The localization of membrane-associated specializations (basal lamina and cytoplasmic density) at sites of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) aggregation is consistent with an involvement of these structures in receptor stabilization. We investigated the occurrence of these specializations in association with AChR aggregates that develop at the cathode-facing edge of Xenopus muscle cells during exposure to a DC electric field. The cultures were labeled with a fluorescent conjugate of alpha-bungarotoxin and the receptor distribution on selected cells was determined before and after exposure to the field. In thin sections taken from the same cells, the cathode-facing edge was characterized by plaques of basal lamina and cytoplasmic density co-extensive with sarcolemma of increased density. In sections cut in a plane similar to the fluorescence image, it was possible to demonstrate that the specializations were concentrated at areas of field-induced AChR aggregation, and at receptor clusters existing on control cells. This finding further indicates that these structures participate in AChR stabilization, and that the mechanisms involved in AChR aggregation that result from field exposure and nerve contact may be similar.


Verticillium albo-atrum is responsible for considerable yield losses in many economically important crops, among them alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Using Medicago truncatula as a model for studying resistance and susceptibility to V. albo-atrum, previous work has identified genetic variability and major resistance quantitative trait loci (QTLs) to Verticillium. In order to study the genetic control of resistance to a non-legume isolate of this pathogen, a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from a cross between resistant line F83005.5 and susceptible line A17 was inoculated with a potato isolate of V. albo-atrum, LPP0323. High genetic variability and transgressive segregation for resistance to LPP0323 were observed among RILs. Heritabilites were found to be 0·63 for area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC) and 0·93 for maximum symptom score (MSS). A set of four QTLs associated with resistance towards LPP0323 was detected for the parameters MSS and AUDPC. The phenotypic variance explained by each QTL (R2) was moderate, ranging from 4 to 21%. Additive gene effects showed that favourable alleles for resistance all came from the resistant parent. The four QTLs are distinct from those described for an alfalfa V. albo-atrum isolate, confirming the existence of several resistance mechanisms in this species. None of the QTLs co-localized with regions involved in resistance against other pathogens in M. truncatula.


Enteric pathogens are the most frequent cause of diarrheal illness, which account for an annual mortality rate of three million people and an estimated four billion infection worldwide. One way of preventing this is by ensuring proper sewage treatment. The study was carried out to provide data for level of microbiological contamination as well as baseline data for the future assessment and monitoring of pollution levels of sewage lagoons around Kenyatta university sewage treatment plant. It was also aim to find out the indicator organism that is suitable for the assessment and monitoring of faecal pollution. This paper contains the results of isolation, identification and quantification of faecal coliforms, streps, Salmonella sp. and Vibrio cholerae from Kenyatta university sewage treatments ponds. For the faecal coliforms, detection and quantification was done using the Most Probable Number (MPN) technique. The isolation and enumeration of faecal streps, Salmonella sp. and V. cholerae was done using standard methods. Correlation of faecal coliforms with Salmonella sp. and V. cholerae was 85% and 2% respectively. For the faecal streps, correlation with Salmonella sp. and V. cholerae was 78% and 12% respectively. This indicates that faecal streps should be included as indicator organisms of the potential health hazards of polluted water. Most international drinking water quality guidelines and standards include bacterial indicators as a measure of microbial water quality, and for compliance reporting. The results from the study support the idea of using both the faecal streps and coliforms as indicators of faecal pollution.


If there is a duty of justice to contribute to society, which asks individuals to produce a specific amount of goods and services that can be redistributed, we need a decision-procedure to know when we have done our part. This paper analyses and critically assesses the commonly suggested decision-procedure of relying on market prices to measure the value of one's contribution. It is usually assumed that a high salary indicates that one's talents are put to good use, but this presupposes both that market prices of labour are correct reflections of supply and demand, and that market prices are correct reflections of social value. I criticise both assumptions and argue that the social value of a contribution cannot simply be a function of its market value, but is also influenced by the principles of justice that support the duty to contribute. Further, the market solution is incapable of valuing contributions that lack market prices, like non-marketised care labour. The market solution thus fails as a decision-procedure under other than special circumstances. This does not mean, however, that we need to give up the idea of a duty to contribute.


Background: The electrochemical sensing of drugs in pharmaceutical formulations and biological matrices using molecular-imprinting polymer (MIP) as a recognition element combined with different electrochemical signal transduction has been widely developed. The MIP electrochemical sensors based on nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, as well as other electrode modifiers incorporated into the MIPs to enhance the performance of the sensor, have been discussed. The recent advances in enantioselective sensing using MIP-based electrochemical sensors have been described.  Methods: The molecular imprinting has more than six decades of history. MIPs were introduced in electrochemistry only in the 1990s by Mosbach and coworkers. This review covers recent literature published a few years ago. The future outlook for sensing, miniaturization and development of portable devices for multi-analyte detection of the target analytes was also given.  Results: The growing pharmaceutical interest in molecularly imprinted polymers is probably a direct consequence of its major advantages over other analytical techniques, namely, increased selectivity and sensitivity of the method. Due to the complexity of biological samples and the trace levels of drugs in biological samples, molecularly imprinted polymers have been used to improve the response signal, increase the sensitivity, and decrease the detection limit of the sensors. The emergence of nanomaterials opened a new horizon in designing integrated electrochemical systems. The success of obtaining a high-performance electrochemical sensor based on MIPs lies in the kind of material that builds up the detection platform.  Conclusion: The novel approaches to produce MIP materials, combined with electrochemical transduction to develop sensors for screening different pharmaceutically active compounds have been overviewed. MIPs may appear indispensable for sensing in harsh conditions, or sensing that requires longterm stability unachievable by biological receptors. The electrochemical sensors provide several benefits including low costs, shortening analysis time, simple design; portability; miniaturization, easy-touse, can be tailored using a simple procedure for particular applications. The performance of sensor can be improved by incorporating some conductive nanomaterials as AuNPs, CNTs, graphene, nanowires and magnetic nanoparticles in the polymeric matrix of MIP-based sensors. The application of new electrochemical sensing scaffolds based on novel multifunctional-MIPs is expected to be widely developed and used in the future.


In this communication chalimus lice numbers in the second, third and fourth quarters of the production cycle are examined in relation to a range of prevailing risk factors using an approach based on that already taken for mobile stages (Revie et al. in press). A total of 54 two-year production cycles from 29 farms on the West Coast of Scotland were analysed. Chalimus levels in the second six-month period of the first year of the production cycle were principally explained (adjusted R2 = 56% of the variation) by:the number of veterinary medicine treatments administered, the site hydrography and current speed characteristics. Sites with a high chalimus abundance attracted more treatments as did fish located in sites with low current speeds and an oscillatory hydrography. In contrast, chalimus levels in the third six-month period of the production cycle were principally explained (adjusted R2 = 65% of the variation) by: the abundance of mobile and chalimus stages in the preceding six-month period and treatment. It would appear that there are both management and environmental factors which affect the number of chalimus sea lice on fish in Scottish salmon farms and these have an impact on overall sea lice abundance.


The use of digital games in education is growing. Digital games with their elements of 'play' and 'challenge' are increasingly viewed as a successful medium for engaging and motivating students, in situations where students may be uninterested or distant. One such situation is mathematics education in Nigeria where young people in schools can be unenthusiastic about the subject. The introduction of digital educational games is being trialed to see if it can address this issue. A key element for ensuring the success of the introduction of new technologies is that the users are prepared and ready to accept the technology. This also applies to the introduction of digital educational games in the classroom. Technology Acceptance Models (TAMs) have been widely employed to explore users' attitudes to technology and to highlight their main concerns and issues. The aim of this study is to investigate if a modified TAM can be successfully developed and deployed to explore teachers' attitudes to the introduction of digital educational games in their classroom. The study employs a mixed methods approach and combines the outcomes from previous research studies with data gathered from interviews with teachers to develop the modified TAM. This approach of combining the results from previous studies together with interviews from the targeted group enabled the key variables/constructs to be identified. Independent evaluation by a group of experts gave further confidence in the model. The results have shown that this modified TAM is a useful instrument for exploring the attitude of teachers to using digital games for learning and teaching, and highlighting the key areas which require support and input to ensure teachers are ready to accept and use this technology in their classroom practice.


Sequence variation data of the human proteome can be used to analyze 3-dimensional (3D) protein structures to derive functional insights. We used genetic variant data from nearly 150,000 individuals to analyze 3D positional conservation in 4,390 protein structures using 481,708 missense and 264,257 synonymous variants. Sixty percent of protein structures harbor at least one intolerant 3D site as defined by significant depletion of observed over expected missense variation. We established an Angstrom-scale distribution of annotated pathogenic missense variants and showed that they accumulate in proximity to the most intolerant 3D sites. Structural intolerance data correlated with experimental functional read-outs in vitro. The 3D structural intolerance analysis revealed characteristic features of ligand binding pockets, orthosteric and allosteric sites. The identification of novel functional 3D sites based on human genetic data helps to validate, rank or predict drug target binding sites in vivo.


