Adverse patient events can have lasting and traumatic effects on members of the healthcare team. In 2019, a Southern California healthcare organization developed a peer support program for second victims (SVs). Despite this program being available to all staff, many nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a metropolitan area entity did not know the program existed. The purpose of this study was to provide education to NICU nurses about second victims and the organization's peer support program through an online learning module. Participants completed a survey upon module completion. The survey used a simultaneous pre-post survey on nurses' knowledge, skills, and attitudes of second victims and the organization's peer support program. Ten out of 11 survey items were statistically significant. Of the respondents, 89% of nurses had not sought peer support following a traumatic patient event. After completing the learning module, 67% of nurses shared they were likely or very likely to seek peer support in the future. Improvement for the dissemination of information about second victims must occur for nurses to recognize themselves as second victims. Due to the ease of accessibility to online learning, the learning module can be shared with other entities within the organization.


Considering the importance of mathematical knowledge for STEM careers, we aimed to better understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying the commonly observed relation between number line estimations (NLEs) and arithmetics. We used a within-subject design to model NLEs in an unbounded and bounded task and to assess their relations to arithmetics in second to fourth grades. Our results mostly agree with previous findings, indicating that unbounded and bounded NLEs likely index different cognitive constructs at this age. Bounded NLEs were best described by cyclic power models including the subtraction bias model, likely indicating proportional reasoning. Conversely, mixed log-linear and single scalloped power models provided better fits for unbounded NLEs, suggesting direct estimation. Moreover, only bounded but not unbounded NLEs related to addition and subtraction skills. This thus suggests that proportional reasoning probably accounts for the relation between NLEs and arithmetics, at least in second to fourth graders. This was further confirmed by moderation analysis, showing that relations between bounded NLEs and subtraction skills were only observed in children whose estimates were best described by the cyclic power models. Depending on the aim of future studies, our results suggest measuring estimations on unbounded number lines if one is interested in directly assessing numerical magnitude representations. Conversely, if one aims to predict arithmetic skills, one should assess bounded NLEs, probably indexing proportional reasoning, at least in second to fourth graders. The present outcomes also further highlight the potential usefulness of training the positioning of target numbers on bounded number lines for arithmetic development.


In contrast to the book of Ezra, whose protagonists demand that Jews expel "foreign" wives, the story of the Midianite Zipporah, Moses' wife, affirms that foreign women are beneficial to Israel. Zipporah's circumcision of her son in Exodus 4 is the climax of a pattern in which females thwart attacks on endangered males. Later, Zipporah's father confessed faith in Moses' God and ate a meal with Israel in the presence of God. Zipporah and her father represent a household that originated outside of Israel's ideological boundaries, but became positively allied to Israel through marriage, circumcision, confession, and sacrifice. This and similar stories suggest that, among those who selected and shaped the narratives of the Tanakh, there was considerable and persuasive dissent from what has often been assumed to be the dominant position in Second Temple Judaism.


Few studies of object-oriented databases deal with their security, a fundamental aspect of systems with complex data structures. Most authorization systems give users who own resources only some basic control over them; here, we provide users with more direct control over their resources by associating with each grant propagation numbers. Propagation numbers govern the grantability and exercisability of the privileges. Of particular interest in our study of authorization in an OO environment is the combination of inheritance and granting of privileges. Diverse policies are discussed and implemented in a test-bed system.


The safety of this ingredient has not been documented and substantiated. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel cannot conclude that t-Butyl Hydroquinone is safe for use in cosmetic products until such time that the appropriate safety data have been obtained and evaluated. The data that were available are documented in the report as well as the types of data that are required before a safety evaluation may be undertaken.


Introduction and Aims: Trivalent chromium used in tanning industry has potential adverse effects in term of DNA damage on occupationally and non-occupationally exposed population. The present study aimed to emphasize the use of micronucleus assay as an ideal and rapid parameter for the estimation of DNA damage in chromium exposed population and to establish the association between micronucleus frequency and non-occupational factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption habits. Materials and Methods: The study involved a total of 300 male subjects, including 100 male tanners (Occupationally exposed group), 100 male populations living near tanning sites (Non-occupationally exposed group) and 100 control males. Baseline characteristics were recorded for all the subjects. Blood Cr level was estimated by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. DNA damage was measured by micronucleus assay in term of micronucleus frequency. Effects of non-occupational factors on micronucleus frequency were estimated using univariate analysis. Results: As a result, chromium level was significantly (p<0.0001) higher in both the exposed groups, than in controls. Similarly, both exposed groups revealed a significant (p<0.001) increase in micronucleus frequency, when compared with controls. Among both the exposed group, micronucleus frequency was significantly (p<0.05) higher in occupationally exposed subjects as compared to non-occupationally exposed subjects. No significant effect (p<0.05) of non-occupational factors were observed on micronucleus frequency. Conclusion: The present study concludes the importance of micronucleus assay for the evaluation of DNA damage in occupationally and non-occupationally chromium exposed population. Further, our study also concludes that occupational exposure of chromium was associated with higher risk of DNA damage as compared to non-occupational exposure.


In 2014, Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology has developed a five-week pre-engineering intensive summer program. The program provided high school students with hands-on experience in the Robotics and Mechanics to advance them in the pursuit of a degree in engineering. Correspondingly, the program also enhanced students' technical writing skills and the fundamental knowledge of mathematics and physics needed in engineering. Different from other pre-college engineering programs which focus more on mathematics and physics education, in this program, engineering and engineering project design and implementation have been intensively discussed through building and programming a mobile robot. High school students were encouraged to creatively develop their own project in a team while the collaborative learning and effective communication skill are particularly addressed. The student survey showed that the intensive summer program has increased students' comprehension of engineering and awareness towards engineering-related careers, which are critical for high school students to choose engineering as a future career.


It is proposed a parallel Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate templated grain growth in sintering ceramics materials. The algorithm applies the general Potts model to treat the matrix as the discrete lattices for simulating the grain growth and there will be a number of lattices to be computed synchronously. The scheme is performed by CUDA GPU parallelization programming framework which is of much more feasibility and low cost comparing with the former conventional program. The most key point is that the parallel algorithm is of great temporal performance which means it takes less time to complete a simulation. The results of comparative experiments show that the algorithm is unquestionable effective while the other statistic numerical features of simulations are almost the same.


The paper proposes a way to see melodic features in music/songs in the terms of "letters" constituting "words", while in return investigating the fulfillment of Zipf-Mandelbrot Law in them. Some interesting findings are reported including some possible conjectures for classification of melodic and musical artifacts considering several aspects of culture. The paper ends with some discussions related to further directions, be it enrichment in musicology and the possible plan for musical generative art.


Application of the method of oblique illumination permitted to reveal nonhomogeneousness of the cultures isolated from the patients with a different (acute and torpid) course of the disease. Passage of the freshly-isolated cultures on the nutrient media led to the appearance of mutants characterized by the fluorescence of the third type which also characterized all the 48 museum cultures stored for a long time on the nutrient media. The method suggested permits not only to evaluate the gonococcal cultures condition but also to carry out their directed selection.


The importance of a well-designed radiation detector has become evident in recent years. Researchers have begun a user-centred redesign process for a novel neutron detector instrument to improve comfort and usability of the device. In this design process it is important to consider the type of alarm system used to alert the responder in a non-startling, non-irritating manner. The purpose of this literature investigation was to explore past research in alarm design and determine the best type of alarm system for a wearable neutron detector. This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of visual, auditory, tactile and multimodal alarms. The literature investigation found support for a visual + tactile alarm system for a wearable neutron detector. This article addresses the advantages and limitations of different alarm modalities, identifying strengths and weaknesses of uni-modal and multi-modal alarm systems. In addition, it also serves as a concise document of historical and contemporary research findings in the area of alarm design, which can be used as a design aid.


An ingot aluminum alloy (Al-Cu-Mg-Ti-Sr) with high strength and high strain rate superplasticity has been successfully developed through a conventional manufacture route consisting of casting, heat treatment, hot extrusion with a low extrusion rate of only 10:1, hot-rolling and further cold-rolling, which is cost effective and suitable for large volume production industries. The tensile test result showed the alloy possesses not only a high ultimate strength of 513.85MPa at room temperature, but also a good high strain rate superplasticity with the tensile elongation of 174~224%, the flow stress of 17.1~33.9MPa and the strain rate sensitivity m-value of 0.174~0.293 in the initial strain rate of 3.16×10-2~1.0×10-1s-1 and at the temperature of 748K~793K. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis showed that the superplastic deformation has no relationship with liquid phase. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of fracture surface and surface showed that the superplastic deformation results from fine grain boundary sliding and dislocation slip.


This paper develops the foundations of a simplicial theory of weak ω-categories, which builds upon the insights originally expounded by Ross Street in his 1987 paper on oriented simplices. The resulting theory of weak complicial sets provides a common generalisation of the theories of (strict) ω-categories, Kan complexes and Joyal's quasi-categories. We generalise a number of results due to the current author with regard to complicial sets and strict ω-categories to provide an armoury of well behaved technical devices, such as joins and Gray tensor products, which will be used to study these the weak ω-category theory of these structures in a series of companion papers. In particular, we establish their basic homotopy theory by constructing a Quillen model structure on the category of stratified simplicial sets whose fibrant objects are the weak complicial sets. As a simple corollary of this work we provide an independent construction of Joyal's model structure on simplicial sets for which the fibrant objects are the quasi-categories.


