Objectives: To review the frequency and nature of idiopathic macular telangiectasia and to classify the disorders based on new clinical and imaging observations. Methods: A combined retrospective and prospective analysis of newly diagnosed patients seen over a period of 3 years. Patients were identified based on the Gass-Blodi classification and were studied with biomicroscopy, fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography. Results: Ten patients associated with aneurysmal telangiectasia (Gass-Blodi group 1) and 26 patients with perifoveal telangiectasia (Gass-Blodi group 2) were recruited. None with occlusive telangiectasia (Gass-Blodi group 3) were identified. New observations based on clinical, fluorescein angiographic, and optical coherence tomographic findings were made. Conclusions: Our series was similar to that in the Gass-Blodi study in terms of frequency. New observations in groups 1 and 2 have expanded our knowledge of the clinical spectrum of these disorders. A simplified classification termed idiopathic macular telangiectasia with 2 distinct types (type I, or aneurysmal telangiectasia, and type II, or perifoveal telangiectasia) was proposed to produce a better understanding of the entities and to enhance teaching and research. The third type, occlusive telangiectasia, has been omitted from our classification based on its rarity and presence of capillary nonperfusion rather than macular telangiectasia as the primary abnormality.


Modern systems on a chip (SoCs) utilize heterogeneous architectures where multiple IP cores have concurrent access to on-chip shared resources. In security-critical applications, IP cores have different privilege levels for accessing shared resources, which must be regulated by an access control system. Aker is a design and verification framework for SoC access control. Aker builds upon the Access Control Wrapper (ACW) - a high performance and easy-to-integrate hardware module that dynamically manages access to shared resources. To build an SoC access control system, Aker distributes the ACWs throughout the SoC, wrapping controller IP cores, and configuring the ACWs to perform local access control. To ensure the access control system is functioning correctly and securely, Aker provides a property-driven security verification using MITRE common weakness enumerations. Aker verifies the SoC access control at the IP level to ensure the absence of bugs in the functionalities of the ACW module, at the firmware level to confirm the secure operation of the ACW when integrated with a hardware root-of-trust (HRoT), and at the system level to evaluate security threats due to the interactions among shared resources. The performance, resource usage, and security of access control systems implemented through Aker is experimentally evaluated on a Xilinx UltraScale+ programmable SoC, it is integrated with the OpenTitan hardware root-of-trust, and it is used to design an access control system for the OpenPULP multicore architecture.


Intracoronary injection of veratrum alkaloids is known to stimulate ventricular receptors with vagal afferents resulting in bradycardia and hypotension. This study examined the role of veratrum-sensitive ventricular receptors in the control of renin secretion in eight chloralose-anesthetized dogs. Hemorrhage of 10% caused renin release to increase significantly from a control of 778 to 1,971 ng/min. Arterial pressure and renal blood flow did not change significantly. The augmented release of renin during volume depletion was virtually abolished by injection of cryptenamine (2 microgram/kg) into the main left coronary artery, falling from 1,971 to 269 ng/min by 4 min after the cryptenamine injection. Blood pressure decreased significantly from 130 mmHg before to 111 mmHg after injection. Renal blood flow did not change significantly. This reflex suppression of renin release by excitation of ventricular receptors was abolished by vagotomy. These data indicate that ventricular receptors with vagal afferents participate in the reflex control of renin release.


The thermonuclear ^{30}P(p,γ)^{31}S reaction rate is critical for modeling the final elemental and isotopic abundances of ONe nova nucleosynthesis, which affect the calibration of proposed nova thermometers and the identification of presolar nova grains, respectively. Unfortunately, the rate of this reaction is essentially unconstrained experimentally, because the strengths of key ^{31}S proton capture resonance states are not known, largely due to uncertainties in their spins and parities. Using the β decay of ^{31}Cl, we have observed the β-delayed γ decay of a ^{31}S state at E_{x}=6390.2(7)  keV, with a ^{30}P(p,γ)^{31}S resonance energy of E_{r}=259.3(8)  keV, in the middle of the ^{30}P(p,γ)^{31}S Gamow window for peak nova temperatures. This state exhibits isospin mixing with the nearby isobaric analog state at E_{x}=6279.0(6)  keV, giving it an unambiguous spin and parity of 3/2^{+} and making it an important l=0 resonance for proton capture on ^{30}P.


Radical recent developments such as Brexit, the rise of extreme nationalism, the gilets jaunes, polarizing leaders, the Arab Spring, and fundamentalist movements are indications of societal discontent with the status quo. Other societal phenomena such as gender fluidity, veganism, and bartering are also associated with a perceived need to change. The context is the Anthropocene, a human-dominated biosphere challenging the resilience of a livable planet. Such a broad set of developments may be interpreted in the light of new insights from theory of complex systems about what happens as resilience of the current pathway (societal organization as we know it) decreases. Rising fluctuations characterize a phase of uncertainty and exploration, potentially leading into a transition of the system toward a new pathway. We reflect on global changes that may contribute to social destabilization such as rising wealth concentration and environmental degradation and ask how responses may be understood from social-psychological forces such as the need for group identity and managing the terror of mortality. The emerging image is that of a society engaged in multifaceted experimentation. Maintaining such experimentation may help inspire novel pathways to desirable futures, but there is a risk of societies becoming trapped in backward-looking narratives that threaten long-term sustainable outcomes.


Where does the ruin
start or end? Is a ruin a self-contained object, a process of evolution or a symptom of collapse? Does natural
force or human intervention change how we respond to the ruin? In
'Translating Ruins in Post-Earthquake Practice' these questions coalesce around a single visual image—Gustave Dore's 1872 engraving The New
Zealander which depicts the figure of an artist traveller sketching the
future ruins of the City of London sometime in the distant future. The
experience of the post-earthquake environment of the City of Christchurch and
Walter Benjamin's repurposing of eyewitness accounts of the 1755
Lisbon earthquake from Enlightenment for Children (1933),
establishes my study and transcription of ruins through memory as a
'post-earthquake' practice. I argue that this is a practice that can unlock a political,
economic and creative interpretation of ruins. This is a position grounded
in my studio practice and explored in a series of photo-media epoxy resin
and plastic relief collages that reside between painting, sculpture and
architecture. The repurposing of materials and art objects as a form of
creative substitution informs the studio research through projects that embrace bricolage, fragmentation and ceramic restoration techniques. The relationship of the mid-twentieth century sculptural,
photographic and site-specific work of the artist Robert Smithson to a
medieval and renaissance conception of ruins and the Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili (1499), an early typology of ruins, also provides a new
context for a contemporary reassessment of the modern ruin and the place of
the 'fragment' in contemporary art practice.


It is widely recognized that early diagnosis of most types of cancers can increase the chances of full recovery or substantially prolong the life of patients. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has become the standard way to diagnose many types of cancers by generating high quality images of the affected organs. In order to create an accurate image a small amount of a radio-active agent needs to be injected in the patient's body. These agents are produced in specially equipped pharmacies and then distributed to medical imaging centers which are located in metropolitan and rural areas. Due to the relatively fast decay process of the radio-activity levels it is very important that they arrive at the imaging centers well before the time that the patient enters the room where PET scanner is located. In this paper we discuss the distribution process of radio-pharmaceuticals and develop a flexible and efficient mathematical model. Our objective is to serve a number of customers within a pre-specified time interval at minimum transportation cost. At the same time the model ensures that all orders arrive at the imaging centers well before the patients enter the PET scanners. In addition the model takes into consideration the availability and capacity of the transportation vehicles. To demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our optimization model we present preliminary computational results in a variety of test cases which show that it can achieve substantial savings in transportation costs.


Abstract Mengxianminite, ideally Ca2Sn2Mg3Al8[(BO3)(BeO4)O6]2, is a new borate mineral from Xianghualing skam, Hunan Province, southern China. It occurs in the hsianghualite vein of Xianghualing skarn, associated with fluorite, phlogopite, hsianghualite, magnetite, dravite, magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S, and calcite. Mengxianminite forms subhedral to euhedral green crystals from 20 to 200 mm long, translucent to transparent, with a vitreous luster. The crystals show perfect cleavage on {100} and good cleavage on {010}, and do not fluoresce in long- or short-wave ultraviolet light. The estimated Mohs hardness is 8, and the tenacity is brittle with irregular fracture. The calculated density is 4.170 g/cm3. Optically, mengxianminite is biaxial (–), with α = 1.80(2), β = 1.83(2), γ = 1.84(2) (589 nm). The mean chemical composition of mengxianminite is Al2O3 40.00, SnO2 25.96, MgO 6.57, CaO 8.56, FeO 4.83, B2O3 6.53, BeO 4.37, ZnO 1.81, MnO 1.23, Na2O 1.13, TiO2 0.10, SiO2 0.04, sum 101.12 with a corresponding empirical formula calculated on the basis of 26 O atoms of (Ca1.64,Na0.39)Σ2.03(Sn1.85,Zn0.24)Σ2.09(Mg1.75, Fe0.72,Al0.42,Mn0.19,Ti0.01)Σ3.09Al8[(B1.01O3)(Be0.94O4)O6]2. (Be and B were measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry, average of six electron microprobe analyze points and in wt%.) The strongest eight lines of the powder XRD pattern [d in Å (I)(hkl)] are: 3.000 (35)(16.2.0); 2.931 (100)(17.1.1); 2.475 (29)(022); 2.430 (30)(13.3.1); 2.375 (100)(14.0.2/640); 2.028 (52)(21.3.1); 1.807 (35)(913); 1.530 (98)(14.6.0/15.3.3). Mengxianminite is orthorhombic, space group Fdd2; unit-cell parameters refined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data are: a = 60.699(4), b = 9.914(1), c = 5.745(1) Å, V = 3457.4(4) Å3, and Z = 8. The structure of mengxianminite is characterized by the alternating O-T1-O-T2-O′-T2 layers stacked along the a axis, which are equal to two alternating modules: the module A (O-T1-O) corresponding to the spinel module with an additional O layer (AlO6 octahedra layer), and the module B (T2-O′-T2) showing the simplified formula CaSnAl(BeO4)(BO3), where SnO6 octahedra are isolated in the T2 layers, connected via BeO4 and CaO11 groups, and AlO6 edge-sharing octahedra in the O′ layer form chains running along the {011} or {011} direction, connected in the c direction by the BO3 triangular groups. Mengxianminite is the first borate mineral with both Sn and Be, likely crystallized under F-rich conditions at late stages of the Xianghualing skarn.


Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) carditis is treated with steroids, which can cause changes in the cellular immune response, especially decreased CD3 (+) T cells. Nosocomial infections due to steroid use for treatment of ARF carditis or secondary to the changes in the cellular immune response have not been reported in the literature. Sphingomonas paucimobilis is a Gram-negative bacillus causing community- and hospital-acquired infections. It has been reported as causing bacteraemia/sepsis, pneumonia or peritonitis in patients with malignancies, immunosuppression or diabetes. We present a case with S. paucimobilis bacteraemia/sepsis and shock after administration of steroids for treatment of ARF carditis. We suggest early identification of the causative agent and appropriate adjustments of the treatment plan to avoid shock and possible mortality. This is the first reported case of S. paucimobilis bacteraemia/sepsis in the setting of steroid use for ARF carditis.


Covid-19 and the response and mitigation efforts taken to contain the virus have triggered a global crisis impacting on all aspects of life. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for forcibly displaced persons (refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers) extends beyond its health impacts and includes serious socioeconomic and protection impacts. This rapid review focuses on the available evidence of the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis on forcibly displaced persons, with a focus where possible and relevant on examples from countries of interest to the Covid Collective programme: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Syria, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.


: Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a potential marker for atherosclerosis severity and/or predictor of future atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. PWV is significantly correlated with carotid-intimal media thickness in patients with diabetes. However, its significance as a surrogate marker for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk in the management of type 2 diabetes has not been fully established. To elucidate the factors that determine the improvement or deterioration of PWV, we studied the association of clinical parameters, parameters for glucose metabolism, serum lipids including each lipoprotein fraction, serotonin as a marker for platelet activation, and change in PWV in 54 patients with type 2 diabetes. Systolic blood pressure and serum levels of non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and intermediate-density lipoprotein-cholesterol significantly decreased in the PWV-improved group after 2 months compared with those in the PWV-deteriorated group. The serotonin levels at baseline were significantly lower in the PWV-improved group than in the PWV-deteriorated group. The changes in systolic blood pressure and LDL-C levels were significantly and positively correlated with those in PWV. The serotonin levels at baseline were significantly and positively correlated with changes in PWV. Therefore, amelioration of blood pressure, serum lipid level, and platelet activation might be beneficially associated with PWV change. PWV-guided clinical practice for cardiovascular risk stratification could be useful in type 2 diabetes management.


Objectives The purpose of our study was to describe the behavioral aspects and quality of life of childhood narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC). Methods We performed a case-control study based on self-administered questionnaires in 30 NC hypocretin-deficient patients, 39 epilepsy patients, and 39 healthy controls matched for sex and age. Results Our population of children and adolescents with NC showed an increase in internalizing problems in line with previous reports, typically represented by withdrawal and depression symptoms, and somatic complaints. The two patients groups share higher scores than controls for anxiety disorders, attention, social and oppositional-defiant problems. Psychopathological profile in NC were found to be positively correlated with early NC onset, diagnostic delay, nocturnal disturbed sleep, shorter sleep latency and greater number of Sleep Onset REM Periods at Multiple Sleep Latency Test. On the other hand, treatment and disease duration, positively influenced the behavioral evolution. The psychosocial health of pediatric NC also turned out to be worse than in healthy controls, while the physical health showed no significant differences. Conclusions We found a specific psychopatological profile in a large pediatric NC sample, compared with another neurological chronic disease (epilepsy) and healthy controls. Symptoms of withdrawal, depression and somatic complaints, were specific of NC, and not observed in the two other groups. Effective treatment, and self-awareness of the disease should be promoted in NC children for the positive impact on behaviour and psychosocial health.


Increasing popularity of wildlife viewing has resulted in a rapid increase in small, enclosed reserves in South Africa. The African elephant is one of the many species that has been reintroduced into these reserves for eco-tourism. These elephant populations were established as young (smaller that 10 years old) orphans from prior Kruger National Park culling operations. Consequently, this abnormal sex and age structure of these introduced populations has influenced their behavioural and spatial ecology. In Pilanesberg National Park, this abnormal behaviour was corrected by introducing older bulls and culling certain problem elephants. In July 2003, three older bulls (29–41 years old) were introduced into Phinda Private Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in order to normalise the bull age structure. These introduced bulls were monitored intensively after release, as was the resident bull population, both before and after introduction of the older bulls. The introduced bulls settled into restricted ranges separate from the family groups. All the resident bulls decreased their home ranges at first, with most increasing their home ranges a year later. The resident bulls' change in ranging patterns was due more to ecological factors than to the influence of the mature bull introduction. This study indicates that the introduction of older male elephants into small populations does not pose major risks or animal welfare concerns.


Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) including microchemical devices have been widely concerned, in particular, when made of an extremely stable ceramic material for their use at harsh conditions. SiCBN preceramic polymer was derived from borazine (B3N3H6) modified allylhydridopolycarbosilane (AHPCS) via hydroboration of allyl groups with B-H groups at 0oC for 24 h by following the standard Schenk technique. The extent of polymer-to-ceramic conversion with an ultimate ceramic yield of 92 wt% was investigated by simultaneous TGA, 1H, 13C-NMR, IR, and XRD measurements. The polymer-derived SiCBN ceramic remained as an amorphous solid up to 1400oC. The ceramic product obtained after pyrolysis at 1000-1400oC exhibited excellent oxidation resistance in air. In addition, ceramic microstructures were fabricated by employing soft lithographic technique.


Background: The epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is considered as a big health problem. Therefore, in the absence of knowledge seeking behavior, issues cannot be handled adequately. Thus, the study is aimed to assess the knowledge about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) and sex-related health seeking attitude among young adults attending family-practice clinics in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: Across-sectional study was accomplished in family medicine clinics affiliated with a tertiary care private sector teaching hospital in Karachi. Both Male and female gender, 586 subjects were approached by convenient non-probability sampling method. Participants who came to visit family medicine clinics for any reason with age between 18 to 24 years and never married were enrolled for the study. Structured and pretested tool was used to gather the data. Along with socio-economic variables, inquired the level of knowledge about the transmission, cure and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, study participants were also asked about the health and education-seeking attitude regarding sexual problems. Results: Among 586 participants, males were 335 (57.2%) and females 251 (42.8%). Majority of them had knowledge that HIV can be transmitted by blood/blood products (92.7%), un-sterilized needles/syringes (85.3%) and unsafe-sex (93.5%). However, misconceptions were also present such as transmission of HIV by mosquito-bite, public toilets/swimming pools and food/water. Furthermore, 82.9% of study subjects believed that HIV is a vaccine preventable disease and 78.5% stated that AIDS is curable. Over 50% felt that their level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS is insufficient, and 72.7% subjects preferred school as a better source for providing sexual-health education, and the difference of these responses by sex were not significant. However, only 17.9% females preferred electronic media for providing sexual-health education compared to 30.7% males (p<0.01) and 51.4% females stated allopathic doctors as better choice to consult for sexual problems compared to 36.1% males (p<0.01). Conclusion: The study concluded that the majority of young adults have inadequate knowledge and misconception about HIV/AIDS.


Porphyrins molecules are gaining importance in the present era. Porphyrins are important part of biological molecules like hemoglobin and chlorophyll .Photo system 1 and photo system 2 is important sunlight trap in chloroplast. Electron transport chain is a series of chemical reaction in which energy is formed in the form of ATP (Adenosine triphosphate).The members of electron transport chains are cytochrome 450 which are Porphyrins like molecules. Porphyrins are important part of solar cells, apart from above mentioned application; Porphyrins have special importance in the photodynamic therapy. This therapy has special role in the treatment of acne; psoriasis .Photodynamic therapy has successfully treated various kinds of malignant cells and has special role to treat cancers. The present thesis addresses the formation of tetra phenyl porph1yrins through Adler and Ruthmend synthesis .This is the common chemical reaction which can be obtained in the university laboratories.  The tetra phenylporphyrin, developed from above mentioned method were converted into metal complexes. Four metals iron, cobalt, copper and nickel have chosen in the form of their chlorides and acetates. Porphyrin synthesis is a challenging approach as it contains various forms of impurities and it is very difficult to analysis the complex formation.  The present paper contains different Porphyrins metal complexes which have been developed and the formations of complexes were confirmed through IHNMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) analysis which is the strongest tool in the modern chemistry. The formation of complexes can be further confirmed by infra-red spectroscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy. Atomic force microscopy was also conducted and all the analysis confirmed the formation of tetra phenylporphyrin and its metal complexes.


