Kinereth Meyer and Rachel Salmon Deshen. Reading the Underthought: Jewish Hermeneutics and the Christian Poetry of Hopkins and Eliot. Jewish Literature and Culture. Bloomington: Catholic U of America P, 2010. xiiii + 314 pp. Kinereth Meyer and Rachel Salmon Deshen, the coauthors of this challenging and often rewarding study, are two English professors based at Bar-Ilan University in Israel whose previous work includes important essays on TS. Eliot and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Here they undertake the difficult challenge of reading the latter' s Christian religious poetry against the grain; in other words from their perspective as Jewish readers and critics. As they declare in their introductory chapter, the authors are more drawn to the aggadic ("homiletic, legendary, theological, and ethical") as well as halakhic ("legal") traditions, rather than Judaism's more mystical and esoteric trajectories, including the scholarship of Gershom Scholem and others (13). This is what they identify as the crucial contrast between the discursive practices of ancient rabbinics with that of Christian thought: For Christian hermeneutics, the language of Scripture is a veil, but that veil can be pierced or lifted to reveal full, essential meaning, because ultimate reality itself has become directly perceivable, knowable at least to some extent, through the Incarnation. This kind of reading is informed by . . .a hermeneutics of adequation: that which is known (the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection) before, beyond, behind the written word makes possible the perception of the true meaning of the words that bear witness to it. In contrast, rabbinic hermeneutics does not attempt to move beyond language; within the Jewish tradition, language leads always to more language, never to a non-discursive presence. (emphasis in original; 13-14) With these contrasting modes in mind, the authors undertake an exploration of the remarkable ways that Judaism's interpretive traditions can produce fecund readings of narratives alien to it, claiming that: "strategies used by the Rabbis of the Talmud and the Midrash...were as innovative in respect to textual analyses as those of our postmodern period. Identifying the knots, gaps and cruxes in the biblical text, the Rabbis enlarged upon and contested each other's interpretations and constantly offered new ones, as if they were out to exhaust every possibility of what they considered an absolute and infinite text" (19). At the same time, they hasten to point out that while rabbinic hermeneutics might "appear exotic, it shares enough common ground with the dominant culture in order to enter into viable conversation with it" (19). While they do not pretend to be able to show the reader precisely how that tradition of multiplicity and infinitude directly engenders the readings they produce, Meyer and Deshen nonetheless strive to delineate 'close interrelations between rabbinic hermeneutic practice" (19) and the approaches they take to Hopkins and Eliot (they hope that their example will inspire further cross-cultural interpretive experiments from other traditions). For the most part they succeed, often producing vigorous, rigorous, and compelling insights. The authors perceived Hopkins and Eliot as especially pertinent for their project because each embodies an intertextual relationship to two theological traditions, as religious converts. To their credit, Meyer and Deshen closely delineate the complex ramifications of those conversions so vividly that the reader immediately grasps why they appealed to their imagination. Attentive readers may independently conclude that Hopkins's and Eliot's boundary-crossings represent an insider-outsider consciousness not unlike the authors' own position, which after all entailed: not only religious commitment, but national identity as well; both were expatriates (only Eliot by choice) and both gave up a more liberal form of Protestantism for adherence to a Catholic faith. …


Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) algorithms have been utilized in a wide range of real applications. NMF is done by several researchers to its part based representation property especially in the facial expression recognition problem. It decomposes a face image into its essential parts (e.g. nose, lips, etc.) but in all previous attempts, it is neglected that all features achieved by NMF do not need for recognition problem. For example, some facial parts do not have any useful information regarding the facial expression recognition. Addressing this challenge of defining and calculating the contributions of each part, the Shapley value is used. It is applied for identifying the contribution of each feature in the classification problem; then, affects less features are removed. Experiments on the JAFFE dataset and MUG Facial Expression Database as benchmarks of facial expression datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


T he United States is experiencing rapid demographic changes that are altering its racial and ethnic landscape, particularly in urban centers. According to the 2000 census, 56 percent of residents of the 100 largest U.S. cities are nonwhite. Moreover, there is diversity in the composition of this nonwhite population. For instance, Chicago, historically a black and white city, is now 36 percent black, 31 percent white, and 28 percent Latino, with the remaining 5 percent mainly being Asian. Growing racial and ethnic diversity has not always meant increasing racial integration in the nation's major metropolitan areas. The Chicago metro area ranks as the fifth, sixth, and ninth most residentially segregated metropolitan area in the United States for blacks, Latinos, and Asians, respectively.1 Residentially segregated neighborhoods in our urban centers like Chicago remain among the most salient reminders of our nation's history of racial injustice. Extreme housing segregation is connected to persistent racial discrepancies in quality of health care, education, jobs, and other public and private sector services. Studies investigating the effects of residential segregation for young African Americans have concluded that the elimination of residential segregation would lead to the disappearance of blackwhite differences in earnings, high school graduation rates, and unemployment.2 Why does residential segregation in Chicago persist 40 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968? Effective policies to counteract segregation require a clear understanding of why it persists. We address this question using survey data collected in Cook County in 2005 and the 2000 Census.


Abstract Objective. We investigated the effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Nigella sativa (NS) on renal tissue oxidative damage associated with propylthiouracil (PTU)-induced hypothyroidism during neonatal and juvenile growth in rats. Methods. Pregnant rats were divided into five groups designated as: 1) control; 2) propylthiouracil (PTU); 3) PTU-NS100; 4) PTU-NS200, and 5) PTU-NS400. All mothers except the control group received 0.005% PTU in their drinking water during lactation. Besides PTU, mothers in groups 3-5 received 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg of NS extract. After lactation period, the off spring continued to receive the same experimental treatment for the first 8 weeks of their life. Ten male off springs of each group were randomly selected, blood samples collected, and the kidney tissues removed. Results. The serum thyroxin concentration in PTU group was lower than control group and improved by extract. PTU increased the renal malondialdehyde (MDA), while reduced the total thiols concentrations and catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity compared to control group. Administration of 200 and 400 mg/kg of NS extract decreased MDA level, while it increased the total thiols and 400 mg/kg increased CAT and SOD activity in renal tissues compared to PTU group. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in PTU group was higher than in comparison with the control group. 400 mg/kg decreased creatinine, but both 200 and 400 mg/kg improved BUN concentration compared to PTU group. Conclusion. The results of this study demonstrate that the hydroalcoholic extract of NS has a protective effect on the renal tissue oxidative damage associated with PTU-induced hypothyroidism during neonatal and juvenile growth in rats.


This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of pufferfish (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) meat poisoning on hepatic functions of Wistar rats. For this purpose, groups of rats (Lcr, Lcu+b and Lcu-b) received diet supplemented with 10% of raw or cooked meat, respectively, with or without cooking water of L. lagocephalus while groups Mcr and Mcu+b received diet supplemented with 10% of raw or cooked meat of Liza aurata, which were used as a negative control. In Lcu+b group, ALT, AST and ALP rates (hepatic enzyme markers) decreased after two months of treatment, indicating liver damage. We also observed an increase of 54 and 65% of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in their livers respectively 48 hours and two months after treatment compared to controls. The catalase (CAT) activity in group Lcu+b decreased (p < 0.05) after two periods of treatment, whereas metallothionein (MT) level significantly increased and decreased, respectively after 48 hours and two months. In fact, in the histological analysis of the livers from Lcu+b treated group, we observed an increase in vacuolisation, necrosis, hepatocytes ballooning and sinusoids dilation. These results indicate that L. lagocephalus meat cooked with water produces hepatotoxicity and oxidative damage.


Localization based super-resolution microscopy relies on the detection of individual molecules cycling between fluorescent and non-fluorescent states. These transitions are commonly regulated by high-intensity illumination, imposing constrains to imaging hardware and producing sample photodamage. Here, we propose single-molecule self-quenching as a mechanism to generate spontaneous photoswitching independent of illumination. To demonstrate this principle, we developed a new class of DNA-based open-source Super-Resolution probes named Super-Beacons, with photoswitching kinetics that can be tuned structurally, thermally and chemically. The potential of these probes for live-cell friendly Super-Resolution Microscopy without high-illumination or toxic imaging buffers is revealed by imaging Interferon Inducible Transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) at sub-100nm resolutions.


The effects of blend ratio and MWCNT loading on the morphology, electrical properties and electromagnetic shielding performance of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT)/polypropylene (PP) blend nanocomposites were studied. To understate the state of dispersion of the MWCNTs, PTT/PP blend nanocomposites were systematically analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Fourier transform spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy techniques were used to understand the chemical interactions between the blend components and fillers. Among the nanocomposites of all blend composition with 1 wt% MWCNTs, composites with high wt% PTT (90PTT/10PP/1MWCNT) showed better electrical properties due to the double percolation phenomenon. The shielding effectiveness (SE) was investigated in the S-band frequency range and 90PTT/10PP/1MWCNT showed a very good shielding effectiveness for electromagnetic radiation. Further studies with different MWCNT loadings showed that the 90PTT/10PP blend with 5 wt% MWCNTs indicated high dielectric properties and a maximum SE of ∼40 dB. The conductivity results were linearly fitted by a power law and the obtained percolation threshold was found to be around 0.5 wt% MWCNTs. Theoretical models were also applied for the DC conductivity data to explain the conductive mechanism in the polymer blend nanocomposites.