Local Sudanese sheep populations inhabiting diverse environmental conditions and holding opposing morphologies provide opportunities for molecular-genetic research. Characterizing their genome is crucial for sustainable breeding improvement and targeting favorable genes in breeding programs. However, the genome of these sheep populations, which comprises several subtypes, remains uncharacterized using whole-genome sequence data. This study aimed to elucidate genome-wide genetic diversity and population structure of 11 local Sudanese sheep populations, namely, Hammari, Kabbashi, Meidobe, Ashgar, Dubasi, Watish, Bega, Naili, Fulani, Zagawi, and Garag. Ninety whole blood samples were collected, and we extracted DNA using a Qiagen DNeasy® extraction kit. We used the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform to sequence all the DNA samples. We included whole-genome sequence data of three Ethiopian sheep (Doyogena, Kefis, and Gafera) and one Libyan sheep (Libyan Barbary) in the study to infer the genetic relationships of local Sudanese sheep populations from a continental perspective. A total of 44.8 million bi-allelic autosomal SNPs were detected; 28.5% and 63.3% occur in introns and intergenic regions, respectively. The mean genetic diversity ranged from 0.276 for Garag to 0.324 for Kabbashi sheep populations. The lowest FST estimates were observed between Kabbashi and Ashgar and the highest between Bega and Fulani local Sudanese sheep populations. The principal component and population structure analyses of the 11 local Sudanese sheep populations indicated three separate genetic groups categorized following their tail morphotype, geographical distribution, and population subtype. The thin-tailed local Sudanese sheep populations exhibited independent clustering from the fat-tailed Ethiopian and Libyan sheep. We also observed distinct clustering between the fat-tailed Ethiopian and Libyan sheep. The present study's findings demonstrated the population structure and principal components related to tail morphotype, geographical distribution, and population subtype of local Sudanese sheep populations. A clear signature of admixture was observed among the studied local Sudanese sheep populations.


Tom Maguire's stated focus in this book is interventionist theatre in a colonial context, and his aim is to relocate theatrical output from Northern Ireland, specifically concerned with representing 'the Troubles', within a 'wider understanding of the ways in which culture can intervene in processes of representation and public politics' (12). A further stated aim is to redress an imbalance in the ways in which certain playwrights, and a select number of their plays relating to the politics of the North, have been allocated serious critical weightings at the expense of many other writers and their work. In Maguire's opinion, this critical imbalance has not only 'skewed the sense of theatre history' (16) in Ireland, but has overlooked the importance of audience response in the North to a range of other productions.


Methylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone) (MGBG) is a clinically useful antileukemic agent which has been found to produce selective ultrastructural damage to the mitochondria of L1210 cells. In this report, the generality of this phenomenon has been tested in several human and murine cell types including P288 mouse leukemia, L-cell mouse fibroblast, C3H/10T½ mouse embryo fibroblast, and NALM-1 human chronic myelocytic leukemia cells. In all cases, MGBG produced ultrastructural damage nearly identical to that seen in L1210 cells. Mitochondria were markedly distended, and their inner structure was distorted or lost. In the NALM-1 cells, conspicuous electron-dense granules were present in the mitochondrial matrix. Interestingly, the onset of mitochondrial damage in these cell lines correlated with the generation time of the particular cell lines, suggesting a relationship between proliferative activity and drug-induced damage. This relationship between mitochondrial damage and cell proliferation was tested in two separate cell systems. In cultures of human lymphocytes stimulated with phytohemagglutinin, only those cells undergoing blastogenesis were found to be affected by MGBG. Similarly, MGBG treatment of confluent and subconfluent cultures of C3H/10T½ mouse embryo fibroblasts affected only the dividing subconfluent cells. In this particular cell type, the mitochondrial damage was observed in unfixed cells at the light microscopic level, establishing that the damage was not related to preparative techniques for electron microscopy. Results from both cell systems confirm that the drug-induced damage, or its expression, is dependent on cell-proliferative activity. The possibility exists that the mitochondrial damage may be responsible for the antiproliferative activity of the drug including host toxicities or may be related to the known ability of the drug to interfere with the biosynthesis of polyamines.


Federated Learning allows training of data stored in distributed devices without the need for centralizing training-data, thereby maintaining data-privacy. Addressing the ability to handle data heterogeneity (non-identical and independent distribution or non-IID) is a key enabler for the wider deployment of Federated Learning. In this paper, we propose a novel Divide-andConquer training methodology that enables the use of the popular FedAvg aggregation algorithm by over-coming the acknowledged FedAvg limitations in non-IID environments. We propose a novel use of Cosine-distance based Weight Divergence metric to determine the exact point where a Deep Learning network can be divided into class-agnostic initial layers and class-specific deep layers for performing a Divide and Conquer training. We show that the methodology achieves trained-model accuracy at-par with (and in certain cases exceeding) the numbers achieved by state-of-the-art algorithms like FedProx, FedMA, etc. Also, we show that this methodology leads to compute and/or bandwidth optimizations under certain documented conditions.


Human disturbance to birds is a subject of concern for bird conservation. Bird recreationalists, such as birders and bird photographers, who actively seek out birds, are identified as a broad group of people that contribute to bird disturbance. There are few studies on birders' and bird photographers' perceptions and behaviors related to bird disturbance, and these studies have conflicting results. Furthermore, little research identifies why bird recreationalists engage in behavior that disturbs birds. Understanding perceptions and behavior related to bird disturbance and the context behind engaging in this behavior is important for creating comprehensive solutions for preventing disturbance to birds. The purpose of this thesis is to create a typology of bird recreationalists, based on whether they engage in birding or bird photography as primary activities; identify the socio-demographic characteristics among bird recreationalists that are connected to an increased likelihood to engage in behavior that disturbs birds; assess perceptions of blame for disturbance to birds; and identify how motivations, barriers, challenges and trade-offs are associated with following ethical birding and bird photography guidelines. The thesis used an online survey and in-person interviews of birders and bird photographers in two Midwestern states in the U.S., Illinois and Indiana, to achieve these objectives. Three sub-groups of bird recreationalists were identified through the online survey: individuals who only engage in birding; individuals who primarily engage in birding and secondarily, bird photography; and individuals who primarily engage in bird photography and secondarily, birding. Our findings indicate that individuals who 1) are male, 2) only engage in birding, 3) maintain life lists, 4) have more birds on their life lists, 5) can identify more birds by sight, 6) have more years of experience or 7) have a higher level of achievement-oriented motivation are more likely to engage in potentially harmful behaviors to birds. Additionally, quantitative findings suggest that birders and bird photographers may not perceive themselves as main contributors to bird disturbance. The qualitative portion of the research identifies multiple ethical birding and bird photography guidelines that recreationalists found challenging to follow that had both ecological (e.g., maintaining distance) and social (e.g., respectfully educating others) implications. Recreationalists identified listing, photographing and seeing birds as key motivations to breaking ethical guidelines. Barriers to following guidelines included apathy, ignorance and improper technology. Finally, recreationalists identified bad photography and missed experiences as major trade-offs associated with following ethical guidelines. he concepts explored in this thesis research provide important management implications for natural resource managers and stakeholders in bird conservation and suggest a further need for examining bird recreationalists' decision-making around bird disturbance.


This is a comparative cross-cultural investigation and an analysis of the sexual life of presumably middle class college students of four countries: Israel, Colombia, Canada and Brazil. Post graduation-level students of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Human Sexuality (IASHS) in San Francisco collected the data as a PhD requirement. The data analysis revealed that, even though members of various sample groups speak different languages and belong to distinct cultures, they exhibit some similar aspects in their sexual life. Additionally, comparisons were made with the data of the NHSLS Report (USA) in a few selected topics and, again, more similarities were found among the international university students.


We clarify the atomistic behavior of a micromechanical structure whose thermally driven stochastic motion has been quenched, using force-feedback techniques. The quenching equipment is observed, via both qualitative and quantitative measurements, to optically clamp one of the vibrational modes of the lever such that the overall body temperature is only reduced slightly. The degree of comprehensive cooling is gauged by examining the reduction in the stochastic vibration of the third vibrational mode of a doubly clamped lever while the first is quenched, to 143 K. The observation of only slight temperature reductions is confirmed by noting the absence of a phase change in condensing water vapor on a cantilever, although the deflection-magnitude of the fundamental vibrational mode is reduced to an effective temperature of 11 K. Finally, the measured stochastic variation rate is consistent with the lever's mechanical properties, not its thermal properties, demonstrating near-room temperature operation. The results thus confirm that each vibrational mode can be reduced to deep sub-Kelvin temperatures independent of the overall thermal state of the lever, thus enabling sub-Brownian sensing in applications such as chemical and radiation detection, and quantum superposition experiments.


Objectives: This cross-sectional survey explored COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among public healthcare facility workers in Kambia (Sierra Leone), Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Masaka (Uganda). Methods: Questionnaire-based interviews conducted between April–October 2021 explored participants' knowledge and perceptions of, and attitudes towards, the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines, as well as COVID-19 vaccine acceptability (defined as uptake of ≥1 dose or intent to get vaccinated). Results: Whilst most (n = 444; 81.8%) of the 543 participants had one or more concerns about COVID-19 vaccines, 487 (89.7%) nonetheless perceived that they were important for pandemic control. Most participants from Kambia or Masaka either were vaccinated (n = 137/355; 38.6%) or intended to get vaccinated (n = 211/355; 59.4%) against COVID-19. In Goma, all 188 participants were unvaccinated; only 81 (43.1%) participants intended to get vaccinated, and this was associated with positive perceptions about COVID-19 vaccines. In Goma, the most common reasons for not wanting a COVID-19 vaccine were concerns that the vaccines were new (n = 75/107; 70.1%) and fear of side effects (n = 74/107; 69.2%). Conclusion: Reported COVID-19 vaccine acceptability was high among healthcare facility workers in Kambia and Masaka. The lower vaccine acceptability in Goma may highlight the importance of social mobilisation and accurate, accessible information that addresses specific concerns.