One of the major criticisms of ramp metering has been delay caused on the ramps because of the queues created by ramp control strategies. Recently, several researchers proposed strategies that explicitly consider ramp queues when metering rates are determined. An isolated "feedback"-based ramp-metering strategy (mixed control) is presented. In addition to regulation of ramp input from the freeway, the strategy calls for regulation of ramp queues by explicitly incorporating them into the model. Mixed control is tested using PARAMICS, a microscopic traffic simulation package, on a calibrated test network located in Hayward, California. In addition to mixed control, ALINEA and new control are implemented. Because the focus here is on evaluation of isolated ramp control strategies, change in demand caused by ramp metering is not considered. The system is defined as the upstream, downstream, and ramp links around the metered ramp. The performance of two freeway demand patterns (congested and overcongested) is compared. From the simulation results, all the strategies tested were found to be quite effective in optimizing freeway traffic conditions [reduction in mean congestion duration on the freeway downstream link, mean downstream occupancy, and travel time (upstream and downstream links)]. However, mixed control produced the best system results (upstream, downstream, and ramp links) by achieving optimal flow on the highway while keeping the queue length on the ramp small enough to prevent spillover onto the arterial network.


Kenyan tea though acclaimed globally as a high quality product available all year round continues to face growing competition both regionally and globally. This has resulted to a decline in its market share in the global market. The main objective of the study was to examine the influence of strategic market development practices on competiveness of Kenyan Tea in the global market. The study used cross-sectional survey design to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from the respondents. The target population consisted of all one hundred and eighty-nine members of the East Africa Tea Trade Association (EATTA) who participate in the tea auction at Mombasa. The target population was categorized into organizational population and the respondents' population. Respondents' population comprised of four top managers from every organization. The sampling frame for this study was seven hundred fifty-six managers who included Chief Executive Officer, Finance Director, Marketing Manager and Operations manager who acted as the major agents of the entire value chain in the tea industry from the producer to the final international consumer. Stratified sampling technique was used to select a sample for buyers, brokers, warehouse, packers and associate members while purposive sampling technique was used to select the managers who represented both the small-scale and large-scale producers. To obtain the desired sample size for the study with the organizational population of 189, Slovin's formula (1960); n = N/(1+Ne2), was applied. Where; n = Sample Size N = Total Population e = Error of Tolerance with a confidence level of 95 % (giving a margin error of 0.05). The main instrument used to collect primary data from the sampled respondents was structured and unstructured questionnaire. The questionnaire underwent pilot study to test for the validity and reliability of the research instrument. Internal consistency of the questionnaire was determined by use of Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha (α). Collected data was further prepared for analysis using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) to generate descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was analysed using percentages, mean and standard deviation while t-tests and p-value was used to test the hypothesis. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was derived to show the nature and strength of the relationship of the variables where Coefficient of determination (R2) was used to measure the amount of variation in the dependent variable as explained by the independent variable. The study findings indicated that there was a positive relationship between competitiveness of Kenyan tea and strategic market development practices as signified by a coefficient of 0.507. This meant that a 1% change in Strategic Market Development practices increases competitiveness of Kenyan in the global market by 0.507 units. Such increase as revealed by the study was attributed to adoption of market penetration, market segmentation, and market diversification strategies which in the long run created new customers in new segments as well as expansion of the potential market for Kenyan tea in the global market. The study concludes that Market segmentation strategy may be executed in diverse criterion including demographic, geographical, and behavioural segmentation among others. The study emphasized on demographic market segmentation as a strategic market development practice to enhance competitiveness of Kenyan Tea in the global market. The study recommended that to boost competitiveness of Kenyan Tea globally good local and international marketing strategies need to precede the act of exportation. This may be done through organizing consumers into competent consumer associations, promoting market intelligence and branding Kenyan on international markets.


This article discusses some of the challenges involved in conducting research with children and young people outside of the home and school environments. We respond to the need to develop new child-centred research techniques which move beyond existing power relations among children and adults by anchoring our approach in the idea of mystery. The paper reports on research utilising a mixed-method design which includes one new technique – the Big Brother diary room. We discuss the unpredictable nature of the fieldwork, reflect on the 'messiness' of the research process, and critically evaluate our own research design.


Ground work like blasting, piling and excavation has always had a great influence during the planning phase of a construction project since it can cause damages on adjacent buildings and have severe economic consequences. This thesis deals with how vibrations caused by ground work influence near-by buildings and what methods geotechnicians and construction entrepreneurs use to handle these risks.The purpose of this thesis is to explain risk management in relation to ground work. In order to achieve this I have used a qualitative method by interviewing a geotechnician and a ground work contractor who possess knowledge and experience useful to this thesis. The result shows that vibrations from ground work spread through the ground as seismic waves that cause displacements and packing in the ground visible in adjacent buildings as cracks and subsidence damages. Geotechnicians study ground work vibrations by means of ground investigations and experience from previous projects in order to produce a risk analysis that entrepreneurs can use to reduce damages. If entrepreneurs use experienced consultants to a greater extent than presently, substantial economic savings are possible.Keyword: vibrations, cracks, ground work, risk analysis, blasting, pile driving, excavation.


Following steep declines in poverty rates over the past decade, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region reduced childhood poverty by a third and childhood extreme poverty almost by half between 2004 and 2014. Despite these gains, children in LAC have seen slower reductions in poverty than the overall population and continue to be more likely than adults to live in poverty. The incidence of childhood poverty in Central America and the Caribbean remains the highest in the region. Important socioeconomic and demographic factors are behind the slower gains in poverty reduction for children. The high levels of childhood poverty have significant consequences for the future of the LAC region. Today's childhood poverty has significant implications for tomorrow's labor force, limiting their potential to gain the skills necessary to exit poverty as adults. To prepare children for tomorrow's jobs, policies need to prioritize access to good quality education and basic services, including nutrition, healthcare, and water.


A steady-state non-equilibrium dendrite growth model was extended for binary alloy assuming non-linear liquidus and solidus. Satisfactory agreement of the model prediction with the experimental data of Ni-0.7at.%B and Ni30Cu70 alloys was achieved. The velocity plateau as experimentally observed in the velocity versus undercooling is quantitatively analyzed in terms of this model. Accordingly, the initiating point (i.e. corresponding to the critical velocity of absolute solutal stability VC*) and the ending point (i.e. corresponding to the velocity of maximal tip radius VRm) of the plateau are characterized.


Increasing attention is being paid to how hybrid organizations handle the tensions between contending institutional logics. However, intra-logic tensions regarding the decoupling of the internal components of the incumbent logics, the resultant organizational crises and how these crises are resolved, are understudied. This study explores how the Chinese and Indian Railways tackle organizational crises by reframing and recombining the means and ends components of contending logics. Based on comprehensive archival, interview and textual analyses, we find that the two railways maintained or shifted the incumbent logic to address organizational crises through remedial, manipulation, compromise and complementation strategies. We specify the mechanisms underlying each strategy, present a unified model and discuss the implications for research on hybrid organizations and crisis management.


Many social situations require a mental model of the knowledge, beliefs, goals, and intentions of others: a Theory of Mind (ToM). If a person can reason about other people's beliefs about his own beliefs or intentions, he is demonstrating second order ToM reasoning. A standard task to test second order reasoning is the false belief task. A different approach is used by Hedden and Zhang (2002), who investigated the application of ToM reasoning in a strategic game. Another task that is thought to involve second order ToM is the comprehension of sentences that the listener can only understand by considering the speaker's alternatives. In this research a group of 8-10 year old children and a group of adults were tested on (adaptations of) the three tasks described above. The results show interesting differences between adults and children, between the three tasks, and between this experiment and previous research. Thesis supervisors: L. C. Verbrugge, P. Hendriks, I. Kramer 3


Genetic alterations in human BCL9 genes have repeatedly been found in congenital heart disease (CHD) with as-of-yet unclear causality. BCL9 proteins and their Pygopus (Pygo) co-factors can participate in canonical Wnt signaling via binding to β-catenin. Nonetheless, their contributions to vertebrate heart development remain uncharted. Here, combining zebrafish and mouse genetics, we document tissue-specific functions in canonical Wnt signaling for BCL9 and Pygo proteins during heart development. In a CRISPR-Cas9-based genotype-phenotype association screen, we uncovered that zebrafish mutants for bcl9 and pygo genes largely retain β-catenin activity, yet develop cardiac malformations. In mouse, both systemic and lineage-specific loss of the Pygo-BCL9-β-catenin complex caused heart defects with outflow tract malformations, aberrant cardiac septation and valve formation, and compact myocardium hypoplasia. Mechanistically, these phenotypes coincide with transcriptional deregulation during heart patterning, and Pygo2 associates with β-catenin at cis-regulatory regions of cardiac genes. Taken together, our results establish BCL9 and Pygo as tissue-specific β-catenin co-factors during vertebrate heart development. Our results further implicate alterations in BCL9 and BCL9L in human CHDs as possibly causative.


In the scope of ubiquitous computing, one of the key issues is the awareness of context, which includes diverse aspects of the user's situation including his activities, physical surroundings, location, emotions and social relations, device and network characteristics and their interaction with each other. This contextual knowledge is typically acquired from physical, virtual or logical sensors. To overcome problems of heterogeneity and hide complexity, a significant number of middleware approaches have been proposed for systematic and coherent access to manifold context parameters. These frameworks deal particularly with context representation, context management and reasoning, i.e. deriving abstract knowledge from raw sensor data. This article surveys not only related work in these three categories but also the required evaluation principles.


1. The recent suggestions that folate polyglutamate biosynthesis demonstrated in vivo with [3'5'9(n)-3H]folic acid is due to exchange and cannot be achieved with [2(-14)C]folic acid has been demonstrated to be untrue. 2. The compounds formed with both types of radioactive tracer have been shown to be folate polyglutamates from their elution position from precalibrated ion-exchange columns and their susceptibility to hydrolysis by a gamma-carboxypeptidase (conjugase) from human sera. 3. By the use of the methods involving [2(-14)C]folic acid, reported by others to give only folate monoglutamates, we have been able to demonstrate clearly the presence of folate polyglutamates.