Haemangioendothelioma is a rare tumor that is both clinically and histologically intermediate between angiosarcoma and haemangioma. It is usually a solitary, slow-growing nodule on distal areas or extremities. The onset is frequently before 25 years of age with a male preponderance. Histologically, two components are important: dilated vascular channels and spindle cells elements with some pleomorphism and mitotic configuration. Treatment is wide excision and regional lymph node evaluation. As we reviewed the reported papers, we just found one reported case on genital involvement in a male; therefore, this could be a rare presentation of haemangioendothelioma on the genital area of an old woman. (Iran J Dermatol 2008;11: 129-131)


Presents a new approach to accurate and reliable dead-reckoning with mobile robots. The approach makes use of special properties of the author's multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) mobile platform, in which two differential-drive mobile robots (called "trucks") are physically connected through a compliant linkage. Using one linear and two rotary encoders, the system can measure the relative distance and bearing between the two trucks. During operation, both trucks perform conventional dead-reckoning with their wheel encoders, but, in addition, use information about their relative position to correct dead-reckoning errors. The author's system, called Compliant Linkage Autonomous Platform with Position Error Recovery (CLAPPER), requires neither external references (such as navigation beacons, artificial landmarks, known floorplans, or satellite signals), nor inertial navigation aids (such as accelerometers or gyros). Nonetheless, the experimental results included in this paper show one to two orders of magnitude better positioning accuracy than systems based on conventional dead-reckoning.<<ETX>>


We achieve a 2.5-dB improvement in the power penalty in a 10-Gb/s-based distributed Raman amplification transmission at 850 nm using a silica-based low-loss photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The experimental results agree well with a signal-to-noise ratio improvement model. The model indicates the negligible influence of double Rayleigh backscattering in the fabricated PCF


The purpose of this paper is to discuss briefly the diagnosis and treatment of undulant fever. Time does not permit a full review of all the therapeutic measures which have been offered; therefore our remarks will be limited mainly to a further discussion of the use of intravenous injection of killed typhoid and paratyphoid organisms in the treatment of this disease. The diagnosis of undulant fever is dependent on the laboratory for final confirmation. In this connection certain diagnostic problems confront the physician. The patient may present some of or all the classic symptoms, namely, irregular fever, profuse night sweats, weakness, nervousness, epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting, arthralgia and, in addition, some complication, such as involvement of the central or the peripheral nervous system or suppurative arthritis, and yet the blood may show no agglutination for organisms of the brucella group. This negative reaction may be due to the insufficient lapse


Multi-layer distributed systems, such as those found in corporate systems, are often the target of multi-stage attacks. Such attacks utilize multiple victim machines, in a series, to compromise a target asset deep inside the corporate network. Under such attacks, it is difficult to identify the upstream attacker's identity from a downstream victim machine because of the mixing of multiple network flows. This is known as the attribution problem in security domains. We present TopHat, a system that solves such attribution problems for multi-stage attacks. It does this by using moving target defense, i.e., shuffling the assignment of clients to server replicas, which is achieved through software defined networking. As alerts are generated, TopHat maintains state about the level of risk for each network flow and progressively isolates the malicious flows. Using a simulation, we show that TopHat can identify single and multiple attackers in a variety of systems with different numbers of servers, layers, and clients.


OBJECTIVE
To present a user-centred method for introducing ICT in health care organisations, taking factors that influence acceptance into account.

METHODS
User centred methods are used in combination with previous research regarding factors that affect user acceptance, in order to facilitate users' acceptance of new ICT tools.

RESULTS
A method is presented that supports the introduction of ICT in team work. The method consists of three major steps; (1) the start-up seminar, (2) end user education and (3) continuous follow-up during the deployment phase. Important results of the start-up seminar are documentation of the users' expectations, and an agreement of ground rules that supports both the social norm factor and the users' perceived behavioural control. Education and follow-up also improve perceived behavioural control, and by involving super users perceived usefulness and ease of use can be improved through subjective norm.

CONCLUSION
Key factors in the deployment process are; user participation, end user experience and education, and continuous follow-up of the process.


The interactions between students, the metanarratives underpinning research methodologies, and the relationship with supervisors and disciplinary norms are central to the doctoral experience. This paper looks at insights generated when doctoral level learning is queered, a process which manifests diversity and generates the need for understanding pluralities relating to how we express desires. This paper argues that LGBTQ bodies tell us about how desire, sexuality, and orientation play a role in leaning students towards or away from the imaginary and material worlds inhabited by academics in normativizing disciplines. Applying Sara Ahmed's (2006) conceptualization of the spatiality of sexuality to a case study around doctoral learning in a particular interdisciplinary context, it demonstrates how queer sexuality throws the typically tacit, unacknowledged life of the body in scholarly processes into stark relief and thus, by materializing desire and orientation, enlightens all human experience of learning, not just that of the LGBTQ communities.


SUMMARY: It was concluded in the preceding paper that λN
-
cI- genomes probably failed to form plasmids within infected Escherichia coli cells because they leakily express functions that act to destabilize the plasmid state. This prediction was investigated by examining the effect upon plasmid-forming ability of the loss of possible anti-plasmid functions. The loss of Ter function was found to allow long-term plasmid formation, although the efficiency of initial plasmid formation and the heritable stability without selection were low. The combined loss of the int, red and gam gene functions also promoted plasmid growth, although the absence of Terλ was necessary. In contrast, the presence of Ter80 (due to an h
80 substitution) did not prevent plasmid formation when the int, red and gam genes were absent, indicating that Ter80 does not attack the closed-circular form of the λ chromosome. The combined loss of the ter, int, red and gam gene functions facilitated fully efficient inheritance of the λN
-
cI- plasmids in the absence of selection, although the efficiency of initial plasmid formation remained low. However, cells harbouring such plasmids suffered a decline in viability, indicating that the plasmids expressed a function (or more than one) that acts to debilitate the host cells - presumably an effect that is increased with this genotype because the modified λN
-
cI- plasmids are inherently more stable. The possible involvement of the λ S and kil functions in destabilization is discussed.


It is not the tests that should drive what we do in the act of teaching, Ms. Wassermann reminds us. Rather, all of us in the profession must say: this is what is important to us in the education of our youth. Let the ways of assessment we devise determine whether we have achieved our goals. IT WAS LATE spring during my first year of teaching when I was initiated into the world of standardized testing. The school board had ruled, in its infinite wisdom and over strong teacher protest, to administer a districtwide standardized achievement test to all first- grade classes. On the scheduled day of testing, the principal came to my room to deliver the sealed package of tests for my class. She placed the package in my hands as if she were offering me the Dead Sea Scrolls. With the package came her repeated admonitions about following explicitly the instructions in the Manual of Directions. No deviations were to be allowed. Time limits were to be faithfully obeyed: 10:00, pencils up; 10:30, pencils down. Big Brother was watching us. At the designated hour, along with every other first-grade teacher in every school in the district, I broke the seal of the test package and distributed copies to each of the children, whose desks were now arranged in rows, as per the instructions. Two sharpened pencils were in the pencil slot on each desk. According to the instructions, the children were bathroomed and watered before the test was to begin. The preparations alone were exhausting and nerve-wracking. This first-grade class of 26 children from a working-class suburban community just outside New York City was a heterogeneous group of delightful, energetic 6-year-olds, and, like children everywhere, they were full of surprises. Normally spirited, they were now extraordinarily quiet, the stress in the air palpable. Doubtless, they were reflecting my own anxieties, for at this stage of their lives, they hardly knew the difference between a standardized test and an artichoke. But it was clear that I had communicated my feeling that much was riding on the outcome of their performance. The test began with a list of vocabulary words that the children were to define by blacking-in the space for the correct choice from among four options. In my class of 26 children, about three-quarters had made their way through preprimers and primers and were now considered to be reading at the "first-grade level." Four children were still chugging along in their primers and were likely to move into their first readers by the end of the year. At the far end of the spectrum, Judy Foley and Benny Camareri were struggling to make sense of a few basic words. For them, decoding was one of the great mysteries of life. As instructed, I walked the aisles, ensuring that the children were making their marks properly and seeing that they kept their eyes on their own papers - not that that was ever an issue. Jimmy Tully, one of the better readers in the class, took his time, carefully decoding the words in the first column of the test booklet. I could see him struggle with the unknown words, bravely sounding them out and finding the appropriate match. By the time he had gotten to the seventh word on the list, his anxiety level had peaked and his face had turned a deep rose. I touched his shoulder to comfort him, and, in response, he laid his pencil down, lowered his head, and wept. Torn between my human feelings and the detailed prohibitions about test taking, I felt like a killer teacher. Judy Foley, for whom decoding words was an Everest yet to be conquered, sped through the test as if she had been given all the answers in advance. She blackened slots one after another, never bothering herself with the act of reading. In less than three minutes, she had filled in choices for the entire list of 25 words. For Judy, the test was more like a coloring exercise. For Jimmy, it was a trial by fire. When the test papers were marked, Jimmy's paper showed that he had correctly defined all of the first seven words on the list - that is, all of those he had time to complete. …