We evaluate the Casimir force between two parallel plates in Randall-Sundrum (RS) scenarios extended by q compact dimensions. After giving exact expressions for one extra compact dimension (6D RS model), we generalize to an arbitrary number of compact dimensions. We present the complete calculation for both the two-brane scenario (RSI model) and the one-brane scenario (RSII model) using the method of summing over the modes. We investigate the effects of extra dimensions on the magnitude and sign of the force, and comment on limits for the size and number of the extra dimensions.


Switzerland is known for its highly developed direct democracy. However, Swiss women were enfranchised at the federal level only in 1971 and in many cantons even later. We analyze the role of direct democracy in the delayed Swiss enfranchising process by investigating a novel dataset covering referenda among males about enfranchising women. Applying a difference-in-differences approach, we shed light on the conditions under which strong local direct democracy becomes a barrier to women's suffrage. Our results are consistent with direct democracy having two effects: it boosts men's demand to enfranchise women, but it also increases the price for men to do so. Depending on the specific conditions of the vote, the former or the latter effect dominates.


It has been recognized that the optimal strategy of a government is generally time-inconsistent: optimality requires that the government take into account expectations effects in the formulation of its policy and to ignore these effects when applying the policy. In order to analyse the problem, we study different solutions to a simple one-dimensional linear quadratic game. The optimal but time-inconsistent solution appears to be paradoxical: in the long term, the government plays against its objective function, in order to induce the private sector to take early corrective measures. The time-consistent solution, by contrast, is defined as a solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, i.e. as a policy where the government has no-precommitment capability. We demonstrate that this solution can be obtained by imposing the assumption that the government does not take into account the private sector's first order conditions but instead takes as given an equilibrium feedback rule. This solution is compared to a policy where the government has an "instantaneous" precommitment, to a Cournot-Nash equilibrium and to an optimal policy rule. In each case, we show how control theory should or should not be applied to calculate the equilibrium.


The Hueco Tanks geothermal area contains five known but now inactive hot wells (50/sup 0/ to 71/sup 0/C). The area trends north-south along the east side of Tularosa-Hueco Bolson astride the Texas-New Mexico border approximately 40 km northeast of El Paso. Because of its proximity to El Paso, geothermal water in the Hueco Tanks area could be a significant resource. Hueco Bolson is an asymmetric graben. Greatest displacement along boundary faults is on the west side adjacent to the Franklin Mountains. Faults, probably with less displacement, also form an irregular boundary on the east side of the bolson. Several probable faults may allow the rise of thermal waters from depth. Ground water in the central part of Hueco Bolson flows southward to the Rio Grande. However, four of the five hot wells occur in a ground-water trough along the eastern margin of the bolson. The trough may be bounded by one of the postulated faults serving as a barrier to ground-water flow. Data on permeability of potential reservoir rocks, including basin fill and fractured bedrock, suggest that they may be sufficiently permeable for development of geothermal water. The concentration of dissolved solids in the geothermal waters varies from 1100 tomore » at least 12,500 mg/L, but most waters show high concentrations. They are Na-Cl-(SO/sub 4/) waters similar in composition to nonthermal waters in basin fill. The composition probably results from contact with evaporite deposits either in basin fill or in Paleozoic bedrock. Shallow reservoirs reach maximum temperatures of about 80/sup 0/ to 110/sup 0/C. Available data are too limited to evaluate adequately the resource potential of geothermal water in the Hueco Tanks area. A complete exploration program, including geological, hydrological, and geochemical investigation, is recommended.« less


ABSTRACT Chronological events of the intercellular interaction between Verticillium lecanii and the postharvest pathogen Penicillium digitatum were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and gold cytochemistry. Growth inhibition of P. oligandrum as a response to V. lecanii attack correlated with striking host changes including retraction of the plasma membrane and cytoplasm disorganization. Such changes were associated with the deposition on the inner host cell surface of a chitin- and cellulose-enriched material which appeared to be laid down as a structural defense reaction. The accumulation of chitin in the newly formed material correlated with a decrease in the amount of wallbound chitin. However, the deposition of cellulose appeared to correspond to a de novo synthesis, as evidenced by the occurrence of cellulose-containing vesicles which released their content in the space between the invaginated plasma membrane and the host cell wall. Results of the present study provide the first ultrastructural and cytochemical evidence that antagonism, triggered by V. lecanii, is a multifaceted process in which antibiosis, with alteration of the host hyphae prior to contact with the antagonist, appears to be the key process in the antagonism against P. digitatum.


Melasma is a common acquired pigmentary disorder predominantly affecting women of childbearing age and Fitzpatrick skin types IV–VI. It negatively impacts the quality of life due to its chronic and relapsing nature. It occurs due to a complex interplay between genetics, hormonal influences, inflammation, oxidative stress, and chronic photodamage. Therefore, a multimodality approach is essential for its treatment. It encompasses photoprotection, topical and oral therapy, and various procedures such as chemical peels, microneedling, lasers, and light treatment. The gold-standard treatment remains topical modified Kligman's formula, consisting of hydroquinone, corticosteroid, and retinoid, in different concentrations. However, it may cause various adverse effects due to its unsupervised and chronic use. Therefore, novel treatment modalities should not only focus on reducing melanin synthesis and other influencing factors but also have a high safety profile. Among them, botanicals or plant-based extracts have gained massive popularity in the recent past. These compounds have been investigated extensively for their therapeutic activity against pigmentation, efficacy, and safety. Currently, they act as adjuncts to existing topicals. However, there is a paucity of data for their use as monotherapy. This review focuses on newer as well as existing botanicals for the treatment of melasma. Data extraction was done by searching words like botanicals, plant extracts, melasma, and depigmenting agents in databases: Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and others over the last 20 years.


Primary central nervous system non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas are observed in approximately 1.9% of all patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The yearly incidence of AIDS‐associated tumors has surpassed the yearly incidence from all other causes and could become as frequent as low‐grade astrocytomas by 1991. Patients' signs, symptoms, and radiographic studies are not specific for this lesion; brain biopsy usually is necessary to make a definitive diagnosis. Most tumors are high‐grade lymphomas and are pathologically similar to the primary central nervous system lymphomas observed before the AIDS epidemic. AIDS‐associated tumors respond readily to radiation therapy. However, patient survival remains limited owing to other manifestations of the syndrome.


The basis for O2 sensitivity of C4 photosynthesis was evaluated using a C4-cycle-limited mutant of Amaranthus edulis (a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase-deficient mutant), and a C3-cyclelimited transformant of Flaveria bidentis (an antisense ribulose-1,5bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase [Rubisco] small subunit transformant). Data obtained with the C4-cycle-limited mutant showed that atmospheric levels of O2 (20 kPa) caused increased inhibition of photosynthesis as a result of higher levels of photorespiration. The optimal O2 partial pressure for photosynthesis was reduced from approximately 5 kPa O2 to 1t o 2k Pa O 2, becoming similar to that of C3 plants. Therefore, the higher O2 requirement for optimal C4 photosynthesis is specifically associated with the C4 function. With the Rubisco-limited F. bidentis, there was less inhibition of photosynthesis by supraoptimal levels of O2 than in the wild type. When CO2 fixation by Rubisco is limited, an increase in the CO2 concentration in bundle-sheath cells via the C4 cycle may further reduce the oxygenase activity of Rubisco and decrease the inhibition of photosynthesis by high partial pressures of O2 while increasing CO2 leakage and overcycling of the C4 pathway. These results indicate that in C4 plants the investment in the C3 and C4 cycles must be balanced for maximum efficiency.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of economic and political reforms on the decisions related to Financial Sector development both in developed and developing nations. Panel of sixty nations divided almost equally in both sections for the time period 1990-2012 has been used. Using Discroll-Kraay Fixed Effect estimation technique, results revealed that in all cases either for whole panels or for separate developing and developed nations, process of economic reforms is playing most important role in the development of this sector among all other variables and this becomes more prominent in case of developed nations. While among political factors, role of Governance has been observed positive and strongly significant in its impact on the development of this sector for all cases. But Democracy showed positive effect only for developed nations not for developing nations which highlights this fact that consistency is the most required ingredient in case of economic development overall. Overall findings of the study helps in concluding that in case of developing countries, economic reforms are proving to be more fruitful and swift in their outcomes than political reforms.


In this essay, I argue that the white Evangelical Church in South Africa has failed in its witness. I suggest that the white Evangelical Church in South Africa needs to repent ( μετανοέω ) of theological error ("an emaciated gospel") and the conse-quent sinful withdrawal from socio-political issues. We need to repent of our naïve hermeneutics, under realised eschatology, unbiblical view of the missio Dei , and our laager mentality. Without this repentance, I argue, the Evangelical Church in South Africa will forfeit its role in reimagining a new social contract in the public space. Repentance, especially regarding the evangelical 'apolitical' 2 stance in South Africa, is a prerequisite if we wish for our voice to be heard at the South African Christian table and if we hope to contribute to a new South African society that is in line with God's inaugurated kingdom and thus characterised by love and justice. Furthermore, my conviction is that without such repentance, we shall continue to promote and practice an "emaciated gospel". In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 3 "Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace."


