In this paper we present a real-time dance visualization framework with the goal of easily mapping motion data from an accelerometer and a gyroscope into visual effects that users can compose and appropriate to their own dancing style. We used this framework to design a set of dance-tovisuals mappings through a user-centered approach. As a result, we conclude with a list of factors that help users to understand how to interact with a real-time dance visualization with no prior instructions.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of reading comprehension scores in a second-grade classroom where reading instruction was provided using the traditional Directed Reading Approach (DRA), to the reading comprehension scores in a second-grade classroom where reading instruction was provided using the Directed Reading Thinking Activity approach. Much of the reading instruction being provided in elementary schools across the country is textbook-centered. Teachers typically use the textbook questions suggested in the teacher's edition of the book to check for students' understanding of the text. Rarely, however, are students actually being instructed in the strategies and skills necessary to comprehend what they have read. Since reading text with comprehension is the main goal of reading instruction, teachers must instruct students in how to build comprehension through the direct instruction of comprehension strategies. Research has shown that effective reading comprehension instruction involves both the teachers and the students in an active, on-going pursuit of meaning construction. Unfortunately, traditional, text-centered classrooms do not provide direct instruction in the very skills and strategies necessary for students to leam how to comprehend text. Reading experts agree that a systematic and research-based instructional approach that directly and explicitly teaches students the skills/strategies necessary to comprehend text is necessary if students are to comprehend what they read. The DRTA strategy is one such approach, built around the core components of direct, explicit reading comprehension instruction.


We evaluate the empirical relevance of de facto vs. de jure determinants of political power in the U.S. South between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. We apply a variety of estimation techniques to a previously unexploited dataset on voter registration by race covering the counties of Mississ ippi in 1896, shortly after the introduction of the 1890 voting restrictions encoded in the state constitution. Our results indicate that de jure voting restrictions reduce black registration but that black disfranchisement starts well before 1890 and is more intense where a black majority represents a threat to the de facto power of white elites. Moreover, the effect of race becomes stronger after 1890 suggesting that the de jure barriers may have served the purpose of institutionalizing a de facto condition of disfranchisement.


Beginning of the twentieth century was marked by coinage of a new rock name, Charnockite, first described as a hypersthene-bearing granite from Southern India. Since then charnockites have been described from most of the conti-nents and mostly restricted to high-grade belts. Later half of the last century saw a lively debate over an igneous versus metamorphic origin. However, two factors acted as deterrents for the resolution of the debate. First, charnockites and associated rocks occur in a variety of different structural setting and display diverse field rela-tions, attesting to possible different mode of origin. Second and possibly more important is the lack of consensus on the nomenclature of charnockites and associated rocks and this is commonly linked with the metamorphic versus magmatic perspective. Scanning the literature of this period makes one believe that both metamorphic and magmatic hypotheses are valid, but applicable to different field setting only. Before critically evaluating individual cases, it is imperative that a uniform approach in nomenclature should be agreed upon. It is proposed that name charnockite be adopted for any quartzofeldspathic rock with orthopyroxene, irrespective of its mode of occurrence, struc-tural setting and mode of origin. The associated more mafic varieties, be better described as mafic granulite, rather than basic charnockite. For the patchy charnockites of east Gondwana (including parts of Peninsular India, Sri Lanka and Antarctica), metamorphic transformation from amphibolite facies gneiss, by two different mechanisms: CO2 ingress from deep level, and drop in fluid pressure, has been proposed. However, all such patchy occurrence is not amenable to explanation by metamorphic trans- formation. In some instances, migmatisation of older charnockitic rocks is evident. Also pro-
gressive charnockitisation relating patchy char-nockite to banded variety could be argued against on two counts: grain-size relation and time-relation. Larger bodies or bands have been explained as magmatic, but in many instances, from geochemical consideration alone. The compositional variation, commonly encoun-tered in many high-grade belts, if not described in terms of field relation, may lead to wrong no-tions of magmatic differentiation of mantle-de- rived melts. Crustal melting of dry granulite fa-cies source rocks has been proposed from geochemical and isotopic data of charnockitic intrusions. This model proposes high-tempera-ture melting of previously dehydrated and dry granulite source rocks. However, tectonic per-turbation subsequent to granulite facies meta-morphism that might have been responsible for such high temperatures, is not well constrained in this model. Finally, with advent of high- pressure dehydration-melting experiments in the nineties, dehydration-melting of mafic to intermediate composition, syn-kinematic with granulite facies metamorphism has been pro-posed.


Noonan syndrome (NS) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by facial anomalies, short stature, chest deformity, congenital heart diseases, and other comorbidities. The challenges faced during anesthetic management of patients with NS could be due to congenital heart diseases, hemostatic disorders, and airway anomalies. Here we describe dental treatment under general anesthesia performed for a 28-year-old man with NS. He had characteristic features of NS along with mild pulmonary valve stenosis. Dental treatment under general anesthesia was performed successfully on 13 occasions with nasotracheal intubation under curve-tipped suction catheter guidance or insertion of a reinforced laryngeal mask airway. This case suggests that for patients with NS, who might present several challenges, dental anesthesiologists should consider the extent of the patient's disorders to enable them to perform dental treatment safely under general anesthesia.


Rapid advances in our ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate information are transforming public administration. This "big data" revolution presents opportunities for improving the management of public programs, but it also entails some risks. In addition to potentially magnifying well-known problems with public sector performance management—particularly the problem of goal displacement—the widespread dissemination of administrative data and performance information increasingly enables external political actors to peer into and evaluate the administration of public programs. The latter trend is consequential because external actors may have little sense of the validity of performance metrics and little understanding of the policy priorities they capture. The author illustrates these potential problems using recent research on U.S. primary and secondary education and suggests that public administration scholars could help improve governance in the data-rich future by informing the development and dissemination of organizational report cards that better capture the value that public agencies deliver.


This is a report of six patients with serpentine nerve roots found in 15 examples of near-block in 110 consecutive myelograms. None of the other myelograms showed such serpentine roots and some degree of obstruction appears necessary for their formation, leading to intermittent stretching of the nerve roots over large spurs and gradual advancement of the nerve root to a higher level. Serpentine roots are not to be confused with other lesions such as arteriovenous malformations. In patients with a high degree of block, serpentine roots are probably relatively common when investigated by methods such as those used here.


