increment strategy. This argument is then used to obtain bounds on the Rado numbers of configurations of the form $\{x, d, x + d, x + 2d\}$.


This study explores and elucidates the nature and dynamics of environmental activism mediated via Twitter in Turkey. Drawing on the Twitter data, we show that two different forms of environmentalism are being pursued on this platform. There is, on the one hand, mainstream environmentalism of relatively established actors, and, on the other, confrontational/critical environmentalism of new actors. Unlike the former, the latter politicizes environmental issues to its full extent. While the actors pursuing mainstream environmentalism tend to act individually and use Twitter rather as a broadcast platform, the actors of confrontational/critical environmentalism form connections, interact, and engage in concerted action to voice environmental concerns, thereby incubating an environmental movement on Twitter within the increasingly authoritarian Turkish context. Our findings suggest that Twitter performs highly different functions within the same context depending on the discourses, identities, and interests of environmental actors.


In this paper, we present a new on-device automatic speech recognition (ASR) system based on monotonic chunk-wise attention (MoChA) models trained with large (> 10K hours) corpus. We attained around 90% of a word recognition rate for general domain mainly by using joint training of connectionist temporal classifier (CTC) and cross entropy (CE) losses, minimum word error rate (MWER) training, layer-wise pretraining and data augmentation methods. In addition, we compressed our models by more than 3.4 times smaller using an iterative hyper low-rank approximation (LRA) method while minimizing the degradation in recognition accuracy. The memory footprint was further reduced with 8-bit quantization to bring down the final model size to lower than 39 MB. For on-demand adaptation, we fused the MoChA models with statistical n-gram models, and we could achieve a relatively 36% improvement on average in word error rate (WER) for target domains including the general domain.


CONTEXT
Childhood obesity is a major public health problem, and prevention efforts should begin early in life and involve parents.

OBJECTIVE
To determine what factors are associated with mothers' failure to perceive when their preschool children are overweight.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

SETTINGS
Offices of private pediatricians and clinics of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

PARTICIPANTS
Six hundred twenty-two mothers with children 23 to 60 months of age.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Maternal demographic variables, maternal self-reported height and weight, and children's measured height and weight. Mothers were asked whether they considered themselves or their children overweight.

RESULTS
Forty-five percent of mothers had low education (high school degree or less) and 55% had high education (some college or more). Obesity (body mass index: >/=30 kg/m(2)) was more common in the low education group of mothers (30% vs 17%), and their children tended to be more overweight (weight-for-height percentile: >/=90th; 19% vs 14%). Ninety-five percent of obese mothers believed that they were overweight, with no difference between education groups. However, 79% of mothers failed to perceive their overweight child as overweight. Among the 99 mothers with overweight children, low maternal education was associated with a failure to perceive their children as overweight after adjusting for low family income (</=185% of poverty), maternal obesity, age, and smoking plus the child's age, race, and gender (adjusted odds ratio: 6.2; 95% confidence interval: 1.7-22.5).

CONCLUSIONS
Obesity was more common in mothers with less education as well as in their children. Nearly all of the obese mothers regarded themselves as overweight. However, the majority of mothers did not view their overweight children as overweight, and this misperception was more common in mothers with less education. Childhood obesity prevention efforts are unlikely to be successful without a better understanding of how mothers perceive the problem of overweight in their preschool children.


What ethics-related discussion is present in journal articles on brain damage due to water contamination by methylmercury? As a neurotoxin, increased bioavailability of methylmercury driven by human activities can have a significant adverse impact on future generations. We categorized ethics-related content according to a framework for Environmental Neuroethics (Cabrera et al., 2016). The framework provides a systematic way of examining phenomena at the intersection of ethics, brain, and environmental change. Measures of the relative quantity of ethics-related content and sources of academic discourse were also made. The most extensive ethical discussion concerned implications for social policy and regulation. We also noted a lack of ethics-related content with regard to cross-cultural perspectives.


We summarize full-length movies by creating shorter videos containing their most informative scenes. We explore the hypothesis that a summary can be created by assembling scenes which are turning points (TPs), i.e., key events in a movie that describe its storyline. We propose a model that identifies TP scenes by building a sparse movie graph that represents relations between scenes and is constructed using multimodal information. According to human judges, the summaries created by our approach are more informative and complete, and receive higher ratings, than the outputs of sequence-based models and general-purpose summarization algorithms. The induced graphs are interpretable, displaying different topology for different movie genres.