The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is due to impact companies in the United Kingdom from January 2006 (Tollady, 2005). A key aim of this legislation is to reduce the environmental impact of electrical and electronic products by making producers responsible for recovering, reusing and recycling large percentages of the equipment they manufacture and import, once it reaches the end of its life. Despite this approaching deadline, the authors have found that many companies are still unclear about the implications this legislation will have on the design of their products. A key problem for companies is ensuring that design teams are aware of the requirements and feel empowered to develop products which are compliant. However, there are currently no practical tools to guide the design decision making process and support the development of financially viable, compliant electrical and electronic products. This paper reports on the SortED project which aims to develop an end of life decision making design guide to help companies quickly identify the implications of the WEEE directive on the products they design, manufacture and import, by guiding them towards appropriate design solutions that will help them get maximum revenue out of their products by using the restrictions of the Directive as an opportunity for innovation.


More than one in four children in England are overweight or obese, said a government report published last week which showed that obesity in young people is continuing to rise.

The report showed that the prevalence of obesity in children aged 2 to 10 increased from 9.9% in 1995 to 13.7% in 2003. The total number of overweight and obese children rose from 22.7% to 27.7% in this period. Obesity increased most in older children aged 8 to 10, rising from 11.2% in 1995 to 16.5% in 2003. Levels of obesity were similar for both sexes, increasing from 9.6% in 1995 to 14.9% in 2003 for boys and from 10.3% to 12.5% for girls.

More detailed figures for 2001 and 2002 provided information on risk factors for obesity. Children living …


This study was conducted on wadi Al-Dissah; a part of Jabal Qaraqir and its surrounding area in the Northwestern region of Saudi Arabia. Jabal Qaraqir in Saudi Arabia is the first site to be assessed for the Important Plant Area (IPA) programme in the Arabian Peninsula. This paper has the objective of determining the floristic composition, species diversity and the vegetation structure of the plant communities, including a breakdown of its different life forms and chorology of the recorded species. A total of 63 species belonging to 61 genera and 31 families were recorded. One family; Adiantaceae belongs to Pteridophyta, while the other 30 families are angiospermae. About 35% of the recorded species in the study area are belonging to four families: Asteraceae and Poaceae had the highest contribution (each had 9.5% of the total species followed by Boraginaceae and Fabaceae (7.9% each). The data also reflect the high taxonomic diversity in the study area. The life form spectrum of the recorded species showed the prevalence of theorphytes (49.2%) followed by chamaephytes (17.5%), phanerphytes (14.3%), geophytes (9.5%), while the least frequent life form class was hemicryptophytes (7.9%). The chorological analysis of the recorded species in the study area showed the predominance of biregional taxa (50.8%) over the other phytogeographical elements followed by the monoregional (25.4%). The present study findings showed that most species belonged to Saharo-Arabian – Sudanian (15.9%) followed by Sudanian elements (11.1%). Only one endemic species is recorded in the study area; Dolichorhynchus arabicus I.C.Hedge & KitTan (syn Douepea arabica). It is a rare threatened endemic plant species in Saudi Arabia. It was locally in Wadi Qaraqir. Other rare species were Ficus palmata which is a small tree with edible fruits, belonging to family Moraceae, and Parietaria umbricola which is an annual species belonging to family Urticaceae. Plant species of Al-Dissah area were checked with international IUCN list. Eight of the recorded species in the study area are globally threatened and incorporated into the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Version 3.1: Cyperus laevigatus, Mentha longifolia, Nerium oleander, Phragmites australis, Tamarix nilotica, Typha domingensis, Chrozophora tinctoria, Adiantum capillus-veneris. All of them are included in the least concern category. Five plant communities were recognized in the study area. The highest plant diversity was reported in plant communities which occupy the wet wadi bed where the perennial stream flows together with the nearby areas between palm trees; Phragmites australis and Mentha longifolia communities. As floristic analyses are the prerequisites for conservation of plant species, therefore, it is critical to examine the current status of floristic and species diversity to provide appropriate guidelines for developing effective system of conservation and management. Information from this study may provide a valuable reference for appropriate conservation and management of the study area.


The taxonomic status of the Italian hare Lepus corsicanus has been uncertain since its first description by W. E. de Winton in 1898 (de Winton WE. Annual Magazine of Natural History, London, 1898, 1, 149–158). The distribution range of this species has shrunk severely over the last few decades owing to overhunting and restocking with nonindigenous brown hares (L. europaeus) in central and southern Italy and Sicily. Recently, scanty populations of Italian hares were rediscovered, and samples for morphological and molecular analyses were collected. Nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and cytochrome b indicate that L. corsicanus is a phylogenetically distinct species, which can be identified by concordant morphological and mtDNA traits. It seems to be reproductively isolated and apparently does not hybridize with sympatric brown hares. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that Italian and brown hares are not closely related sister taxa, but belong to distinct evolutionary lineages that dispersed in western Europe in different periods during the early Pleistocene. The Italian hare probably differentiated in isolated refuges in southern Italy during the last glaciation. Comparative analyses of mismatch distributions suggest that hares have had different demographic histories during the Pleistocene, which resulted in phylogeographical structuring in Italian hares, but not in brown and mountain (L. timidus) hares. The Italian hare is an endangered endemism and needs urgent conservation efforts.


Currently, there are several tissue engineering strategies meant to overcome the incomplete or insufficient bone regeneration conditions offered by autologous bone graft or surgery approaches. In the last decade, attention has been focused toward finding the equilibrium between a suitable scaffold with osteoinductive properties, a cell source with evident potential to develop bone tissue and the appropriate proosteogenic factors to condition the differentiation process after cell-scaffold implanta‐ tion. Consequently, this chapter aims to discuss the benefits that graphene and its derivatives, graphene oxide (GO), bring both to the scaffold biomaterial and to the interaction between the material and the cellular component in order to create a favorable micro-environment for efficient osteogenic differentiation process. Several advantages of including GO in the composition of the materials are shown in relation to cell viability, proliferation, attachment, and osteogenic differentiation.


Step into any conversation about campaign finance regulation in 2016, and you're likely to encounter the view that while the Supreme Court is well on its way to dismantling most of the legal framework that has governed money in elections for nearly forty years, disclosure requirements remain on secure constitutional footing. For many advocates of campaign finance regulation, this is a rare source of comfort in a landscape that is otherwise relentlessly bleak. But it is a decidedly second-best alternative to more robust modes of regulation. I hope in this short piece to strike a cautionary note: to suggest that, for too long, advocates of campaign finance regulation have both taken disclosure for granted and failed to take disclosure sufficiently seriously. This is understandable; until recently, disclosure questions nearly always arose in the context of challenges to other campaign finance regulations, and disclosure has invariably been treated, by both courts and advocates, as something of an afterthought. But in a dramatically shrunken regulatory landscape, there is an increasingly urgent need to develop a stronger and more fully realized set of arguments for the constitutionality of disclosure — not only with an eye to potentially expanding existing disclosure requirements, but also in order to strengthen the constitutional foundations of the existing disclosure regime.


Super-microscopic techniques like scanning tunnelling
microscopy, atomic force microscopy or scanning near-field
optical microscopy allows investigate micro- and/or nano-scale
surfaces and structures. In this paper, both Environmental
scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and Scanning near field
optical microscope (SNOM) have been applied to more closely
study of biomaterials. The results of visualization of human
osteosarcoma cell line (U2OS) are compared. SNOM and ESEM yield
different, however, comparable and complementary information on
studied biological samples.


This study aims at determining the impact of cesspits to contaminate water springs in the Natuv basin - west of Ramallah, and at studying social and economic impact of the use of spring water for the human life. One hundred questionnaires were distributed to the farmers using the spring's water in the study area and analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The results of the analysis show that 38% of the solid waste, which is disposed near the springs leads to contamination. The low discharge of some springs is due to the erratic rainfall in the study area. The impact of Israeli settlement on spring's water pollution is also studied. 43% of the springs near the settlements were contaminated with the wastewater and 48% of them are contaminated with their solid waste.


In service-oriented computing, a user usually needs to locate a desired service for: (i) fulfilling her requirements or (ii) replacing a service, which disappears or is unavailable for some reasons, to perform an interaction. With the increasing number of services available within an enterprise and over the Internet, locating a service online may not be appropriate from the performance perspective, especially in large Internet-based service repositories. Instead, services usually need to be clustered according to their similarity. Thereafter, services in one or several clusters are necessary to be examined online during dynamic service discovery. In this paper, we propose to cluster data providing (DP) services using a refined fuzzy C-means algorithm. We consider the composite relation between DP service elements (i.e., input, output, and semantic relation between them) when representing DP services in terms of vectors. A DP service vector is assigned to one or multiple clusters with certain degrees. In addition, we introduce some operations for managing service clusters, when new services emerge or existing services disappear or become unavailable. When grouping similar services into one cluster, while partitioning different services into different clusters, the capability of service search engine is improved significantly. We have prototyped our approach and the source code is freely available on the web. We have evaluated our clustering approach in different settings and the results are very promising.