Introduction
 Follicular lymphoma (FL) has a highly variable clinical course. Chemoimmunotherapy can induce durable remissions, but ~20% relapse early. The PI3K pathway is central to FL biology and multiple PI3K inhibitors (PI3Ki) are approved for FL, but the molecular profile of tumors most sensitive to PI3Ki is unknown. Further, PI3Ki are dosed indefinitely which contributes to toxicity and cost. Copanlisib is an IV inhibitor of PI3Kα and δ isoforms with high activity in relapsed FL. We hypothesized that patients with FL tumors most sensitive to PI3Ki will achieve deep and durable remissions after a fixed duration of copanlisib-based therapy. Here we report preliminary results of a response-adapted study using copanlisib and rituximab as frontline therapy for FL.
 Methods
 Pts with untreated grade 1-2, 3A FL, ≥stage 2, and any tumor burden are eligible if they meet criteria for need of systemic therapy that includes symptoms, increasing size of nodes, critical organ involvement, or impending organ compromise. No prior systemic therapy other than radiation is permitted. Frozen or archival tissue is required. Eligibility includes age ≥18 and adequate organ function unless involved by FL. Active HIV, CMV, Hep B or C, and autoimmune conditions requiring therapy are excluded. All pts receive PCP prophylaxis. Pts first receive copanlisib 60mg on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day window to test activity of monotherapy. On-treatment tumor biopsies are optional after the window. Following the window, pts receive 6 cycles of copanlisib 60mg on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28 day cycle along with rituximab 375mg weekly x 4 then on day 1 of each cycle. Streck tubes for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are collected weekly during the window, after each cycle, and during surveillance. FDG-PET and CT scans are performed at baseline, after the window, and after cycles 3 and 6 to determine response. Patients with complete response (CR) after 6 cycles stop therapy. Patients with partial response (PR) after 6 cycles receive another 6 cycles of combination therapy with the copanlisib reduced to day 1 and 15 of each cycle. Non-responding patients will receive standard chemotherapy. The primary endpoint is the overall rate of CR with secondary endpoints of safety and duration of CR. Exploratory objectives include identification of a signature that predicts PI3Ki response.
 Results
 Ten pts have been enrolled and completed the copanlisib window. Median age was 50y (range, 28-77) including 3 (30%) over age 70. Seven (70%) pts had high-risk FLIPI scores ≥3 and two (20%) pts had Grade 3A FL. Comorbid conditions included prediabetes in 4 (40%) and hypertension in 4 (40%). All 10 (100%) pts had tumor reductions during copanlisib monotherapy with a median reduction of 41% (range 16-62%) (Figure 1). Four pts have completed 6 cycles of copanlisib and rituximab and all 4 (100%) have responded including 2 (50%) who achieved CR. In the two pts who achieved a PR after 6 cycles, one had a 90% tumor reduction and one had only persistent minimal residual disease in the bone marrow by flow cytometry. Toxicity was evaluated in 10 pts across 58 cycles and the most common have included rash (50%), diarrhea (50%) and mucositis (40%) which have all been G1 or G2 and successfully managed with supportive care and did not recur with subsequent cycles. One pt developed grade 3 neutropenia that responded to growth factors and did not recur. Four pts had dose delays due to rash (N=3) and lung infection (N=1). One pt had copanlisib reduced to 45mg due to recurrent rash and elevated liver tests. No pt has discontinued therapy. One pt required oral diabetic medications during therapy that were stopped after therapy completed. One pt had asymptomatic PCP pneumonia diagnosed during the copanlisib window prior to starting prophylaxis that was successfully treated while therapy continued.
 Conclusion
 Copanlisib is highly active in untreated FL and the first 10 (100%) patients all had tumor reductions after the first cycle of copanlisib monotherapy, including patients with high tumor bulk. Combination of copanlisib and rituximab can induce complete responses after only 6 cycles and without indefinite therapy. The safety profile includes rash and diarrhea that respond to supportive care and lessen on subsequent cycles. Updated clinical results from this ongoing trial (NCT03789240) along with the molecular profile of FL tumors will be presented at the meeting.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The sequencing of the entire human genome has opened up unprecedented possibilities for healthcare, but also ethical and social dilemmas about how these can be achieved, particularly in developing countries. This thesis examines two of the several international responses these dilemmas have spawned: the suite of declarations on genetics and bioethics adopted between 1997 and 2005 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Global Genomics Initiative proposed by the Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (TJCB). Through these initiatives, UNESCO and TJCB hope to promote the ethical governance of genetic and biomedical research, which is often conducted on an international basis. The thesis draws on interview, documentary and observational data, collected in Kenya and South Africa and from UNESCO, to assess the actual and potential efficacy of these two governance mechanisms, in terms of protecting individual research participants and reducing inequalities of health between North and South. It analyses the negotiation and subsequent implementation of the UNESCO declarations at international and national levels and the plans to date for the Global Genomics Initiative. Using as a conceptual framework particular branches of international relations theory concerned with global governance-namely regime theory, networked governance and cosmopolitan democracy-the thesis finds that determining where the balance of power between different actors should lie and, moreover, how this balance can be achieved is complex and difficult in international decision-making fora. Furthermore, the effective implementation of any regulations, policies or programmes there decided upon requires co-ordination among different sectors and organisations, across international and national levels. The thesis concludes that the UNESCO declarations on genetics and bioethics might provide a means to effect such a system of governance, if supported by networks of stakeholders both within and between states, perhaps through the proposed GGI.


Robust evidence of the effectiveness of interventions relating to policy, practice, and organisation of healthcare often comes from well conducted cluster randomised trials. Such trials are, however, prone to recruitment bias depending on whether participants are recruited before the randomisation of clusters and whether the recruiter is blinded to the allocation status. In most cases, participants and trial staff cannot be blinded to the intervention, which might lead to performance and detection bias. Unfortunately, cluster trial reports often do not provide a clear description of the timing of trial processes and blinding, and these aspects are not covered by current reporting tools. This article proposes a graphical tool depicting the time sequence of steps and blinding status in cluster randomised trials. The tool might be helpful at both the protocol and the report writing stages to clarify the process and to help identify potential bias in cluster randomised trials.


Quantum dots exhibit rich and complex electronic structure that makes them ideal for studying the basic physics of semiconductors in the intermediate regime between bulk materials and single atoms. The remarkable nonlinear optical properties of these nanostructures make them strong candidates for photonics applications. Here, we experimentally probe changes in the fine structure on ultrafast timescales of a colloidal solution of PbS quantum dots through their nonlinear optical response despite extensive inhomogeneous spectral broadening. Using continuum excitation and detection, we observe electronic coupling between nearly degenerate exciton states split by intervalley scattering at low exciton occupancy and a sub-100 fs frequency shift presumably due to phonon-assisted transitions. At high excitation intensities, we observe multi-exciton effects and sharp absorbance bands indicative of exciton-exciton coupling. Our experiments directly probe the nonlinear optical response of nearly degenerate quantum confined nanostructures with femtosecond temporal resolution despite extensive line broadening caused by the finite size distribution found in colloidal solutions.


Kalecki identifies demand restraint in industrialised and capital restraint in developing countries as the decisive barriers of world-wide growth. Thus, beyond others, it is a matter of financing to foster employment in both types of countries: a rational use of credit money on the international scale could finance additional imports of capital goods by developing countries, whereas industrialised countries could increase their output by trade balance surpluses. This question has been largely debated under various aspects, from the Stamp plan (1958) to the programme of the Commission on International Development Issues (1980). Even if this debate has been superseded by questions of the process and the institutions by which capital is allocated, of the appropriate business management and screening and monitoring, declining growth rates in the last twenty years show that the basic issue of production and distribution of additional real capital remains at stake. Besides institutional obstacles, capital restraint still remains the main bottleneck for development. Basic questions as how to create and use world-wide credit money has to be reconsidered instead of taking backfiring actions to manage actual financial crises. Additional international money supply by planned trade balance deficits of developing countries contributes to world-wide growth, whereas trade balance deficits of the United States are likely to prepare the next financial crises by an excessively increasing dollar supply. A revival of the debate of how to link SDR's and development financing surely requires to tackle a great number of additional questions, such as how to allocate trade balance deficits and surpluses and how to ensure the acceptance of this world credit money. All in all, it would be a serious attempt to break the money away from the handing down tradition and to transform it into a rationale by abstract reasons and well-founded instrument for economic development.