Abstract This paper analyzed the impact of urban women's participation in the construction business on income generation, gender roles and responsibilities, family and societal perceptions in Zimbabwe. Problems and constraints affecting women's participation in the sector were also identified. A total of 130 respondents were purposively selected from four urban cities namely Chitungwiza, Marondera, Norton and Rusape. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were used as the main data collection instruments. The findings of the study showed that women's businesses in construction were profitable and constituted an important source of family income. However, business growth was negatively affected by limited access to finance, lack of suitable equipment, high cost of inputs, and training in business and marketing skills. There was also greater gender burden created as women sought to strike a balance between the social roles and economic activities even though the community had a positive perception towards their involvement. There is need for re-orientation of the national housing policy so that it explicitly incorporates the specific needs of women in the construction industry. Strategies that reduce gender burden on women also need to be explored. Keywords: Construction, National Housing Policy, Urban, Women, Zimbabwe Background Globally, the construction industry contributes about 1/3 of gross capital formation and is an important vehicle for economic development through built environmental assets such as houses, roads, utility networks, schools and clinics (Kenny, 2007). However, much of the construction activity has been taking place in developed countries as opposed to developing economies as the latter are faced with numerous challenges related to skills scarcity, lack of financial and technology resources necessary to stimulate vibrant construction work (van Wyk, 2006) resulting in formalized urban cities failing to cater for the housing needs of people living in developing countries. The unprecedented levels of urbanization characteristic of most developing countries have resulted in the emergence of slums and informal settlements. The UN-Habitat's Global Report on Settlements (2003) estimates that by 2010, the levels of urbanization for Africa, Asia and Latin America will be 42,7%, 43% and 79% respectively. Developmental challenges that include spread of disease pandemics (cholera, dysentery), supply of unclean water, poor infrastructures and poor service delivery are common in these regions. As with most developing countries, Zimbabwe has been characterized by high rates of urbanization since the attainment of independence in 1980. Following the rescission of restrictive pass laws by the predecessor government, the urban population grew from 23% in 1982 to around 30% in 1990 as most people sought to work in the urban cities (UN-Habitat Global report on urban settlements, 2003). This led to an escalation in demand for housing, which subsequently led the government of Zimbabwe to enunciate the national housing policy. This policy framework facilitated the production of 15000 housing units annually between 1980 and 1994 and 18000 units from 19951997 that decreased to only 3000 units between 1998-2000 (Zimbabwe National Housing Delivery Program, 2005, p12). The decline in the delivery of housing units is attributed to contracting budgetary allocations and an inauspicious macro-economic environment characterized by hyperinflation (according to CSO, 2007, inflation stood at 14000% in November, 2007), shortage of foreign currency and negative economic growth. Even though housing delivery has been declining since 1990, the gender dimension of housing units produced between 1980-2000 is not clear and it is also acknowledged that many households do not have security of tenure. In rural areas, women owned between 31-34% of all private land (CSO, 2000, p54) between 1995 and 1999, a scenario that could also be extrapolated to the urban areas as gender biases still permeate the different sectors of the economy. …


As the nation's Catholic universities and colleges continually clarify their identity, this article examines academic freedom in classroom speech, offering a heuristic model for use as board members, academic administrators, and faculty leaders discuss, evaluate, and judge allegations of misconduct in classroom speech. Focusing upon the practice of academic freedom in classroom speech, this article aims to map this contested terrain for board members, academic administrators, and faculty leaders in U.S. Catholic higher education. More substantively, this article identifi es what forms of classroom speech are allowed and disallowed, and why this is so.


Morphological studies of marine turtles are important to provide insight into changes in their developmental environment. This study aimed to determine green turtles' Chelonia mydas morphological differences within the same genetic lineage in the eastern Mediterranean MED3 management unit and to find the best conversion equations between carapace size. A total of 106 adult green turtles (curved carapace length [CCL] range 79–105 cm) were measured on the five major nesting beaches of the eastern Mediterranean during 2020 and 2021. Morphological differences were tested with PERMANOVA and the relationship among body sizes was tested by linear regression. In the eastern Mediterranean green turtles, the mean CCL and SCL (straight carapace length) were 88.5 cm and 83.5 cm, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in any of the examined morphological characteristics of green turtles collected from five nesting beaches. In the clustering analysis, however, it was found that all the turtles fell into two distinct groups: larger (> 95.2 cm) and smaller (< 85.2 cm) turtles. As well, the conversion equations between CCL and SCL showed a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.938). We suggest that the conversion equations may be applied to all green turtles belonging to this population and nesting in the eastern Mediterranean. Keywords: Chelonia mydas, morphology, conversion equation, K-means, eastern Mediterranean