Purpose: The projects at local level in Nepal are found to be executed through users committee or contractors depending upon structure and budget. To assess the existing practice of formation & contractual process of Users Committees while implementing construction projects at Khairahani Municipality Chitwan., Nepal. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was solely the project management practice of the Municipality implementing through UCs using Checklist Survey for projects with cost more than 10 laks. Data of the 33-sample site (different sectors of construction) will be collected and analyzed to obtain the significance. The information collected from the UCs members through the questionnaire and the consultations. The data were also collected from the Engineers, Sub Engineers, Planning officers, Assistant planning officer, Account Officer, Accountant, and elected representatives employed through questionnaire. All the collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using bars, graphs & diagrams and comparison with existing laws.
Findings/Result: The UCs in the projects of Municipality was formed by the general mass meeting of local beneficiaries without political interferences or biases. For the construction projects implementation through UCs, its formation was through the participatory approach but it was not strictly followed the prevailing acts, rules, guidelines and directives to local bodies for the composition of UCs. The supervision and monitoring mechanism exists but it was not functioning as well. The projects after the work completion had been examined and cleared within the time. The ownership of the projects, O & M fund and handover of the completed projects was not clearly defined. There were very few projects implemented through UCs that have adverse environmental impact, though the environmental impact consideration should be taken. From the study it is found that both the approaches can be suitable depending on the specific conditions and requirements. Each one of them has its own merits and demerits which do not enact in all situation of rural construction work.
Originality/Value: The existing practice of formation and contractual process complies with existing laws, bylaws rules, regulations, and guidelines illustrate law binding nature.
Paper Type: Research paper


The Zachman Framework offers a classification of the models created in an enterprise architecture project. These models form a holistic representation of the organization. Despite the prominent position of the Framework, there is little information publicly available to help designers create exact models that fit each other. In this paper, we propose a conceptualization based on General Systems Thinking. Our conceptualization provides concrete guidelines for creating the models required by the Framework. The proposed conceptualization establishes a better understanding of the models and of their relationships. This facilitates the creation and interpretation of the models. It also improves the traceability between them. We illustrate our approach with the results of a case study.


The simian virus 40 origin of replication contains a 20-base-pair adenine-thymine-rich segment with the sequence 5'-TGCATAAATAAAAAAAATTA-3'. The continuous tract of eight adenines is highly conserved among polyomaviruses. We used single-base substitutions to map structural and functional features of this DNA. Mutations in the AAA and AAAAAAAATT sequences significantly reduce DNA replication and thus identify two sequence-specific functional domains or a single domain with two parts. The AAAAAAAATT sequence also determines a DNA conformation that is characteristic of DNA bending. Single-base mutations in this domain change the degree of net bending, presumably by altering the length and location of the bending sequence. Thus, DNA bending in the correct conformation and location may be a structural signal for replication in polyomavirus origins and perhaps in other origins of replication with consecutive runs of adenines. The first five base pairs (TGCAT) of the 20-base-pair segment and the T between the AAA and AAAAAAAATT domains serve a sequence-independent function that may establish proper spacing within the core origin.


Since the mid-20th century, communication researchers have recognized that audience members selectively expose themselves to information and opinions congenial to their pre-existing views. While this was a controversial idea during the broadcast era of mass media, the expansion of media choice on television and use of information communication technology has brought increased attention to selectivity among audience members. Contemporary scholarship investigates the extent to which people select proattitudinal information or avoid counterattitudinal information and the role these choices play in the effects of media messages on viewers.
 While selective exposure is a broader phenomenon, this article substantively focuses on the use of politically partisan media, especially the research methods used to investigate media selectivity and its effects. This literature manifests an increased attention to measurement, especially how we measure the core concept of media exposure, novel experimental designs intended to allow investigators to directly view individual choice behavior in complex media environments, and attention to new sources of large-scale data from social media and large text samples.
 Scholars agree that partisan websites and cable networks provide content politically distinct enough to allow viewers to segregate themselves into liberal and conservative audiences for news but that this kind of polarized viewing is only part of how viewers use media today. A nuanced picture of selectivity shows audiences selecting congenial content but employing broader media use repertoires as well. The mechanisms and effects of media selectivity are psychologically complex and sensitive to contextual factors such as the political issue under consideration.


Many patients in Scotland may have waited considerably longer for hospital treatment than official figures suggest because of poor management and scrutiny of NHS waiting lists, according to an investigation by the country's public spending watchdog, Audit Scotland.1

Limited data, inadequate controls, and poor audit trails make it impossible to pinpoint the exact numbers of patients affected and whether human error, inconsistent interpretation of national guidance, or deliberate manipulation of the figures are to blame, says the watchdog.

Audit Scotland analysed all health boards' applications of waiting list codes in electronic patient records between April and December 2011, after it emerged that NHS Lothian had deliberately manipulated its data for patient waiting times during this period. …


The paper deals with a comparative analysis of the results of using 2 methods of investigation (daily Holter's monitoring of ECG and bicycle ergometry in patients with paroxysmal heart rhythm disturbances (group 1) and in those with extrasystole (group 2). The method of the Holter monitoring proved to be diagnostically significant in 77.2% of the first group and in all the patients of second one. In 40.9% of patients with paroxysmal rhythm disturbances and 64.7% of those with extrasystole, arrhythmias were provoked by trials with a dosed physical exercise. The comparison of both the methods revealed a concurrence of the results in 40% of the cases. A joint application of both the methods was found to enhance their diagnostic value.


Recently it was shown that vacuum in a background of a strong enough magnetic field becomes an electromagnetic superconductor due to interplay between strong and electromagnetic forces. The superconducting ground state of the vacuum is associated with a spontaneous emergence of quark-antiquark condensates which carry quantum numbers of charged rho mesons. The rho-meson condensate is an inhomogeneous structure made of the so-called rho vortices, which are parallel to the magnetic field axis. The condensation of the charged rho mesons induces a (much weaker) superfluid-like condensate with quantum numbers of the neutral rho((0)) mesons. In this paper we show that the vortices in the superconducting condensate organize themselves in an equilateral triangular lattice similarly to an ordinary type-II superconductor. We show that each of these superconductor vortices is accompanied by three superfluid vortices and three superfluid antivortices made of the neutral rho meson condensate. The superconductor vortex overlaps with one of the superfluid vortices. The superposition of the superconductor and superfluid vortex lattices has a honeycomb pattern.


Immune responses involving both B and T lymphocyte subpopulations have been demonstrated in sheep and cattle. The immune responses appear to be associated with the modulation of disease expression in sheep and cattle. An immature immune system in fetal lambs and calves permits virus to replicate with little or no host interference. Viral teratogenicity may consequently lead to malformed newborns, fetal deaths, abortion or readsorption. Adult sheep and cattle appear to respond somewhat differently to bluetongue virus (BTV). In both species T cell or cell mediated (CMI) and B cell or humoral mediated immunity (HMI) occur. There is a correlation between CMI response and protective immunity in sheep. Although these responses occur in cattle it appears that an IgE mediated hypersensitivity leads to expression of clinical disease and suppressive modulation of protective immunity.


Sierra and Summit supercomputers exhibit a significant amount of intranode parallelism between the host POWER9 CPUs and their attached GPU devices. In this article, we show that exploiting device-level parallelism is key to achieving high performance by reducing overheads typically associated with CPU and GPU task execution. Moreover, manually exploiting this type of parallelism in large-scale applications is nontrivial and error-prone. We hide the complexity of exploiting this hybrid intranode parallelism using the OpenMP programming model abstraction. The implementation leverages the semantics of OpenMP tasks to express asynchronous task computations and their associated dependences. Launching tasks on the CPU threads requires a careful design of work-stealing algorithms to provide efficient load balancing among CPU threads. We propose a novel algorithm that removes locks from all task queueing operations that are on the critical path. Tasks assigned to GPU devices require additional steps such as copying input data to GPU devices, launching the computation kernels, and copying data back to the host CPU memory. We perform key optimizations to reduce the cost of these additional steps by tightly integrating data transfers and GPU computations into streams of asynchronous GPU operations. We further map high-level dependences between GPU tasks to the same asynchronous GPU streams to further avoid unnecessary synchronization. Results validate our approach.