Using a sample of equity closed-end funds, we document significant portfolio holdings disclosure valuation effects and strategic disclosure timing by portfolio managers. An event study analysis reveals statistically significant positive (negative) abnormal returns associated with early (late) disclosure. We find that the returns of a long-short arbitrage strategy portfolio become statistically significant exactly when the implementation of such a strategy is facilitated by the timely disclosure of portfolio holdings. Our findings support the argument that managers of funds trading at high discounts are more likely to disclose earlier in order to reduce discounts and protect themselves from activist investor attacks. This is despite the documented strong motives for late disclosure stemming from copycatting and front running threats shared with open-end fund managers.


Using confidential firm-level panel data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we examine how the bilateral trade flows of U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) and their Canadian affiliates responded to U.S.-Canadian tariff reductions from 1983 to 1992. We find that Canadian affiliate sales to the United States are negatively correlated with Canadian tariffs, but U.S. parent sales to Canadian affiliates have little association with Canadian tariffs. These results contradict the notion that Canadian tariff reductions would lead to a hollowing out of Canadian manufacturing. We also find substantial heterogeneity in MNC responses to tariff changes within narrowly defined manufacturing industries. Overall, bilateral trade liberalization is trade-creating, as U.S. MNCs integrated their North American production such that Canadian affiliates increased sales to the United States and reduced domestic sales.


Members of newly formed design teams have different frames - implicit values, goals and assumptions - each of them hold about what problems are important and how they are best addressed. In the early, informal phases of design projects, these frames, and the degree to which they are shared within the team, have substantial consequences. However, little is known about the interactions and activities that reveal frames and support frame sharing in teams. Our study follows 22 newly-formed multi-disciplinary teams through the early phases of the design process in a New Product Development course. We used a mixed method, interdisciplinary approach to understand the dynamic process through which design frames are socially negotiated and shared. We identified core framing activities of design teams and propose a framing cycle of pseudo-frame setting, making individuals' frames explicit, making frame conflicts salient, and building a common frame.


Methadone is used as a substitute of heroin and there may be certain groups of users according to methadone dosage. In this work we analyze data for 314 participants of a methadone study over 180 days. The data, which is called category-ordered data throughout this study, consists of seven categories in which six categories have an ordinal scale for representing dosages and one category for missing dosages. We develop a clustering method involving the so-called p-dissimilarity, modification of Prediction Strength (PS), a null model test, and two ordering algorithms. (1) The p-dissimilarity is used to measure dissimilarity between the 180-day time series of the participants. It accommodates categorical and ordinal scales by using a parameter p as a switch between data being treated as categorical and ordinal. It measures dissimilarity between observed dosages and missing dosages by using a parameter β. Also, it could be applied in a wider field of applications, such as survey studies in which questions use choices on the Likert scales and a don't know-category. (2) The PS determines the number of clusters by measuring the stability of clusters, and the Average Silhouette Width (ASW) measures coherence. We propose rules to modify PS so that it can be fully applied to hierarchal clustering methods. Next, instead of preselecting a clustering method, we let the data to decide which clustering method to use based on cluster stability and cluster coherence. The partition around medoids (PAM) method is then selected. (3) We propose the null model test to determine the number of clusters (k). Many methods for the determination of number of clusters give values for k ≥ 2 based on cluster compactness and separation, and suggest to use the k with the highest value. Viewing this question from a different perspective, for a fixed k and a selected clustering method, the null model test uses a null model and parametric bootstrap to explore the distribution of a statistic under the null assumption. A hypothesis test for each k can then be performed. For our data, we construct a Markov null model without structure of clusters, in which the distributions of the categories are the same as those of the real data. We apply the null model test to investigate whether the clusters found according to PAM and ASW/PS can be explained by random variation. (4) We use heatplots to evaluate the quality of clustering. A heatplot is a graph that represents data by colour. It consists of horizontal lines representing the data for objects. However, the interpretability of a heatplot strongly depends on the location of the objects along the vertical-axis. We propose two algorithms to locate objects on a heatplot. The first algorithm using multidimensional scaling (MDS) is for general use. The second algorithm using projection vector is for the PAM method. Each of them locates objects in a heatplot. The heatplot can then be used for information visualisation. It displays clustering structures, relationships between objects and clusters in terms of their dissimilarities, locations of medoids, and the density of clusters. Despite the fact that no significant clustering structure is observed, the sequences of categories for clusters are clinically useful. The sequences of categories indicate detoxification. Our data shows participants with low heroin addictions attempted to reduce/quit the use of methadone at the third month. As for participants with high addictions, few attempted to reduce the use of methadone at the fifth month and most required more time to finish the detoxification process. Also, we find the heroin onset age might have an influence on the patterns of detoxification.


Insulin-independent diabetes is a disease characterized by insulin resistance and the patient's concomitant inability to compensate by exaggerated insulin secretion. A primary abnormality in the plasma membrane of the afflicted cells may cause both of these phenomena. Recent studies investigating the mechanism of action of sulfonylurea drugs show that these agents probably exert their antidiabetic action by increasing insulin sensitivity and ameliorating the insulin resistance, rather than by increasing insulin secretion. Dietary treatment alone, though effective in lowering the FPG level, does not ameliorate the insulin resistance of insulin-independent diabetes mellitus. Thus, sulfonylurea drugs appear to be rational therapeutic agents for the treatment of this form of diabetes. Clinical studies confirm the beneficial effects of these drugs in controlling the hyperglycemia of insulin-independent diabetes. Major unresolved questions are (1) Why do primary and secondary failures occur? (2) Is the underlying membrane abnormality progressive? (3) How long are sulfonylureas effective? (4) What is the mechanism of the membrane disturbance and how do sulfonylureas ameliorate it? (5) Do sulfonylureas drugs cause cardiovascular toxicity? The answers to these questions will provide further insight into our understanding of insulin-independent diabetes and will lead to the development of better drugs for its treatment. In the meantime, sulfonylureas are rational agents for the therapy for this disorder, if they are used appropriately.


The present study, aimed at revealing the views of elementary school gifted students about the roles and behaviors of their teachers in class as well as about the in-class roles and behaviors that they expect from an ideal teacher with respect to different variables. Another question in the study was directed to determine students' views about learning academic subjects via e-learning applications instead of at teachers. The participants of the study were 46 gifted students identified with the diagnosis system of "Education program for the gifted" executed in the Department of Gifted Education at the Education Faculty of Anadolu University. The research data were collected via a five-point Likerttype scale developed and tested by the researcher for its validity and reliability. For the analysis of the research data, paired sample t-test, one of descriptive parametrical statistical techniques, was applied. The findings obtained in the study revealed that according to gifted students, the in-class behaviors demonstrated by the course teachers were mostly those related to their roles of guidance for students. The behaviors of the course teachers within the scope of this role were followed by those related to providing information and maintaining the discipline, respectively. The behaviors least demonstrated by the teachers were those related to the role of supporting the students and those related to being a model for them. According to the students, an ideal teacher should at most demonstrate behaviors in class regarding the role of guiding the students and those regarding the role of providing information. According to the gifted students, the roles and behaviors of their teachers in class are quite different from the behaviors expected from an ideal teacher. Students do not regard e-learning applications as an alternative to learning from teachers. Rather, they prefer learning from their teachers to technology-aided learning environments. According to students, compared to structure academic learning, technology is a better environment to make good use of their time, to satisfy their curiosity about certain subjects, to establish communication with others and to play games.


In the past several years, there have been a large number of published works that have graphically described a wide variety of security problems particular to Unix. Without fail, the same problems have been discussed over and over again, describing the problems with SUID (set user ID) programs, improper le permissions, and bad passwords (to name a few). There are two common characteristics to each of these problems: rst, they are usually simple to correct, if found; second, they are fairly easy to detect. Since almost all systems have fairly equivalent problems, it seems appropriate to create a tool to detect potential security problems as an aid to system administrators. This paper describes one such tool: Cops. (Computerized Oracle and Password System) is a freely-available, This paper originally appeared in the proceedings of the Summer Usenix Conference, 1990, Anaheim CA.


The abundance of temporal data generated by mankind in recent years gives us the opportunity to better understand human behaviors along with the similarities and differences in groups of people. Better understanding of human behaviors could be very beneficial in choosing strategies, from group-level to society-level depending on the domain. This type of data could range from physiological data collected from sensors to activity patterns in social media. Identifying frequent behavioral patterns in sensor data could give more insight into the health of a community and provoke strategies towards improving it; By analyzing patterns of behaviors in social media, platform's attributes could be adjusted to the user's needs.This type of modeling introduces numerous challenges that varies depending on the data. The goal of my doctoral research is to introduce ways to better understand and capture human behavior by modeling individual's behaviors as time series and extracting interesting patterns within them.


T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) is a heterogeneous malignancy of lymphoblasts committed to T-cell lineage. Dismal outcomes (15-30%) in case of T-LBL relapses warrants for establishing risk-based treatment in future. This is a first comprehensive, systematic, integrated genome-wide analysis including relapse cases aimed towards identifying molecular markers of prognostic relevance for T-LBL. NOTCH1 was identified as putative driver for T-LBL. Activated NOTCH/PI3K-AKT signaling axis and alterations in cell cycle regulators constitutes the core oncogenic program for T-LBL. Mutated KMT2D was identified as a prognostic marker. The cumulative incidence of relapse was 47±17% in patients with KMT2D mutations compared with 14±3% in KMT2D wildtype. Structural analysis of the mutated domains of KMT2D revealed plausible impact on the structure and functional consequences. These findings provide new insights into the pathogenesis of T-LBL including high translational potential. The ongoing trial LBL 2018 (NCT04043494) allows prospective validation and subsequent fine-tuning of the stratification criteria for T-LBL risk groups to improve survival of the pediatric patients.