Bellman formulated a vague principle for optimization over time, which characterizes optimal policies by stating that a decision maker should not regret previous decisions retrospectively. This paper addresses time consistency in stochastic optimization. The problem is stated in generality first. The paper discusses time consistent decision-making by addressing risk measures which are recursive, nested, dynamically or time consistent and introduces stopping time risk measures. It turns out that the paradigm of time consistency is in conflict with various desirable, classical properties of general risk measures.


The development of superconducting systems for electric power is driven by the promise of improved efficiency, smaller size, and reduced weight as compared to existing technologies and by the possibility of new applications. Superconducting power components can also contribute to improved power quality and increased system reliability. This paper addresses historical developments and technology status of four superconducting power applications: cables, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), fault-current limiters, and transformers. Today, SMES is the only fully functional superconducting system and it has seen only limited use at grid power levels. A few model or demonstration units exist for each of the other three applications. Superconductivity faces several hurdles on the path to widespread use. Perhaps the most important is the need for operating voltages of 100 kV or more. Though progress in this and other areas has been rapid, considerable development is needed before superconducting devices perform reliably in the utility environment. As a result, today, most initial installations are aimed at niche applications and will be installed where space is limited, where power demands are increasing over existing corridors, and/or where initial development costs can be offset by enhanced power grid performance.


This article examines political trust and government satisfaction among migrant-origin individuals in Europe. While much of the current literature on migrant political attitudes focuses on the positive or negative ramifications of individual-level integration outcomes, the author takes a different approach. He claims that the best way to understand political trust and government satisfaction among migrant-origin individuals is through the strong positive correlation with trust and satisfaction among native-origin individuals in the same subnational region. One implication of this argument is that migrant-origin individuals' trust and satisfaction are closer to native-origin individuals living in the same subnational region than to migrants living elsewhere in Europe. The research provides a new perspective for understanding the broad contours of migrant integration and shifts the debate away from whether or not migrants have positive attitudes about European society. The fact that migrant- and native-origin individuals have similar levels of trust and satisfaction is suggestive of successful attitudinal integration, irrespective of whether those attitudes are positive or negative.


This paper discusses the impact of urbanization posed by the rapidly developing city. Urbanization is the result of urban development and economic which ultimately affect the dynamics of the city, especially in contact with the city's ability as an attraction for people to work and live. The impact of urban development is first, physical: land vs land up green, the distribution of urban facilities, transportation networks, patterns of movement to the city center, the development of land use, environmental issues, and slums. Second, socially; unemployment, poverty, and criminalitas.


ABSTRACT The current article links masculine leisure with bodily performances and playfulness connected to global neoliberal expressions of gender, class and ethnicity. This study draws from an analysis of a skateboard video of young white middle-class men skateboarding in an urban environment in one of Sweden's greater metropolitan areas. An interview with the young man who created the video was also conducted. The analysis brings together lines of inquiry that concern young males' playful use of urban space with the articulation of the visual culture of skateboarding as a homosocial, mainly white middle-class practice where bravery and risk-taking are essential articulations. We argue that the skateboarders articulate masculine subjectivity by a complex amalgam of playfulness, risk-taking, colonization of space and the visual style involved in their skateboarding. The construction and presentation of self in the skateboard video are integrated with the quest for individual identity, self-realization and meaning making that pertain to a global entrepreneurial mindset in which mainly white middle-class men are privileged.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the physical and mental health of very old people (aged 80+) with anaemia.

METHODS
Individual level meta-analysis from five cohorts of octogenarians (n = 2,392): [NZ study] Māori, [NZ study] non-Māori, [NL study], [UK study], and [JP study]. Mixed models of change in functional ability, cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health over time were separately fitted for each cohort. We combined individual cohort estimates of differences according to the presence of anaemia at baseline, adjusting for age at entry, sex, and time elapsed. Combined estimates are presented as differences in standard deviation units (i.e. standardised mean differences-SMDs).