Advances in image processing and computer vision in the latest years have brought about the use of visual features in artwork recommendation. Recent works have shown that visual features obtained from pre-trained deep neural networks (DNNs) perform extremely well for recommending digital art. Other recent works have shown that explicit visual features (EVF) based on attractiveness can perform well in preference prediction tasks, but no previous work has compared DNN features versus specific attractiveness-based visual features (e.g. brightness, texture) in terms of recommendation performance. In this work, we study and compare the performance of DNN and EVF features for the purpose of physical artwork recommendation using transactional data from UGallery, an online store of physical paintings. In addition, we perform an exploratory analysis to understand if DNN embedded features have some relation with certain EVF. Our results show that DNN features outperform EVF, that certain EVF features are more suited for physical artwork recommendation and, finally, we show evidence that certain neurons in the DNN might be partially encoding visual features such as brightness, providing an opportunity for explaining recommendations based on visual neural models.


A new, compact and wide-band Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulator is presented for remote sensing applications. The microstrip-based modulator employs quadrature hybrid coupler, Wilkinson divider, rat race coupler and GaAs MESFET switches. It is designed to be part of an X band remote sensing transmitter with a center frequency of 8.25GHz. The fabricated module demonstrates the lowest reported amplitude and phase imbalances (0.1dB and 0.4° respectively) around its center frequency. The modulation, tested up to 160 Mbps data rate, displays carrier suppression greater than 30 dB. With negligible DC power consumption and low insertion loss, it operates for a wide bandwidth of 3 GHz (7-10 GHz). The effect of amplitude and phase imbalance is investigated on the performance of the modulator. Finally, a transmitter employing this modulator exhibits an excellent overall Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) of around 8 % that is considerably low as compared to the typically obtained values for such transmitters.


—By reconfiguring the propagation environment of electromagnetic waves artificially, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have been regarded as a promising and revolutionary hardware technology to improve the energy and spectrum efficiency of wireless networks. In this paper, we study a RIS aided multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless power transfer (WPT) system, where the transmitter is equipped with a constant-envelope analog beamformer. First, we maximize the total received power of the users by jointly optimizing the beamformer at transmitter and the phase-shifts at the RIS, and propose two alternating optimization based suboptimal solutions by leveraging the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and the successive convex approximation (SCA) techniques respectively. Then, considering the user fairness, we formulate another problem to maximize the total received power subject to the users' individual minimum received power constraints. A low complexity iterative algorithm based on both alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and SCA techniques is proposed to solve this problem. In the case of multiple users, we further analyze the asymptotic performance as the number of RIS elements approaches infinity, and bound the performance loss caused by RIS phase quantization. Numerical results show the correctness of the analysis results and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.


The effect of etiolation on phenol content and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity at the preculture stage and on post-culture phenolic exudation and explant survival was studied in shoot tips of eight mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivars, viz., Amrapali, Mallika, Langra, Bhadauran, Tommy Atkins, Eldon, Sensation, and Alphonso. Etiolation treatment resulted in marked decline in PPO activity and phenol content at the pre-culture stage and phenolic exudation at the postculture stage, which in turn increased the explant survival in Murashige and Skoog's culture medium. Etiolated shoots had low PPO activity (0.496 ?A400 g-1 min-1) and phenol content (11.19 mg g-1 fresh tissue wt) at the pre-culture stage, exuded a smaller amount of phenols into the culture medium, and had higher explant survival (36.1%) compared to non-etiolated shoots, which had higher PPO activity (1.081 ?A400 g-1 min-1) and phenolic content (18.27 mg g-1 fresh tissue wt), exuded a greater amount of phenols into the medium (0.250 mg mLmedium), and had low survival of explants (7.7%). Among the cultivars, Bhadauran exhibited the highest PPO activity (1.468 ?A400 g-1 min-1) and phenol content (27.74 mg g-1 fresh tissue wt), exuded the greatest amount of phenols into the culture medium (0.340 mg mL-1 of medium), and had the minimum explant survival (3.4%) in contrast to Tommy Atkins, which exhibited the lowest PPO activity (0.582 ?A400 g-1 min-1) and phenol content (8.17 mg g-1 fresh tissue wt), exuded the smallest amount of phenols into the medium (0.095 mg mL-1 of medium), and had the highest explant survival (38.6%). Explant survival, in general, was very high (59.0%) initially (3rd day after culture initiation) but declined drastically thereafter to 0.9% after the 21st day of culture. The interactions between etiolation x cultivar, etiolation x time, cultivar x time, and etiolation x cultivar x time, were significant for explant survival. A strong positive correlation existed between PPO activity and phenol exudation (r = 0.912) and phenol content and exudation (r = 0.892), whereas the correlations between PPO activity and explant survival (r = -0.872) and phenol content and explant survival (r = -0.899) were strongly negative.


In order to revisit the application of conflict of interest principles to legal services practice, this article employs a survey of legal services providers. In addition to setting a context for discussion by determining the nature of the conflicts most frequently encountered by legal services offices, the survey resulted in two significant findings. First, the legal services client who is denied representation due to a conflict of interest most often is left without any source of representation. Second, the conflicts that most frequently lead to the denial of representation of the indigent client often do not involve any actual prejudice to the client. Building upon the findings of the survey, this article argues that the presumption of prejudice inherent in conflict principles serves to unnecessarily deny the legal services client access to the only available source of representation. It examines and compares the interests involved in the legal services attorney-client relationship to that involved in the for-profit attorney client relationship. That examination shows that the lack of pecuniary interests of the legal services attorney, when coupled with the unique interest of the legal services client in representation from the only available source, makes the presumptions of prejudice necessary for the protection of the for-profit client unnecessary and therefore inappropriate to the legal services attorney-client relationship. Consequently, this article argues that, in the legal services context, the application of conflict of interest principles should be based upon a standard of actual prejudice rather than on the present presumption of prejudice standard. This article also will address the arguments of courts and commentators who have claimed that a different application of conflict of interest principles in legal services would result in an unacceptable compromise of client interests.


Poor and inadequate glycemic control among patients with Type 2 diabetes constitutes a major public health problem and major risk factor for development of diabetes complications. In clinical practice, optimal glycemic control is difficult to obtain because the reasons for poor glycemic control in Type 2 diabetes are complex. This study aims to determine Acute glycemic level and its association with physical activity recommendations adherence among type 2 diabetic patients in Illubabor zone southwest, Ethiopia. Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 19 to May 19, 2018. Among 422 diabetic patients attending regular follow up at government health facilities in illuababor zone, southwest Ethiopia, participants were selected using systematic random sampling method.Data were collected using interview administered semi structured questionnaires; FBS was used to determine patient's glycemic control level. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the independent predictor's of diabetic patient's Acute glycemic control level. In the current, study nearly two third (64.5%) of respondents had poor (inadequate) Acute glycemic control. While 51.8 and 38% of participants were non adherence to dietary and physical activity recommendations respectively. Patients Acute  glycemic control was significantly affected by patients occupational status [AOR=0.39 (0.22-0.68)], family history of DM [AOR=0.34 (0.18-0.62)], presence of co-morbidities [AOR= 3.72(1.39-9.94)], and physical activity adherence [AOR=0.46 (0.28-0.75)]. High proportion of diabetic patients had poor Acute glycemic control. Patient's occupational status, family history of DM, presence of co morbidities, physical activity adherence was an independent predictors of diabetic patient's Acute glycemic control. Early identification and management of co-morbidities and delivery of focused health information physical activity recommendations should be strengthened.