Electronic band-edge structure and optical properties of Si1-xGex are investigated theoretically emloying a full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FPLAPW) method. The exchange-correlation potential in the local density approximation (LDA) is corrected by an on-site Coulomb potential (i.e., within the LDA+USIC approach) acting asymmetrically on the atomic-like orbitals in the muffin-tin spheres. The electronic structure of the Si1-xGex is calculated self-consistently, assuming a Td symmetrized Hamiltonian and a linear behavior of the valence-band eigenfunctions for Si, SiGe, and Ge with respect to Ge composition x, assuming randomly alloyed crystal structure. i.e., a "virtual-crystal like" approximation (VCA). We show that this approach yields accurate band-gap energies, effective masses, dielectric function, and optical properties of Si1-xGex. We perform absorption measurements showing the band-gap energy for x < 0.25.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Cardiopulmonary exercise test and 6-minute walking test are frequently used tools to evaluate physical performance in heart failure (HF), but they do neither represent activities of daily living (ADLs) nor fully reproduce patients' symptoms. We assessed differences in task oxygen uptake, both as absolute value and as percentage of peak oxygen consumption (peakVO2), ventilation efficiency (VE/VCO2 ratio), and dyspnea intensity (Borg scale) in HF and healthy subjects during standard ADLs and other common physical actions. Methods: Healthy and HF subjects (ejection fraction <45%, stable conditions) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise test. All of them, carrying a wearable metabolic cart, performed a 6-minute walking test, two 4-minute treadmill exercises (at 2 and 3 km/h), and ADLs: ADL1 (getting dressed), ADL2 (folding 8 towels), ADL3 (putting away 6 bottles), ADL4 (making a bed), ADL5 (sweeping the floor for 4 minutes), ADL6 (climbing 1 flight of stairs carrying a load). Results: Sixty patients with HF (age 65.2±12.1 years; ejection fraction 30.4±6.7%, peakVO2 14.2±4.0 mL/[min·kg]) and 40 healthy volunteers (58.9±8.2 years, peakVO2 28.1±7.4 mL/[min·kg]) were enrolled. For each exercise, patients showed higher VE/VCO2 ratio, percentage of peakVO2, and Borg scale value than controls, while absolute values of task oxygen uptake and exercise duration were lower and higher, respectively, in all activities, except for treadmill (fixed execution time and intensity). Differently from Borg Scale data, metabolic values and exercise time length changed in parallel with HF severity, except for ADL duration in very short (ADL3) and composite (ADL1) activities. Borg scale values correlated with percentage of peakVO2. Conclusions: During ADLs, patients self-regulated activities in parallel with HF severity by decreasing intensity (VO2) and prolonging the effort.


The properties of rhythmic discharge of motor cortex neurons evoked by dc depolarizing current through the membrane were studied in acute experiments on immobilized cats. Linear relation between the rate of rhythmic discharge and the strength of current was revealed, the slope of this relation being 18-10.7 imp/s nA. Correlation between input resistance and the slope of the discharge frequency current curve was demonstrated. Two types of adaptation to current were observed: exponential and undamped oscillations. The relation of the latency of the first spike and first interspike interval to current was hyperbolic. The role of dendrites in the observed phenomena is discussed.


An 83-year-old woman presented with an acute onset of foot drop. Whilst the pattern of weakness initially appeared to be most likely due to a peripheral cause, an MR scan of the brain showed a small cortical stroke. This rare phenomenon appears similar to the more widely described 'cortical hand'.


This paper presents an analysis of women's organizations in Kenya and looks into their opportunities and challenges, using the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization (MYWO) as a case study. It analyses the development of women's organizations in Kenya and how they have impacted on the wider women's political empowerment. It also traces MYWO's historical origins and development, its metamorphosis and the impact it has had on women's struggles for equality and participation in all areas of national development. Maendeleo's role in galvanizing women around different agendas in the areas of political empowerment has also been examined and an analysis of the challenges and opportunities that it has faced as a women's rights organization has been done. The paper is divided into four sections. Section 1 focuses on the development of women's organizations in Kenya and their impact on women's political empowerment. Section 2 is on MYWO's struggles to carve its niche and sustain the momentum in the context of the social political dynamics in Kenya, giving a brief history of MYWO and its metamorphosis from its inception during the colonial period to the post-independence developments up to and including the struggle for a democratic and women friendly environment through the Constitution review process. Section 3 explores MYWO's role in galvanizing women's agenda for political participation in the Second Liberation and clamour for a new Constitution. Section 4 looks at MYWO as a model for women's leadership. The Case study method was used as well as library search. A review of published literature, including books, journal articles, reports, the Hansard, Court documents and the Organizations' reports and documents as well as other in-house and historical documents were also perused. The (African) Feminist Political Theory was used to analyse the Organization and its vision, environment, challenges and opportunities. The paper finds that for the most part of its existence, MYWO has not been an independent organization as it was conceived by government staff as a strategy for women's support by the government and as an espionage mechanism through which the colonial government could gather information on the Mau Mau movement (Chitere, 1988). Most of the funding and technical support has come from the government, putting the Organization directly under its patronage. To its credit, MYWO does indeed have a national network which has served as a conduit for women's agenda in important undertakings such as the Constitution making process. The research finds that MYWO has initiated minimal programmes on its own. It has mostly been used by others, including by KANU, to carry out their agenda and mobilize women for political ends. Indeed, MYWO has had a daunting task trying to shed its relationship with successive governments - something that has greatly worked against it. Key Words: Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization, women's organizations, constitution.


New data about the age of Cuesta Colorada (Almeria, Spain) are presented. Evidency from micropaleontological sampling and new palaeomagnetical studies, allowed us to correlate the almost whole section with the I and II Pliocene Units. An undoubtfull palaeomagnetical reversal found in an intensively sampled micritic layer, could represent the Causs-Matuyama boundary, confirming the data from amino acid racemization analyses which indicate a wide time span between both the bottom and the top of Cuesta Colorada deposition time. Samples taken from a very deeply excavated road cut allowed very well preserved amino acid and palaeomagnetic samples taking, being possible to enlarge the normal amino acid dating method range which in very favourable conditions could reach the upper part of Lower Pleistocene time


Chronic arsenicosis is a major environmental health hazard throughout the world, including India. Animals and human beings are affected due to drinking of arsenic contaminated ground water, due to natural mineral deposits, arsenical pesticides or improperly disposed arsenical chemicals. Arsenic causes cancer with production of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are neutralized by an elaborate antioxidant defense system consisting of enzymes and numerous non-enzymatic antioxidants. Dietary antioxidant supplements are useful to counteract the carcinogenesis effects of arsenic. Oyster mushroom lectins can be regarded as ingredients of popular foods with biopharmaceutical properties. A variety of compounds have been isolated from mushrooms, which include polysaccharides and polysaccharopeptides with immune-enhancing effects. Lectins are beneficial in reducing arsenic toxicity due to anticarcinogenetic roles and may have therapeutic application in people suffering from chronic exposure to arsenic from natural sources, a global problem that is especially relevant to millions of people on the Indian subcontinent.


The disease resistance of a transgenic line expressing the coat protein (CP) gene of the mild strain of the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) from Hawaii was further analyzed against PRSV isolates from Hawaii and other geographical regions. Line 63-1 originated from the same transformation experiment that resulted in line 55-1 from which the transgenic commercial cultivars, `Rainbow' and `SunUp', were derived. Plants of line 63-1 used in this study consisted of a population from a self pollinated R0 bisexual plant. ELISA and PCR tests provided evidence that there are at least two segregating CP loci. To allow for comparison with reactions of the previously reported line 55-1, virus isolates from Hawaii, Brazil, Thailand, and Jamaica were used to challenge seedlings of 63-1. Unlike line 55-1, a significant percentage of inoculated transgenic plants were susceptible to isolates from Hawaii. However, a proportion of plants were resistant to the non-Hawaiian isolates. In contrast, previous work showed that all plants of the hemizygous line 55-1 were susceptible to PRSV isolates from Brazil, Thailand, and Jamaica. Line 63-1, therefore, presents Hawaii with PRSV-resistant transgenic germplasm that could be used as a source of transgenes for resistance to PRSV isolates within and outside of Hawaii


Equidistance settings for a black vertical rod oscillating in a given frontal plane have been obtained at three photopic levels of binocular retinal illuminance. The magnitude of the constant (localization) errors and that of the variable errors (average deviations) of the equidistance settings have been studied as functions of target velocity. For the two observers used, the magnitude of both the constant errors and the variable errors progressively increased as target velocity was increased. The effects were noted for settings obtained at each of the three retinal-illuminance levels. The direction of the localization errors, however, was opposite for the two observers. The effect of retinal-illuminance level on the depth settings was less systematic, due probably to the high photopic levels used. The data obtained on the constant errors suggest that, regardless of the direction of the localization error, the comparison rod was adjusted progressively closer to the actual plane of target oscillation as the level of retinal illuminance was increased. The variability of the settings for a given target velocity remained relatively constant at each of the three retinal-illuminance levels. The present results are discussed in relation to comparable data obtained in earlier experiments on stereoscopic acuity and on the Pulfrich stereophenomenon.


SUMMARY: The invention of glass electrothermal heating tape provides a simple method for heating a hot box or incubator without the expense and trouble of a water jacket. An outfit is described for observing microscopically and photographing cultures at controlled temperatures over long periods.