Studies show that touch in adults is referenced to a representation of the body that is structured topologically according to body parts; the perceived distance between two stimuli crossing over a body part boundary is elongated relative to the perceived distance between two stimuli presented within one body part category. Here we investigate this influence of body parts on tactile space perception in children of 5, 6 and 7 years of age. We presented children with pairs of tactile stimuli on the left hand/arm, either within the hand, within the forearm, or over the wrist. With their eyes closed children were asked to adjust the distance between the thumb and forefinger of their right hand to represent the felt distance between the two tactile stimuli. Like adults, the children perceived the distance between two stimuli that cross the body part boundary to be further apart than those that were presented within the hand or arm. They also perceive tactile distance to be greater on the hand than the arm which is the first observation of Weber's illusion in young children. We propose that a topological mode of body representation is particularly advantageous during early life given that body part categories remain constant while the metric proportions of the body change substantially as the child grows.


As the effects of increased hemispheric interaction in handedness influencing episodic memory have been found in studies investigating the effects of handedness on memory, the intention of this study was to observe the effects of handedness and its relationship to the retrieval of face-memory.
This evaluated whether or not handedness would have an effect/enhance the retrieval of episodic memory on tasks that demand deeper levels of processing, and high retrieval processes; in line with theoretical predictions by Christman and Butler (2011), a memory advantage for Mixed-Handers occurs due to Mixed-Handed subjects being able to engage in deeper levels of processing, due to superior interactions between the cerebral hemispheres.
A 2x2 repeated measures experimental design was used, with the within subjects variables being performance on face-name recognition tasks under the conditions of elaborative and non-elaborative learning. The between subjects variable was the handedness groups (Strongly Right-Handed vs Mixed-Handed). Analysis of the data by 2x2 mixed ANOVA found a significant main effect for coding, within the elaborative coding condition.
The findings do not support the hemispheric interaction theory, as no significant main effect was observed.


The ability to identify early life-history stages of organisms is essential for a better understanding of population dynamics and for attempts to inventory biodiversity. The morphological identification of larvae is time consuming and often not possible in those species with early life- history stages that are radically different from their adult counterparts. Molecular methods have been successful in identifying marine larvae; however, to date these methods have been destructive. We describe here an in situ hybridisation (ISH) technique that uses oligonucleotide probes specific for the 18S ribosomal RNA gene to identify marine larvae. Our technique leaves the larvae intact, thus allowing the description of larvae whose morphology was not previously known. Only 1 mismatch between the rRNA sequences of target and non-target species is sufficient to discriminate species, with nearly 100% efficiency. We developed a colourimetric assay that can be detected with a dissect- ing microscope, and is thus suitable for autofluorescent or large eggs and larvae that cannot be sorted under a microscope. Probe binding is revealed by an enzymatic reaction catalysed by either a horse- radish peroxidase or an alkaline phosphatase. ISH was broadly applicable: it was effective in identi- fying eggs, larvae and adult tissues, soft-bodied larvae (polychaetes) and larvae with hard shells (bivalves), larvae belonging to different phyla and from different environments. Further advantages of this method are its relatively low cost, that only a minimal amount of equipment is needed, and that 100s of specimens can be processed quickly and simultaneously.


How do episodes of intergroup violence affect political opinions toward outgroup members? Recent studies offer divergent answers. Some suggest violence deepens antagonism and reduces support for compromise, while others contend it encourages moderation and concessions to prevent further conflict. We argue that violence can fuel both hostility toward the outgroup and acceptance of outgroup objectives and provide evidence from a unique survey of 1,380 respondents implemented by the authors in greater Khartoum in Sudan in 2010 and 2011. We find that Northerners who experienced rioting by Southerners in Khartoum in 2005 were more likely to support Southern independence but less likely to support citizenship for Southerners remaining in the North. In combination, these results suggest that political violence hardens negative intergroup attitudes and makes individuals willing to concede separation to avoid living alongside outgroup members.


The foot is a complex anatomic structure composed of numerous bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons responsible for the complex coordinated movements of gait and our ability to stand upright. By definition, the foot is the lower extremity distal to the ankle joint. The ankle joint (sometimes referred to as the tibiotalar joint) is the result of the assembly of the talus and the recess formed by the distal tibia and fibula. The foot has of 26 bones (tarsal, metatarsal and phalanges) which subdivide into groups termed hindfoot, midfoot and forefoot. The articular surfaces of bones have a covering of articular cartilage. The articulation or joints are invested by joint capsules and ligaments, which lend stability to the joints. Also, there are 29 muscles responsible for the movement of the osseous structures of the foot and ankle. The muscles are attached to the osseous structures via tendons. Innervation and vascularity are likewise complex. The major arterial structures include the anterior tibial, posterior tibial and peroneal or fibular arteries. Each of these main arteries has numerous branches which this article will discuss further below. The major nerves innervating the foot and ankle include the tibial, deep peroneal, and sural nerves, each of which has numerous branches. Finally, there is subcutaneous fat, fascia, and skin completing the anatomic components of the foot and ankle. Not surprisingly, acute injury, chronic repetitive injury, and degenerative or inflammatory arthropathy are common causes for presentation to emergency departments or primary care providers. If not treated properly, these ailments can result in chronic disability.


Pesetsky (1991) proposes that there are two types of C, that and null C, and that the null C is an affix that must move up to the matrix V. This proposal is revived in the minimalist context by Bokovi and Lasnik (2003). While assuming that the C-as-an-affix approach is on the right track, I suggest a drastic modification of previous versions of this approach: namely, that (a) there is just one type of C in the lexicon, affixal null C; (b) it can both hop down onto the embedded V and move up to the matrix V; and (c) that/for is inserted at PF as a last resort if affixation is structurally prohibited. This amounts to saying that the English tense and complementizer systems display the same paradigm: both T[finite] and C[finite] are affixes, and do and that/for are inserted as a last resort when syntactic affixation is impossible. This approach, especially the C-hopping approach, allows a uniform, principled account for the distribution of that and for, including that-trace effects, ameliorating effects of subject extraction, anti-that-trace effects, For-To Filter effects, and the distribution of that in relative clauses.


The maximum distance between the heart and a model Taser stimulation dart, called the dart-to-heart distance, at which the Taser can directly cause ventricular fibrillation (VF), was measured in pigs. A 9-mm-long blunt probe was advanced snugly through the surrounding tissues toward the heart. Five animals [pig mass = 61.2plusmn6.23 standard deviation (SD) kg] for ten dart-to-heart distances where the Taser caused VF were tested. The dart-to-heart distances where the Taser caused VF of the first stimulation site ranged from 4 to 8 mm with average 6.2 mmplusmn1.79 (SD) and of the second stimulation site ranged from 2 to 8 mm with average 5.4 mmplusmn2.41 (SD). The results help inform the evolving discussion of risks associated with Tasers.


The importance of nonprofit organizations such as rural development organizations, farmers associations and common initiative groups as drivers of change in rural areas has been generally recognized in the economics of nonprofit organizations. While the economic theories attempt to explain the formation and functioning of nonprofit organizations, the targeting and outreach performance of these organizations has received little attention and at best is empirically divergent. Using the example of a nonprofit rural development organization in North West Cameroon, this paper analyzes the relative poverty of beneficiaries and non beneficiaries of its small scale fish farming program as a proxy for targeting efficiency. Poverty is measured through multiple indicators as well as household incomes. The results show that the nonprofit organization did a commendable job in serving poor communities, although its self targeting approach led to a disproportionately higher share of beneficiaries from the moderately poor and better-off terciles than from the poorest. Beneficiaries also had higher asset values and incomes than nonbeneficiaries, although the contribution of the fish farming activity to these was insignificant. This means that these households were already better-off prior to the program and not necessarily as a consequence of service delivery. The paper concludes with the need for relative poverty assessments prior to service delivery for improved targeting and outreach performance, while considering the additional costs involved.


Abstract The effect of a sub-sterilizing gamma radiation dose on Dacus ciliatus adults was investigated to assess the suitability of the sterile insect technique (SIT) as an alternative method to control this pest. Late pupae (48 h prior to adult emergence) from a laboratory strain were irradiated with 120 Gy of gamma rays emitted by a 60Co source. Following adult emergence, the mortality of irradiated and non-irradiated cohorts was recorded. Over a period of 50 days after emergence, no significant negative effects of irradiation upon the longevity of male or female laboratory flies were observed. A laboratory competitiveness study (Fried test), using irradiated laboratory and wild males at a ratio of 3:1 was conducted to assess the ability of irradiated males to reduce the egg hatch rates of a wild population. The overall competitiveness was found to be ca. 0.32, suggesting a reduced, but satisfactory, quality of irradiated laboratory as compared with wild males. Based on the above findings, we calculated and proposed effective male release ratios for field application of SIT against D. ciliatus.