 Key words: Adherence, diabetic, glycemic level, Illuababor.


Smart textiles based on actuator materials are of practical interest, but few types have been commercially exploited. The challenge for researchers has been to bring the concept out of the laboratory by working out how to build these smart materials on an industrial scale and permanently incorporate them into textiles. Smart textiles are considered as the next frontline for electronics. Recent developments in advance technologies have led to the appearance of wearable electronics by fabricating, miniaturizing and embedding flexible conductive materials into textiles. The combination of textiles and smart materials have contributed to the development of new capabilities in fabrics with the potential to change how athletes, patients, soldiers, first responders, and everyday consumers interact with their clothes and other textile products. Actuating textiles in particular, have the potential to provide a breakthrough to the area of smart textiles in many ways. The incorporation of actuating materials in to textiles is a striking approach as a small change in material anisotropy properties can be converted into significant performance enhancements, due to the densely interconnected structures. Herein, the most recent advances in smart materials based on actuating textiles are reviewed. The use of novel emerging twisted synthetic yarns, conducting polymers, hybrid carbon nanotube and spandex yarn actuators, as well as most of the cutting–edge polymeric actuators which are deployed as smart textiles are discussed.


The nematicidal activity of mustard plant against hatching, migration and mortality of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica was investigated. In vitro test confirmed that mixing the sandy clay soil mixture with mustard as 4% as a biofumigant significantly reduce the percentage of egg hatching at all different incubation periods 24, 48, 72, 96 and 168 h, compared to control treatment (un-amended mixture soil and eggs in free water). Results indicate that the percentage of egg hatching reduction was 88.5, 90, 81.4, 74 and 69.4%, respectively. Mustard mixed with soil as a biofumigant led to high percentage of larval mortality at the different intervals periods in vitro. The percentage of larval mortality was 94, 100, 90.5, 90.5, and 79.4%, respectively compared to control. Laboratory results confirmed that the highest reduction in egg hatching and larval mortality was obtained after incubation period for 48 h. In vivo experiment reveals that the incorporation of the soil pots with mustard at all different doses used 3, 5% (48 h before nematode inoculation, or soil infestation with nematode), and 5% (one week before nematode inoculation or 7% of soil weight) significantly reduces all the nematode parameters compared to plant treated nematode alone. All nematode parameters i.e. the number of galls per root system, gall index, number of egg masses per root system, as well as number of juveniles per 250g soil showed high reduction with mixing the soil pots with mustard at 5% (one week before nematode inoculation), followed by the same treatment for 48h before nematode inoculation. Mustard application, one week before nematode inoculation, reduced the nematode parameters by 97, 64, 97, and 93%, respectively, compared to control. The percent of chemical components i.e. total sugars, total amino acids and total phenols were markedly enhanced compared to positive and negative control. The highest percentage was obtained with mustard at 5% one week before nematode inoculation by 68.7, 57.3 and 45%, respectively. Finally, we have to conclude that this modified technology is an innovative and can be used efficiently to control Root-knot nematode under organic agriculture and Global GAP agricultural systems instead of these carcinogenic nematicides. Key words:  Biofumigation; Mustard; Root-knot nematode; Meloidogyne spp.; Tomato  Data of the article First received: 06 September 2015 | Last revision received: 08 November 2015 Accepted: 11 November 2015 | Published online: 09 December 2015 URN: nbn:de:hebis:34-2015102649185


Molybdate conversion coatings were prepared on AZ31B Mg alloy in a molybdate based solution with additives of sodium fluoride (NaF) or lanthanum nitrate (La(NO3)3). The effects of F- and La3+ additives on the morphology and on the corrosion resistance of the molybdate coatings were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and potentiodynamic polarization analysis. The results revealed that these additives could accelerate the deposition of molybdenum on the surface of AZ31B magnesium alloy. It can be seen that the composite conversion coatings consist of many spherical particles. It is also found that the corrosion resistance is greatly improved after molybdate treatment. The films formed in F- additive solution showed lower corrosion current density than in La3+ additive solution.


Sexual assault is one of the most repellant and costly crimes, which inflicts irrecoverable harms on victims and society. This study examines the effect of IT-enabled ride-sharing platforms on sexual assaults. Drawing upon routine activity theory from the criminology literature, we posit that ride-sharing can reduce a passenger's risk of being a suitable target of sexual assault by providing a more reliable and timely transportation option for traveling to a safer place. By exploiting the nationwide quasi-experimental setting of Uber's city-by-city rollouts in the United States during 2005–2017, we demonstrate that Uber's entry into a city is negatively associated with the number of rape incidents. To zoom into the effects of ride-sharing at a more granular level, we employ precinct-hour level data on Uber pickups and rape occurrences in New York City in 2015 and conduct spatiotemporal analyses. Our results from the spatiotemporal analyses corroborate those of the quasi-experiment and further reveal situational contingencies in the deterrent effect of ride-sharing. Specifically, ride-sharing contributes to a more significant reduction in the likelihood of rape occurrences in neighborhoods with limited transportation accessibility, and ride-sharing is more effective in deterring sexual crime in riskier circumstances, such as around alcohol-serving places on weekend nights or when the probability of crime occurrences increases. This study sheds new light on the potential of IT-enabled platforms to improve social well-being beyond their economic contributions and offers a new theoretical insight on the distinct role of digital platforms in public safety.


Ligand Based Virtual Screening (LBVS) methods are widely used in drug discovery as filters for subsequent in-vitro and in-vivo characterization. This means, increasing accuracy of LBVS approaches may have a huge impact on increasing chances of success. Since the databases processed in drug discovery campaigns are enormously large, this pre-selection process requires the use of fast and precise methodologies. The similarity between compounds can be measured using different descriptors such as shape, pharmacophore or electrostatic similarity. The latter is the goal of this work, i.e., we want to improve the process of obtaining the compounds most similar to a query in terms of electrostatic similarity. To do so, the current and widely proposed methodology in the literature is based on the use of ROCS to assess the similarity of compounds in terms of shape and then evaluate a small subset of them with ZAP for prioritization regarding electrostatic similarity. This paper proposes an alternative methodology that consists of directly optimizing electrostatic similarity and works with the entire database of compounds without using shape cut-offs. For this purpose, a new and improved version of the OptiPharm software has been developed. OptiPharm implements a parameterizable metaheuristic algorithm able to solve any optimization problems directly related to the involved molecular conformations. We show that our new method completely outperforms the classical proposal widely used in the literature. Accordingly, we are able to conclude that many of the compounds proposed with our novel approach could not be discovered with the classical one. As a result, this methodology opens up new horizons in Drug Discovery.


Many surgical metals such as stainless steel, titanium, magnesium and its alloys have been extensively used for the recovery of body structures in human beings. Corrosion is the major reason for failure in metallic implants, when the metal comes in contact with the body fluids it releases metal ions into the surrounding tissues. This may even lead to the second surgery which can be eradicated by the surface modification of the implant with bioceramics using coating techniques. The present work involves the development of coatings on the surface of 316L SS type of stainless steel using a biphasic mixture of bio ceramics HAP/ β -TCP in ratio of 7.5:2.5 by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) from a suspension of ethanol. The presence of biphasic coating imparts the property of both bioactivity and bioresorbability to the implant with good adherence of the coatings in body fluids. These coatings provide corrosion resistance and also favour new bone growth. Further, the biocompatibility of these materials can be evaluated by in-vitro assay. This includes cytotoxicity tests carried out with normal cell line (Vero cell line) and cancerous cell line (HEP II cell Line). The coated samples have been tested for their biochemical nature using DPPH (2,2 diphenyl 1 picryl hydrazil compound) activity to confirm whether the coated implant is suitable for cancerous patients with its antioxidant property which helps to trap the free radicals.