In the wake of the ethical lapses of lawyers evident in the 2009 financial collapse and the release of a government memo permitting the CIA to waterboard suspected terrorists, public commentators and legal theorists have joined legal education scholars to call for law schools to teach moral judgment making. Questions of how morality should be taught are as old as Aristotle and, today, occupy thinkers from neuroscientists to legal scholars. The current discussions about teaching moral judgment to law students fall into three categories: the model of David Luban, among others, which advocates teaching judgment in the clinical context using Aristotelian virtue ethics; a normative approach, championed by W. Bradley Wendel, which would prevent lawyers from making moral judgments unless they are based solely on legal principles; and the intuitionists approach, trumpeted by Cass Sunstein and others, who question the value of teaching students techniques or systems of addressing moral questions at all. This Article suggests that the normative approach leaves students ill-prepared to deal with moral judgments that may arise in practice; and it challenges the intuitionist approach by looking at current work in the social sciences and neuroscience about the development of moral identity in young adults. This Article then offers a new approach to introducing law students to moral judgment making, one based on the writing of philosopher Susan Neiman whose reason-based approach looks at particular and actual moral questions and focuses on the character of the action, in contrast to the Aristotelian model of looking at the character of the actor. Against this background, this Article then shows how law faculty can use two of the Torture Memos, drafted by a George W. Bush administration lawyer, to introduce first-year law students to moral judgment making. In doing this, the Article places the Memos in a historical condition of uncertainty and then applies Neiman's reason-based approach to examine the moral judgments inherent in the writing of the Memos.


As the operating speed of digital circuits dramatically increases with the advance of VLSI technology, it is becoming more critical to ensure that the circuits are free from timing-related design errors. In a traditional static timing approach nonfunctional paths cannot be distinguished from functional ones since the functionality of a circuit is ignored. This often results in overestimation of circuit delay and can degrade the circuit performance. In today's design methodology where the use of automated logic synthesis and module-based design are popular, circuits with a very large number of nonfunctional (false) paths are common. This paper describes an efficient logic-level timing analysis approach that can provide an accurate delay estimate of a digital circuit which may have many long false paths. By using logic incompatibilities in a circuit as constraints for critical path search, the algorithm determines the longest sensitizable path without explicit path enumeration. Since the number of false paths that can be implicitly eliminated is potentially exponential to the number of path constraints, performance improvement is significant.


Human-body models imitating a part of human body have been used for medical training. But those models seem not to suit training because they cannot be felt to be similar to actual humans. Therefore, the simulator being felt like a real human is required for the medical trainees being able to assess patient's physical and emotional conditions, since medical care procedures are vital to watch out patient's pains given by the care treatment itself to avoid failures leading the patients to dangerous conditions. Based on the needs for medical training by using human-like robot, we have developed a simulator for injection training called "patient robot." Patient robot has to behave like humans to make the medical training effective, so we introduced a visual servoing system into the patient robot so that the patient robot can gaze at a trainee's face like humans or turn away its face form the medical procedures. We executed some experiments of gazing at a rotating object using visual servoing, in which actual object's positions, patient robot's gazing point and pose-tracking data have been measured. We confirmed patient robot can track real human faces.


To better understand the evolution of red-green color vision in vertebrates, we inferred the amino acid sequences of the ancestral pigments of 11 selected visual pigments: the LWS pigments of cave fish (Astyanax fasciatus), frog (Xenopus laevis), chicken (Gallus gallus), chameleon (Anolis carolinensis), goat (Capra hircus), and human (Homo sapiens);and the MWS pigments of cave fish, gecko (Gekko gekko), mouse (Mus musculus), squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), and human. We constructed these ancestral pigments by introducing the necessary mutations into contemporary pigments and evaluated their absorption spectra using an in vitro assay. The results show that the common ancestor of vertebrates and most other ancestors had LWS pigments. Multiple regression analyses of ancestral and contemporary MWS and LWS pigments show that single mutations S180A, H197Y, Y277F, T285A, A308S, and double mutations S180A/H197Y shift the lambda(max) of the pigments by -7, -28, -8, -15, -27, and 11 nm, respectively. It is most likely that this "five-sites" rule is the molecular basis of spectral tuning in the MWS and LWS pigments during vertebrate evolution.


We examine gender differences in careers using a large linked employer-employee dataset on Finnish white-collar manufacturing workers over the period of 1981-2006. Our focus is on labour market entrants whom we follow over time. We find that men start their careers from higher ranks of the hierarchy than women do, although gender differences in education explain much of this gap. Men are also more likely to be promoted than women, especially during the first years in the labour market, amplifying the gender differences in hierarchical positions already apparent at labour market entry. Men earn higher starting wages than women, while the results concerning gender differences in the returns to career progression are not clear-cut, but depend on the type of career event and on the career phase. Overall, our results help to understand the factors behind the large increase in the gender wage gap during the early career


A tumor of the rectum in a woman of 74 is described. The analysis of the tumor in light microscope suggested a low-differentiated cancer or melanoma. Electron microscopic examination of the tumor metastasis into a lymph node showed most of the tumor cells to have low differentiation and contain no ultrastructural organspecific markers. However, in the tumor cells comprising a small group, typical tonofibrils and desmosomes were found which substantiated the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma.


We review the studies on modeling seismic wave propagation in complex media, which were carried out during the past 10 years by researchers at Japanese institutions. Special emphasis is placed on those works which are perceived as important but had little exposure outside Japan. We can say that the fundamental development of method for seismogram synthesis in the (3, 1) dimension was completed, where the first and second numbers in parentheses are the space dimensions of the wavefield and the heterogeneity of the medium. However, seismologists have been eager to model seismic propagation in the (2, 2), (3, 2), and (3, 3) dimensions during the last 10 years. Modeling seismic wave propagation in a full (3, 3) dimension is now limited to simple small-scale problems because of the extensive computation and large memory, even when using a supercomputer. Nevertheless, in laterally and vertically heterogeneous media, we have to calculate 3-dimensional wavefields in order to analyze real seismic records quantitatively. There exist two potential breakthroughs. One is to assume the medium is axisymmetric and the other to model (3, 2) dimensional wave propagation (the so-called 2.5 dimensional problem). Numerical methods have the potential to simulate seismic wave propagation in realistic environments of substantial spatio-temporal extent. Since we are not used to processing such an abundance of information, we have to investigate methods for analyzing and interpreting large volumes of computational data. These studies may well challenge our conception of seismic wave propagation.


This paper studies the stabilization of Networked Control Systems (NCS) with communication constraints, variable delays and variable sampling intervals. The system sensor nodes are supposed to be distributed over a network. The scheduling of sensor information towards the controller is ruled by a quadratic protocol. This protocol first compares the weighted errors of the signals in individual nodes, where the error is the difference between the most recently activated signal at the sensor side and its current value, and then transmits the measurement from the node with the largest error. The closed-loop system has the form of a hybrid system with delays in the continuous dynamics and in the reset conditions. A new Lyapunov-Krasovskii method is developed for the partial exponential stability with respect to the x-variable of the delayed hybrid system. Polytopic uncertainties in the system model can be easily included in our analysis. The efficiency of the time-delay approach is illustrated on the cart-pendulum and the batch reactor benchmark problems. Our results improve the hybrid system-based ones and allow non-small network-induced delay.


The interactions between old abandoned wellbores of suspect well integrity with hydraulic fracturing (HF), enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or salt water disposal (SWD) operations can result in upward leakage of deep aqueous liquids into overlying aquifers. This potential for upward fluid migration is largely unquantified as monitoring abandoned wells is rarely done, and leakage may go unnoticed especially when in deeper aquifers. This study performs a proximity analysis between old abandoned wells and HF, EOR, and SWD wells, and identifies commingled old abandoned wellbores, which are those wells where groundwater may flow from one aquifer to one or more other aquifers, to identify the locations with the greatest potential for upward aqueous fluid migration at three study sites in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Our analysis indicates that at all three study sites there are several locations where HF, EOR, or SWD operations are located in close proximity to a given old abandoned well. Much of this overlap occurs in formations above typically produced hydrocarbon reservoirs but below exploited potable aquifers, otherwise known as the intermediate zone, which is often connected between abandonment plugs in old abandoned wells. Information on the intermediate zone is often lacking, and this study suggests that unanticipated alterations to groundwater flow systems within the intermediate zone may be occurring. Results indicate the need for more field‐based research on the intermediate zone.


The optimum design for a bow structure of high tensile steel yacht belongs to the nonlinear constrained optimization problem. The determination of scantling for the bow structure is a very crucial matter out of whole structural design process of a yacht. This determination may be a process of satisfying a lot of complicated design constraints empirically, rather than optimizing some objective function. However, in order to realize optimum or rational design for bow structure with complicated design constraints, it is necessary to model the design problem as strictly as possible and to accomplish more highly numerical optimization. Real-coded Micro-Genetic Algorithm is proposed to find the optimum scantling for the bow structure of high tensile steel yacht without handling any of penalty functions.