In the UK, there are more than 9,000 reports of adverse events involving medical devices annually. The regulatory processes in Europe and in the US have been challenged as to their ability to protect patients effectively from unreasonable risk and harm. Two of the major shortcomings of current practice include the lack of transparency in the safety certification process and the lack of involvement of service providers. We reviewed recent international standardisation activities in this area, and we reviewed regulatory practices in other safety-critical industries. The review showed that the use of safety cases is an accepted practice in UK safety-critical industries, but at present there is little awareness of this concept in healthcare. Safety cases have the potential to provide greater transparency and confidence in safety certification, and to act as a communication tool between manufacturers, service providers, regulators and patients. Appeared in: Health Informatics Journal, 2013;19(3):165-182


This paper analyzes the joint cost structure of electricity and natural gas distribution investments. Assessing the joint costs is critical for urban development and public policy regarding competition at the local level. The paper accounts for the urban and geographic factors at the local level, while the previous literature primarily used company-level data with a few or no site-specific variables in joint cost analyses. An empirical analysis of the multi-utility capital costs suggests that the local urban and geographic conditions affect such costs, with economies of scope present in electricity and natural gas both in terms of total costs and underground investment costs. Hence, the joint service provision makes economic and environmental sense for urban policy makers.


Almost all power electronic converters require magnetic devices and some properties of the converters can be controlled with magnetics. New magnetic materials enable implementation of magnetic control of converters also in high switching frequency applications. The presented paper gives an overview about controllability of magnetic devices in theory and practice, simulation approaches and examples. The focus is on electrically controllable magnetic devices. This means that an additional control winding is wound on or integrated into the magnetic core of the device. This additional winding is used to control the inductive behavior of the device by injecting a current. The different basic control approaches of magnetic devices are explained theoretically and demonstrated experimentally by laboratory prototypes. Several controllable magnetic devices were tested in order to evaluate the applicability of the different control methods. The control techniques were demonstrated also with different core materials to address different applications. Especially ferromagnetic alloys and ferrite materials are in focus of the investigation. Moreover, first approaches for the modelling and simulation of controllable magnetic devices are given in the paper.


Automated scoring of free drawings or images as responses has yet to be used in large-scale assessments of student achievement. In this study, we propose artificial neural networks to classify these types of graphical responses from a TIMSS 2019 item. We are comparing classification accuracy of convolutional and feed-forward approaches. Our results show that convolutional neural networks (CNNs) outperform feed-forward neural networks in both loss and accuracy. The CNN models classified up to 97.53% of the image responses into the appropriate scoring category, which is comparable to, if not more accurate, than typical human raters. These findings were further strengthened by the observation that the most accurate CNN models correctly classified some image responses that had been incorrectly scored by the human raters. As an additional innovation, we outline a method to select human-rated responses for the training sample based on an application of the expected response function derived from item response theory. This paper argues that CNN-based automated scoring of image responses is a highly accurate procedure that could potentially replace the workload and cost of second human raters for international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), while improving the validity and comparability of scoring complex constructed-response items.


Female weanling rats from a colony maintained on a diet low in vitamin D were raised on a diet that was deficient in vitamin D but was otherwise adequate. Vitamin D deficiency was confirmed in the rats by hypocalcemia and the absence of vitamin D metabolites in blood. These females gave birth to litters that were slightly smaller than control litters from females maintained on a vitamin D-containing diet. The pups from the vitamin D-deficient mothers appeared normal throughout lactation, and at weaning had normal concentrations of calcium and phosphate in the plasma. These results indicate that vitamin D and its metabolites are not necessary for reproduction and fetal development in the rat.


I have been developing strains which I think will make it possible to produce "minimally-sheltered knockouts" of essential genes routinely. They could equally well be called "self-adjusting knockdowns" of essential genes. Such minimally-sheltered knockouts could give results in microarray analysis that would be less subject to artifact than results with heterokaryons or with homokaryons sheltered with an inducible wild-type allele of the gene in question. The method addresses two questions about each cloned gene, henceforth and collectively called "your favorite gene" (yfg). yfg should be one which does not pass successfully through a cross as a hygromycin-resistant knockout. (1) Is yfg a dispensable gene? (2) If yfg is found to be essential, what is the "terminal phenotype" of the yfgΔ knockout mutation? By "terminal phenotype," I mean that of the heterokaryon between yfgΔ and a partial diploid, yfg+/Δ, in which the partial diploid is the minimum proportion that allows somewhat suboptimal growth. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. This regular paper is available in Fungal Genetics Reports: http://newprairiepress.org/fgr/vol52/iss1/4


Investigating ionic liquids in vivo effects at a molecular level is crucial for the deeper understanding of their toxicity and the development of new biological applications. In the present study, we propose the use of qRT-PCR to analyse the expression of Aspergillus nidulans genes after exposure to alkyltributylphosphonium chlorides ([P4 4 4 n]Cl, where n = 1, 4, 8 or 12). The selected genes are involved in plasma membrane and cell wall biosynthesis and repair mechanisms. The data strongly indicate cell wall damage as the common mechanism of toxicity amongst these ionic liquids, while plasma membrane permeabilisation is dependent on the alkyl substituent length. Considering their effects on the fungal cell walls, the knowledge herein produced opens doors for several possible applications of quaternary phosphonium ionic liquids, in particular their potential use in antifungal formulations.


Introduction Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with diarrhoea (IBS-D) is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder associated with significant economic burden in Europe; however, data specific to the UK are limited. This study assessed the impact of IBS-D on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), work and activity impairment, and healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU) among adults in the UK. Method UK respondents were identified from the 2013 EU5 National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS). Diagnosed IBS-D patients reported a physician diagnosis of IBS, with diarrhoea as the predominant symptom; undiagnosed IBS-D patients reported IBS-D symptoms without a physician diagnosis. Controls included all respondents without IBS or inflammatory bowel disease. IBS-D severity (mild/moderate/severe) was also patient-reported for those diagnosed and undiagnosed. HRQoL (via the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey version 2 Mental and Physical Component Summary [MCS; PCS] scores), work and activity impairment (via the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment: General Health Questionnaire), and HCRU (via the number of patient-reported visits to healthcare providers in the past 6 months) were assessed. Multivariable generalised linear models assessed HRQoL, work and activity impairment, and HCRU by IBS-D status and severity, controlling for demographic and health characteristics. Results 13 478 patients were included (335 diagnosed; 146 undiagnosed; 12 997 controls). Diagnosed IBS-D patients had significantly lower HRQoL compared to controls as measured by MCS and PCS scores (both p<0.001). Diagnosed IBS-D patients also had significantly greater overall work and activity impairment compared to controls (p=0.002 and p<0.001, respectively) and increased HCRU (all p<0.001). Patients with severe IBS–D (n=53) had significantly lower MCS and PCS scores compared to patients with mild (n=248) or moderate (n=180) IBS-D. Patients with severe IBS-D also had increased activity impairment compared to patients with mild or moderate IBS-D (p<0.001 and p=0.004, respectively) and increased traditional physician visits (p=0.012 and p=0.005, respectively). Conclusion Diagnosed IBS-D patients in the UK had significantly greater impairments in HRQoL and daily activities and higher HCRU use compared to controls. Similar results were observed in patients with severe IBS-D compared to patients with mild or moderate IBS-D. These results highlight the substantial burden of illness and the need for effective treatments to manage IBS-D symptoms. Disclosure of Interest A. Marciniak Conflict with: Pfizer, Amgen, Allergan plc, Conflict with: Allergan plc, J Abel Conflict with: Allergan plc, Conflict with: Allergan plc, R Carson Conflict with: Allergan plc, Conflict with: Allergan plc, N Flores Conflict with: Kantar Health, paid consultants to Allergan plc, R Liebert Conflict with: Kantar Health, paid consultants to Allergan plc


Life satisfaction has received a vast amount of attention in positive psychology. The importance of life satisfaction in education has also been emphasized for students' comprehensive development. In this regard, it is crucial to understand factors related to a student's life satisfaction for their mental, social, and academic development. Positive psychology highly focuses on hope, and hope has been found related to desirable outcomes. However, it is still not known the role of hope in life satisfaction for Turkish middle school students. The main goal of this study was to examine hope's prediction of life satisfaction in middle school students. This study also aimed to investigate differences in students' life satisfaction based on their gender and grade levels. Data were collected from 339 middle school students attended three public middle school located in the west of Turkey.  The findings of the study revealed that hope significantly predicted family (R2 = .21), school (R2 = .24), friend (R2 = .24), self (R2 = .40), living environment (R2 = .13), and total (R2 = .43) life satisfaction scores. The results also showed that girls had higher scores on life satisfaction than boys in school, friend, living environment, and total life satisfaction scores whereas no difference was observed in family and self-satisfaction scores. Regarding grade level, significant differences were found in family, school, self, and total life satisfactions scores. According to post-hoc comparisons, 8th graders reported lower level of life satisfaction. No differences were found in friend and living environment satisfaction scores based on gender. The results with implication for future research and practice are discussed.