Women are currently severely underrepresented in the ICT field of study and in the ICT professions. This brings about severe gender gap at disadvantages in the access to new employment and wages and increased the risk to be left out from the digital revolution. Not only EQUAL-IST maps the gaps in ICT at the disadvantage of women in the different institutions and contexts involved in the partnership, but it also promotes actions to close the digital divide. One of these actions is a Summer Camp that is reserved to girls attending the third or fourth year of high schools to acquire knowledge in ICT by active learning implemented at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMORE). The activity has shown to be successful in a twofold way: a) in terms of diffusion and replication, increasing the number of involved girls from the initial 35 participants of the first edition in 2014 in Modena to almost 130 girls participating in 2018 to the summer camps located in an increased number of sites, including locations outside of the region Emilia Romagna; b) in its capacity to reduce the digital divide with a real change in girls' ICT knowledge and in their expectation with regards to future education and professional roles.


The trend to integrate more and more processing cores and memory cores into a single module has increased the overall size of chips to the point where global interconnects between sub-units are becoming harder and harder to route and meet timing rules and requirements. The traditional way of routing interconnects and the use of uniform, unidirectional, point to point busses may no longer be optimal for certain designs where metal layers and chip area for interconnects are limited. The need for a more flexible routing methodology is necessary and can be achieved by using routing and calibration techniques currently being implemented at board level design. This report proposes the use of non-uniform, bidirectional, and possibly multi-point loads global interconnects within a single chip module through the use of on chip calibration techniques to compensate for less restrictive wiring rules for certain chip designs. This report will also apply a widely used digital calibration technique to simulate the implementation on a field programmable gate array.


A new reliable protocol called Enhanced Power Control MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks (EPCMAC) is proposed in this paper. The key concept of this EPCMAC protocol is to improve the throughput and to save energy by sending all the packets with optimal transmit power. This communication approach promises improved throughput and delay performance by effective use of spatial diversity in wireless ad hoc networks. Also, the power of the data packets is periodically raised to a suitable level but not to the maximum so that it will avoid interference and unnecessary contention between nodes. Throughput enhancement of a wireless ad hoc at the MAC layer is achieved through spatial reuse of the channel by allowing concurrent transmissions as much as possible among neighboring nodes. Simulation results show that a considerable gain in throughput as well as high reduction in energy consumption can be obtained by EPCMAC protocol compared to the existing protocol.


The structure of the vacuolar membrane (tonoplast) was studied in red beet roots by IR spectroscopy. The vacuolar membrane was shown to be composed of highly ordered lipids which form regions of free liquid lipid bilayer loosely bound to integral proteins. The prevalence of polar lipids in the tonoplast is responsible for the high elasticity and fluidity of the membrane. The presence of alpha-tocopherol in the tonoplast membrane accounts for a high antioxidant activity of the membrane. Integral proteins are immersed into the liquid matrix of the lipid bilayer to a different extent. Examination of the temperature effect on the kinetics of the hydrogen-deuterium exchange in integral membrane proteins showed that the efficient energy of the hydrogen exchange activation was 24 +/- 4 kcal/mol at 19-40 degrees C and increased to 54 kcal/mol at 40-50 degrees C because of the thermal denaturation of proteins. The secondary structure of integral membrane proteins is characterized by a high content of alpha-helices (53%) which decreased to 8% after the extraction of lipids.


In Kornhaas, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) held that a German 'wrongful trading' action falls within the scope of the Insolvency Regulation and that its application to companies incorporated in another Member State (in accordance with the Insolvency Regulation) does not infringe the freedomof establishment. The Court expressly distinguished the Kornhaas case from precedents in which it did find a violation of the freedomof establishment. This judgment is reassuring for Member States looking to protect the interests of creditors against the externalities created by companies. Pursuant to the Kornhaas judgment, Member States can be relatively confident that the measures of creditor protection they adopt fall outside the scope of the freedom of establishment, as long as these measures do not directly relate to the company's incorporation. This will be the case for most provisions of insolvency law, given that they necessarily become relevant only after the company has been formed. Moreover, the strength of such provisions is that they apply to all companies having their centre of main interests in the relevant Member State's territory. Seen from that perspective, the CJEU has in Kornhaas endorsed a kind of a real seat theory in insolvency law, the very theory it has unsettled in company law.


Material properties and process modeling with density functional theory (DFT) is an accurate method to facilitate the study and the design of materials computationally for the development of different electrochemical technologies such as fuel cells, solar cells, and batteries, among others, mainly to achieve alternative ways for energy conversion and storage. Considering the relevance of DFT in the development of these alternative technologies for energy generation and storage, in this chapter, the application of DFT to study catalytic alloys and their reactivity processes to develop polymer membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is presented. In this sense, firstly, a brief review of the application of DFT to develop catalysts for PEMFCs and the relation with the concept of chemi- cal descriptors is presented. Secondly, the main chemical descriptors for this task are presented and discussed. Finally, a summary of the main findings of the modeling with DFT and chemical descriptors approach of catalytic alloys for PEMFCs is presented and analyzed.


In the present work, the fracture toughness of thin amorphous carbon films was quantitatively characterized by nanoindentation using a conical indenter. The amorphous carbon films with different thickness, i.e. 140 and 400 nm, were obtained by plasma vapour deposition on a poly-ether-ether-ketone substrate. During indentation, it was noticed that multiple ring-like, through-thickness cracks occurred in the films. Correspondingly, 'sliding pop-ins' were observed in the load–depth curves. Using an energy method, the fracture toughness of the films could be therefore determined. The results showed that the fracture toughness of the amorphous carbon films was in the range of 0.99–2.87 MPa m0.5, which agreed well with the published data. Further, finite element analysis was also performed to evaluate the stress distribution in a thin film/soft substrate system, which showed that the ring-like cracks were caused by the tensile radial stress on the film surface.


Abstract : This final report summarizes the work accomplished under the program entitled 'Study to Define Arctic Pollution Response Systems and Develop Arctic Oil Pollution Response Project Plans.' The objective of the program was to determine the most cost effective, environmentally compatible, and technically feasible Coast Guard arctic pollution response system that can be used in projected oil spill scenarios to recover and dispose of spilled oil. The optimum arctic pollution response system was determined by establishing the cost and effectiveness of response for sixteen oil spill response situations, and developing six alternative Coast Guard arctic pollution response systems based on these situations. These six systems were developed with a recognition of three distinctly different types of operational requirements, those for thick stable ice, dynamic hummocky ice, and open water or light ice conditions. The optimum system was then identified as the result of a cost effectiveness analysis. The six arctic oil spill scenarios consisted of a gathering pipeline rupture in the nearshore Beaufort Sea, an oil well blowout from a very large reservoir in the nearshore Chukchi Sea, crude oil tanker casualties in Norton Sound and in the Navarin Basin region of the Bering Sea, an oil well blowout from an average sized reservoir in Bristol Bay, and a fuel oil spill resulting from the collision of a fuel oil barge in Unimak Pass. The optimum system provides for a 25% response level for the Norton Sound, Navarin Basin, Bristol Bay, and Unimak Pass scenarios, and a 50% response level for the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea scenarios.