The Human Leukocyte Allele (HLA) Class I (A, B, C) and Acute Lymphoid Leukemia and Myeloid Leukemia association, was determined by polymerase chain reaction--sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) in 60 patients and 30 healthy controls. The results were reported as allelic frequencies and haplotype. The Chi-square corrected, Fisher's Test, Relative risk and etiologic fraction were calculated. A significant positive association was showed between HLA-B*39 (RR = 16.184; p = 0.0237) and HLA C*03 (RR = 5.0; p = 0.0127) alleles and Mycloid Leukaemia. Positive associations between haplotypes 2 loci: HLA-A*02-C*03 (RR = 6.0; p = 0.0153), A*24-C*03 (RR = 16.184; p = 0.0237), B*40-C*03 (RR = 10.706; p = 0.0021) and haplotype 3 loci: HLA-A*02-B*40-C*03 (RR = 8.11; p = 0.0102) and Myeloid Leukemia were found. No association was evident in Acute Lymphoid Leukemia. No negative association with Leukemias were observed.


Background:
ADHD is a frequent disorder, characterized by a persisting pattern of inattention/hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning and development. When left untreated, it can pose a burden on children, their families and their community. Adequate treatment and monitoring of ADHD is essential for the wellbeing of patients.
As of 2015, a change in the Dutch law means that the responsibility for the ADHD care for children has been shifted from the central government to municipalities. As a result, municipalities are looking into new ways to provide effective and efficient ADHD care. When formulating how to provide healthcare, the patients must be involved and the patient experiences can help to improve healthcare. However, no research of the patients experience with the current provision of ADHD aftercare could be found.
Objective:
The objective of this research is to investigate what the needs and preferences of the parents of young patients are concerning ADHD aftercare, and what strengths and weaknesses the parents of young patients experience in the current organization of ADHD aftercare.
Method:
A qualitative approach was used, using semi-structured interviews. The research was carried out in the Dutch municipality of Enschede. The parents of children aged from 6 up until 11 with ADHD were considered for inclusion. The interviews were analysed using open-coding thematic analysis. Main themes and subthemes identified were used to reflect the needs and preferences of the interviewed parents. The World Health Organizations' responsiveness framework was used to describe the experienced strengths and weaknesses.
Results:
Four themes reflecting the needs and preferences of the parents were identified: Communication: Parents have a need for the provision of information and feedback. Patient-centred approach: Parents are looking for a patient-centred approach, with individual attention for their child. Division of tasks: Parents regard the division of tasks as an important topic; they want an elaborate part in the aftercare for themselves as parents and mention the importance of the role the school can have. Request for help for the parents: There is a request for help for the parents themselves, as they seek support and guidance from the healthcare providers for themselves.
Regarding the experienced strengths and weaknesses, it was found that in the current organization limited involvement of the parents is seen as a weakness, as is a limited amount of feedback towards the parents is a weakness. Strengths of the current organization are prompt attention given to concerns, and an good environment of trust and confidentiality.
Conclusion:
This research found parents' needs and preferences concerning ADHD aftercare, which can be used to take the clients' perspective into account when considering how ADHD aftercare should be provided. Furthermore, knowledge about the found strengths and weaknesses experienced in the current organization of ADHD aftercare can help improve the organization of ADHD aftercare.


CBT rooted some decades ago in the West and has currently been on the rapid rise thanks to the promotion of internet-based informatics. CBT tourists has shaped several driving forces and motivation to speed up the promotion and completion of CBT worldwide. Along with the boom of high-tech and its incredible pressures on human mind, post-modernism (PM) has been shaped due to the strong demand of liberalizing in human beings' mind and diversifying their lifestyles under the mutual interaction between ecological and cultural resources. PM starts firstly in arts and literature, gradually influences on business and tourism; hence impacts on CBT. The reconciliation of CBT and PM gives birth to discerning CBT advanced by discerning travelers who definitly care on their selfparticipation, self-experience, self-discovery during their journeys as well as the request for cooperation, co-controlling and co-responsibility of all the tourists, state agents and the local communities during the services. The discerning CBT travelers partially promote the commeners' awareness and engagement in advancing standard of life and civilizing of their lifestyle. Discerning CBT is surely not to replace popular CBT as a whole but to modify the diversity of modern tourism as it meets a concrete part of the various demands of tourists and pay more important role in standardizing human life.


This article describes research that sought to identify and critique selected content areas from three nursing fundamentals text- books for the presence or absence of racial bias embedded in the portrayal of African Americans.The analyzed content areas were the history of nursing, cultural content, and physical assessment/hygiene parameters. A researcher-developed guide was used for data collection and analysis of textual language, illustrations, linguistics, and references.A thematic analysis resulted in 11 themes reflecting the portrayal of African Americans in these sampled textbooks. An interpretive analysis with a lens of Sadker and Sadker's categories of bias, along with other literary and theoretical contexts, were used to explore for the presence or absence of racial bias. Recommendations for nursing education are provided.


Aim and objective: To emphasize the infrequent scenarios associated with orbital complications of rhinosinusitis. Background: Orbital sterile collections leading to functional limitation including diplopia can occur in patients with inadequately treated rhinosinusitis and require timely detection followed by definitive management. Case description: We present a case of a previously healthy male with sudden onset left eye proptosis and diplopia of 2 weeks duration referred after endoscopic sinus surgery. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging confirmed an organized collection with rim enhancement in the inferior orbit. Endoscopic drainage of the collection along with a microbiological and histopathological examination of the specimen was done. The patient had immediate postoperative alleviation of symptoms. Specimen culture revealed no microbiome growth which was suggestive of a sterile collection or an antibioma. A regular follow-up for a duration of 5 months showed no evidence of residual disease postprocedure and complete recovery. Conclusion: Adequate drainage of the sinuses and orbital abscess with antibiotic coverage during initial surgery with prompt imaging and also ruling out fungal etiology would best treat the orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis. Clinical significance: Orbital complications of acute rhinosinusitis can be persistent despite treatment and should arise suspicion of residual or recurrent disease. Fungal disease should be ruled out and prompt imaging is helpful in diagnosis. Endonasal endoscopic surgery whenever feasible gives the best results.


According to the transformational approach to similarity, two objects are judged to be more similar the simpler the transformation of one of the object representations into the other. This approach draws inspiration from the mathematical theory of Kolmogorov complexity, but otherwise remains an informal theory to this day. In this paper we investigate several different ways in which the informal theory of transformational similarity can be understood, providing a formalization for each possible reading. We then study the computational (in)tractability of each formalization for a variety of parameter settings. Our results have both theoretical and empirical implications for transformational approaches to similarity.


: Purpose: The article aims to identify links between attributes of organizational structure and knowledge management processes in high technology companies. Approach/Methodology/Design: The research was conducted in 100 Polish high-tech companies. Findings: The results show that high-tech enterprises carry out different number of sub-process of knowledge management in different combinations. Surveyed companies confirm that different structural features are needed depending on the phase/sub-process of knowledge management. It is recommended to redesign the organizational structure in such a way that it corresponds to the key knowledge management processes as much as possible. Flexibility was found to have the most supportive effect on five of the seven knowledge management sub-processes studied. Practical Implications: The results can serve as a guide for managers in improving the organizational structure for knowledge management needs. Originality/Value: The attributes of organizational structure supportive and inhibiting knowledge management processes for high-tech companies were identified.


The objective of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is to suppress viral replication so that immune restoration can occur. Failure of immune restoration is usually associated with poor virological suppression. In children a good immunological and clinical response to ART is often achieved despite incomplete viral suppression. However, we have recently managed a number of children in whom immune restoration did not occur despite excellent virological suppression. We present a case, discuss possible causes and speculate on the appropriate course of action. Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine Vol. 7 (3) 2006: pp. 45-47


Sintering and accompanying microstructural evolution is inarguably the most important step in the processing of ceramics and hard metals. In this process, an ensemble of particles is converted into a coherent object of controlled density and microstructure at an elevated temperature (but below the melting point) due to the thermodynamic tendency of the particle system to decrease its total surface and interfacial energy. Building on a long development history as a major technological process, sintering remains among the most viable methods of fabricating novel ceramics, including high surface area structures, nanopowder-based systems, and tailored structural and functional materials. Developing new and perfecting existing sintering techniques is crucial to meet ever-growing demand for a broad range of technologically significant systems including, for example, fuel and solar cell components, electronic packages and elements for computers and wireless devices, ceramic and metal-based bioimplants, thermoelectric materials, materials for thermal management, and materials for extreme environments. In this study, the current state of the science and technology of sintering is presented. This study is, however, not a comprehensive review of this extremely broad field. Furthermore, it only focuses on the sintering of ceramics. The fundamentals of sintering, including the thermodynamics and kinetics for solid-state- and liquid-phase-sintered systems are described. This study summarizes that the sintering of amorphous ceramics (glasses) is well understood and there is excellent agreement between theory and experiments. For crystalline materials, attention is drawn to the effect of the grain boundary and interface structure on sintering and microstructural evolution, areas that are expected to be significant for future studies. Considerable emphasis is placed on the topics of current research, including the sintering of composites, multilayered systems, microstructure-based models, multiscale models, sintering under external stresses, and innovative and novel sintering approaches, such as field-assisted sintering. This study includes the status of these subfields, the outstanding challenges and opportunities, and the outlook of progress in sintering research. Throughout the manuscript, we highlight the important lessons learned from sintering fundamentals and their implementation in practice.