This paper reports on a new core course that has been developed for the recently established Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). The course is focused on preparing future engineering faculty members to teach engineering design as well as how to function more effectively in industry design environments. Material related to theories of student learning and appropriate pedagogical approaches to teaching an open-ended subject such as engineering design are included. Having successfully completed this course, students are able to describe engineering design process and compare and contrast design across engineering and non-engineering disciplines. Students develop a syllabus for a design course in their own discipline, including assignments and projects. They also learn about effective project management and are able to characterize and demonstrate effective means of teaching/coaching/mentoring of various design projects. As future educators, students are able to describe the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) requirements for design courses (Capstone, etc.), describe and demonstrate various theories of learning and pedagogy, and are able to navigate the course design and approval process. Descriptions of student mentoring of K-12 design teams in the FIRST LEGO® League competition are also provided.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


This paper presents in-process research and details vibration analysis of a single actuator that can be used for robotic navigation and locomotion. The key steps to potential success of this works are (1) static and dynamic vibration analysis of generalized shapes for robots, (2) studies on solid mechanics based vibration propagation into the structure of the robot, (3) development of active control schemes of vibration isolation for the robot's navigation and locomotion purposes, and (4) analysis, simulation and design of passive leg mechanism for vibration driven robotic systems. Here, the author introduces state-of-the-art vibration driven robotic systems in the field, basic equations for a simple off-centered rotation mechanism, model and simulation/test bed for vibration excitement, and introduction of active vibration control to one of control schemes for effective vibration isolation as preliminary work.


BT resins composed of 4,4'-bismaleimidodiphenylmethane (BMI) and 2,2'-bis-(4-cyanatophenyl)propane (BCE) were modified by octa(maleimidophenyl) silsesquioxane (OMPS). It was found that the curing reaction of BCE were accelerated by OMPS, and the onset temperature of the cyclotrimerization was reduced up to 95.5°C (by DSC). As demonstrated by DSC and FT-IR, there was no evidence indicated the co-reaction between maleimide and cyanate ester. 2,2'-diallyl bisphenol A (DBA) and diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (E-51) were also used to enhance the toughness of BT resins, and the formulated BTA and BTE resins were obtained. The results of DMA and TG show that the BT, BTA, and BTE resins containing 1wt% of OMPS exhibit enhanced thermal properties in comparison with pristine BT0, BTA0, and BTE0 resins, while more content of OMPS may impair the polymer matrix, though the effect of OMPS was slight. The dielectric constant of these hybrid materials were reduced by incorporation of OMPS, while overmuch contents of OMPS were disadvantageous for dielectric constant due to the aggregation of OMPS.


The ever growing and revolutionizing demands in telecommunication industry to facilitate numerous business verticals are pushing towards more softwarized mobile communication technologies. Utilizing the capabilities of network softwarization, a novel telecommunication concept of local mobile network has been developed. The local mobile networks are getting popular due to their capability of providing efficient and reliable local services to a focused use case with higher flexibility. This paper presents the practical implementation aspects of a softwarized local mobile network and compare its performance with a conventional mobile network and a hybrid network.


A role for endocytosis and exocytosis in cell migration has been proposed but not yet demonstrated. Here, we show that cellubrevin (Cb), an early endosomal v-SNARE, mediates trafficking in the lamellipod of migrating epithelial cells and partially colocalizes with markers of focal contacts. Expression of tetanus neurotoxin, which selectively cleaves Cb, significantly reduced the speed of migrating epithelial cells. Furthermore, expression of tetanus neurotoxin enhanced the adhesion of epithelial cells to collagen, laminin, fibronectin, and E-cadherin; altered spreading on collagen; and impaired the recycling of beta1 integrins. These results suggest that Cb-dependent membrane trafficking participates in cell motility through the regulation of cell adhesion.


The opinion of "all pCRs are the same" in St. Gallen International Consensus Guidelines 2021 attracted the attention from clinical doctors. But this opinion is not consistent with the current clinical practice guidelines. The evidence-based medical evidence supported that the survival benefit of pCR was associated with treatment regimes, initial staging, and tumor biomarkers. To compare with the different status, the survival prognosis of pCRs is not the same. Furthermore, the pretreatment clinical stage, pathological stage, tissue grade, and subtype still influence on the survival prognosis of pCR. The pCR should be stratified according to histological factors and to guide the identification of individualized treatment after neoadjuvant therapy. In the future, a de-escalation treatment might be detected by the clinical trials of neoadjuvant therapy which would approach "all pCRs are the same".


Although organizational slack research posits various relationships between a firm's slack resources and innovation, findings to date have been ambiguous. To provide insight into this relationship, this paper studies the impact of slack resources on the innovation performance of material firms by using empirical analysis based on the data get from 54 firms in Henan Province by questionnaire. The result shows that the relationship between slack resources and innovation in material firms is the inverted U-shaped. Overall, results highlight the importance of additional research into intervening factors impacting the slack–innovation relationship.


The article provides a critical assessment of the more recent literature that relies on theoretical frameworks such as post modernism and globalization to deal with national identity, ethnicity and cultural mobility. Explaining sensitive and complicated issues such as identity requires the extensive use of the native historical, cultural and sociological sources related to the Iranian experience in the past rather than extracting generalizations based on a general and a-historical application of general social science theories. Three factors throughout Iranian history have played significant roles in creating a sense of national identity or Iranian-ness among all groups in Iranian society. These factors are the legacy of ancient Iran's political heritage, the central role of the Persian language in conveying the political, cultural and religious legacy to all Iranian religious and linguistic groups, and the important role of religion in the revival of Iran's cultural heritage, its independence, and unification.


Abstract. Recent advances in nanofabrication and optical control have garnered tremendous interest in multi-qubit-cavity systems. Here we analyze a spin-glass version of such a nanostructure, solving analytically for the phase diagrams in both the matter and radiation subsystems in the replica symmetric regime. Interestingly, the resulting phase transitions turn out to be tunable simply by varying the matter-radiation coupling strength.


SUMMARY A total of 1873 strains from human origin and 4283 strains from non-human origin of Salmonella enterica serotypes Typhimurium, Enteritidis, Heidelberg, Hadar and Virchow, collected over three years 1993, 1997 and 2000, were examined in order to determine the rate of antimicrobial resistance to 12 antimicrobial drugs. The objective of the study was to describe and to compare the evolution of the main resistance types in human and non-human isolates, focusing on the poultry sector. The evolution and the rates of antimicrobial resistances for the five serotypes, with the exception of Virchow, were almost comparable in strains isolated from human and non-human sources over the period studied. The most striking result concerning single resistance was the spectacular increase of the resistance frequency to nalidixic acid for the strains belonging to serotypes Hadar and Virchow, especially in the poultry food sector (14% in 1993 vs. 72% in 2000 for Salmonella Virchow, 4% in 1993 vs. 70% in 2000 for Salmonella Hadar) and also in human isolates (24% in 1997 vs. 48% in 2000 for S. Virchow, 31% in 1997 vs. 78% in 2000 for S. Hadar). In addition to the classical resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, sulphonamide, chloramphenicol and tetracycline (ASSuCT resistance type), which stabilized between 1997 and 2000, the emergence of a new resistance type was observed.


OBJECTIVE To examine whether the postprandial hyperglycemic effect of pizza in well-controlled IDDM patients is related to overeating or to unique properties of this popular food. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS On two evenings, each patient (n = 8) consumed a meal that was similar in macronutrient composition except that one consisted of pizza and the other was a control meal that included high glycemic index foods. The insulin regimen was held constant. RESULTS Postprandial glucose levels were within the target range (< or = 10 mM) after the control meal. Although the initial glucose increase was similar for the two meals, plasma glucose continued to rise and was significantly increased from 4 to 9 h after ingestion of pizza compared with the control meal (P < 0.05). This increase occurred even though free insulin, glucagon, and free fatty acid levels did not differ significantly. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that pizza has properties that accentuate and sustain postprandial hyperglycemia.


In 2013, France followed in the footsteps of several other European countries by legalizing same-sex marriage. However, there is a lack of information for estimating the proportion and sociodemographic characteristics of same-sex couples who marry. Using civil registration data on marriages, we show that male couples are older and more commonly live in Paris, while female couples more closely resemble different-sex couples, and binational female couples are rarer than binational male couples. These differences clearly reflect gendered variations in the relationship to the institution of marriage and the greater importance of legal issues regarding adoption for lesbians. This work also situates same-sex married couples in relation to cohabiting couples who participated in the French Family and Housing survey, demonstrating certain specific characteristics among married couples.


In 2000, since Hwang and Li proposed a remote user authentication scheme without password table using smart cards based on ID-based cryptosystems, the related works have been done. In 2002, Chien et al. proposed an efficient and practical remote user authentication scheme providing the many merits. However, Hsu showed that Chien et al.'s scheme is vulnerable to the parallel session attack. This paper proposes an improved scheme to overcome the weakness while maintaining the advantages of Chien et al.'s scheme.