The immobilization of chromium (III) and (VI) in geopolymeric matrices are studied in this paper. The geopolymers were prepared using coal combustion fly ash as the main aluminosilicate source. The influence of the activating solution has been studied using different solutions such as potassium silicate, sodium silicate, potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide. In addition, some samples containing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and the same activating solutions were prepared for comparative purposes. Mixtures were cured at ambient temperatures and in an oven at 60 oC. After curing, samples were subjected to different leaching tests such as UNE-EN 12457-4 and USEPA TCLP tests to assess the efficiency of the immobilization of Cr in both oxidation states. The total chromium leached was generally less than 0.05 % of the total Cr (III) added, in spite of the fact that a partial oxidation of Cr (III) to Cr (VI) was observed in most Cr (III) samples. With regard to Cr (VI), the immobilization was more problematic. Thus, the total chromium leached was between 2.4 4.8% of the total Cr (VI) added, the immobilization achieved with potassium hydroxide being better than that achieved with sodium hydroxide. Moreover, the use of OPC alone as a binder showed better leaching results than coal fly ash. No significant differences were found regarding Cr immobilization between the two curing conditions used.


The relationship between a Banach space X and its Banach algebra of bounded operators B(X) is rich and complex; this is especially so for non-classical Banach spaces. In this thesis we consider questions of the following form: does there exist a Banach space X such that B(X) has a particular (Banach algebra) property? If not, is there a quotient of B(X) with the property? The first of these is the uniqueness-of-norm problem for Calkin algebras: does there exist a Banach space whose Calkin algebra lacks a unique complete norm? We show that there does indeed exist such a space, answering a classical open question [101]. Secondly, we turn our attention to splittings of extensions of Banach algebras. Work of Bade, Dales and Lykova [12] inspired the problem of whether there exist a Banach space X and an extension of B(X) which splits algebraically but not strongly; this asks for a special type of discontinuous homomorphism from B(X). Using the categorical notion of a pullback we obtain, jointly with N. J. Laustsen [71], new general results about extensions and prove that such a space exists. The same space is used to answer our third question, which goes back to Helemskii, in the positive: is there a Banach space X such that B(X) has homological bidimension at least two? The proof uses techniques developed (with N. J. Laustsen [71]) during the solution to the second question. We use two main Banach spaces to answer our questions. One is due to Read [90], the other to Argyros and Motakis [8]; the former plays a much more prominent role. Together with Laustsen [72], we prove a major original result about Read's space which allows for the new applications. The conclusion of the thesis examines a class of operators on Banach spaces which have previously received little attention; these are a weak analogue of inessential operators.


: The comparison of features within a bite mark injury with the dentition of a suspect may be required during the course of a criminal investigation. A review of the literature regarding bite mark analysis has been undertaken to determine the value of this evidence. Bite marks in skin are complex injuries consisting of abrasions, lacerations, and contusions, caused by the crushing action of the teeth and related structures. Front-line investigators need to recognize and interpret these features, but no standard method of information collection or comparison has been agreed. Many classifications of bite mark types have been proposed, but do not appear to aid mark analysis. Investigations of bite strengths and sucking forces have been inconclusive. Insufficient information exists as to the accuracy and reproducibility of the representation of the dentition by tissue pathology. Histological analysis and collagen staining techniques have attempted to define the area of injury in detail, but have limited application. The quality of the mark is determined by numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Distortion and shrinkage of the tissues introduce dimensional disturbances that require elimination before a comparison can be undertaken. No method exists to quantify and correct these distortions. The investigator must be aware that self-inflicted marks often occur among children and that other events may replicate bite mark injuries. The most common bite mark comparison methods employ an intermediate template produced from the suspect dentition that, when overlaid onto a scale photograph of the injury, demonstrates correspondence. No agreement exists regarding the individuality of human dentition, minimum level of correspondence required to positively identify the assailant, and the accuracy to which tissue pathology can represent these details. It is concluded that bite mark comparison can only exclude a suspect and should not be used for positive identification.


—Automated program repair (APR) has great potential to reduce the effort and time-consumption in software maintenance and becomes a hot topic in software engineering recently with many approaches being proposed. Multi-location program repair has always been a challenge in this field since its complexity in logic and structure. While some approaches do not claim to have the features for solving multi-location bugs, they generate correct patches for these defects in practice. In this paper, we first make an observation on multi-location bugs in Defects4J and divide them into two categories (i.e., similar and relevant multi-location bugs ) based on the repair actions in their patches. We then summarize the situation of multi-location bugs in Defects4J fixed by current tools. We analyze the twenty-two patches generated by current tools and propose two feasible strategies for fixing multi-location bugs, illustrating them through two detailed case studies. At last, preliminary results prove the feasibility of our methods with the repair of two bugs that have never been fixed before. By learning from successful experience in the past, this paper points out possible ways ahead for multi-location program repair.


BACKGROUND
Self-inflicted oral injuries of organic origin are particularly common in certain diseases, syndromes, and systemic disorders. In this article, we discuss the characteristics of these oral lesions and their treatment.

LITERATURE SEARCH
The authors have reviewed the most relevant literature relating to oral self-injury through a search in textbooks and published articles included in the Medline database for the years 1970-2010, and selected published cases from the last two decades.

RESULTS
The majority of the literature on oral self-injury is in the form of case reports. Self-injury is particularly prevalent in patients with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a heterogeneous group of neurological disorders, congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, and mental retardation. It is most common in males in the early years of life, and the sites most frequently involved are the lower lip and the tongue. Therapeutic approaches in these patients have included psychological and pharmacological treatment, intraoral devices, and surgical procedures.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
Intraoral devices are the best therapeutic option for self-injury of organic origin, although this approach is not free of complications. The current lack of standardized treatment protocols for oral self-injury means that therapy must be individualized.


Hydrodynamical simulations predict that a large amount of hydrogen (>0.1 solar masses) is removed from a hydrogen-rich companion star by the SN explosion in the single-degenerate scenario of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, non-detection of hydrogen-rich material in the late-time spectra of SNe Ia suggests that the hydrogen mass stripped from the progenitor system is <0.001-0.058 solar masses. In this letter we include thermohaline mixing into self-consistent binary evolution calculations for the helium-enriched main-sequence (HEMS) donor channel of SNe Ia for the first time. We find that the swept-up hydrogen masses expected in this channel are around 0.10-0.17 solar masses, which is higher than the observational limits, although the companion star is strongly helium-enriched when the SN explodes. This presents a serious challenge to the HEMS donor channel.


Currently, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is widely used in various fields, but a shortcoming is that the process of service discovering and matching is limited only to syntactic level which easily leads to information mismatching. In this paper, we propose semantic SOA for missile design system, which introduces SOA to missile design area. The semantically improved system uses ontologies to define semantics among services and integrates isolated information. Moreover, we describe services in a way combining WSDL and tuple description method together which enables automatic service discovery and matching. At last, we discuss the concept of "semantic template" that allows service requesters to create a semantic rich description of services.


Corpus-based research has increasingly proved to be one of the rigorous evidence-based methods in the field of applied linguistics. Learner corpus-based applications in language learning and teaching–which is closely associated with research from within the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) tradition– has resulted in new strides in language learning and teaching. The present paper introduces Arabic-speaking Learner Corpus of students majoring in Arabic/English translation in the College Of Languages and Translation (COLTLC thereafter) at King Saud University in Riyadh. The available corpora of Arabic-speaking learners will be presented. Then, the gap in SLA pure approaches will be discussed to argue for the plausibility of learner-corpusbased studies and the need to compile COLTLC. The content and construction of COLTLC will also be presented. More specifically, the rationale, design, tagging, annotation and architecture of the corpus will be discussed in greater detail, as well basic descriptive for potential future research.


Unique, believable characters that think, feel, and captivate your audience are ones that involve emotion, personality, and story. Successful animators balance all of these elements within a single character and narrative. With Acting and Performance for Animation, discover how to create dynamic, dramatic performances and believable character interaction for 2D and 3D animation and motion capture. An invaluable resource, Acting and Performance for Animation is a practical guide to the variety of performance techniques relevant to animators. Develop believable character interactions with chapters detailing the principles of performance, performance types, character emotion and personality, physical and psychological performance, and scene composition. Analyze scripts, sound, acting, action and performance with hints, tips, and animated examples featured in an extensive guide for animators working in film, TV, games, and commercials. Explore different performance techniques based upon the experiences of seasoned animators and actors with case studies featuring Peter Lord, John Stevenson, Marco Marenghi, Mark Baker, Neville Astley, Joanna Quinn, and more.


A novel method of minimum frequency shift keying (MSK) based on digital signal processing (DSP) and complex analytic bandpass filter is proposed. According to the bit value of the input data, the MSK complex bandpass signal is directly produced and then is complex analytic bandpass filtered, the real part of the complex bandpass signal is fetched to achieve the MSK modulation. The receiving signal of MSK is sampled, and then complex bandpass filtered to attain the complex bandpass signal. The complex bandpass signal and conjugate signal of its delayed version and the phase shift factor are multiplied together. According to the imaginary part of the product, the original data is recovered. The design method of complex bandpass filter is introduced also.