BACKGROUND
A subgroup of servicemen can be identified that seek a disproportionally amount of health care in comparison to diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives. This group can be identified on the basis of an absence of a structural medical explanation for their symptoms. The symptoms manifest predominantly as fatigue and pain, and are often chronic. Patients with medical unexplained medical symptoms (MUPS) often have multiple and complex problems that would be best treated by a multidisciplinary team of medical specialists and paramedics. The military is characterized by high loyalty towards peers and leadership, leading to neglect for personal care.

OBJECTIVE
While consensus on the biological basis for these complaints is lacking, awareness on the need for effective treatments for this patient group is high.

METHOD
Based on reviews, expert recommendations and clinical demand, a specialized treatment program for soldiers with MUPS has recently been developed and implemented in the system of health care in the Netherlands Armed Forces. We developed a functional rehabilitation program with blended care elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), physical therapy, case management, and psychoeducation, embedded in a day treatment setting.

RESULTS
The program received high scores on participant as well as team satisfaction. The program is illustrated by two clinical vignettes.

CONCLUSION
The blended care program for MUPS that focused on allostatic load awareness offered a more holistic and preventive approach that contributed to a reduction of unnecessary medical consumption, and increased job participation. We recommend that the development of guidelines for diagnoses and treatment of these complaints in military settings will improve the quality of patient care, reduce disability, facilitate reintegration, and encourage scientific research.


Employee satisfaction is an important variable that is able to give an opinion about general emotion and thinking forms of employees about their job and workplace. Understanding employee satisfaction and the factors leading to it are of paramount importance to organization. This is because it may determine the attraction and retention of high caliber employees and in turn increased turnover, improved corporate image for the organization among other benefits. Employees respond best and most effectively not when they are controlled by management, placed in narrowly defined jobs and rated as unwelcome necessity, but instead when they are given broader responsibilities, encouraged to contribute and helped to achieve satisfaction in their work. The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between reward and employee satisfaction at the National Cereals and Produce Board. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was all the employee of National Cereals and Produce Board. A structured questionnaire was prepared and distributed to all selected respondents. The study comprised of two variables, rewards which was the independent variable and job satisfaction which was the dependent variable. A five point / scale was used to collect data and analysis was based on averages, percentage and correlation analysis. The study found out that the rewards which were used by the organization was the basic pay, either allowance or housing, medical cover, leave allowance, sick leave, promotion, training, life insurance, retirement benefits other than the legally required like NSSF, any personal services and performance based pay. There was a strong positive correlation between employee job satisfaction and rewards (p=0.792). At the same time the results indicates a strong correlation between rewards and job satisfaction in regard to the general working condition (p =0.709); pay and promotional potential (p =0.854); job design (p =0.693) and job feedback (p =0.618). the findings indicate that the level of employee job satisfaction in the organization is dependent on the rewards.


We consider the Saint-Venant torsion problem of composite shafts. Two different kinds of imperfect interfaces are considered. One models a thin interphase of low shear modulus and the other models a thin interphase of high shear modulus. The imperfect interfaces are characterized by parameters given in terms of the thickness and shear modulus of the interphases. Using variational principles, we derive rigorous bounds for the torsional rigidity of composite shafts with cross-sections of arbitrary shapes. The analysis is based on the construction of admissible fields in the inclusions and in the matrix. We obtain the general expression for the bounds and demonstrate the results with some particular examples. Specifically, circular, elliptical and trianglar shafts are considered to exemplify the derived bounds. We incorporate the cross-section shape factor into the bounds and show how the position and size of the inclusion influence the bounds. Under specific conditions, the lower and upper bounds will coincide and agree with the exact torsional rigidity.


Superplasticity refers to a high temperature deformation process involving a marked sensitivity of the flow stress to the imposed strain rate, with resulting enhanced ductility. Although conventionally associated with fine-grained materials, superplasticity has recently been observed in coarse-grained alloys. The present research involves the deformation behavior of Al-Mg base alloys, where superpure Al-3%Mg and Al-5%Mg, and commercial Al 5056 were selected for study. The results for the Al-5%Mg and Al 5056 alloys are presented in this article. Flat sheet-type samples were tensile tested to 10% strain at increasing temperatures and at prescribed strain rates (0.001/s, 0.01/s, and 0.1/s). The dependence of flow stress on temperature was found to display some unusual characteristics. This behavior is interpreted as resulting from the occurrence of dynamic strain ageing (DSA). The aim of the overall study is to determine the relation between DSA and superplasticity in coarse-grained Al-Mg alloys. This will, in turn, lead to the control of the strain ageing behavior so as to produce the largest possible values of strain rate sensitivity (and, hence, elongation).


In the context of safety-critical product lines, industries have to face an urgent challenge: reduction of time and cost for the creation of a safety case. A safety case is a contextualized structured argument constituted of process and product-based sub-arguments to show that a system is acceptably safe. Its creation is an extremely time-consuming and costly activity. To reduce time and cost, reuse capabilities are being investigated from different perspectives however currently no satisfying approach is available. In this paper, we propose a new methodological framework called Anti-Sisyphus. Anti-Sisyphus is aimed at enabling reuse by combining process lines, product lines and safety case lines. The systematization of what varies and what remains in common with respect to process as well as product elements in turns enables the systematization of what varies and remains in common in terms of process-based as well as product-based arguments within a safety case line. Anti-Sisyphus thus has the potential to enable a 3D reuse.


Introduction/Background* Growing teratoma syndrome is a rare clinical entity presenting as enlarging benign tumours during or after chemotherapy for malignant germ cell tumours. It has an incidence of 12% in ovarian NSGCT. Complete surgical resection of the tumour is the current gold standard in treating this condition, and prognosis is excellent once the tumour is completely removed. However, it is when the mass is deemed inoperable that the management of this condition becomes a challenge. Methodology This is a case of a 33-year-old, nulligravid who presented with abdominal enlargement and ascites. Transvaginal ultrasound revealed 13.0 x 12.0 cm solid mass with cystic components. The patient underwent exploratory laparotomy, peritoneal fluid cytology, total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection, and infracolic omentectomy, with intraoperative staging of IIIC. Final histopathologic report revealed a benign mature cystic teratoma of the right ovary. Despite this result, the patient had recurrence of the ascites. Hence, underwent paracentesis and chemotherapy with Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin. After the second cycle, the patient developed multiple masses involving the right adnexa, right hepatic lobe, right hepatorenal, epigastric, and pelvic areas. Ultrasound-guided biopsy of the liver mass was done revealing a teratomatous process. The patient was referred to a hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon, however, due to the extensive liver involvement, surgery was deferred and arterial embolization of the masses was done instead. Result(s)* Arterial embolization of the masses was done resulting in resolution of the abdominal enlargement and bloatedness, and change in the consistency of the mass becoming more cystic than solid. However, repeat CT scan was done which revealing a further increase in size of the masses. Conclusion* We are presented with a case of GTS, originating from a benign mature teratoma, which is non-resectable due to extensive liver involvement. Though with benign nature, GTS poses a great challenge in its management. Being a rare clinical entity, there is limited experience with the treatment options available, especially in inoperable cases. Arterial embolization has not been widely used in documented cases of GTS. This case explores the possible role of arterial embolization in the management of non-resectable GTS.


The energy efficiency of light-emitting diode (LED) technology compared to incandescent light bulbs has triggered an increased focus on solid state luminaries for a variety of lighting applications. Solid-state lighting (SSL) utilizes LEDs, for illumination through the process of electroluminescence instead of heating a wire filament as seen with traditional lighting. The fundamental differences in the construction of LED and the incandescent lamp results in different failure modes including lumen degradation, chromaticity shift and drift in the correlated color temperature. The use of LED-based products for safety-critical and harsh environment applications necessitates the characterization of the failure mechanisms and modes. In this paper, failure mechanisms and color stability has been studied for commercially available vertical structured thin film LED (VLED) under harsh environment conditions with and without the presence of contaminants. The VLED used for the study was mounted on a ceramic starboard in order to connect it to the current source. Contamination sources studied include operation in the vicinity of vulcanized rubber and adhesive epoxies in the presence of temperature and humidity. Performance of the VLEDs has been quantified using the measured luminous flux and color shift of the VLEDs subjected to both thermal and humidity stresses under a forward current bias of 350 mA. Results indicate that contamination can result in pre-mature luminous flux degradation and color shift in LEDs.


Malaria is still taking the lead as one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, appealing continuous research for further understanding the biology and the pathogenesis of this fascinating parasite. Discovering effective alternative drugs, however, remains a challenging task to address today's enigmatic problem, the emergence of resistant strains. Factually, the presence of potent natural products considered as a basis for traditional medicine. Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) is a common plant in gulf region and other nations, as a part of their traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiplasmodium and the antioxidant activity of Z. spina-christi leaf extracts (ZLE) against Plasmodium berghei induced liver and spleen injury. The study involved three groups; a vehicle control group, infected with 106 P. berghei-parasitized erythrocytes group and ZLE treated-infected mice with 106 P. berghei-parasitized erythrocytes group. The histopathological examination of the liver and spleen showed sever histological changes. Animals treated with ZLE showed a significant improvement in the histological picture of liver and spleen. Biochemical analysis revealed that treatment with ZLE resulted in a significant reinstating of the oxidative markers back to normal level. It could be concluded that ZLE have a power protective role against Plasmodium infection.