Two experiments were conducted to determine the NE content of dry extruded-expelled soybean (DESBM) and the effect of a multienzyme carbohydrase (MC) mixture on the NE content of DESBM and to determine the effect of diet design on NE values in growing pigs using indirect calorimetry (IC). In Exp. 1, 24 barrows (19.6 ± 0.51 kg BW) were allotted in a completely randomized design to 4 dietary treatments: a corn–soybean meal basal diet (Diet A), a diet containing Diet A and DESBM in an 80:20 ratio with a constant CP (Diet B), a diet with an 80:20 ratio of Diet A and DESBM with a constant corn:soybean meal ratio (Diet C), and a diet with simple substitution of Diet A with DESBM in an 80:20 ratio (Diet D). Pigs were fed in metabolism crates for a period of 16 d to determine the DE and ME and thereafter were moved into an indirect calorimeter where O2 consumption and CO2 production were measured to determine heat production and fasting heat production. The NE content of DESBM was calculated (difference method) to be 2,632, 2,548 and 2,540 kcal/kg DM in diets B, C, and D, respectively. Respective values obtained with published prediction equations were 2,624, 2,530 and 2,436 kcal/kg. In Exp. 2, 24 barrows (16.9 ± 0.76 kg BW) were randomly allotted to 1 of 4 treatments. The diets were a corn–soybean meal basal diet and a diet containing the basal diet and DESBM in an 80:20 ratio with a constant corn:soybean meal ratio with or without 2 levels (0.05% and 0.1%) of MC. The experimental procedures were similar to those described in Exp. 1. Enzyme supplementation improved (P < 0.0001) the DE, ME, and NE content of the DESBM. Multienzyme carbohydrase at 0.05% and 0.1% of the diet improved NE values of DESBM by 4.9% and 3.7%, respectively. In conclusion, the NE values of DESBM obtained with the IC method were higher than the values obtained with prediction equations; the disparity was least when diets were formulated with a constant CP level. However, as the difference method was used to determine the NE of ingredient, it is more appropriate to maintain a constant ratio between the ingredients. Also, the NE value of DESBM obtained for diets C and D were not different. Hence, the average NE value of DESBM evaluated was 2,544 kcal/kg DM. Enzyme supplementation improved the NE content of DESBM fed to growing pigs.


Abstract This paper examines the sharing economy and the application of its manifestations in the field of business as a whole and in particular- at the tourism sector in Bulgaria. Identified are theories, regarding the technology of the sharing economy, that are also being studied by foreign researchers in order to differentiate its specificity and to illustrate its impact on diverse aspects of business. The development of the collaborative consumption also determines a restructuring of the tourist market and imposes changes in the demand for tourist product. A result of the opportunities it offers is the emergence of unpredictability at the consumer's behavior- tourists are looking for a new type of product to be created for their individual needs. Improving the link between the client and the others, involved at the creation of a tourist package, as well as offering new and diverse tourist products are presented as a way to respond to the current demand changes. Outlined are trends in the formation of a new tourist product, adapted to the contemporary consumer's needs. The paper analyzes the impact of the sharing economy on indicators, measuring changes of the attitude of tourists, connected to the preferred ways of travelling. Relatively to the examined subject, it is also researched the behavior of the Bulgarian tour operators, aimed at preserving and expanding their market positions. It is proved the need to adapt the product policy of the travel agencies to the outlined economic situation, in order to achieve sustainable development and competitiveness.


The genus Brassica of Brassicaceae family as a whole is believed to have originated around the Mediterranean, Eastern Afghanistan and the adjoining portion of Pakistan and North-Eastern Africa (Hemingway, 1976). The genus includes six economically important species, namely, Brassica rapa, B. oleracea, B. nigra, B. juncea, B. napus, and B. carinata (Doweny and Robbelen, 1989). Ethiopian mustard is believed to be originated in the highlands of the Ethiopian plateau and the adjoining portion of East Africa and the Mediterranean coast (Gomez-Campo and Prakash, 1999).It evolved as a natural cross between B. nigra (BB) (n=8) and B. oleracea (CC) (n=9) and underwent further chromosomal doubling (2n=34; UN, 1935). It is partially amphidiploids.


Event number Abstract Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) enables accurate, precise, and sensitive quantification of specific nucleic acid sequences. In addition to the standard detection of two targets using two different fluorophores, it is possible to increase the number of targets detected by varying parameters that affect PCR efficiency and end-point fluorescence. In this case, we describe a method to multiplex assays by varying the concentrations of primers and probes or the type of fluorophores used. This allows users to expand the number of simultaneously detected targets up to four. Increasing the number of potential targets per test is a significant improvement for ddPCR, dramatically augmenting the information output of each sample.


Reservoirs represent an important source of energy that should be preserved and sustained. However, the lifetime of reservoirs is being reduced due to natural processes such as sedimentation. To face this problem, different sediment mitigation techniques are employed in numerous reservoirs. These techniques sometimes require the complete emptying of reservoirs. In the particular case where sedimentation is due to the presence of turbidity currents, the most adequate technique for the evacuation of sediments is by venting these currents through bottom or low-level outlets. Venting is investigated in the present work using an experimental model where turbidity currents are generated and vented under different conditions through a bottom outlet. Several measuring instruments are used to monitor the turbidity currents and two bed slopes are tested. The effect of the slope variation on the release efficiency of venting is studied. Additionally, venting is shown to induce no retrogressive erosion. Results from this research can provide useful input for reservoir operators where sedimentation occurs.


Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and is an important health economic problem. Since 1960, there has been an increase in mortality associated with COPD, especially in men. Acute exacerbations form a major component of the socioeconomic burden of COPD which mainly results in long-term hospitalization. Despite the high number of COPD-related hospitalizations, relatively little is known about the mortality rate and related determinants of patients hospitalized for this acute deterioration in the clinical course of COPD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors affecting duration of hospitalization in Iranian patients with COPD. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 68 COPD patients who were hospitalized in Rasool-e-Akram hospital in Tehran, Iran for the period 2005-2006. During hospitalization, patients' chief complaint, symptoms and signs, results of physical examinations, spirometry, arterial blood gas (ABG) and ICU admission were recorded. Data were analyzed using Independent T-test, One Way ANOVA and Correlation tests. Results: The patients were 41(60.3%) males and 27(39.7%) females with the mean age of 69.7(SD=13.52) years. The mean duration of hospitalization was 11.82(SD=5.49) days and 3(4.4%) patients died. The family history of pulmonary disease (P=0.018), habitual snoring (P=0.031), and mean baseline arterial PaO2 (P=0.010, r= -0.361) were determined as factors affecting duration of hospitalization. On the other hand, other factors such as smoking (P=0.992), patient's gender (P=0.735) and spirometric indices did not significantly associate with duration of hospitalization. Conclusion:The fact that people hospitalized with COPD have a subsequently increased risk of death compared with those not hospitalized suggests the former are an atrisk group and shows the importance of factors affecting duration of hospitalization. Our results show that more attention must be paid on habitual snoring and low arterial pO2 which may have potential effects on duration of hospitalization in COPD patients.


This report discusses a multi-stage stochastic programming model that maximizes expected ending time profit assuming investors can forecast a bull or bear market trend. If an investor can always predict the market trend correctly and pick the optimal stochastic strategy that matches the real market trend, intuitively his return will beat the market performance. For investors with different levels of prediction accuracy, our analytical results support their decision of selecting the highest return strategy. Real stock prices of 154 stocks on 73 trading days are collected. The computational results verify that accurate prediction helps to exceed market return while portfolio profit drops if investors partially predict or forecast incorrectly part of the time. A sensitivity analysis shows how risk control requirements affect the investor's decision on selecting stochastic strategies under the same prediction accuracy.


The project group "Central Trial Support" of the German Competence Network Pediatric Oncology and Haematology supports the members of the Society of Pediatric Oncology and Haematology in their effort to cope with the growing statutory, ethical and administrative requirements for therapy optimization studies (investigator-initiated, non-profit clinical trials). By these quality improvement measures the studies will become more revisable and reliable, but at the same time their processing will become more and more complex. The basic instrument of the project group "Central Trial Support" will be the so-called "Quality House" which has been built up in order to improve the performance of the associated study centres and to help put a systematic quality management system into practice. The "Quality House Pediatric Oncology" comprises detailed descriptions of the activities of all trial center co-workers. Its process map details all operational sequences which constitute an efficiently performing trial center. The so-called value adding processes are explained step by step, and the associated specific tasks are assigned to each respective co-worker. At each process step, the person in charge will have explanatory descriptions at her/his disposal and - if necessary - further problem solving means as well as references to possible optimization measures (e. g. Standard Operating Procedures and other documents). The German Competence Network Pediatric Oncology and Haematology will be implementing this electronic quality management system in trial centers which will convince both sponsors and authorities of the compliance with requirements and standards.


More than one fifth of all known life forms on this planet are beetles. They are extraordinarily visually diverse: renowned British geneticist JBS Haldane, when asked what could be inferred about God from a study of His works, replied, An inordinate fondness for beetles. The Book of Beetles uncovers 600 significant examples, selected as part of a genome program. They are shown in glorious photographs, life size and in detail, alongside an engraving offering a side or open-winged view. Each profile includes a population distribution map, a table of essential information, and a commentary revealing notable characteristics, related species, and a diagnosis of the specimens importance in terms of taxonomy, rarity, behaviour, and scientific significance. Arranged taxonomically, this essential reference reveals the variety and importance of beetles for the first time.