This study reports on a continuing project of group employment counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS (People with AIDS =PWAs). The concrete program, called Making A Plan (MAP), explores the needs, fears, perceived barriers, and affective dimensions of considering work for PWAs. This article describes the concerns and barriers of HIV-positive clients in four essential factors related to considering work and the changes in those concerns produced by participation in a group counseling process. The data to be reported below are derived from: (a) a quantitative evaluation of client change over the course of the program, (b) a qualitative focus group evaluation several weeks after program completion, and (c) several years of vocational counseling experience with this population. As described briefly below, this examination is timely in light of (a) advances in medical treatment for this population, and (b) the challenges the disease presents for vocational rehabilitation. With the advent of protease inhibitors and combination therapies, many people living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) have experienced a relative stabilization of their health. They have prospects of an extended future that can now include the realistic likelihood of employment (McReynolds, 1998). The process of this disease is unpredictable, with setbacks, complicated side effects, difficult and intrusive medical regimens, and a variety of psychological effects (e.g., anxiety, depression). The volatile disease profile, characterized often with sudden reversals of health, can force the individual to modify or abandon a positive educational or employment experience. The nature of both the disease and its medication regimen mean that the path of considering work is more unpredictable for the person living with HIV/AIDS than it is for a person with a more predictable disease profile (Anders, 1996; Canadian AIDS Society, 1998; Carton, 1996; Kohlenberg, 1997). These features of the disease process add an extra complication for service organizations that wish to actively assist PWAs to consider entry (or re-entry) into some form of employment. Agencies that have traditionally served PWAs (AIDS service organizations = ASOs) have mostly focused on medical and psychosocial issues--prevention, regimen adherence, symptom treatment, support. Many ASOs now find that the option of work is increasingly feasible for their clientele and need guidance on how to respond to the challenge of vocational counseling for this population. Research on the employment counseling process and support for PWAs is limited although service agencies and grass roots organizations are increasingly called upon to respond to these new needs. There are various models for vocational counseling for people with HIV/AIDS. Some generalize from other disabilities and are based on the classification of AIDS as a formally defined disability under federal law. For reasons that are discussed elsewhere (Kohlenberg & Goldblum, 2001), it is recommended that a multifactor model be used that takes into account the unique characteristics of the HIV/AIDS disease. The recommended model includes the four essential factors involved in considering work for PWAs (medical, financial/legal, psychosocial, and vocational). The model also takes into account the capricious course of the disease and the difficulties of its treatment. Although it is a matter of debate whether HIV/AIDS shares major similarities with other disabilities in its impact on employment issues (Martin, Brooks, Ortiz, & Veniegas, forthcoming; De Lima, et al., 1997), it is clear that more information is required about appropriate models of vocational assessment and counseling and on the efficacy of employment counseling for this population. A limited but growing number of studies have begun to document empirically the relationship between HIV/AIDS and employment (Blalock, 2001; Brooks, Ortiz, Veniegas, & Martin, 1999). …


This article provides background information on penetration testing processes and practices. It then discusses the issues related to integrating penetration testing into a software development life cycle by describing the pitfalls associated with traditional penetration testing practices as well as making recommendations for improving these practices. A related article describes types and examples of penetration testing tools. Today's software penetration testing tools, practices, and (to some degree) staff have been developed and improved for an IT Security user base, primarily. However, to effectively make use of these elements in a software development environment takes careful thought and clear goals. For example, most existing penetration testing tools and services offer a fairly rigid technology-centric perspective of their respective findings. This is in stark contrast with the software security touchpoints recommended here on the BSI portal, where a more business risk approach is stressed. The business and architectural risk analysis process should serve as a prioritization input to penetration (and other security) testing processes. However, that is not generally what happens in today's environment [Arkin 2005, Janardhanudu 2005, Michael 2005]. To get around this, and to get closer to the practices discussed here on BSI, this document provides a description of and recommendations for a penetration testing process and methodology that is more suited to the needs of software developers than is typically found today. Additionally, the document provides both a conceptual as well as a more specific survey of the tools available today for conducting penetration testing. This tool survey is then balanced against the need for trained, skilled, and highly motivated testing staff. Staff training is addressed and compared against mentoring or apprenticeship types of on the job training processes.


Video games are becoming increasingly popular among young people, as the virtual worlds they depict seem to be the preferred refuge when it comes to escaping reality.
As educators, we should attempt to study the effects they have on our students' minds and, if proven beneficial, use them in our classrooms to enhance learning (and the motivation for learning) whenever possible. The digital natives we teach nowadays, the so-called screenagers, have high expectations of the classroom settings they are a part of. Technology, therefore, and video games should be present in such learning environments. Moreover, the skills they develop in games should be acknowledged and transferred to real-life settings. Games could help educators reach out to them, bridging the gap between teachers and students in our efforts to provide them with learning contexts endowed with meaning. "Meaning is the feeling that we're part of something bigger than ourselves. It's the belief that our lives matter beyond our own individual lives." (Jane McGonigal, "Reality is broken. Why games make us better and how they can change the world") Therefore, video games players embark on a quest for meaning when entering such virtual worlds as those presented in World of Warcraft, for example.
Most games have four defining traits: a goal (the outcome to be achieved), a set of rules (limitations the players have to cope with), a feedback system (informing them on the progress they make, which represents a great motivation to keep on playing), and voluntary participation (the gamer willingly accepts the goal, the rules and the feedback system). Since gaming involves voluntary participation, players are intrinsically motivated to bring their contribution to the epic mission the game takes them on. In addition, the constant feedback given to them is nothing but a strong incentive to continue playing. Hence, games are all about the "epic meaning", the "urgent optimism" players feel, the "social fabric" they weave since quite often gamers need to collaborate with other players to achieve their goals.
Therefore, there are all sorts of life skills players acquire in games and, most importantly, they can be transferred to reality, the ability to work as part of a team being one of them.
The findings of the present research consist mostly of qualitative data gathered during a case study conducted among middle and high school students. There have been interviews with teenage and young subjects that come to confirm the popularity of games as learning tools and their potential positive results in learning environments.
Initially, structured interviews were used, which led to the collection of data further explored in focus group sessions.
Using such qualitative research methods, we managed to explore the views, experiences, beliefs and motivations of individual participants regarding gaming, as well as their self-perceived competences acquired while playing video games. Among such competences, we can list: strategy skills from managing cities and taxing them in order to support armies meant to assist the players in expanding on the map (as well as developing historical knowledge) and connection-making abilities from the puzzles they had to solve in order to be able to advance through the game.
In addition, the research generated an inventory of video games classified according to their themes and perceived value.
The conclusions will be presented in detail during the conference proceedings.


A technique is developed for the application of a channel design method to the design of high-solidity cascades with prescribed velocity distributions as a function of arc length along the blade-element profile. The technique is applied to both incompressible and subsonic compressible, nonviscous, irrotational fluid motion. For compressible flow, the ratio of specific heats is assumed equal to -1.0. An impulse cascade with 90 degree turning was designed for incompressible flow and was tested at the design angle of attack over a range of downstream Mach number from 0.2 to coke flow. To achieve good efficiency, the cascade was designed for prescribed velocities and maximum blade loading according to limitations imposed by considerations of boundary-layer separation.


The breast cancer research community has long considered the impact of exogenous estrogen exposure, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and exercise on breast cancer biology. More recently, experimental studies of exposure to chronic stressors in the social environment and the resulting stress response have suggested that epinephrine- and glucocorticoid-mediated signaling pathways might potentiate breast cancer growth both at primary and metastatic tumor sites. To study this hypothesis in more detail, we initiated a transdisciplinary study of a well-established social stressor for female rodents- chronic social isolation. We found that exposing a young female rodent to chronic socially isolation for 12 weeks (compared to group living/social interaction with three other female mice) was associated with increased mammary tumor growth in genetically predisposed rodents. For example, in the C3(1)/SV40 T-antigen (Tag) FVB/N mouse model of "triple-negative" (ER,PR and ErbB-negative breast cancer) the heightened stress response elicited by chronic social isolation was associated with increased expression of metabolic genes in the mammary gland before invasive tumors develop (i.e. during the in situ carcinoma stage when the animals are 15 weeks of age). This suggested that metabolic changes within the mammary gland could affect breast cancer biology. To further understand how accelerated mammary tumor growth may be associated with the physiological response to social isolation, we separated the mammary gland adipose tissue from its adjacent ductal epithelial cells and then analyzed individual cell types for changes in metabolic gene expression. We found that the major increase in expression of the key metabolic genes Acaca, Hk2 and Acly was primarily in the adipocyte (fat cell) fraction of the mammary gland. In contrast, metabolic gene expression was not significantly increased in visceral or gonadal adipose depots of socially isolated female mice, suggesting that the stress response affects individual fat depots differently in this model. We confirmed that the increased metabolic gene expression in the mammary adipocytes of socially isolated mice coincided with increased glucose metabolism, lipid synthesis, and local leptin production; interestingly, systemic leptin levels were not significantly altered. Furthermore, compared to the group housed mammary fat, application of media that had been cultured with isolated mouse mammary adipose tissue resulted in relatively increased proliferation of mammary cancer cells. These results suggest that the physiological response to a chronic social stressor (isolation) results in metabolic changes in mammary gland adipocytes that in turn contribute to increased proliferation of pre-invasive malignant epithelial cells. Adipocyte-secreted metabolites and/or tumor growth-promoting proteins could identify biomarkers and/or targets for preventive intervention in breast cancer. We are currently examining the mammary fat of the isolated versus group-housed mice to identify differential production of adipokines and lipid species that may influence early breast cancer growth in this model. Citation Format: Suzanne Conzen. Stress and the social environment: Impact on cancer risk. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr PL01-04.