The retina is the light sensitive portion of the eye that contains cone cells responsible for color vision and cone cells responsible for order in darkness. When the rods and cones are stimulated, light signals are transmitted successively by neurons retina, optic nerve fibers then finally reaching the cerebral cortex. Normal eye retina shows three types of color light-sensitive cells; cone cells are sensitive to red light, green or blue. View color deficiency is the inability or decreased ability to see colors or the perception of differences between colors. Depending on the number of cells absent or impaired color vision impairment operation is called: monocromatism, when all the cones are missing or not working, dicromatism when one of three types of cells and tricromatism missing or when one of three cell types has a poor spectral sensitivity. In 1802, Thomas Young consider that all human sight is produced by combining sensitivity to red, green and blue. This theory, amended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, it is known as Young-Helmholtz theory or trichromatic color vision. The fundamental idea was that the eye responds to the three primary colors and combining the three primary colors through additive synthesis of colors forms all other colors. These theories underlie the eye color deficiencies investigation. The paper aims to provide an inexpensive device necessary to investigate color vision in humans. This is achieved in the components recovered from the other old systems, reconditioned and assembled using a simple technology. Research presented the paper will refer both to the device and for tests with it. Studies will be made on different age groups in order to detect any abnormal chromatic vision.


ABSTRACT Background: Recent efforts to study quality improvement (QI) efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare have raised important questions about ethical boundaries for waiving informed consent. Confusion exists because similar projects can be undertaken for research or QI purposes, a distinction currently used to define Institutional Review Board oversight. However, patients are not aware of such distinctions. We sought to evaluate patients' views of waiving consent for non-invasive projects to improve healthcare quality and delivery. Methods: We developed a 32-item measure of patient thresholds for waiving consent for different types of QI interventions, including those involving changes to: 1) the hospital environment; 2) hospital policies or procedures; 3) objects used by patients; 4) medications or devices; and 5) use of patient information. In a sample of 200 hospitalized patients, we tested and confirmed the reliability and validity of subscales representing each of the 5 intervention types. Results: For each of the five consent threshold scales, all items in each scale had substantial item-to-total correlations with the other items in that scale taken together. All five internal consistency reliability coefficients exceeded .70 for the total sample. Means for all 5 scales indicated general patient support for waiving consent across all categories of interventions studied. However, patients were significantly less comfortable foregoing consent for interventions involving medications or devices, or sharing of patient information. Conclusion: We developed and tested a survey instrument to contribute to the understanding of patient preferences for consent in QI assessment activities. Measures were found to be reliable and valid. Findings indicated general patient support for waiving consent across all minimal risk categories studied. However, more work is needed to reassure and protect patients during minimal risk studies involving medications or devices, or the sharing of patient information.


: Most reports relating to the biological and toxicological properties of indigo have never been published in scientific journals. They are in the files of commercial testing laboratories, government agencies or sponsoring industrial corporations. They include studies of acute oral, dermal and inhalation toxicity, subchronic and chronic dietary effects in the rat and dog, multi-generation and dose-response effects, repeated dermal applications, human skin sensitization, and end-use in surgical sutures for the eye. This review summarizes the experimental protocols and results of these studies and others reported in the literature. It is concluded that indigo has a very low order of both acute and chronic toxicity.


The title method was used for phytoremediation of soils. The experiments were performed with leaves of willow (S. smithiana, S. alba,S. rubens and S. dasyclados) grown in soil contaminated with heavy metals (Cd, Zn, Pb), The ability of the leaves to accumulate these metals was confirmed. The total contents of metals in 0.02 mol l−1 Tris buffer (pH 7.5) and in 1 mol l−1 sodium hydroxide extracts were determined. Size exclusion chromatography combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used for separation and determination of metals in the extracts. The metals in the extracts are present mainly in low-molecular-weight fractions (M ? 2 kDa). These fractions were obtained by preparative size exclusion chromatography and refined by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. The compounds in the fractions were analyzed by amino acid analysis and MALDI mass spectrometry. The results show that majority of heavy metals in willow biomass remained in insoluble residue whereas the extracts contain substantial amounts of chelating agents, which suggests their role in metal detoxication processes in willow plants.


While investigating an involvement of other factors aside from endogenous IL-3 and prostaglandin E (PGE) in mast cell induction from mouse splenocytes, we found that the mast cell induction was inversely proportional to IL-4 levels and tended to directly proportionate IFN-gamma levels in the supernatants recovered on days 2 and 4. Thereafter, we examined the effects of rIFN-gamma, rIL-4, and rIL-10 on mast cell induction. IFN-gamma and IL-10 dose-dependently induced mast cells. Time course study showed an importance of adding rIFN-gamma into the cultures at the early phase (on days 0 and 2 of a 12-day culture). When endogenous IFN-gamma at the early phase was neutralized by anti-IFN-gamma Ab, all stimulants, including rIFN-gamma, rIL-10, and PGE1, failed to induce mast cells. On the contrary, rIL-4 dose-dependently suppressed the mast cell induction by rIFN-gamma, rIL-10, LPS, PGE, and dibutyryl cAMP. The inhibitory effect of IL-4 was observed when IL-4 was added into the cultures at the early phase, but not after day 4. The suppressive action of IL-4 was diminished completely by the addition of neutralizing anti-IL-4 Ab. IL-12, a key regulator of IFN-gamma and IL-4 production, also induced mast cells. These results revealed, for the first time, that IFN-gamma is crucial for the survival and/or differentiation of splenic mast cell precursors and that IL-4 is a key inhibitor for the precursors, although IFN-gamma is not a mast cell growth factor and IL-4 is a growth factor for immature and mature mast cells.


Accurate simulation and control of nanoparticle aggregation in chemical reactors requires that population balance equations be solved by using realistic expressions for aggregation and breakage rate kernels. Obtaining such expressions requires that atomistic simulation approaches that can account for microscopic details of particle collisions be used. In principle, molecular dynamics simulations can provide the needed microscopic information, but because of the separation in length scales between the aggregates and solvent molecules, such simulations are too costly. Brownian dynamics simulations provide an alternative to the molecular dynamics approach for simulation of particle aggregation, but there has been no systematic attempt to validate the Brownian dynamics method for this class of problems. In this work we attempt to develop a better understanding of Brownian dynamics simulations of aggregation by (1) developing convergence criteria, (2) determining criteria for aggregation to occur in BD simulations using dimensionless variables, and (3) directly comparing BD and MD simulation predictions for a model aggregation problem.


I provide a stocktaking on the profile of regional trade agreements in the global trading system over the last decade focusing heavily on the period since the 2008 financial crisis and relying heavily on WTO notifications. Regional agreements cover both regional trade agreements and broader economic cooperation agreements, but exclude bilateral investment and tax treaties. I note the continued growth in the number of regional agreements, notified to the WTO, as evidence of the lack of reduced momentum in the growth of regional agreements. I temper this by noting that some of this continued growth reflects changes to existing agreements rather than de novo new agreements. Much of the growth is also in agreements between small economies. Finally, I note the recent prospects for new large-country to large-country agreements; especially the TPP, US-EU and Japan-Korea-China agreements. These are yet to be concluded and notified.


Better understanding of concrete behavior is beneficial to the determination of concrete strength and detection of cracking using nondestructive testing techniques such as ultrasonic and acoustic emission. For advanced nondestructive evaluation of high early strength concrete under triaxial compression loading, stress-strain relationship in axial as well as in radial directions needs to be described in explicit form. This paper presents empirical models developed for high early strength concrete under active confinement to explore the effect of confining pressure. Empirical model for axial stress-strain relationship is determined first. Transverse deformation model is automatically generated from the given axial stress-strain model using plastic strain rate. Parameters used in the model are identified and their recommended values are provided. Compressive strength of 24 MPa and 45 MPa concretes are considered along with four different levels of confining pressures.


10 Cycas species as well as one subspecies localized in Thailand were studied using the methylation sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) technique. 11 MSAP primer combinations were used and 720 MSAP bands were generated. The percentages of DNA methylation estimated from MSAP fingerprints were in the range of 36.05 to 57.44%. MSAP fingerprints were also used for phenogram construction and principal component analysis were based on nucleotide and methylation polymorphisms. Genetic similarity estimated from nucleotide polymorphism among these cycads ranged from 0.86 to 0.92. Cluster analysis using nucleotide and methylation polymorphisms resulted in different groupings for some cycads. The results show that polymorphisms of Cycas in Thailand were not only limited in the nucleotide level but also in the pattern of DNA methylation. It was proposed that the percentage and pattern of DNA methylation as well as nucleotide polymorphism were sources of variation in these cycad species.


Since the approval in 2017 and the amazing achievement of Kymriah and Yescarta, the number of basic researchers and clinical trials investigating the safety and efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor-expressing T cells (CAR-T cells) has been relentlessly increasing. Up to now, more than 200 clinical trials are listed on clinical trial database of NIH and the basic research is countless. However, the production of allogeneic CAR-T cells products is still expensive and has toxicity. Thus, more effort is needed to develop reliable off-the-shelf cellular therapeutic methods with safety and efficiency for the treatment of patients with cancer. As a kind of innate effector lymphocyte with potent antitumor activity, natural killer cells (NK cells) have attracted much attention. Until now, basic and clinical research has shown that chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell (CAR-NK) therapy may play a significant anti-tumor role and its safety is higher than CAR-T cell therapy. In this review, we discuss advantages and shortages of employing CAR-NK cells as a novel cellular therapy against cancer.


Rationale: There is no information on COPD exacerbations in subjects with mild to moderate COPD sampled from the general population. Objective: To assess in a population-based sample the frequency and characteristics of COPD exacerbations. Methods: Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD) is a longitudinal, multi-center study, 1600 subjects ≥ 40 years old, identified by random digit dialling from the general population. Subjects are sex- and age-matched, and grouped as: 1) COPD moderate + (GOLD≥ 2); 2) COPD mild (GOLD 1); 3) subjects at risk (ever smoker); 4) healthy subjects (never smoker, no obstruction). An exacerbation questionnaire is administered at baseline and every 3 months to capture changes in respiratory symptoms, medication, work and health service use. Results: From a preliminary analysis of 182 subjects, 35 were normal, 30 at risk, 62 GOLD 1 and 55 GOLD ≥2. Exacerbations at baseline were reported by 2 at risk, 2 GOLD 1 and 9 GOLD ≥2 subjects, suggesting a prevalence of 9% in this cohort. GOLD 1 and at-risk subjects experienced similar worsened respiratory symptoms, but no change in medication, work or health service use. GOLD ≥2 subjects experienced more symptoms, and changes in medication, work and health service use. Conclusions: Based on these preliminary data, COPD exacerbations are reported in a minority of COPD subjects sampled from the population. Exacerbations occur, and are similar in at-risk and GOLD 1 subjects, however in GOLD ≥2 subjects they are more common and have a greater impact. Longitudinal evaluation will be of great value.