In this article, we describe an Affective Knowledge Representation (AKR) scheme to represent emotion schemata to be used in the design a variety of socially intelligent artificial agents. Our approach in this article and in the applications of our AKR scheme, focuses on the notion of ``social expertise'' of socially intelligent agents in terms of their 1) external behavior and 2) internal motivational goal-based abilities. We claim that social expertise will be critical for the success of human-robot interaction in a variety of applications [6] and that affective phenomena such as emotions and personality are essential in terms of social expertise and autonomous behavior. AKR includes a taxonomy of affect, mood, emotion, and personality, as well as a framework for emotional state dynamics for autonomous behavior. AKR model is being applied to design and implement two collaborating robots which exhibit social expertise as specified above. We have also developed a simulator for our collaborative affective robots in order to generate performance metrics for both real and simulated environments, the Cooperative Affective Robot Simulator (CARS) which we currently describe. CARS is a reconfigurable Java-based simulator for rapid prototyping of control algorithms for cooperating affective robotic agents and it is a tool for evaluating the performance of our autonomous cooperative social robots. In particular, the simulator was configured to represent the robotic agents at the AAAI Mobile Robot Competition's Hors D'Oeuvres, Anyone? event.


AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a regulator of energy balance at both the cellular and the whole-body levels. Direct activation of AMPK has been highlighted as a potential novel, and possibly safer, alternative to treat type II diabetes and obesity. In this study, we aimed to design and characterize novel peptides that mimic the αG region of the α2 AMPK catalytic domain to modulate its activity by inhibiting interactions between AMPK domains or other interacting proteins. The derived peptides were tested in vivo and in tissue culture. The computationally predicted structure of the free peptide with the addition of the myristoyl (Myr) or acetyl (Ac) moiety closely resembled the protein structure that it was designed to mimic. Myr-peptide and Ac-peptide activated AMPK in muscle cells and led to reduced adipose tissue weight, body weight, blood glucose levels, insulin levels, and insulin resistance index, as expected from AMPK activation. In addition, triglyceride, cholesterol, leptin, and adiponectin levels were also lower, suggesting increased adipose tissue breakdown, a result of AMPK activation. On the other hand, liver weight and liver lipid content increased due to fat retention. We could not find an elevated pAMPK:AMPK ratio in the liver in vivo or in hepatocytes ex vivo, suggesting that the peptide does not lead to AMPK activation in hepatocytes. The finding that an AMPK-derived peptide leads to the activation of AMPK in muscle cells and in adipose tissue and leads to reduced glucose levels in obese mice, but to fat accumulation in the liver, demonstrates the differential effect of AMPK modulation in various tissues.


The hydrometallurgy of copper may involve leaching of the metal from its ore with an aqueous solution containing cupric and ferric chloride. The subsequent deposition of copper from such a process stream is modeled here in an idealized electrochemical cell with a rotating-disk electrode. The potential distribution and concentration profiles within the diffusion layer are predicted for given potential differences between the electrode and the solution. The cuprous ion, which is formed by the reduction of the complexed cupric ion at the electrode, is stabilized in the chloride solution and can react either at the electrode or with ferric species within the diffusion layer. The assumption is that this fast and irreversible homogeneous reaction generates a reaction plane, whose position is shown in the concentration and potential profiles. In addition, the position of the reaction plane is plotted as a function of the potential difference between the electrode and the adjacent solution. Predicted currentpotential and current efficiency-poten tial curves are also reported. Finally, the iron contamination of the deposited copper is estimated to be less than 10-~ atom percent for some cases. Also, because some of the partial current densities are below their limiting values, the analysis is strictly valid only at the center of the disk.


This thesis examines the argument that the Republic of Korea-United States Status of Forces Agreement (ROK-U.S. SOFA) affords greater immunities and protections to U.S. service personnel than does the Japan-U.S. SOFA. One significant source of tension for Korean-American relations over the years has been the belief of many Koreans that Japan is given greater authority to prosecute SOFA incidents because A) the Japan-U.S. SOFA is written to Japan's advantage and B) the United States unfairly favors Japan in the application of SOFA Criminal Jurisdiction. This thesis will test the accuracy of those beliefs. It will do this by first comparing the formal provisions in the SOFAs with the two countries. It will then compare their application in high-profile SOFA-related crimes and accidents over the past two decades both in South Korea and Japan to identify any possible pattern of inequity. By comparing the language of both SOFAs today with examples of how the United States has applied that language, this thesis finds that the language and application SOFA Criminal Jurisdiction provisions have changed to favor Korea today compared to Japan. This thesis also finds that the application in both countries has changed to give more deference to Host countries.


Performance characteristics for 12 strawberry genotypes (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) from the Univ. of California, Davis, strawberry improvement program were evaluated in annual hill culture, with and without preplant soil fumigation using a mixture of 67 methyl bromide :33 chloropicrin (trichloronitromethane) (wt/wt, 392 kg·ha -1 ). Plants were established at two locations; one trial followed several cycles of strawberry plantation, whereas the other had not been cropped with strawberries for 20 years. Plant mortality was <3% and did not differ between soil treatments; thus, the main effects of fumigation treatment in these experiments were due to sublethal effects of soil organisms. Plants grown in nonfumigated soil produced 51% and 57% of the fruit yield of plants grown in fumigated soil for soils with and without a recent history of strawberry cultivation, respectively. Nonfumigated treatments also had reduced fruit weight and uniformly lower vegetative vigor during the early phases of plantation establishment. Significant genotype x fumigation interactions were not detected for any of the growth or performance traits at either location. Further, the proportion of variance attributable to interactions was at most 25% of that due to variation among genotypes, even for this highly selected population. Genotypic correlations for traits evaluated in different fumigation treatments ranged from 0.80 to 1.00; thus, selection in either soil environment is expected to affect largely the same sets of genes. These results demonstrate that strawberry productivity is substantially increased by fumigation, even in the absence of lethal pathogens or a discernible replant problem. More importantly, there appears to be little opportunity for developing cultivars specifically adapted to sublethal effects of nonfumigated soils.


Introduction: Extended periods of sitting may have detrimental effects on brain health. However, the effects of breaking up prolonged sedentary periods with frequent, short physical activity bouts on mechanisms to improve brain health remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the immediate effects of uninterrupted sitting and frequent, short bouts of physical activity on cerebral blood flow and cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex in middle-aged adults. Methods: This is a protocol article to describe a randomized crossover study. We will collect data from 13 healthy adults, aged between 40 and 60 years old, with a body mass index <35 kg/m2. Participants will be required to come into the laboratory on three occasions, sit for 3 h, and perform a different type of break for 3 min every 30 min at each visit in a random order, being either: (1) a social break; (2) brisk walk on a treadmill; or (3) simple resistance activities. Before and after each experimental condition, cerebral blood flow (primary outcome) will be measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), with short-separation channels, and working memory (1-, 2-, and 3-back on the computer) will be assessed. The following additional secondary outcomes will be collected: psychological factors (questionnaires); arterial stiffness; salivary cortisol levels; and blood glucose levels. Conclusion: The results from this randomized crossover study will determine the effects of uninterrupted sitting and frequent, short bouts of physical activity on cerebral blood flow and cognitive performance. Publication of this study protocol emphasizes the importance of registration and publication of protocols in the field of sedentary behavior research.