This paper presents empirical evidence that "tax morale" taxpayers' intrinsic motivation to pay taxes constitutes a new determinant of happiness, even after controlling for several demographic and socioeconomic factors. Using data on Italian households for 2004, we assess the strength of tax morale by relying on single items as well as composite multi-item indices. Our main result that fiscal honesty generates a higher hedonic payoff than cheating is in line with Harbaugh et al. (2007)'s neuroeconomic finding. Further, it sheds light on the well-known "puzzle of compliance", that is the fact that many individuals pay taxes even when expected penalty and audit probability are extremely low: tax compliance is less puzzling once we show that not only it is materially costly, but also provides sizeable non-pecuniary benefits that make it rewarding in itself.


Percentage Closer Soft Shadows is a popular technique to generate contact hardening soft shadows with shadow mapping. Recent research in shadow generation for translucent objects makes it possible to realize shadows for translucent objects in real-time environments. However, for multiple translucent blockers it is unclear how an appropriate blocker depth can be calculated. In this paper, we propose a method to calculate a blocker depth for multiple translucent blockers and therefore, enabling physically plausible soft shadows for opaque and translucent objects in a single approach.


We compare surface brightness and magnetic field surface maps for the K0 dwarf AB Doradus, obtained using two independently developed Zeeman Doppler imaging codes. We find that even the fine structure in the two sets of images shows excellent agreement. Magnetic field maps appear to be less sensitive to line-modelling effects than brightness maps. We argue that these results point to the consistency and reliability of Doppler imaging techniques even when using poorly sampled data sets, provided that the spectra used are of sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio.


Papillomatosis papulosa confluens reticulata et pigmentata is a rare dermatosis that presents clinically with pigmented, papillomatous, hyperkeratotic plaques with central confluence and reticulated peripheral pattern. The etiology remains unclear but current data points to a keratinization defect as the main pathological mechanism. There is one case report in the literature of a UV-induced Papillomatosis papulosa confluens reticulata et pigmentata. We present a 16-year old patient with clinical and histological diagnosis of confluent and reticulated papillomatosis. The characteristic lesions involved sun-exposed areas and developed after intense sun exposure. As an etiologic factor, ultraviolet light may lead to mechanical epidermal damage and further keratinization modification. On the other hand, in the setting of genetically predetermined resistance to UV-immunosuppression mechanisms, the newly formed epidermal antigens could potentially trigger an immune reaction resulting in skin eruption. Scripta Scientifica Medica 2013; 45(4): 88-91.


This article focusses on the issue of fundamental standards of humanity, a set of principles to reflect both international human rights and humanitarian law, as a means to address the insufficient protection of persons in situations of internal violence. Such fundamental standards of humanity, applicable at all times, in all circumstances and to all parties, are necessary to address four areas: 1) States are not party to international instruments; 2) human rights obligations are derogated from; 3) international humanitarian law is not applicable or is so but is not applied; and 4) non-state actors may not be bound by obligations under international law. The article provides an overview of the steps taken by the international community to address the issue, discusses the sources of international human rights law, humanitarian law and refugee law from which fundamental standards of humanity could be drawn, and suggests further steps to be taken. The authors are convinced that fundamental standards of humanity would serve as an educational tool to enhance effective implementation of relevant international law.


Constraint networks have been shown to be useful in formulating such diverse problems as scene labeling, natural language parsing, and temporal reasoning. Given a constraint network, we often wish to (i) find a solution that satisfies the constraints and (ii) find the corresponding minimal network where the constraints are as explicit as possible. Both tasks are known to be NP-complete in the general case. Task (1) is usually solved using a backtracking algorithm, and task (ii) is often solved only approximately by enforcing various levels of local consistency. In this paper, we identify a property of binary constraint called row convexity and show its usefulness in deciding when a form of local consistency called path consistency is sufficient to guarantee that a network is both minimal and globally consistent. Globally consistent networks have the property that a solution can be found without backtracking. We show that one can test for the row convexity property efficiently and we show, by examining applications of constraint networks discussed in the literature, that our results are useful in practice. Thus, we identify a class of binary constraint networks for which we can solve both tasks (i) and (ii) efficiently. Finally, we generalize the results for binary constraint networks to networks with nonbinary constraints.


Recent evidence from textural, petrological and experimental studies has shown that the 1902 and 1929 dome and nuee ardente products, including those from violently explosive 1902 events, were erupted from once H2O-rich andesite magmas (5-6 wt% H2O) that underwent strong open-system degassing upon ascent, and erupted as low-vesicularity, high-cristallinity, H2O-poor lavas. We are currently carrying out decompression experiments in internally-heated pressure vessels at various, mostly low (´ 0.5 kb) pressures and varying decompression rates, in order to simulate syn-eruptive degassing processes such as vesiculation and microlite crystallization. The experimental data are systematically compared with textural and compositional data (microlite size, abundance, shape and composition, glass composition and water content) from representative natural samples covering the whole range of vesicularity and eruptive styles (e.g. 1929 and 1902 domes, 1929 block-and-ash flows, 8 May and 30 August 1902 surges). Preliminary data have been obtained from experiments in the following conditions: two glass compositions representing the andesite whole-rock (62.5°0.5% SiO2) and the rhyolite phenocryst-devoid composition (77.5°1.5% SiO2), respectively; initial water content corresponding to saturation; starting pressures 2.5, 1 and 0.5 kb; decompression rates of 10, 100 and 1200 bar/h; temperature 900°C. Equilibrium experiments at constant 2.5, 1 and 0.5 kb pressures have also been performed for reference. The main observations to date are as follows. All the final experimental products are vesiculated even for low initial water content (< 1wt%). For high P0 and initial water content (2.5 kb and 6 wt% respectively), the final water contents are close to theoretical values at the final pressure (suggesting degassing close to equilibrium) for a low decompression rate of 10 bar/h, but are significantly higher than theoretical values for a higher decompression rate of 100 bar/h. For comparatively low P0 and initial water content (0.5 kb and <1 wt% respectively), final water contents are significantly lower than the theoretical values, which suggests an additional degassing process to vesiculation at high liquid viscosities. A low decompression rate of 10 bar/h does not induce any microlite crystallisation when the H2O content is low (< 2wt%). At 100 bar/h, the nucleation of plagioclase and orthopyroxene is delayed. However, crystallisation upon decompression is favoured by isobar steps of a few days. High-silica phases similar to those observed in the natural products have been to date experimentally reproduced in one experiment with the andesitic composition, low pressure (from 500 to 200 bar) and high decompression rate (1200bar/h).


We have constructed a two axis camera positioning system which is roughly analogous to a single human eye. This Artificial-Eye (A-eye) combines the signals generated by two rate gyroscopes with motion information extracted from visual analysis to stabilize its camera. This stabilization process is similar to the vestibulo-ocular response (VOR); like the VOR, A-eye learns a system model that can be incrementally modified to adapt to changes in its structure, performance and environment. A-eye is an example of a robust sensory system that performs computations that can be of significant use to the designers of mobile robots.


Hidradenoma papilliferum is a rare benign neoplasm that usually occurs in the female anogenital area. We present a 43-year-old female with a non-anogenital (ectopic) hidradenoma papilliferum on her nose. The patient had had a skin-colored subcutaneous nodule on her nose for 7 years. The histopathological findings showed variously shaped cystic spaces in the tumor. And the lumina were surrounded by a single or double layer of cell which showed decapitation secretion. In the English dermatological literature, only one case of ectopic hidradenoma papilliferum arising in nasal skin has been reported. Hence we suggest hidradenoma papilliferum occurring on the nasal skin is a peculiar and interesting event. (Ann Dermatol 23(S2) S254~S257, 2011)


About the book: In World War I, only 5 percent of all casualties were civilian; in World War II, that number was 50 percent; and in conflicts in the 1990s, civilians accounted for up to 90 percent of those killed. Clearly, the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians, while recognizing the changing face of war, has not succeeded in reversing the trend.

Focusing particularly on the intrastate conflicts that characterized the late twentieth century, this book seeks to expand the tools available to national and international actors endeavoring to protect civilians in times of war. The authors present a range of perspectives on the evolving norms of international humanitarian law and how humanitarian actors can persuade—or compel—belligerents to respect those norms. Their work is a critical step toward limiting suffering in future battles.


Many of today's university undergraduate curricula include two seemingly conflicting themes: (1) increase the quality of teaching to include emphasis on pedagogical elements, such as active learning, in the undergraduate statistics classroom; and (2) cope with a decrease in teaching resources. In this paper, a means by which a department of mathematics or statistics can maintain and increase its standards of teaching excellence in introductory statistics while coping with ever-increasing budgetary pressures is proposed. This process involves promoting what we call cooperative teaching, applying the concepts of cooperative learning to a group of instructors.