Problem statement: Most important problems of medical diagnosis. When there is a cerebrovascular accident attach the chances of a successful treatment depends essentially on the early diagnosis. In practice the part of medical errors while diagnosing a stroke type comes to 20-45% even for experienced doctors and the scope of methods of neurovisualization at stroke diagnosis are limited. Approach: In this research study, attempt was made to model the application of Artificial Neural Networks to the classification of patient Cerebrovascular Accident Attack. The Network for the consisted of a three-layer feed forward artificial neural network with back-propagation error method. Results: Data were collected from 100 records of patients at Federal Medical Centre Owo, Nigeria and the Artificial Neural Networks classifier was trained using gradient decent backward propagation algorithm with flexible sigmoid activation function at one hidden layer, with 16 inputs nodes representing stroke onset symptoms at the input layer, 10 nodes at the hidden layer and one node at the output layer representing the type of the attack. Conclusion: The learning Rate γ was set between 0.1 and 0.9 while the epoch set at 150. Initial weight set at Rand (-0.5 and 0.5). The simulation results showed that the model was capable of producing a reasonable forecasting accuracy in short.


Background. Digital twins have advanced fast in various industries, but are just emerging in postharvest supply chains. A digital twin is a virtual representation of fresh horticultural produce. This twin is linked to the real-world product by sensors supplying data of the environmental conditions near the target fruit or vegetable. Statistical and data-driven twins quantify how fresh-produce quality loss occurs by grasping patterns in the data. Physics-based twins provide an augmented insight into the underlying physical, biochemical, microbiological and physiological processes, enabling to explain also why this quality loss occurs.Scope and Approach. We identify what the key advantages are of digital twins and how the fresh-produce supply chain can benefit from them in the future. Key Findings and Conclusions. A digital twin has a huge potential to help horticultural produce to tell its history as it drifts along throughout its postharvest life. The reason is that each shipment is subject to a unique and unpredictable set of temperature and gas atmosphere conditions from farm to consumer. Digital twins help to identify the resulting, largely uncharted, postharvest evolution of food quality. The benefit of digital twins particularly comes forward for perishable species and at low airflow rates. Digital twins provide actionable data for exporters, retailers, and consumers, such as the remaining shelf life for each shipment, on which logistics decisions and marketing strategies can be based. The twins also help diagnose and predict potential problems in supply chains that will reduce food quality and induce food loss. Twins can even suggest preventive shipment-tailored measures to reduce retail and household food losses.


High performance and economically viable cooling solutions must be developed to reduce weight and volume, allowing for a wide-spread utilization of hybrid electric vehicles. The traditional embedded microchannel cooling heat sinks suffer from high pressure drop due to small channel dimensions and long flow paths in two-dimensional (2D) plane. Utilizing direct "embedded cooling" strategy in combination with top access three-dimensional (3D) manifold strategy reduces the pressure drop by nearly an order of magnitude. In addition, it provides more temperature uniformity across large area chips and it is less prone to flow instability in two-phase boiling heat transfer. This study presents the experimental results for single-phase thermofluidic performance of an embedded silicon microchannel cold plate (CP) bonded to a 3D manifold for heat fluxes up to 300 W/cm2 using single-phase R-245fa. The heat exchanger consists of a 5 × 5 mm2 heated area with 25 parallel 75 × 150 μm2 microchannels, where the fluid is distributed by a 3D-manifold with four microconduits of 700 × 250 μm2. Heat is applied to the silicon heat sink using electrical Joule-heating in a metal serpentine bridge and the heated surface temperature is monitored in real-time by infrared (IR) camera and electrical resistance thermometry. The maximum and average temperatures of the chip, pressure drop, thermal resistance, and average heat transfer coefficient (HTC) are reported for flow rates of 0.1, 0.2. 0.3, and 0.37 L/min and heat fluxes from 25 to 300 W/cm2. The proposed embedded microchannels-3D manifold cooler, or EMMC, device is capable of removing 300 W/cm2 at maximum temperature 80 °C with pressure drop of less than 30 kPa, where the flow rate, inlet temperature, and pressures are 0.37 L/min, 25 °C and 350 kPa, respectively. The experimental uncertainties of the test results are estimated, and the uncertainties are the highest for heat fluxes < 50 W/cm2 due to difficulty in precisely measuring the fluid temperature at the inlet and outlet of the microcooler.


The degradation of dopamine by monoamine oxidase (MAO) enzymes plays an important role in the function of dopamine receptors in the central nervous system. Accordingly, it has already been reported that the blockade of MAO by specific inhibitors prolongs the effects of dopamine on its receptors. By using intracellular electrophysiological recordings, here we report that the irreversible MAO A and B inhibitor tranylcypromine, but not the reversible MAO A inhibitor moclobemide, potentiates DA responses in rat midbrain dopaminergic neurones maintained in vitro. Moclobemide was not effective even when the MAO B enzymes were additionally blocked by the MAOI deprenyl. Thus, our electrophysiological findings confirm that the degradation DA is very important to control the effects of this catecholamine at a cellular level. Furthermore, they demonstrate that tranylcypromine potentiates DA neurotransmission while moclobemide is devoid of dopaminergic action in an in vitro condition. The phenomena reported above support the hypothesis that part of the antidepressant and antiparkinsonian effects of tranylcypromine depend on an action on DA transmission. Synapse 37:216–221, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The reactivity of different gold‐based catalysts has been examined and re‐discussed on the basis of the most recent literature data, mainly looking at the characterization data obtained by FTIR spectroscopy and HRTEM microscopy. In particular, the CO oxidation reactions at 90 K and at room temperature have been discussed. By comparing samples with different gold particle sizes and different supports it has been deduced that the sites responsible for the adsorption and the reactive activation of CO and O2 are the gold edge sites, in proximity to the support oxygen‐vacancy defects. These defects may produce electron‐rich gold atoms, which may be relevant for oxygen activation and dissociation. As for the water–gas shift reaction, an important role of support sites at the borderline with the gold sites, where water and CO in mutual interaction may be activated, has been proposed. Moreover, a role of oxygen adsorbed on gold particles near oxygen vacancies of the support in the oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol and in the furfural oxidative esterification has been discussed. All the above summarized points confirm the importance of the dual perimeter sites in the catalytic activity of gold catalysts.


In this paper, a procedure to design a class of coupled systems that exhibit complex behaviours is presented. The proposed method is rigorously and systematically applicable to any dynamic system with nonlinear polynomial elements. Starting from two identical nonlinear algebraic systems, the proposed approach determines a proper bidirectional coupling that is able to force the coupled systems to exhibit complex behaviours. The coupling strength permits to control bifurcations of the system, i.e., to move through different regions of the parameter space, characterized by different complex behaviours of the system. Among the analyzed complex phenomena (generalized synchronization, blowout bifurcation, on-off intermittency and hyperchaos) a particular relevance is given to hyperchaotic behaviour. Moreover the basic design principle is demonstrated by means of proper examples.


Dexmedetomidine (DEX) induces a dose dependent sedation and has been widely used as an adjuvant sedative during regional anesthesia recently. We aimed to investigate the effective dose of intravenous single-dose DEX to induce consciousness inhibition in patients of different ages undergoing lower limb surgery with epidural anesthesia. Ninety-two patients were divided into three groups according to their ages. Patients aged 18-45 years, 46-64 years and 65-85 years in group Y, group M and group O, respectively. With the accomplishment of epidural anesthesia, a pre-calculated dose of DEX was infused for more than 10 minutes and the sedative state was assessed by Observer's Assessment of Alertness/Sedation (OAA/S) scale 30 minutes after the infusion. A modified Dixon's up-and-down method was applied to decided the dose of DEX for each sequential patient. The 50% effective dose (ED50) of DEX in the three groups were 0.40, 0.76 and 1.03 μg/kg, respectively. The 95% effective dose (ED95) in group O (0.54 μg/kg) was 45% of group Y (1.21μg/kg) and 64% of group M (0.84μg/kg). Besides, the incidence of bradycardia was more frequent with the increase of age. The present study indicated that the appropriate single-dose of DEX to induce consciousness inhibition should reduce with the increase of age in patients undering lower limb surgery with epidural anesthesia, especially in patients over 64 years old. This result may protect the old patients from excessive sedation and dose-dependent adverse reactions.


Abstract The past 30-strong years has seen remarkable achievements that both Poland and China have made in Doctoral Education along different paths though. Drawing on policy research and extensive data, this paper sets out to examine the transformations of doctor education across the two countries within these intervening years. It is found that the changes in Poland were mainly influenced by the political transitions, its integration with European education system, and particularly the Bologna Process while China's educational reform was amenable to the national economic policy and the government behavior. As regards the prospect of doctoral education, the two countries have both common grounds and differences. Poland and China will have more diversified structure in doctoral education, pay closer attention to STEM discipline's developments as well as external and intermediary assessment in quality control. Also, the managements of doctoral programs in two countries will be characterized by further decentralization of government and internationalization of education. In the next few years, however, the scale of China's doctoral education will remain at the current level or even expand modestly, whereas that of Poland's doctoral education is likely to shrink due to the population decline.