The histological sections of 106 patients, who underwent a primary breast cancer operation in the years 1986 and 1987, were inspected for the presence of tumour vascular invasion. With immunohistochemical methods, tumour vessels were tomographed and the paraffin sections were stained with an antibody, which is sensitive to factor VHI-antigen. A tumour embolus was considered present, if a malignant cell was established within a positively stained lumen. The question of possible influence on the pathogenesis of breast cancer was examined in case of vascular invasion in the histological preparation. In 46 of the 106 patients (43.4 %), tumour emboli were found. After an average observation period of 59 months, no tumour progression was seen in 60 patients, 46 patients developed a recurrence of the tumour at the check-up date. The presence of vascular invasion correlates with undifferentiated tumour grading. The probability of relapse- free survival after 5 years was 83.9 % within the group without vascular invasion, compared with 47.9 % (p = 0.0001) within the group with established vascular invasion. In the multivariate analysis of the factors lymphonodular status, grading and vascular invasion, it was found, that the presence of tumour vascular invasion with a relative risk of 3.68 (95 % CI 1.93 - 7.03) was the strongest statistically significant prognostic factor for relapse - free survival (p = 0.0001).


Pipe lines and tubes are used throughout the worlds for the economic transportation of crude oil, petroleum derivatives, gas and water. A drag reduction phenomenon within pipe flow in a closed circuit system was studying experimentally using Surfactant Additives. Closed circuit system consist of two loops pipes (0.0254 m & 0.0508 m) ID respectively was constructed from carbon steel metal , total length of pipe was around 16 m and the test section was 4m. Similar closed circuit system consist of two loops of PVC pipes with the same diameters were also built. The idea of using PVC pipe was to be used inside carbon steel pipe to get smooth surface similar to using complaint coating like epoxy or polyethylene or poly vinyl chloride (PVC). The effect of using two kinds of Anionic and Nonanionic surfactants (SDBS, POEA) Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulfonate and Polyoxyethylene Alcohol respectively were studied, Small amount of surfactant additives (50 ppm up to 300 ppm), were added to the solvent (kerosene) which was selected to be the fluid flow through the closed circuit system, choosing kerosene ( refinery product) to improve its flow (increasing flow rate). A comparison between results obtained by carbon steel and PVC pipes were carried out. The best results obtained indicate that PVC pipe gave around (53% -66%) flow rate increase in kerosene compared with flowing in carbon steel pipe. On addition of additives for SDBS in kerosene improved flow rate about (61% to 69%).


Substance use disorder is a complex disease created in part by maladaptive learning and memory mechanisms following repeated drug use. Exposure to drug‐associated stimuli engages prefrontal cortex circuits, and dysfunction of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to underlie drug‐seeking behaviors. Growing evidence supports a role for parvalbumin containing fast‐spiking interneurons (FSI) in modulating prefrontal cortical microcircuit activity by influencing the balance of excitation and inhibition, which can influence learning and memory processes. Most parvalbumin FSIs within layer V of the prelimbic mPFC are surrounded by specialized extracellular matrix structures called perineuronal nets (PNN). Previous work by our group found that cocaine exposure altered PNN‐surrounded FSI function, and pharmacological removal of PNNs reduced cocaine‐seeking behavior. However, the role of FSIs and associated constituents (parvalbumin and PNNs) in cocaine‐related memories was not previously explored and is still unknown. Here, we found that reactivation of a cocaine conditioned place preference memory produced changes in cortical PNN‐surrounded parvalbumin FSIs, including decreased parvalbumin intensity, increased parvalbumin cell axis diameter, decreased intrinsic excitability, and increased excitatory synaptic input. Further investigation of intrinsic properties revealed changes in the interspike interval, membrane capacitance, and afterhyperpolarization recovery time. Changes in these specific properties suggest an increase in potassium‐mediated currents, which was validated with additional electrophysiological analysis. Collectively, our results indicate that cocaine memory reactivation induces functional adaptations in PNN‐surrounded parvalbumin neurons, which likely alters cortical output to promote cocaine‐seeking behavior.


This paper examines the impact of regionally imposed sanctions on the trajectory of the Burundian regime and its involvement in the peace process following the 1996 coup in the country. Despite the country's socioeconomic and geopolitical vulnerability, the Buyoya government withstood the pressure from the sanctions. Through a vocal campaign against these sanctions, the new government mitigated the embargo's economic consequences and partially reestablished its international reputation. Paradoxically, this campaign planted the seed for comprehensive political concessions in the long term. While previous litera‐ ture has attributed the sanctions' success in pressuring the government into negotiations to their economic impact, the government actually responded to the sanction senders' key demand to engage in unconditional, inclusive peace talks under the auspices of the re‐ gional mediator once the economy had already started to recover. The regime's anti‐sanc‐ tions campaign, with its emphasis on the government's willingness to engage in peace talks, backfired, with Buyoya forced to negotiate after having become entrapped in his own rhetoric.


Odours are first represented in the brain as spatiotemporal maps of activity in the olfactory bulb (OB). Imaging and electrophysiological studies have shown that these maps are both temporally and spatially complex and unique to each
odour. Behavioural tasks that probe perceptual differences between odours suggest that odours that evoke similar spatial activity maps in the OB are perceived as similar. However, combination of lesion and behavioural experiments of either the olfactory epithelium or bulb has suggested that rodents can detect and discriminate between odours using minimal stimulus-related input. This has led to a consensus in the field that sensory inputs to the olfactory system contain significant redundant signal and that spatial activity maps are unnecessary for odour coding. The work presented here used a go/no-go behavioural paradigm to investigate the ability of mice not just to detect or discriminate odours after nasal epithelial lesion but also to recognise odours – which enables odour quality perception to be probed. Intrinsic optical imaging
was used in the same animals, to observe changes in odour-evoked signals in the OB before and after lesion. The results revealed that even moderatechanges to intrinsic activity maps caused deficits in both odour discrimination
and recognition, suggesting that perception of odour quality was significantly altered.

Reduction in odour inputs could be equivalent to reducing the intensity of inputs, so alterations to odour quality perception after changes in odour concentration were also examined. Recognition scores were reduced when mice were presented with a familiar odour at an unfamiliar concentration, suggesting odour perception was also significantly altered by reduction of stimulus intensity. In order to determine whether reductions in recognition
score caused by lesioning and change in odour concentration had different perceptual origins, mice were trained to generalise across odour concentrations and tested for recognition after lesion. This revealed that impaired recognition after lesion resulted, not from experiencing an altered odour concentration, but from perception of apparent novel odour qualities. Consistent with this, intrinsic imaging data revealed that relative intensity of glomerular activity following lesions was altered compared with maps recorded in shams or by varying odour concentration.

Long-standing theories of sensory coding suggest that sensory systems actively match odours in the environment with stored stimulus templates. Odours familiar before lesioning were re-learnt more rapidly after lesioning than novel odours were learnt either before or after lesioning. This suggests that stored templates of familiar odours were compared to moderately altered incoming inputs and, with reinforcement, were rapidly incorporated into those templates.