RESULTS
The combined prevalence of anaemia was 30.2%. Throughout follow-up, participants with anaemia, on average, had: worse functional ability (SMD -0.42 of a standard deviation across cohorts; CI -0.59,-0.25); worse cognitive scores (SMD -0.27; CI -0.39,-0.15); worse depression scores (SMD -0.20; CI -0.31,-0.08); and lower ratings of their own health (SMD -0.36; CI -0.47,-0.25). Differential rates of change observed were: larger declines in functional ability for those with anaemia (SMD -0.12 over five years; CI -0.21,-0.03) and smaller mean difference in depression scores over time between those with and without anaemia (SMD 0.18 over five years; CI 0.05,0.30).

CONCLUSION
Anaemia in the very old is a common condition associated with worse functional ability, cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health, and a more rapid decline in functional ability over time. The question remains as to whether anaemia itself contributes to worse outcomes or is simply a marker of chronic diseases and nutrient deficiencies.


Periodic lattices offer enhanced mechanical and dynamic properties per unit mass, and the ability to engineer the material response by optimizing the unit cell. Characterizing the effective properties of these lattice materials through experiments can be a time consuming and costly process, so analytical and numerical methods are crucial. Specifically, the Bloch-wave homogenization approach allows one to characterize the effective static properties of the lattice while simultaneously analyzing wave propagation properties such as band gaps, propagating modes, and wave directionality. While this analysis has been used for some time, a thorough study of this approach on three-dimensional (3D) lattice materials with different symmetries and geometries is presented here. Bloch-wave homogenization is applied to extract the effective stiffness tensor of 3D periodic lattices and confirmed with elastostatic homogenization, both within a finite element framework. Multiple periodic lattices with cubic, transversely isotropic, and tetragonal symmetry, including an auxetic geometry, over a wide range of relative densities are analyzed. Further, this approach is used to analyze 3D periodic composite structures, and a way to tailor their overall anisotropy is demonstrated. This work can serve as the basis for nondestructive evaluation of metamaterials properties using ultrasonic velocity measurements.


The performance of an interconnection network with adaptive routing is strongly related to the deadlock avoidance method it applies. Virtual channels are normally used for this purpose in mesh and torus networks. This work compares true architectural alternatives in the router design: mapping each virtual channel onto a different physical link and multiplexing the set of virtual channels onto the same physical link. Besides, multiplexing at the packet level is proposed as an alternative to multiplexing at the flit level, showing the advantages of this not previously used approach. The benefits of each multiplexing type, both in message latency and throughput, have been evaluated under several traffic conditions. An estimation of the node delay for each implementation scheme has also been calculated.<<ETX>>


Prediction of nonlinear shear hinge parameters in RC members is difficult because it involves a number of parameters like shear capacity, shear displacement, shear stiffness. As shear failure are brittle in nature, designer must ensure that shear failure can never occur. Designer has to design the sections such that flexural failure (ductile mode of failure) precedes the shear failure. Also design code does not permit shear failure. However, past earthquakes reveal that majority of the reinforced concrete (RC) structures failed due to shear. Indian construction practice does not guaranty safety against shear. Therefore accurate modelling of shear failure is almost certain for seismic evaluation of RC framed building.
A thorough literature review does not reveal any information about the nonlinear modelling of RC sections in Shear. The current industry practice is to do nonlinear analysis for flexure only. Therefore, the primary objective of the present work is to develop nonlinear force-deformation model for reinforced concrete section for shear and demonstrate the importance of modelling shear hinge in seismic evaluation of RC framed building. From the existing literature it is found that equations given in Indian Standard IS-456: 2000 and American Standard ACI-318: 2008 represent good estimate of ultimate strength. However, FEMA-356 recommends ignoring concrete contribution in shear strength calculation for ductile beam under earthquake loading. No clarity is found regarding yield strength from the literature. Priestley et al. (1996) is reported to be most effective for calculating shear displacement at yield whereas model proposed by Park and Paulay (1975) is most effective in predicting the ultimate shear displacements for beams and columns. Combining these models shear hinge properties can be calculated.
To demonstrate the importance of modelling shear hinges, an existing RC framed building is selected. Two building models, one with shear hinge and other without shear hinges, are analysed using nonlinear static (pushover) analysis.
This study found that modelling shear hinges is necessary to correctly evaluate strength and ductility of the building. When analysis ignores shear failure model it overestimates the base shear and roof displacement capacity of the building. The results obtained here show that the presence of shear hinge can correctly reveal the non-ductile failure mode of the building.