The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of how issues on sexuality are captured by the World Banks economic rationality producing a sanitised discourse which through its silences further contributes to a normalised view of sexuality. Given the Banks authority to determine what kinds of health and development programmes are established in the developing world it is in a unique position to influence approaches to issues of gender and sexuality. An analysis of the Banks documents reveals however that rather than addressing these fundamental components of some of the most pressing health emergencies of our time its economic rationality and technocratic viewpoint has effectively silenced and sanitised the discourse on sexuality thereby limiting what sexuality and gender-related issues can be tackled in the context of Bank sponsored programmes and constraining efforts to advance fundamental sexual rights. Nevertheless unexpected and paradoxical results may arise from that process which thus does not necessarily lead to the furthering of a comprehensive conservative agenda. (authors)


Although the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has an extensive hydrographic network, its urban development, since the beginning of the 20th century until recently, has been performed disregarding the potential and the need for integration with the water in its natural form. In fact, the urbanization exploited the hydric potential of the city and through public works, such as the creation of expressways on the margins of the rivers Pinheiros e Tiete since 1968, has transformed drastically the dimensions, the course and the original flow of the rivers. The city resulting from this process has generated dissatisfaction on several fronts and, as a response to this, both in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, various initiatives emerged to bring together the water, the city and the citizens. With the purpose of highlighting some movements of reconnection between the city and the urban rivers as a manifestation of the subversive citizenship and the struggle for the right to the city, this text contains three parts. First, a succinct theoretical framework. Second, a brief contextualization of the hydrography and the urbanization of Sao Paulo. Third, a presentation of a series of projects developed with the intention of reconnecting the people and the city with the rivers, organized by field of action, followed by the conclusions.


Organic thin film field-effect transistors based on pentacene have been fabricated by the method of fully-evaporation. The present device with a thin insulator layer can operate in low voltage, and shows ambipolar mode. In the case of the p-channel, the field-effect hole mobility was calculated to be 0.17 cm2/Vs, whereas the field-effect electron mobility was about 0.02 cm2/Vs for n-channel.


This paper reports a groundbreaking approach for simultaneous hydrogen production and storage that entails catalysis, electrochemistry, surface science, and materials synthesis. A novel electrocatalytic system is developed based on nickel nanocolumnar films of controlled microstructure prepared on K-βAl2O3 solid electrolyte supports by oblique angle physical vapor deposition. The outstanding characteristics of this system are a hydrogen storage capacity of up to 19 g of H2 (100 g of Ni)−1, which is unparalleled in the literature and the possibility of controlling its release electrochemically, under fixed mild conditions (280 °C and normal pressure). H2 is produced in situ by methanol steam re-forming on the Ni catalyst, and it spills over onto graphene oxide aggregates formed during the catalytic process, as confirmed by SEM, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy. The proposed storage mechanism considers a synergetic contribution of both Ni and graphene oxide, promoted by K+ ions, in enhancing the hydrogen storag...


Grades and inspections govern the marketing of agricultural commodities. Federal legislation created the marketing institutions, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when national markets were emerging. Three commodities – fresh produce (fruit and vegetables), grains, and meat – all rely on similar institutions, suggesting they serve a similar role in each market. Tracing the events prior to the legislation of inspection for the three product groups reveals that disputes over quality in transactions between buyers and sellers were present in the fruit and vegetable and grain markets, while transactions along the meat marketing chain were not subject to such disputes. Evidence suggests that the institutions performed the same functions in the fruit and vegetable and grain sectors (solve quality problems), while meat inspections served different purposes that varied over time. As contracts and vertically coordinated market channels become more common in the fresh produce and grain industries, reputation effects will likely be able to enforce contracts, reducing the need for inspection. Meat inspection most likely will continue to be required to ensure sanitation and safety of the meat supply.


Qualitative phytochemical and elemental analysis and acute toxicity studies of aqueous extract from leaves of Calotropis procera were carried out using standard procedures. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of carbohydrate, tannins, cardiac glycoside, flavonoids, terpenoid, saponin and saponin glycoside. Elemental analysis revealed the presence of various elements such as Copper lead, nickel, chromium, cadmium, iron and zinc at various concentrations of 0.000335 %, 0.00005 %, 0.000027 %, 0.000014 %, 0.00024 %, 0.00024 % and 0.000022 % respectively. Acute toxicity (LD50) test using the extract in albino rats was calculated to be 774 mg/kg body weight. This finding can explain the beneficial medicinal value of this plant at low doses and toxicity at high doses.


This study is an analysis of staff turnover rates in the optometric industry, with particular focus on independent optometric practices. The reason for this focus is that these optometrists and other interested parties, such as staff recruitment agencies and training consultants that operate within the industry, perceive staff turnover to be high. When frontline staff resign, optometrists usually cannot pinpoint the reasons for the resignations as no formal exit interviews are performed. Additionally, since practices operate independently, to date no collective effort has been made to find specific reasons for the perceived high staff turnover. As a result, no data on staff turnover figures and reasons for staff turnover in the industry are available. Consequently, the optometrists cannot assess the risks and costs involved when employees leave. This study begins with an assessment of the staff turnover rates over a five year period in the optometric industry, and evaluates whether these turnover rates are in fact high. Thereafter, it sets out to determine if there are any common reasons for the staff turnover and whether or not a gap exists between management's perception and the actual reasons for staff leaving the optometric practice. Lastly, recommendations are given on an appropriate retention strategy that will be appropriate for the optometric industry. In order to attain the objectives of the study, an initial literature review was undertaken on the general concept of staff turnover, the costs of staff turnover, the calculation thereof, the reasons for employees leaving an organisation and the reasons for employees choosing to remain with an organisation. A second literature review was done on the importance of staff retention, as well as the responsibility for managing the retention of staff. This literature review was done to serve as a basis for recommending an effective retention strategy for optometrists who are struggling with high staff turnover rates.


The process of learning and achievements at school depends on the types of activities selected at pre-school level. Unfortunately, it is often to find out that introduction of writing and reading is among the most common activities in pre-school institutions all over the world. According to historical and cultural conception of development, artistic and creative activities are useful and helpful at pre-school age. The goal of the article is to show the efficiency of original program for initial introduction of drawing actions at pre-school age. The original program for gradual formation of drawing by stages was applied in private college in Puebla (Mexico). The program included three stages and worked as joint activities in groups of pre-scholars of three grades. After program application children showed qualitative positive achievements in graphic representations of objects, spatial orientation, number of drawings and of essential features of represented real and imaginary objects and situations. We conclude that drawing is extremely useful activity for preparation for school and introducing space orientation on perceptive level. Our program may be used in pre-school institutions in order to guarantee required level psychological development at pre-school age.


Nowadays, many environmental issues are of concern as a result of conventional energy resources utilization in addition to a rise in energy costs dependent on the rapid consumption of resources. Therefore, sustainability is an important term for the utilization of energy resources. The aviation industry is known to be responsible for 3% of total CO 2 emissions concerning global warming. This forces us to investigate the aviation industry, specifically   gas turbine aero-engines. Gas turbine aero-engines, working according to the principles of thermodynamics, similar to other energy conversion and generation systems can be evaluated using the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Integrated employment of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, namely exergy analysis, is an effective method for performance evaluation. Additionally, exergo-sustainability also yields beneficial results. In the framework of the current paper, ecological function is defined for a simple gas turbine aero-engine, while exergo-sustainability assessment methodology is also explained. Exergy efficiency of the compressor, combustor, gas turbine and nozzle, as components of a gas turbine aero-engine, is found to be 91.58%, 57.41%, 97.96%, and 61.25%, respectively. On the other hand, the sustainability measures of the evaluated gas turbine aero-engine in order of exergy efficiency, waste exergy ratio, recoverable exergy rate, exergy destruction factor, environmental effect factor and sustainability index are calculated to be 0.28, 0.71, 0.00, 0.69, 2.45, and 0.40, respectively whereas the ecological function is found to be -8732.21 kW.


Karyological studies have been investigated within 8 native Anatolian populations of oriental spruce (Picea orientalis (L.) Link) in Turkey. The somatic chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 24 has been observed in all accessions. The karyotypes are generally asymmetrical with most of the chromosomes having median to median-submedian centromeres. Inter-population variability of the karyotype was summarized with cluster analysis. We found that the karyotypes have positively correlated with the altitudes of the natural habitats. The high value of karyotype asymmetry may be attributed to both microenvironment and natural regeneration methods used in oriental spruce.


BACKGROUND: Validation and verification of multibody musculoskeletal models sEMG is a difficult process because of the reliability of sEMG data and the complex relationship of muscle force and sEMG. OBJECTIVE: This work aims at comparing experimentally recorded and simulated muscle activities considering a numerical model for crosstalk. METHODS: For providing an experimentally derived reference data set, subjects were performing elevations of the arm, where the activities of the contemplated muscle groups were measured by sEMG sensors. Computed muscle activities were further processed and transformed into an artificial electromyographical signal, which includes a numerical crosstalk model. In order to determine whether the crosstalk model provides a better agreement with the measured muscle activities, the Pearson correlation coefficient has been computed as a qualitative way of assessing the curve progression of the data sets. RESULTS: The results show an improvement in the correlation coefficient between the experimental data and the simulated muscle activities when taking crosstalk into account. CONCLUSIONS: Although the correlation coefficient increased when the crosstalk model was utilized, it is questionable if the discretization of both, the crosstalk and the musculoskeletal model, is accurate enough.