The problem of generalised minimum variance control of linear multi-input multi-output time-varying systems is studied. The plants are described using a time-varying controlled autoregressive moving average model and the cost functional is the sum of plant output tracking error variances plus squared control variables. Both the output errors and the input variables are weighted using time-varying matrices. A generalised minimum variance controller is developed in a transfer operator framework without using a pseudocommutation technique. The minimum variance controller is extended and the stably invertible condition is removed for multi-input multi-output time-varying systems. The controller can be applied to a large class of linear time-varying stochastic systems.


We describe an efficient method to accurately estimate the effectiveness of a previously trained deep learning model for use in a new learning task. We use this method, "Predict To Learn" (P2L), to predict the most likely "source" dataset to produce effective transfer for training on a "target" dataset. We validate our approach extensively across 21 tasks, including image classification tasks and semantic relationship prediction tasks in the linguistic domain. The P2L approach selects the best transfer learning model on 62% of the tasks, compared with a baseline of 48% of cases when using a heuristic of selecting the largest source dataset and 52% of cases when using a distance measure between source and target datasets. Further, our work results in an 8% reduction in error rate. Finally, we also show that a model trained from merging multiple source model datasets does not necessarily result in improved transfer learning. This suggests that performance of the target model depends upon the relative composition of the source dataset as well as their absolute scale, as measured by our novel method we term 'P2L'.


This paper presents a performance evaluation of a new multimodal image registration algorithm which is based on Bayesian estimation theory, specifically on Particle Filters. The results point to an efficient, easy to implement and robust to noise algorithm. The registration method showed good performance when using partial data, and it was compared with an algorithm based on maximization of mutual information and a Hyperplanes optimization method. Finally, we showed that the algorithm may be parallelizable, so that it is possible to reduce the computation time for image registration.


Edge computing pushes application logic and the underlying data to the edge of the network, with the aim of improving availability and scalability. As the edge servers are not necessarily secure, there must be provisions for validating their outputs. This paper proposes a mechanism that creates a verification object (VO) for checking the integrity of each query result produced by an edge server - that values in the result tuples are not tampered with, and that no spurious tuples are introduced. The primary advantages of our proposed mechanism are that the VO is independent of the database size, and that relational operations can still be fulfilled by the edge servers. These advantages reduce transmission load and processing at the clients. We also show how insert and delete transactions can be supported.


This study focused on the association between dietary patterns and socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. A population-based cross-sectional study was performed in 1,026 adult women from Southern Brazil. Dietary patterns were identified using principal components analysis. In the multivariable analysis, a Poisson regression model was used to estimate the prevalence ratio and 95%CI. Wealthier women were more likely to follow healthy diets. A Low Cost Healthy Diet was more prevalent among women with a partner, and a High Cost Healthy Diet was more prevalent among women not currently working and who exercised regularly. Women with lower education levels were less likely to follow a Low Cost Healthy Diet, but more likely to follow the Higher-Risk Low Cost Diet. The Low Cost Higher-Risk Diet was more prevalent among women with a lower income. Low and medium cost healthy diets were positively associated with age. The results showed that women's dietary choices are influenced by socioeconomic factors and are not only dependent on food prices.


Dictionary Matching is a variant of the Pattern Matching problem where multiple patterns are simultaneously matched to a single text. In case the patterns contain sequences of don't care symbols, the problem is called Dictionary Matching with Gaps. Another famous variant of Pattern matching is the Parameterized Matching, where two equal-length strings are a parameterized match if there exists a bijection on the alphabets such that one string matches the other under the bijection. In this paper we suggest the problem of Parameterized Dictionary Matching with one Gap, stemming from cyber security, where the patterns are the malware sequences we want to detect in the text, and the necessity of a parameterized match is due to their encryption. We present two algorithms solving the Prameterized Dictionary Matching with one Gap. The first solves the problem for dictionaries with variable length gaps and has query time of O(n(βmax−αmin) log 2 d+ occ), where n is the size of the text, d is the number of gapped patterns in the dictionary, βmax−αmin is the maximal size of gap and occ is the number of the gapped patterns reported as output. The second solution considers dictionaries with a single set of gap boundaries and has query time of O(n(β−α)+occ), where n is the size of the text, β−α is the size of the gap and occ is the number of the gapped patterns reported as output.


The scarcity of qubits is a major obstacle to the practical usage of quantum computers in the near future. To circumvent this problem, various circuit knitting techniques have been developed to partition large quantum circuits into subcircuits that fit on smaller devices, at the cost of a simulation overhead. In this work, we study a particular method of circuit knitting based on quasiprobability simulation of nonlocal gates with operations that act locally on the subcircuits. We investigate whether classical communication between these local quantum computers can help. We provide a positive answer by showing that for circuits containing $n$ nonlocal CNOT gates connecting two circuit parts, the simulation overhead can be reduced from $O(9^n)$ to $O(4^n)$ if one allows for classical information exchange. Similar improvements can be obtained for general Clifford gates and, at least in a restricted form, for other gates such as controlled rotation gates.


Background Dilated common bile duct (CBD) without obvious cause is a not uncommon finding on magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in patients with unexplained dilated CBD on MRCP. Methods Patients referred for EUS evaluation of a dilated CBD were retrospectively analyzed with respect to serum alkaline phosphatase prior to EUS and subsequent outcome after EUS. Results Over a 3-year period, 40 patients (24 males; mean age 38.9±9.9 years) with dilated CBD were retrospectively identified. Ten patients had elevated serum alkaline phosphatase. The diagnosis reached after EUS examination was: CBD stones in 15 (37.5%) with largest size of CBD stone being 9 mm, mass in CBD in 2 (5%), benign biliary stricture in 2 (5%), biliary stricture with underlying chronic pancreatitis in 1 (2.5%) patient respectively. EUS examination revealed normal CBD in 20 (50%) patients and two of these patients had periampullary diverticulum. All the patients with abnormal liver function tests had a detectable CBD pathology whereas 20/30 (66.6%) patients with normal liver biochemistry had normal EUS findings. There was no significant difference in the mean CBD diameter between the groups with demonstrable pathology compared with those without (P=0.64). Conclusion EUS is a useful investigational modality for patients with unexplained dilated CBD on MRCP. The mean CBD diameter and the presence of normal liver function tests are not predictive of underlying pathology.


Although there is literature on the experiences generated from social media usage, it's scope is limited and has failed to account for the varying experiences which can be generated for different users. Previous literature has adopted a quantitative approach, using self-report measures. The present study aimed to explore the self-presentation of hijabis on the social networking site Instagram, using semi-structured interviews. To gain an in-depth understanding of individuals experienced, 5 women aged 18+ were recruited using volunteer sampling. Upon conduction of the interviews, they were analysed using Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Four themes were highlighted amongst the interviews: What to Represent, Multiple Audiences, Controlling the Parameters of Representation and Negotiating the Boundaries. These findings suggest that Instagram does not function in the same way that previous literature has found with western samples; Instagram functions to allow others i.e. the audience, to regulate the behaviour of the user in line with cultural expectations. This therefore contradicts the findings that social media allows users to experiment with their self-presentation techniques (Smith and Sanderson, 2015). Limitations and implications for future research are discussed in full.


The article presents the results of comparative research of organizational culture of international cooperation departments of University of Wyoming and Saratov State University. Purpose. The purpose of the research is a detection of cultural similarities and distinctions of departments that are responsible for success of internationalization, as well as the further development of organizational changes program for development and strengthening of cooperation between universities. In the context of research the hypothesis that the organizations with similar sphere of activities have similar type of organizational culture was made. Study design. This research is carried by methodology of order diagnostics of organizational culture directed to the identification of the development level of three suborders of organizational culture - "Family", "Army", and "Church". In this article, results of diagnostics at three managerial levelsand comparative analysis are stated. Findings. According to the results of diagnostics, it was revealed that the dominating suborder in the both cultures is «family». Following the results of the comparative analysis, in the majority of questions ethical meanings of the leaders coincide, and that is a favorable factor for creation of constructive dialogue of cultures between departments of universities. Value of the results. The special importance of this research consists in application of the order approach to diagnostics of the foreign organization that confirms universality of this methodology and possibilityof its application for researches of creation organizational cultures in globalization conditions.


Student teachers need to study the basics and further development of the legal competence as dictated by the requirements of the teacher's professional standard. The article deals with the interpretation of the term "professional and legal competence" and its components: in particular, cognitive-legal, motivational-legal, social-legal, special-legal, reflexive-legal. Project training provided the means to form a professional legal competence. It was implemented as a step-by-step complex, systemic and personality-oriented process. The research demonstrated the correlation between the components of professional and legal competence in the first year of study. A correlation constellation of the components of the graduate course was compiled using the data from the students' implementation of the project activity.