We report the results of endoscopic photocoagulation in the treatment of villous adenomas of the rectum in 49 consecutive patients (26 males, and 23 females, mean age: 74 years). Twenty-six patients were treated with a high-power Nd-Yag laser (80 W/sec). After a mean of 3.4 laser sessions, all the small-sized adenomas (C1) and 88% of the intermediate-sized adenomas (C2) were healed. No extensive villous adenoma (C3) could be eradicated. Complications occurred in 5 patients. Recurrence was observed in 3 C2 patients who are still on maintenance laser therapy. Twenty-three patients were treated with another Nd-Yag laser (maximal power output: 45 W/sec). After a mean of 6.4 laser sessions, 85% of the C1 patients were healed, while eradication of villous tissues was obtained in 60% of C2 and C3 patients. No complications were noted. A recurrence was observed in three C1 patients with secondary healing after reinstitution of laser therapy in 2 cases. Moreover, two C3 patients also relapsed and laser eradication was again obtained in 1 patient. In conclusion, these results confirm the efficacy of laser therapy in small- and intermediate-sized villous adenomas of the rectum. The number of laser sessions required for eradicating a villous tumour was lower using a high-power Nd: Yag laser, but the risk of complications was increased.


ABSTRACT Gesture elicitation studies, which are a popular technology for collecting requirements and expectations by involving real users in gesture design processes, often suffer from gesture disagreement and legacy bias and may not generate optimal gestures for a target system in practice. This paper reports a research project on user-defined gestures for interacting with immersive VR shopping applications. The main contribution of this work is the proposal of a more practical method for deriving more reliable gestures than traditional gesture elicitation studies. We applied this method to a VR shopping application and obtained empirical evidence for the benefits of deriving two gestures in the a priori stage and selecting the top-two gestures in the a posteriori stage of traditional elicitation studies for each referent. We hope that this research can help lay a theoretical foundation for freehand-gesture-based user interface design and be generalised to all freehand-gesture-based applications.


Members of Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P & T) Committees and materials managers should be aware of the current trend of court decisions to extend strict products liability or liability without the showing of fault, to hospitals and providers of health care services in favor of innocent consumer-patients. Traditionally, a hospital's defense if charged with strict liability (in tort) was that its primary business is to provide services and not sell products. Recent Texas strict products liability judicial decisions have questioned, but not resolved, whether or not a hospital does sell or legally introduce a product into the stream of commerce. Since it is the function of materials managers, or in the case of pharmaceuticals the P & T Committee, to make the decisions on products that will be used in the hospital, the precedence established by the Texas cases portend further judicial extension of strict liability to providers of health care services.


CONTEXT
Depression and arthritis are disabling and common health problems in late life. Depression is also a risk factor for poor health outcomes among arthritis patients.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether enhancing care for depression improves pain and functional outcomes in older adults with depression and arthritis.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Preplanned subgroup analyses of Improving Mood-Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment (IMPACT), a randomized controlled trial of 1801 depressed older adults (> or =60 years), which was performed at 18 primary care clinics from 8 health care organizations in 5 states across the United States from July 1999 to August 2001. A total of 1001 (56%) reported coexisting arthritis at baseline.

INTERVENTION
Antidepressant medications and/or 6 to 8 sessions of psychotherapy (Problem-Solving Treatment in Primary Care).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Depression, pain intensity (scale of 0 to 10), interference with daily activities due to arthritis (scale of 0 to 10), general health status, and overall quality-of-life outcomes assessed at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months.

RESULTS
In addition to reduction in depressive symptoms, the intervention group compared with the usual care group at 12 months had lower mean (SE) scores for pain intensity (5.62 [0.16] vs 6.15 [0.16]; between-group difference, -0.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.92 to -0.14; P =.009), interference with daily activities due to arthritis (4.40 [0.18] vs 4.99 [0.17]; between-group difference, -0.59; 95% CI, -1.00 to -0.19; P =.004), and interference with daily activities due to pain (2.92 [0.07] vs 3.17 [0.07]; between-group difference, -0.26; 95% CI, -0.41 to -0.10; P =.002). Overall health and quality of life were also enhanced among intervention patients relative to control patients at 12 months.

CONCLUSIONS
In a large and diverse population of older adults with arthritis (mostly osteoarthritis) and comorbid depression, benefits of improved depression care extended beyond reduced depressive symptoms and included decreased pain as well as improved functional status and quality of life.


Competitive Routes to Belief and Their Impact on Future Learning Carlos R. Salas University of Illinois at Chicago Thomas D. Griffin University of Illinois at Chicago Abstract: Models of belief formation and conceptual change have begun to allow for affective preferences and motives to supplement normative processes, such as reasoning and coherence evaluation (Kunda, 1990; Thagard, 2006). Griffin (2008) goes a step further in arguing that affect can be a separate competitive route to belief formation that could prevent these normative processes from taking place. One implication is that affect-based beliefs will lack the conceptual coherence presumably produced by engaging in reasoning and coherence evaluation processes. Borrowing from the expertise literature (e.g., Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995), this reduced conceptual coherence should hinder one's ability to represent new domain-related information. We present a study showing that a person's route to belief (evidence or emotion based) predicts their comprehension of belief-relevant information, even after controlling for several general and domain-specific individual differences in knowledge, skills, dispositions, motivation, and task engagement.


Frequency coding is considered one of the most common coding strategies employed by neural systems. This fact leads, in experiments as well as in theoretical studies, to construction of so-called transfer functions, where the output firing frequency is plotted against the input intensity. The term firing frequency can be understood differently in different contexts. Basically, it means that the number of spikes over an interval of preselected length is counted and then divided by the length of the interval, but due to the obvious limitations, the length of observation cannot be arbitrarily long. Then firing frequency is defined as reciprocal to the mean interspike interval. In parallel, an instantaneous firing frequency can be defined as reciprocal to the length of current interspike interval, and by taking a mean of these, the definition can be extended to introduce the mean instantaneous firing frequency. All of these definitions of firing frequency are compared in an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the input-output properties of a neuron.


Biomolecules positioned at interfaces have spawned many applications in bioanalysis, biophysics, and cell biology. This Highlight describes recent developments in the research areas of protein and DNA arrays, and single-molecule sensing. We cover the ultrasensitive scanning of conventional microarrays as well as the generation of arrays composed of individual molecules. The combination of these tools has improved the detection limits and the dynamic range of microarray analysis, helped develop powerful single-molecule sequencing approaches, and offered biophysical examination with high throughput and molecular detail. The topic of this Highlight integrates several disciplines and is written for interested chemists, biophysicists and nanotechnologists.


The domain of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is one of the most rapidly growing scientific fields. This is because not only the technological advances have enabled the development of advanced sensor nodes with extremely low cost but the potential applications of such structures are ever growing too. WSNs differ from traditional wireless communication networks in several of their characteristics. One of them is power awareness, due to the fact that the batteries of sensor nodes have a restricted lifetime and are difficult to be replaced. Therefore, all protocols must be designed in such a way as to minimize energy consumption and preserve the longevity of the network. That is why, routing protocols in WSNs aim mainly to accomplish power conservation while in traditional networks they focus primarily on the quality of service (QoS). Recent advances in WSNs have led to many new protocols specifically designed for sensor networks where energy awareness is an essential issue. This work suggests the development of such hierarchical routing protocol, named SHPER (scaling hierarchical power efficient routing), which proves to be particularly effective.


Ethical review and governance of health services research in the UK have undergone significant changes in recent years. Tracing this incremental development helps to understand the rationale for introducing a more standardised process. Reflecting on our experience of approval for a national, multi‐centred, qualitative study provides useful insights into both the advantages and disadvantages of this new approach. Advantages include promoting awareness of ethical issues and timely review of proposals. However, excessive bureaucracy and inconsistency in obtaining local governance approvals can lead to unacceptable delays. There is also a danger that the current focus on the process of applying for ethical approval may overshadow debate about the principles of ethical research practice. Over‐reliance on a checklist approach may perpetuate an erroneous notion of ethical approval being a 'hurdle' to negotiate instead of an ongoing consideration. Unanticipated theoretical and methodological implications for future health services research are critically examined. Given the continued globalisation of health services research, this discussion may help inform debates and decisions about restructuring ethical review processes in other countries.


ABSTRACT Yu, X.; Li, B.; Wang, T.; Liu, Y.; Zhan, C., and Cui, B., 2020. The horizontal and vertical distribution of nutrients and the potential eutrophication assessment in the Yellow River estuary in dry season. In: Zheng, C.W.; Wang, Q.; Zhan, C., and Yang, S.B. (eds.), Air-Sea Interaction and Coastal Environments of the Maritime and Polar Silk Roads. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 99, pp. 208–213. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Terrigenous nutrients discharged into seawater played an important role in controlling the marine primary productivity. Study on the horizontal and vertical distribution characteristics of nutrients was essential in eutrophication and sea-air exchange study. In this paper, the nutrient concentrations and their distribution in the surface microlayer and three sub-surface layers of the Yellow River estuary were measured. The horizontal and vertical distribution characteristic of nutrients was analyzed, so did the potential eutrophication assessment and the nutrient enrichment of the surface microlayer. The results showed that nutrient concentrations decreased from the estuary to the shore horizontally. NH4+-N and NO2--N increased vertically. NO3--N and PO43-P decreased vertically. Eutrophication occurred in the micro-layer and the sub-surfaces. The Yellow River estuary suffered an eutrophication outbreak risk. The enrichment of NH4+-N, NO3--N and NO2--N was significant in April 2018, nor did PO43--P.