A Ramsey planner chooses a distorting tax on labor and manages a portfolio of securities in an economy with incomplete markets. We develop a method that uses second order approximations of Ramsey policies to obtain formulas for conditional and unconditional moments of government debt and taxes that include means and variances of the invariant distribution as well as speeds of mean reversion. The asymptotic mean of the planner's portfolio minimizes a measure of fiscal risk. We obtain analytic expressions that approximate moments of the invariant distribution and apply them to data on a primary government deficit, aggregate consumption, and returns on traded securities. For U.S. data, we find that the optimal target debt level is negative but close to zero, the invariant distribution of debt is very dispersed, and mean reversion is slow.


A study of the development of human society in Yucatan during the colonial period, this book poses a challenge to a variety of accepted views, including the notion that Yucatan was largely isolated from the main part of Spain's New World empire and thus from international markets and the world economy - an isolation often cited as the principal reason for the extended survival of indigenous culture in the region. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Yucatan society was composed of both Maya and Spanish commonwealths, each with its own economic, social, and political organization. This book represents several new departures, both for what is known about colonial Yucatan and for colonial Latin American history in general. It forces the reader to rethink much of the received knowledge about acculturation, the hacienda, and inter-regional relations.


Context The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) are advocating integration among inter-professionals in the workplace as reflected in the formation of the Foundation of Child Health within the RCPCH.1 At the undergraduate level, different professions train separately and often this continues at a postgraduate level and even in the work place. Methodology Regular multidisciplinary neonatal simulation was established in Leeds Children's hospital. Our aims were to promote team learning whilst strengthening non-technical and technical skills. Single professional sessions were avoided were possible. Simulation sessions occur either in situ or in our simulation centre and we used a combination of high and low fidelity manikins. Results We have run over 20 multidisciplinary sessions, involving over 150 staff. On average there is 1 registrar; 2 SHO; 2.7 nurses; 0.5 sister/ANNP; 0.5 midwives and 0.3 students per session. Composition of the faculty is 19% consultant; 49% registrar and 32% sister/ANNP. Learning points from candidates ranged from human factors in situational awareness to knowledge deficits in resuscitation algorithms. Latent errors including equipment failure, medication and system issues were identified and acted upon to improve patient safety. Feedback forms from candidates demonstrated an improvement in mean confidence score in managing similar crisis scenario from 2.9 to 4.2 (5-point Likert Score) pre and post simulation training. Conclusions Our project has demonstrated support from staff for continuation and development of this modality of training to incorporate more allied health professionals. Our data reflects a multidisciplinary model in composition of our faculty. Recently midwives have shown interest in simulation training and this has led to development of our simulation program into the wider maternity services. More work is needed to establish the level of training received by different members of the multidisciplinary faculty and identify groups that may require more formal simulation training. Reference http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/what-we-do/consultations/foundation-child-health


Titanium has received a great deal of attention from dental researchers and clinicians. In the United States, the history of the application of titanium as a biomaterial started as early as 1940 when experiments with titanium implants were done using laboratory animals. It appears that in 1959, two American researchers were the first to suggest casting titanium to fabricate implant posts. The use of cast titanium for dental prostheses in the U.S. was first reported in 1977. The present survey revealed that during the last decade, the number of research projects on the applications of titanium to dentistry that were presented at annual IADR/AADR meetings has steadily increased. The majority of these presentations have been made by American researchers, and 59% of these were related to dental implantology. The numbers of reports on casting and prosthodontic applications have steadily increased, but they are still more limited. The purpose of this review was to provide information on the development and the current status of research on titanium in dentistry in the U.S.