Free amino acid pool Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. This research note is available in Fungal Genetics Reports: http://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol11/iss1/1


Early myocardial scintigraphic imaging has become technically feasible in patients admitted to hospital with suspected acute myocardial infarction. After prompt injection of 99mTc-sestamibi, subsequent scintigraphic imaging of perfused myocardium can be performed. During a 5-month period, 237 patients were admitted to the coronary care unit of a district hospital on suspicion of acute ischaemic syndrome, and injection of 99mTc-sestamibi for the performance of myocardial scintigraphy was carried out in 134 patients, on average 2 h after onset of symptoms. The investigation was repeated in 126 patients, on average 18 h after the injection. Three planar views were taken in the coronary care unit with a mobile gamma camera. The prevalence of acute myocardial infarction was 53%. The predictive value at the first scintigraphic imaging for a positive or negative test for myocardial infarction 54% and 56%, respectively. Even exclusion of patients with a previous infarction did not increase the diagnostic validity. The predictive value of a negative test, 77%, at the second scintigraphy was still insufficient to make immediate therapeutic decisions. Myocardial scintigraphy performed early, on suspicion of acute myocardial infarction, cannot therefore be used routinely as a diagnostic test prior to intervention in unselected patients because some 90% of this patient group have myocardial perfusion defects.


The stereospecific living/controlled radical polymerization of N,N-dimethylacrylamide was achieved by the mediation of a macromolecular organocobalt complex in the presence of lanthanum triflate with visible-light irradiation. The stereo-controlled polymers showed high isotacticities with well-controlled molecular weights and low polydispersities. The contents of meso dyads (m) and meso triads (mm) could be raised to 94% and 87%, respectively. Most importantly, the noncrystalline poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) could be converted to a crystalline polymer, when the contents of m and mm were larger than 88% and 78%, respectively. With the increase of isotacticity, the crystallization process was changed from cold crystallization to melt crystallization. Meanwhile, the temperatures of crystallization and melting, as well as their enthalpies were all increased. After annealing treatment, relatively sharp signals were observed in powder X-ray diffraction. This is the first time that a crystalline polymer with high isotacticity, controlled molecular weight, and narrow polydispersity has been synthesized via radical polymerization.


To control a vast spectrum of applications and processes, an understanding of the morphologies of clay mineral assemblies dispersed in aqueous or non-aqueous media is important. As such, the objective of this study was to verify the relationship between dispersion medium type and the size and morphology of the clay aggregates that are formed, which can increase knowledge on the assembly formation process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used in an attempt to describe kaolinite platelet organization in non-aqueous media and to compare it to the organization in aqueous media or in media with or without a selection of dissolved organic polymers. The SEM images indicated that the kaolinite platelet assembly process occurs during slow evaporation of the solvent. Because the experimental procedure was rigorously identical for all cases in this study, the SEM images compared how the effects of various media and environments on kaolinite platelet interactions can lead to different morphologies. Quite spectacular morphological differences were indeed observed between samples dispersed in aqueous and non-aqueous media, particularly when the kaolinite platelets were dispersed in an organic solvent with dissolved organic polymers. For kaolinite dispersed in water, only small aggregates were observed after slow evaporation. In contrast, large kaolinite booklets or vermiform aggregates were formed by slow solvent evaporation when kaolinite was first dispersed into some organic solvents. The aggregates were particularly large when an organic polymer was dissolved in the organic solvent. For example, kaolinite aggregates dispersed in a binary cyclohexane/toluene mixture with dissolved ethyl cellulose (EC) had top apparent surface areas (i.e. stacking length × width) of more than 3,000 µm2. Other dissolved polymers, such as polystyrene or the polysaccharide, guar gum, gave similar results. Kaolinite platelet aggregation resulted from face-to-face interactions as well as edge-to-face and edge-to-edge interactions. The XRD results showed that ethyl cellulose led to the formation of smaller kaolinite platelets with an increased tendency to form larger aggregates, which is due to the ability of EC to chemically interact with silanol and/or the aluminol groups of kaolinite.


This article explores the interplay between spatial and social distance and financial obligations and goals in the context of migration. On the basis of an ethnographic study of Senegalese migration to Spain, it discusses the idea that distance may be partly sought to gain leverage in renegotiating responses to redistributive demands and responsibilities that come at odds with goals of accumulation and investment. Financial prosperity may be thought easier to attain by temporarily distancing oneself but is also sought to gain a better capacity to assist others. Besides, both accumulation and redistribution contribute to migrants' overall objective of becoming socioeconomically successful and gaining a respectable presence at home. Many migrants do not wish to break with or ostracise dependents and other relations, and expectations of redistribution often grow as a result of migration. Thus, rather than resolve the dilemma between accumulation and redistribution, migration transforms it. Seeking a balance, some migrants devise strategies to establish the right distance, in socially and morally acceptable terms, to retain control over financial priorities without undermining social ties. Too much distance could result in ostracism; too little might stifle or delay ambitions for savings and investments, which are considered a precondition for return.


The aim of this thesis was to investigate, through two observational studies, the relation among social gaze, play and language in 27 typically developing infants (study 1) and 18 young children with autism (study 2). The child's spontaneous play behaviour and their spontaneous social gaze behaviours were assessed in a five-minute free-play observation session. Measures of children's language were obtained using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, and measures of overall mental ability were obtained using the Bayley Mental Scale of Infant Development-II. Two hypotheses were tested. The first concerned the relation between play and language. The hypothesis was that symbolic play and language reflect the emergence of a common underlying symbolic ability in 18-24 month olds infants. Results did not show a link between these twin symbolic abilities supporting the view that later in development word-learning diverges from other form of symbol development. The second concerned the relation between play and social gaze. The hypothesis was that social gaze is important for the emergence of symbolic development in typically developing infants and preschool children with autism and developmental delays. Results supported the view that social interaction is important for symbolic and pre-symbolic skills but suggested that the use of social gaze may have a general rather than a specific role in assisting symbolic activity. The implications of these findings for the developmental accounts of typically infants and children with autism are discussed.


A previous study by the authors that was conducted on students in accredited undergraduate engineering programs showed significant differences between men's and women's experiences in their programs. That previous first-stage study highlighted that the causes of Canada's low retention of women in the field may be at least partially attributable to women's negative experiences at the beginning of their careers, in their undergraduate education. The research done thus far by the authors was largely explorative; there is now a need to begin identifying where and when students are experiencing negativity tied to their gender. The purpose of the research herein is to get a more comprehensive understanding of how specific behaviours and practices of professors, teaching assistants, peers, and other personnel in the classroom affect students will have significant consequences for what inclusive pedagogy in engineering should look like. As a part of this, the previous pilot study was revised, expanded and distributed to four accredited engineering institutions in North America. The results of the present study reinforce authors' previous theories and indicate that across the institutions surveyed, peers and professors made up the primary source of discouragement and intimidation against students. In addition, institutional differences uncovered in this study suggest that specific programs and initiatives at the institutions in question at least partially affect student experiences, and later their retention in the field. The authors conclude that institutions need to begin targeting peers and professors for equity education, bias eradication training, and other initiatives.


Background Australia introduced a school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for females aged 12–13 years in 2007, with a three-year catch-up to age 26; and for boys aged 12–13 from 2013, with a two-year catch-up to age 15. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of penile HPV between teenage heterosexual males in cohorts eligible or non-eligible for the school-based male vaccination program. Methods Between 2014 and 2017, sexually active heterosexual males aged 17–19 were recruited from sexual health centres and community sources across Australia. Males provided a self-collected penile swab for HPV genotypes (Roche Linear Array) and completed a questionnaire. HPV prevalence was compared between males in two periods: 2014–2015 (non-eligible for school-based male vaccination) and 2016–2017 (eligible for school-based male vaccination). Self-reported vaccine doses were confirmed with doses reported to the National HPV Vaccination Program Register. Results Overall, 152 males were recruited in 2014–2015 and 146 in 2016–2017. Numbers of female sex partners and condom use did not differ between the two periods. Prevalence of quadrivalent vaccine-preventable [4vHPV] genotype (6, 11, 16, 18) was low in both periods (2.6% in 2014–2015 versus 0.7% in 2016–2017; p=0.37). Compared with males recruited in 2014–2015, males in 2016–2017 had a lower prevalence of: any 37 HPV genotype (21.7% versus 11.6%; p=0.02); and any 13 high-risk genotype (15.8% versus 7.5%; p=0.03). Prevalence of low-risk HPV genotypes did not differ between the two periods (p =0.25). Of the males recruited in 2016–2017, 55% had received ≥1 vaccine dose. Conclusion Prevalence of 4vHPV genotypes among teenage heterosexual males in both cohorts was low, presumably due to herd protection from the female-only vaccination program. The addition of the school-based male vaccination was associated with a lower prevalence of high-risk HPV genotypes other than genotypes 16/18. Disclosure No significant relationships.