We investigate the relationship between location choices of firms in a technology space and innovations at the firm and technological category levels. We estimate firm distribution in a technology space with patent citation overlaps and trace the locational changes of each firm. We find that a firm generates more quality-adjusted patents if it moves less in the technology space it belongs, the average distance to other firms is smaller, and technology is less accumulated around that location. At the technological category level, patent productivity tends to be high with low average moving distance but high standard deviation of it, low average distance between firms, and high entry rate. We then develop an agent-based model that generates dynamic behaviors of firms in a technology space. In the model, a firm sequentially chooses its location to maximize firm value conditional on the location profile of other firms minus the cost of moving. The firm value depends on knowledge spillover and market competition, where those factors are related to technological distances. With agent-based simulation, we analyze the impacts of regulation shifts such as patent protection policy and R&D subsidy.


Digitization encourages journalism to transform. Since the development of digital media, communication and media scholars have predicted journalism to develop at two levels. First, journalism evolves along with technological developments and is involved in media disruption. Second, journalism sticks with professionalism and establish technology as a tool to realize social responsibility. Today we are dealing with the transformation in journalism that we get from disrupted contents, disrupted media companies, and collaboration among media institutions. Various digital journalism platforms have emerged as a manifestation of the diversity of content and diversity of media ownership. This was an exploratory study that aimed to explain collaborations among various media in the digital ecosystem. The focus of this study was to map media networks through media data distributed in various official media or regulators. The results of this study showed that in a digital ecosystem that promises many opportunities, digital journalism still has to deal with the dilemma between social responsibility and the political economy of media. On the one hand, digital journalism faces disruption which serves as a significant factor that encourages journalism to transform. On the other hand, digital journalism also deals with a natural selection that forces them to collaborate, i.e. a manifestation of the political economy of media. Keywords: Digital journalism, disruption, collaboration, social responsibility, media companies.


1140 INSIGHTS | The Journal of Experimental Medicine Reticular dysgenesis (RD) is the most severe form of human severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). It is associated with mutations in adenylate kinase 2 (AK2), the mitochondrial intermembrane space enzyme that regulates energy metabolism by reversibly catalyzing the reaction of ATP with AMP to generate two molecules of ADP. However, the impact of AK2 mutations on hematopoiesis has not been directly addressed. In this issue, Rissone et al. report that mitochondrial metabolic stress is an underlying cause of defective hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) maintenance and the failure of multilineage hematopoiesis in the absence of AK2. RD is characterized by sensorineural hearing loss and the lack of innate and acquired immune responses. The lymphopenia and neutropenia in RD patients is caused by severe defects in lymphoid and myeloid differentiation. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is currently the only therapeutic option, but RD patients often die from infections before HSCT can be performed. Thus, novel therapeutic strategies are required for this severe condition. Rissone et al. modeled AK2 deficiency in zebrafish embryos and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from RD patients. AK2-deficient zebrafish embryos displayed impaired survival of HSPCs and committed hematopoietic precursors, as well as arrests in lymphoid and myeloid development. Studies using RD patient–derived iPSCs harboring a homozygous AK2 mutation recapitulated myeloid maturation arrest (at the promyelocyte stage) observed in RD patient bone marrow and additionally showed defective erythropoiesis. AK2 deficiency resulted in ADP depletion, thus limiting the substrate availability for ATP production by the mitochondrial ATP synthase. This disturbance in cellular energy homeostasis was coupled with increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Notably, provision of ectopic antioxidants largely rescued AK2-deficient HSPCs and committed progenitors from apoptosis in the zebrafish embryo and restored lymphoid and myeloid differentiation in both zebrafish and iPSC models of RD. By exploiting the strengths of these complementary experimental systems, the authors show that AK2 deficiency has broader deleterious consequences for hematopoietic differentiation than previously anticipated. Although antioxidants deplete ROS in AK2-deficient cells, they are unlikely to restore normal energy homeostasis. It is therefore somewhat surprising that antioxidant-treated cells lacking AK2 appear to undergo apparently normal energy-demanding differentiation. Nevertheless, this work elegantly illustrates that disease modeling in zebrafish together with studies on patient-derived iPSCs provides a powerful platform to reveal mechanisms underlying human immunodeficiency and identify novel targets for future therapeutic interventions. Although antioxidant treatment alone is unlikely to have long-term beneficial effects in RD, antioxidant administration may alleviate severe lymphopenia and neutropenia in RD patients and allow them to undergo curative HSCT.


Ti0 2 nanotubes (TiNTs) were formed by the electrochemical anodization of titanium in 2-propanol/water containing 0.14 M NH 4 F as the supporting electrolyte. The effects of the water content, time of anodization, and potential on the growth behavior of TiNT were studied. At the optimum solvent composition of 16 vol % water/84 vol % 2-propanol, the reaction was kinetically controlled. The TiNTs obtained under optimum conditions had heights of up to 1800 nm and inner diameters of about 90 nm. Increasing the potential beyond 20 V did not improve the quality of the nanotubes because of the introduction of disordering. The scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a preferred growth direction of the TiNTs relative to the substrate surface. A thin barrier layer existed at the nanotubes/metal interface, which was also confirmed by ellipsometry. This barrier layer was enriched with the rutile phase whereas the nanotubes were enriched with the anatase phase.


In order to tackle more efficiently the parameters estimation of an Output Error (OE) models contaminated by outliers, we propose to extend the range of the scaling factor of a parameterized robust estimation criterion (PREC) in the Huber's M-estimates context based on a mixed norm. Moreover, since the gradient and the Hessian of the PREC present a nonlinear structure in the OE models, we propose a new method to establish an L-Finite Taylor's Expansion of these expressions in order to provide the asymptotic covariance matrix of the robust estimator. We present the results of a Monte Carlo study and we compare some robust methods with respect to our procedure.


Acute purulent pericarditis in children is usually fatal, if not recognized and adequately treated. The history of three children with acute purulent pericarditis is presented. In every septic child who presents with signs of right heart decompensation, acute purulent pericarditis should be seriously considered. Echocardiography is essential for the diagnosis. If possible, diagnostic pericardiocenthesis should be performed. Experience of the last years suggests that excellent results can be obtained when adequate surgical drainage and antibiotic therapy are combined.


The problem of localization on a geo-referenced aerial/satellite map given a query ground view image remains challenging due to the drastic change in viewpoint that causes traditional image descriptors based matching to fail. We leverage on the recent success of deep learning to propose the CVM-Net for the cross-view image-based ground-to-aerial geo-localization task. Specifically, our network is based on the Siamese architecture to do metric learning for the matching task. We first use the fully convolutional layers to extract local image features, which are then encoded into global image descriptors using the powerful NetVLAD. As part of the training procedure, we also introduce a simple yet effective weighted soft margin ranking loss function that not only speeds up the training convergence but also improves the final matching accuracy. Experimental results show that our proposed network significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches on two existing benchmarking datasets. Our code and models are publicly available on the project website1.


A fast and simple method, based on QuEChERS purification and stable isotope dilution-ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven organophosphate esters (OPEs) in dairy products. Milk powder was first dispersed in warm water. Then 0.2% formic acid–acetonitrile was used for protein precipitation and the extraction of target OPEs from liquid milk and the re-dissolved milk powder. QuEChERS purification was adopted to purify the sample solution by using 50 mg primary secondary amine (PSA) as the sorbent. The results showed that the disturbance of complex matrices was significantly reduced and recoveries for all target analytes were acceptable after QuEChERS purification. The separation of seven OPEs was performed on a Phenomenex Kinetex PFP column and MS/MS detection was performed with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source in positive ion mode. Tri-n-butyl phosphate-d27 (TBP-d27) was used as a stable isotope internal standard. The method was validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision and accuracy. Linear relations were favorable for seven OPEs over the selected concentration range of 1–200 μg L−1, with correlation coefficients (r) greater than 0.99. The limits of detection and quantification (LODs and LOQs) were in the ranges of 0.10–0.36 μg kg−1 and 0.50–1.50 μg kg−1, respectively. Suppression or enhancement of the signal was compensated for by the use of the isotopically labeled internal standard. Recoveries were satisfactory with values in the ranges of 90.1–105.5% for liquid milk and 83.5–110.5% for milk powder. Relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.6–7.9% for intra-day precision and 3.8–9.1% for inter-day precision were observed for all dairy products. The validated method was successfully applied to determine the concentrations of OPEs in dairy products.


The Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) radial velocity sample (GDR2RVS), which provides six-dimensional phase-space information on 7.2 million stars, is of great value for inferring properties of the Milky Way. Yet a quantitative and accurate modelling of this sample is hindered without knowledge and inclusion of a well-characterized selection function. Here we derive the selection function through estimates of the internal completeness, i.e. the ratio of GDR2RVS sources compared to all Gaia DR2 sources (GDR2all). We show that this selection function or 'completeness' depends on basic observables, in particular the apparent magnitude GRVS and colour G − GRP, but also on the surrounding source density and on sky position, where the completeness exhibits distinct small-scale structure. We identify a region of magnitude and colour that has high completeness, providing an approximate but simple way of implementing the selection function. For a more rigorous and detailed description we provide python code to query our selection function, as well as tools and adql queries that produce custom selection functions with additional quality cuts.