Context. CoRoT is a space telescope dedicated to stellar seismology and the search for extrasolar planets. The mission is led by the CNES in association with French laboratories and has a large international participation. The European Space Agency (ESA), Austria, Belgium, and Germany contribute to the payload, and Spain and Brazil contribute to the ground segment. Development of the spacecraft, which is based on a PROTEUS low earth orbit (LEO) recurrent platform, commenced in October 2000, and the satellite was launched on December 27, 2006. Aims. The instrument and platform characteristics prior to launch have been described in ESA publication (SP-1306). In the present paper we explain the behaviour in flight, based on raw and corrected data. Methods. Five runs have been completed since January 2007. The data used here are essentially those acquired during the commissioning phase and from a long run that lasted 146 days. These enable us to give a complete overview of the instrument and platform behaviour for all environmental conditions. The ground based data processing is not described in detail because the most important method has been published elsewhere. Results. We show that the performance specifications are easily satisfied when the environmental conditions are favourable. Most of the perturbations, hence data corrections, are related to LEO perturbations: high energy particles inside the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), eclipses and temperature variations, and line of sight fluctuations due to the attitude control system. Straylight due to the reflected light from the earth, which is controlled by the telescope and baffle design, appears to be negligible.


The diversity of tissue and cell organization in the leaves of dicots is explained as the mutual effect of light and water fluxes distribution. Equally with certain data about the role of light distribution, the same influence of water flux distribution on the leaf structure is recognized. Dorsiventral leaves of woody plants have an adequate to structure dorsiventral ring of water circulation. Rising flux from the xylem allocates via leaf apoplast with intermediate accumulation in upper epiderma. Descending flux starts and returns to bundle moving from cell to cell along the symplast (ER) of spongy parenchyma, bundle sheath and terminal complexes of the phloem. Isolateral leaves of herbs have a concentric pathway of solute circulation corresponding to the structure. Xylem flux allocates via symplast with water and nitrogen accumulation in paraveinal parenchyma. Water returns to phloem by transit via the apoplast in parallels with phloem exudate formation. Structural features correlated with the model of water circulation in the leaf are described. Numerous lines of leaf evolution well-known for dicots collect to two main topics which are typical for woody and herbaceous forms of dicots. The mechanisms of cell and tissue differentiation under the control of transport fluxes are discussed with special attention to ontogenetic and phylogenetic trends.


Due to the rise of the digital era, various industries demand employees with a proficient communicative English skills, but many are still not up to par with the demands. One solution for this is to provide communicative English trainings for employees, especially support staffs, yet face-to-face trainings have many limitations, which can be overcome through mobile learning. Due to the fact that mobile learning can be accessed anytime and anywhere by anyone, the Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) is one of the platforms that can be used to curb the issue. This paper aimed to identify the perceptions of support staffs towards using 'ìSPEAK: English for the Workplace' in MOOC. A total of 30 respondents were selected through purposive sampling and a survey through a 4-point Likert scale questionnaire was given out. The main findings showed that overall, the support staffs have a positive attitude towards using ìSPEAK. Nevertheless, half of them were unsure of the reliability of the sources available in the course. However, the findings of this study implied that ìSPEAK could be one of the training alternatives for support staffs to improve and increase their communicative ability. Future research can look into designing and developing various modules of communicative English in various mobile learning platforms, which could cater to different levels of proficiency of learners.


Background: Poor diet quality is associated with a higher risk of many chronic diseases that are among the leading causes of death in the United States. It has been hypothesized that evolutionary discordance may account for some of the higher incidence and mortality from these diseases.Objective: We investigated associations of 2 diet pattern scores, the Paleolithic and the Mediterranean, with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the REGARDS (REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) study, a longitudinal cohort of black and white men and women ≥45 y of age.Methods: Participants completed questionnaires, including a Block food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ), at baseline and were contacted every 6 mo to determine their health status. Of the analytic cohort (n = 21,423), a total of 2513 participants died during a median follow-up of 6.25 y. We created diet scores from FFQ responses and assessed their associations with mortality using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusting for major risk factors.Results: For those in the highest relative to the lowest quintiles of the Paleolithic and Mediterranean diet scores, the multivariable adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality were, respectively, 0.77 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.89; P-trend < 0.01) and 0.63 (95% CI: 0.54, 0.73; P-trend < 0.01). The corresponding HRs for all-cancer mortality were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.95; P-trend = 0.03) and 0.64 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.84; P-trend = 0.01), and for all-cardiovascular disease mortality they were 0.78 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.00; P-trend = 0.06) and HR: 0.68 (95% CI: 0.53, 0.88; P-trend = 0.01).Conclusions: Findings from this biracial prospective study suggest that diets closer to Paleolithic or Mediterranean diet patterns may be inversely associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.