This thesis is about a singular figure who appeared on the artistic scene in the middle of the nineteenth century. I call this figure the Model-Artist. This term conjugates two facets of the production of art, which links issues of labour, creativity, class and gender. In this thesis, I look specifically into three case studies of the Model-Artist working in Paris from the second half of the nineteenth century to the second decade of the twentieth: Victorine Meurent (1844-1927), Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) and Alice Prin (1901-1953). By scrutinising the archives of these three individuals and reading critical writings on their work at the time and in subsequent biographies and art historical studies, I advance an argument about the significance of the model's labour/the labour of modelling, in order to shift the canonical histories of modern art from 1860 to 1930 which privilege the artist. I also challenge, by expanding some of the feminist studies that examine the work of women as artists and as models in this period. I do so by examining three instances of women who worked as both models and artists in artistically and culturally different moments of the histories of modernism. This highlights the specific relations between the shape of each of these three women's careers. It underscores both the new conditions of artistic production associated with the emerging formation of the avant-garde community and the new modes of art that were generated in terms of both the treatment of old and new subjects and in terms of artistic representation.
Through the case studies, I avoid creating exceptional histories, and acknowledge invisibility (other stories yet to be found) as much as re-read known stories. Methodologically, I challenge and expand existing feminist art histories by criticising their continuation of the hierarchy between model and artist and the privileging of the artist. Through close reading of images, I pinpoint the changing aesthetic of art and analyse its impact on the artist's practice of modelling as well as the modelling labour.
The study of Victorine Meurent rests on a fragile and fragmented archive. I draw on Derrida's theory of the archive and Foucault's theory of the fold in the discourse to tackle the question of how to study a subject about which the documentary evidence is scarce. With a much more documented and substantial œuvre, Suzanne Valadon's case enables an investigation into her artistic manoeuvres and avant-garde gambits in relation to her contemporaries. I examine her paintings as traces of an articulation of embodied experience that at the same time solicit different forms of spectatorship. The chapter on Alice Prin is an analysis of the cultural and social dynamics within the Montparnasse circle in Paris in the second and third decades of the twentieth century. From this close-knit community of international artists, the mythological figure of Kiki de Montparnasse emerged.
Each case study situates the strategies and practices of three women negotiating a relation to artistic practice determined by the social, cultural, organisational and aesthetic specificities of three different moments in the emergence of modernist artistic practice and its communities. Labour, community and gender are key concepts throughout this study.


An austenitic Ni-30%Fe model alloy was employed to investigate the texture and substructure development within the deformed matrix and dynamically recrystallized (DRX) grains during hot torsion deformation. Both the deformed matrix and DRX grains predominantly displayed the crystallographic texture components expected for simple shear deformation. The characteristics of the deformed matrix texture evolution during deformation largely resulted from the preferred consumption of high Taylor factor components by new recrystallized grains. Likewise, the comparatively weaker crystallographic texture of DRX grains became increasingly dominated by low Taylor factor components as a result of their easier nucleation and lower consumption rate during DRX. There was a significant difference in the substructure formation mechanism between the deformed matrix and DRX grains for a given texture component. The deformed matrix substructure was largely characterized by "organized", banded subgrain arrangements with alternating misorientations, while the substructure of DRX grains was more "random" in character and displayed complex, more equiaxed subgrain/cell arrangements characterized by a local accumulation of misorientations. Substructure characteristics of individual orientation components were principally consistent with the corresponding Taylor factor values.


Recent advances in molecular biology enable researchers to understand the basis of breast cancer much better and show that hereditery breast cancer may result from mutations on several specific gene loci including BRCA1, BRCA2, p53, ATM and PTEN. These genes are tumor supressor genes and although their functions are different, they are all involved in the maintenance of genomic stability after DNA damage. Mutations that impair the function of these genes may adversely affect the manner in which DNA damage is processed. It is likely that the risk of breast cancer development is increased through this mechanism. Moreover, there are several predispositions, such as the androgen receptor gene (AR) and the HNPCC, that may also be involved, but further studies are required in order to understand the extent of their involvement in breast cancer. In this paper, we supply data on the general function of the tumor supressor genes indicated above. We also review probable mutations of these genes and their relevance to breast cancer development. Furthermore, we discuss estrogen genes and estrogen receptor genes that may be involved in breast cancer development, as indicated in the recent


The first effort was made to document that elemental diet was satisfactory in maintaining normal growth in rats. A second effort was made to determine the maximum resectability of the intestine when rats were fed only by the elemental diet. These experiments were done in 80 ten-week-old female Wister rats. Results obtained are as follows (1) Eight rats fed only by the elemental diet through gastrostomy for 20 days gained more weight than pre-operative weight (P<0.02), and a positive nitrogen balance was obtained when rats were given with calories of 303 cal/kg/day and 8.25g/kg/day of amino acids. Also long term experiment of giving the elemental diet by mouth for 60 days resulted in increase of body weight (P<0.001), and there was no abnormality in hematological and pathological evaluations. (2) Body weight became heavier than that of before operation in the rats with 70% or 80% resection of the small intestine with P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively. In the latter group, however, recovery from surgical assault were delayed, the pancreas and lung were often compromised and blood urea nitrogen as well as serum enzymes such as s-GOT and s-GPT were abnormally high. In 90% resection rats mortality was very high (85.7%). Therefore, it was concluded that the maximum resectality of the small intestine was 70% when rats were fed by elemental diet. (3) If the ileocecal valve was resected, pre-operative body weight was not resumed even in 70% -resection rats, indicating the importance of the valve. (4) When pyloroplasty was added in 70% -resection rats, gain in body weight was larger as compared with 70% resection group and non-resection group (P<0.005 and P<0.01, respectively). Abnormal findings in the liver, pancreas and lung were lesser and serum protein was elevated (P<0.001). These results show that elemental diet is effective tool of nutrition and exclusion of small intestine can be done safely as much as 70% However, improvement of administration and nutritional constitution may be able to endure much more extensive resection.


A frequently encountered problem during the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to various water resource problems is the limitation of the data sets required for the training stage of ANNs. This prevents ANNs from learning input and output data sets within different ranges, thus decreasing the prediction capability during the testing stage. In this article the well known ARMA models are used to generate synthetic series, and these series are incorporated into the training data sets of ANNs. The method is applied to the monthly mean river flow data of a station in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey. The forecasting accuracy of the future monthly flows carries significance because a water reservoir is planned for the downstream of this station. Because the available data record length is limited studies should be carried out to extend the training data set of ANNs. It is seen that the extension of input and output data sets in the training stage improves the accuracy of forecasting using ANNs. The introduction of periodicity components in the input layer also increases the forecasting accuracy of ANNs. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The problem of current agricultural practices is not limited to land management but also to the unsustainable consumption of essential nutrients for plants, such as phosphorus. This article focuses on the valorization of wood ash and anaerobic digestate for the preparation of a slow-release fertilizer. The underlying chemistry of the blend of these two materials is elucidated by analyzing the applications of the mixture. First, the feasibility of employing low doses (≤1 g total solids (TS) ash/g TS digestate) of wood ash is explained as a way to improve the composition of the feedstock of anaerobic digestion and enhance biogas production. Secondly, a detailed description concerning high doses of wood ash and their uses in the downstream processing of the anaerobic digestate to further enhance its stability is offered. Among all the physico-chemical phenomena involved, sorption processes are meticulously depicted, since they are responsible for nutrient recovery, dewatering, and self-hardening in preparing a granular fertilizer. Simple activation procedures (e.g., carbonization, carbonation, calcination, acidification, wash, milling, and sieving) are proposed to promote immobilization of the nutrients. Due to the limited information on the combined processing of wood ash and the anaerobic digestate, transformations of similar residues are additionally considered. Considering all the possible synergies in the anaerobic digestion and the downstream stages, a dose of ash of 5 g TS ash/g TS digestate is proposed for future experiments.


Abstract The objective of this research was to determine the effect of honeybee density on pollination and fruit set of the Hass avocado. The research was carried out in the municipality of Popayán, Colombia. Three avocado orchards were selected, each one with an area of one hectare and trees with an age of six years. The treatments were: 1) four hives/ha, 2) six hives/ha, and 3) control without hives. Treatments of six and four hives/ha presented significant differences with respect to the control, with a honeybee density per tree of 7.72, 6.04 and 2.72, pollination rate of 60, 55 and 50%, pollination efficiency of 7.57, 6.04 and 5.98 grains of pollen per stigma, 6.11, 4.13 and 3.54% fruit set initial, 0.058, 0.048 and 0.028% fruit set final, 231, 212 and 137 of fruits per tree, 46.2, 38.2 and 21.6 kg fruit per tree, respectively. The results obtained show an increase of honey-bee density per tree, pollination rate, pollination efficiency, % fruit set, % fruit set final, number of fruits per tree and total fruit weight per tree when six and four bee hives/ha are introduced in the avocado crop.


Background Although the relation between day-to-day temperature change and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality is well established, it is unknown whether temperature variation within 1 day, ie, diurnal temperature range (DTR), is an independent risk factor for acute CHD death. Methods We used time-series and case-crossover approaches to assess the relation between DTR and daily CHD mortality between 2001 and 2004 in Shanghai, China. Specifically, we used exposures averaged over periods varying from 1 to 5 days to assess the effects of DTR on CHD mortality. We estimated the percent increase in the number of daily deaths related to CHD that were associated with DTR, after adjustment for daily meteorologic conditions (temperature and relative humidity) and levels of outdoor air pollutants. Results Both time-series and case-crossover analyses showed that DTR was significantly associated with the number of daily deaths related to CHD. A 1 °C increase in 2-day lagged DTR corresponded to a 2.46% (95% CI, 1.76% to 3.16%) increase in CHD mortality on time-series analysis, a 3.21% (95% CI, 2.23% to 4.19%) increase on unidirectional case-crossover analysis, and a 2.13% (95% CI, 1.04% to 3.22%) increase on bidirectional case-crossover analysis. Conclusions Our findings suggest that DTR is an independent risk factor for acute CHD death.