Neural decoding methods provide a powerful tool for quantifying the information content of neural population codes and the limits imposed by correlations in neural activity. However, standard decoding methods are prone to overfitting and scale poorly to high-dimensional settings. Here, we introduce a novel decoding method to overcome these limitations. Our approach, the Gaussian process multi-class decoder (GPMD), is well-suited to decoding a continuous low-dimensional variable from high-dimensional population activity, and provides a platform for assessing the importance of correlations in neural population codes. The GPMD is a multinomial logistic regression model with a Gaussian process prior over the decoding weights. The prior includes hyperparameters that govern the smoothness of each neuron's decoding weights, allowing automatic pruning of uninformative neurons during inference. We provide a variational inference method for fitting the GPMD to data, which scales to hundreds or thousands of neurons and performs well even in datasets with more neurons than trials. We apply the GPMD to recordings from primary visual cortex in three different species: monkey, ferret, and mouse. Our decoder achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on all three datasets, and substantially outperforms independent Bayesian decoding, showing that knowledge of the correlation structure is essential for optimal decoding in all three species.


Deeply rooted with cultural and historic ties, the coastline is inherently linked to the New Zealand way of life. The coast belongs to 'the people' and has been legislated so that land adjacent to the sea falls within public ownership. Most New Zealanders take for granted their ability to access the coast and firmly believe coastal access should be unrestricted. As a result, there is signifcant public opposition to a built-up waterfront.  The quality of the coastal environment relies on more than natural qualities. In an urban and suburban setting, the built environment determines which activities and functions can occur and the levels of social engagement that can be experienced. Consequently, the root concern for the future of the waterfront may be a fear of ill-designed developments, escalated by fears of spoiling the water's edge.  The New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) recognises there is a need for social, economic and cultural development in the coastal marine area. Acting as stimulus for activity, architecture enhances the way the waterfront is utilised. It fosters economic venture and defnes the character of the region. The waterfront faces growing pressure from real estate exploitation.  Having to suitably balance the social, economic and cultural needs that come with the location. Impactful decisions concerning the preservation or destruction of historic remnants and the natural condition of the environment must be made. The balance of public and private use of coastal land should also be considered. Arousing local and international contention, these ideologies are at the heart of waterfront debate.  'Collective Coast' explores Wellington's coastal condition and the intersecting desires of public, private, cultural, economic and environmental interests through a mixed residential design proposal. The proposal tests the application of this wide breadth of research, and stretches across many disciplines and design scales. The proposed project is set in Shelly Bay, along Wellington's Miramar Peninsular. The site allows for a breadth of possibilities gathered from a wide range of literature to be explored. Given the importance of the waterfront as both a destination for the public and a highly sought after residential zone, the project presents major challenges in planning, urban design, infrastructure and community formation. The desired outcome is to create a coastal community that both engages and facilitates the wider public's engagement with the shared environment.


Experiments were undertaken to understand the fate of selected pesticides in water-sediment systems and to determine whether laboratory experimental data coupled with mathematical modelling is able to represent behaviour in outdoor condition. Two pesticides were selected for study; thiamethoxam has a low sorption coefficient (Koc) and is susceptible to hydrolysis and photolysis, whilst metalaxyl-M has moderate sorption but is stable to hydrolysis and photolysis. A sequence of experiments was carried out starting with investigation of simple, single-phase systems and building additional complexity first in the laboratory and subsequently in the field.
Hydrolysis of thiamethoxam was pH-dependent; the rate was very slow under acidic and neutral conditions and significantly higher at alkaline pH (p<0.001). Photolysis of thiamethoxam was also strongly influenced by pH (p<0.001) with the rate of photolysis 4.30 and 3.85 times faster at pH 10 than at pH 9 for pure and natural water, respectively. The presence of nitrate anions significantly (p<0.05) decreased rate of photolysis of thiamethoxam and this was attributed to a direct competition for absorption of light. Sorption of the two pesticides to a natural sediment (Koc 32.6 and 36.6 L kg-1 for thiamethoxam and metalaxyl-M, respectively) suggested that these pesticide are weakly sorbed and likely to be present predominantly in the water phase.
Pesticides in water-sediment systems with plants (Myriophyllum spicatum) degraded much faster than in systems without plants under both laboratory and outdoor conditions. Plants had direct effects through sorbing and taking up pesticide, but the dominant influence was indirect due to changing pH to alkaline conditions and thus increasing the rate of photolysis and hydrolysis. Degradation in water broadly translated from the laboratory to outdoor experiment, but sorption behaviour in simplified systems greatly overestimated pesticide sorption in complex systems in outdoor experiments. There was less intense contact between pesticide and sediment in vessels under outdoor conditions and pesticide degraded from water much more quickly, limiting the time available for sorption. A previously unreported tendency for photolysis of metalaxyl-M in outdoor experiments showed the importance of selecting laboratory conditions able to mimic behaviour of pesticides under outdoor conditions. TOXSWA predictions for fate of the two pesticides in outdoor experiments showed a reasonable match to measured data for the water phase, although residues were overestimated at initial and after a few days of experiment. Model efficiency was -1.81 and 0.944 for thiamethoxam and metalaxyl-M, respectively. The simulations showed a reasonable match with measured data in plants for thiamethoxam, but underestimated concentrations of metalaxyl-M in plants. Concentrations of both pesticides in sediment were overestimated by the model at model efficiencies of -84.0 and -2.14 for thiamethoxam and metalaxyl-M, respectively. Further work could apply alternative models such as EXAMS or develop a new model able to account for all relevant processes acting on pesticides in surface waters. This work considered two pesticides in detail and further research with a wider range of pesticides is needed to develop generalised conclusions.


In many Western nations, rising public concern about the welfare of agricultural animals is reflected in the adoption of direct regulatory standards governing the treatment of these animals. The United States has taken a different path, tending to rely on a "market-regulation" approach whereby consumers express their desire for specific welfare practices through their purchasing decisions. This Article explores the failure of market regulation and the welfare-preference paradox posed by consumers who express a strong preference for improved animal welfare in theory, but who simultaneously fail to demand heightened welfare standards in practice. It argues that market regulation is failing in this country because current animalwelfare labeling does not clearly or credibly disclose to consumers the actual treatment of agricultural animals. As a corollary, effective market regulation of agricultural animal welfare could be empowered simply by improving current animal-welfare labeling practices.


ABSTRACT Background: Physical activity (PA) is linked to many health benefits. However, many children and adults do not meet PA recommendations. Specifically, Mexican-heritage (MH) families are less physically active and at greater risk for obesity and related co-morbidities than the general population. Culturally-tailored programs are needed to support MH families in healthy PA behaviors. Purpose: This article describes creation and pilot testing of ¡Haz Espacio para Papi! (Make Room for Daddy!), a PA curriculum tailored for MH families. Methods: Academic-based and promotora-researchers developed a six-week curriculum including weekly interactive lessons provided on weekends and take-home challenges focused on father-child co-participation in light-to-moderate PA. Participating families consisted of child (aged 9–11), mother, and father. Weekly telephone calls were placed to adult participants to secure qualitative evaluation data. Results: Most families reported trying program activities at home between sessions. Families reported spending time together as the most valuable part of the program, specifically engaging in father/child activities. Very few families reported suggestions to change program. Discussion: Positive responses by families speak to the success of culturally and contextually tailoring this curriculum to MH families. Translation to Health Education Practice: This curriculum provides evidence of a culturally and contextually tailored program for MH families.


This paper chronichles a curatorial experience based in Naples: the intercultural workshop of urban photography entitled Crossing Sights , started in November 2019 and still active. Rather than analysing the phases of the laboratory in a punctual and exhaustive fashion, the paper aims at commenting on the criticalities, limits and possibilities I have detected as a co-curator. My "enunciation" is situated in the interiority of an unperfect West (Cazzato 2019) and it employs the concept of curating as a practice of hospitality. In addition, it argues that the "decolonial curating" is an anti-racist practice of "listening" (Bayer, Kazeem-Kaminski, Sternfeld 2018) that is open to the "epistemic diversity" and to the "pluriversality" (Mignolo & Tlostanova 2006). The premise of my investigation is that we need to move beyond decolonization, towards "decolonialisation" (Borghi 2020). Born into the modern-western thought, curating can reply to this call by proposing itself as an exercise of deconstruction of "whiteness". The goal of curating should be to consider art as something different from modernist notions; therefore trying to work curatorially means to activate such work in terms of contents, opening the colonial archives, epistemics "de-linking" from modernity and "epistemic disobedience", and ethics, positioning oneself and practicing self-critique. Central to the investigation is the main theme of Crossing Sights : "Neapolitanity", a label which serves the predatory objectives of capitalism and globalization. A trap that the laboratory has tried to criticize by adopting/embracing/employing the point of view of "others", and by shifting the attention from aesthetics to "aesthesis" (Mignolo 2019). Finally, while commenting on the strategy adopted in order to overcome the "coloniality", I suggest curating as a decolonial exercise generating gestures of anti-racist hospitality, that may help to think decolonially.


These proceedings are a compilation of 27 papers that were presented at the regional meetings of the forest and conservation nursery associations in the United States in 2008. The Western Forest and Conservation Nursery Association meeting was held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Missoula, Montana, on June 23 to 25. The meeting was hosted by the Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery in Missoula. Subject matter for the technical sessions included energy efficiency and alternative energy in the nursery, alternative growing media components and amendments, and general nursery topics. Afternoon field trips included tours of the Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal forestry nursery outside Ronan, Montana. The Southern Forest Nursery Association meeting was held July 21 to 24 at the Crown Plaza Resort in Asheville, North Carolina. The meeting was hosted by the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources Linville River Nursery. Subject matter for the technical sessions included nursery culture and management, weed management, fumigation alternatives, insect and disease management and resistance programs. Field trips included an afternoon tour of the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources' Linville River Nursery, and an afternoon tour of the Biltmore House grounds, gardens, and winery.