Background and aims: The Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses (QUOROM) conference was convened to address standards for improving the QUOROM of clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The Structure of articles based on scientific standards is one of factors that affects. The QUOROM statement for reporting SR was created according to evidence and is a comprehensive set of guidelines. Development of the QUOROM statement in 1996 which was expected to set some standards in drafting of meta-analysis of RCTs. In 2009, the QUORUM Statement was replaced by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) to also apply to SRs. Methods: We searched the data base in Cochrane, Medline, Google Scholar, PubMed, Iranmedex, SID, IranDoc, Magiran for 2000 to 2016 with keywords quality assessment, systematic review, meta-analysis, quarom and obtained: The checklist consists of 18 items, including 8 evidence based ones, addressing primarily the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, and Results section of a report of a SR of RCTs. This checklist encourages authors to provide readers with information regarding searches, selection, validity assessment, data abstraction, study characteristics, quantitative data synthesis, and trial flow. Items reported in the QUOROM statement that are to be included in a SR report were chosen based on evidence whenever possible, which implies the need to include items that can systematically influence estimates of treatment effects. Results: Beverley Shea & et al (2000) compared the QUOROM statement to other tools and Found The majority of checklists contained items about what the method section of a SR should include and generally neglected the other components of the report: only one (5%)checklist included an item regarding the title and two (10%) addressed the abstract. The Abstract items in the QUOROM checklist were the least frequently encountered among the checklists (0–9%). Thirteen (62%) included an item about the introduction. There was considerable overlap between the content of the QUOROM checklist and the method section of the other checklists. All but two checklists (90%) asked about the searching and all but one (95%) asked about the selection criteria. Sixteen (76%) included an item on validity and twelve (57%) asked about data abstraction. Items about data synthesis were definitely present in 13 checklists (62%). However, while quantitative data synthesis was clearly identified as a prerequisite in 13 (62%) of the checklists and may possibly have been required in three others, only nine (43%) of them (and possibly four others) included a question on the individual study characteristics in the methods section. In 2009, the QUORUM Statement was replaced by the PRISMA Statement to also apply to SRs. Today, a use of PRISMA Statement isn't enough in the studies. Conclusion: Clearly, research is required to help improve the QUOROM. Such evidence may also act as a catalyst for improving the methods by which meta-analyses are conducted. RCTs and meta-analysis aren't presented in high quality reports. Therefore, training courses about qualitative reporting of RCT results seem necessary for medical researchers. In addition, editors of medical journals must provide necessary reporting guidelines for authors and reviewers to improve the quality of published researches.


Restoration treatments in Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)‐invaded sagebrush habitat have often produced poor results. This is perhaps due to multifaceted ecological changes associated with cheatgrass invasion like reduced water availability, altered nutrient availability, and shifts in soil microbial communities. We tested whether suppressing cheatgrass, altering nutrient availability, and inoculating with soil microbes improved restoration success. We conducted field experiments in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona where we transplanted seedlings of Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata (basin big sagebrush) and Elymus elymoides (squirreltail). Growth and survivorship of both species were higher in sites with greater precipitation and lower cheatgrass abundance. Significant nutrient modification effects were seen in Utah, where cheatgrass abundance was highest and soil nutrients were most limiting. In Utah, we observed an increase of 14% in survivorship for squirreltail in response to carbon addition, and 119% increase in growth of sagebrush with phosphorus addition. Inoculating plants with sagebrush rhizosphere soil or a commercial arbuscular mycorrhiza at the time of planting did not significantly affect growth, survivorship, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization, or extraradical mycorrhizal hyphae length for either plant species. The largest effects on seedling growth (+384%) and survivorship (+262%) were observed in response to the suppression of cheatgrass using a weed barrier cloth and associated with increased water availability. Interactions between suppressing cheatgrass, altering nutrient availability, and inoculating with soil microbes were not significant. Direct reduction of cheatgrass was shown to be more effective than targeting soil legacy effects associated with cheatgrass with regards to restoration outplanting success.


Fifty years ago, Stein (1970) conducted a therapeutic recreation (TR) education survey. Ten years later, Anderson and Stewart (1980) conducted a follow-up study that began the longitudinal studies in therapeutic recreation/ recreational therapy (TR/RT) education in the U.S. and Canada for the next four decades, and the results of each survey were published in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal (Anderson et al., 2000; Autry et al., 2010; Stewart & Anderson, 1990). The decennial TR/RT education surveys have included the same items and used the same core instrument since its first implementation in 1969 (Stein, 1970). Although survey content has expanded to include additional questions, this consistency of content was designed to allow the researchers to compare results across each decade and to identify and discuss trends and issues in TR/RT education. The overall findings and discussion were divided among TR/RT curricula, faculty and students and were compared to these same categories over the past 50 years. Subscribe to TRJ


Background/aim Renal function of patients with hypothyroidism increases after reaching euthyroid state. There is no data regarding geriatric age group. The aim of the study was determined to investigate whether renal function of geriatric patients with hypothyroidism increases after they become euthyroid. Materials and methods Patients who were sixty-five years or older were retrospectively screened in two centers. TSH, T3, T4, creatinine, and eGFR calculated by CKD-EPI formula were recorded under the presence of accompanying hypothyroidism. The same variables were recorded after the patients became euthyroid. Results 285 patients were included in the study, the median age was 73(65–84), and 234 patients were female. Patients were examined in four groups according to TSH values. There were 160 (56.1%) patients with TSH 5–9.9 uIU/mL, 60(21.1%) patients with TSH between 10–19.9 uIU/mL, 41(14.4 %) patients with TSH between 20–49.9 uIU/mL and 24(8.4%) patients with TSH> 50uIU/mL. There was a significant and negative correlation between the initial TSH values and the first calculated eGFR values (p: 0.001; r: –0.191). The median eGFR of the patients in hypothyroid cases was 66.59 (14.62–116.07), while the median eGFR value of patients was 69.6 (12.91–109.31) in the euthyroid state. This value obtained after thyroid replacement was significantly improved when compared to the first eGFR (p: 0.001). In logistic regression analysis, pretreatment TSH value was found to independently affect eGFR (p: 0.009; Exb: 1.017). Conclusion It has been observed that hypothyroidism treatment increases eGFR in geriatric patients. Similar results were obtained after studies with younger patients in the literature. This study is a study in which only geriatric age group patients were examined. It should be kept in mind that hypothyroidism which is not corrected in geriatric patients may also contribute to a decrease in eGFR.


Mapping of ∼3,400 km2 in the Sierra del Gallego area, 110 km north of Ciudad Chihuahua, Mexico, has revealed about 1,000 m of volcanic rocks unconformably overlying Lower Cretaceous limestone of the Chihuahua Tectonic Belt. The regional structure is dominated by Basin and Range faults that trend north-northwest and cut all volcanic units.

Whole-rock and feldspar K-Ar age determinations, combined with whole-rock chemical analyses, show that subalkalic volcanism took place 45 to 29 m.y. ago, except for a conspicuous hiatus between 36 and 29.5 m.y. Between 45 and 39 m.y. ago, the area was covered by thin widespread blankets of rhyolitic ash-flow tuff derived from distant sources. These ash flows appear to correlate with units associated with a major uranium deposit about 50 km to the south, in the Sierra Pena Blanca. At Sierra del Gallego, these ash flows were followed by a 300-m thickness of extensive andesitic lava flows formed by magma mixing, and about 38 m.y. ago by a rhyolitic lava flow unit approximately 150 m thick. Around 36 m.y. ago, numerous local rhyolite flows and domes were emplaced. Approximately 29 m.y. ago, a renewed surge of volcanic activity produced a widespread 125-m thick group of basalt flows accompanied by a thin rhyolitic ash flow.

Volcanism at Sierra del Gallego is broadly contemporaneous with and is gradational in composition between voluminous calc-alkalic activity in the Sierra Madre Occidental to the west and alkalic volcanism to the east in Trans-Pecos Texas. Tertiary rhyolitic volcanism throughout this region was controlled by tectonic patterns that preceded the profound episode of crustal extension so obvious in the present regional topography.


Constructionist approaches to language hypothesize that grammar can be learned from the input using domain-general mechanisms. This emphasis has engendered a great deal of research—exemplified in the present issue—that seeks to illuminate the ways in which input-related factors can both drive and constrain constructional acquisition. In this commentary piece, we situate results reported by contributors to the present issue within the larger body of acquisition work in the constructionist framework. We address the importance of both type frequency and skewed input samples in the development of constructional categories and we compare different ways that the association between verbs and constructions can be measured, including through the use of conditional probabilities, lexical biases, and introspective judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]