In all, this work suggests that odour quality perception requires comprehensive matching of input patterns to stored representations, suggesting that spatial activity maps are a crucial component of odour coding.


Knowledge is power. It can help you transform the way you live and the way you do business, and can help you to reap benefits that you never thought possible. A small bit of information can enable you to take informed decisions in a proactive manner and save yourself the agony of various losses: time, money and so on. The client discussed herein is the world's leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. It wanted to empower the mass of the Indian population - the agricultural community - with basic information on weather, commodity prices and crop advice. The question was 'How feasible is this?' To answer this, the client partnered with IMRB International nearly five years ago. The research project was long drawn out and completed in varied stages, starting with checking the acceptance of a paper concept through a house-to-house survey of farmers, converting the same to a tangible offering upon acceptance and testing the same through central location testing, where all farmers were collectively given a demonstration of the product, their reactions recorded and, finally, a working model developed to be tested in real time by a select set of farmers to bring the finishing touches to the product. The client still touches base with subscribers through IMRB International, to garner post-usage feedback, satisfaction with services being provided and to discover any other thing that could be done better. From providing the service in one state, the client has progressed to successfully providing the service to 13 states in India. The service has enjoyed unprecedented success and is estimated to have been taken up by more than two million farmers through its usage and sharing in more than 15,000 villages. The decision-enabling nature of the information has had a direct impact on the livelihood of the farmers, enabling them to lead a better life through increased incomes and reduced losses. Individual farmers claim to have reaped significant return on their investment, achieving up to INR200,000 (US$4000) of additional profits, and savings of nearly INR400,000 (US$8000) by using this service, which costs roughly INR250 (US$5) for three months.


The spatial dimensions of vehicle seats affect their ability to accommodate the physical requirements of the target user population. This paper presents a methodology for selecting the relevant design parameters, including the width, depth, and height of the pan as well as the height of the back. The paper also explores the effect of gender and racial composition of the user population on these parameters. The results obtained through univariate analysis are compared with those of multivariate analysis, demonstrating that applying univariate analysis to a multivariate problem leads to misleading results and poor estimates of accommodation. In contrast, multivariate analysis provides the opportunity for tradeoff studies as many parameter combinations can achieve the desired accommodation level. The methodology is demonstrated through several design scenarios for target user populations of different racial and gender distributions.


Portable solar charger car is a new and convenient solar charging equipment attendant to complete on-board battery charging, the continuing drive to improve capacity of electric bicycles. In order to improve the performance of PV controller, solar photovoltaic controller of 89C51 is used. The solar controller has fundamental functions, dependable performance, good real-time data,simple low-power circuit,which can greatly increase the charging efficiency, and achieve very good battery management, also a progress toward real smart charge and discharge.


This paper shows an approach for converting bitmap images of text glyphs into a vector format which is suitable for being embedded in XML representations of digitized documents. The focus is on a contour based vectorisation method as the output can be easily transformed into SVG glyph descriptions. A concrete implementation is described and the results are discussed with special regard to the visual quality. The work is related to the development of a system for processing documents which are not suitable for current OCR methods. This is especially important in the field of retrospective digitization of historical works.


In order to improve the performance of polymer modified porous concrete (PMPC), the mineral admixtures (MAs) including fly ash (FA) and silicon fume (SF), are added in the concrete. In this paper, the optimum dosage of the MAs, the influence of the MAs on the strength performance, permeability performance and the surface functional performance of PMPC are studied. The microscopic test of SEM is used to explore the microscopic structure of PMPC. The test results indicate that: the dosage of 10% FA or of 6% SF is the optimum dosage, while the 28d compressive strength can reach 24MPa and 43MPa, respectively, the 28d flexural strength can reach 5.2MPa and 5.3MPa, respectively, and the permeability coefficient can reach 0.36cm/s and 0.32cm/s, respectively. The surface structural depth can reach more than 1mm and the slide resistance coefficient can reach more than 40BPN, which can conform to the standard of JTG F30-2003. The Contact Element Model is proved to conform to the structural features of PMPC. With the microscopic test, as the addition of the polymer and MAs, the internal micro-cracks and non-hydrated cement particles in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) are covered by the cement paste and polymer films. The contact area, the mechanical property and durability of PMPC can be improved.


In this study, we demonstrated that microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion could be greatly accelerated by multifunctional magnetite beads. The acceleration of microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion by the presence of the magnetite beads was attributable to several features of the beads. Their capacity to absorb microwave radiation leads to rapid heating of the beads. Furthermore, their negatively charged functionalities cause adsorption of proteins with opposite charges onto their surfaces by electrostatic interactions, leading to a concentration on the surfaces of the beads of proteins present in trace amounts in the solution. The adsorbed proteins are denatured and hence rendered vulnerable to enzymatic digestion and are digested on the beads. For microwave heating, 30 s was sufficient for carrying out the tryptic digestion of cytochrome c, in the presence of magnetite beads, while 1 min was adequate for tryptic digestion of myoglobin. The digestion products were characterized by MALDI-MS. This rapid enzymatic digestion allowed the entire time for identification of proteins to be greatly reduced. Furthermore, specific proteins present in trace quantities were enriched from the sample on the magnetite beads and could be rapidly isolated from the sample by employing an external magnetic field. These multiple roles of magnetite beads, as the absorber for microwave irradiation, the concentrating probe, and the agent for unfolding proteins, contributed to their capability of accelerating microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion. We also demonstrated that trypsin immobilized magnetite beads were suitable for use in microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion.


ABSTRACTThe San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (District) to conduct a feasibility/design study for a winter cloud seeding program to target the Lopez Lake and Salinas Reservoir (LLSR) drainage basins located in southern San Luis Obispo County, California contracted north American Weather Consultants (NAWC) in 2016.  Recommendations from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE 2016) publication entitled "Guidelines for Cloud Seeding to Augment Precipitation" were followed in determining that the proposed project was both technically and economically feasible. NAWC reviewed available information, compiled and analyzed data, and then developed a proposed program design.  Regression relationships were established between November through April precipitation and annual runoff into the two target reservoirs.  Estimated increases in precipitation of 9% or 17%, from an analysis of the long-term effects of an operational cloud seeding program conducted by the Santa Barbara County Water Agency in an adjacent drainage were inserted into the regression equations to estimate average increases in inflow to the two target drainages.  The District provided NAWC with estimates of the value of this augmented runoff. The costs of conducting a seasonal cloud seeding program were estimated.  These steps provided data that could be used to estimate benefit to cost ratios.  NAWC concluded that the proposed program was both technically and economically feasible based upon ASCE 2016 criteria.


Laves phases of C15 type of the system Mg2Si1-xSnx with x = 0, 0.4, 0.6 and 1 were synthesized in polycrystalline state in tantalum ampoule heated by high frequency coupling. The as-cast materials were analysed first at room temperature by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Systematically, XRD patterns were recorded up to 700 °C and Differential Scanning Calorimetry analysis was performed up to 1200°C to control the chemical and structural phase transformations. From these experiments, a C15 to C36 structure transformation was pointed out around 600°C in Mg2Si1-xSnx.solid solutions.


Objectives: The outcomes reported in trials in coronavirus disease 2019 are extremely heterogeneous and of uncertain patient relevance, limiting their applicability for clinical decision-making. The aim of this workshop was to establish a core outcomes set for trials in people with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019. Design: Four international online multistakeholder consensus workshops were convened to discuss proposed core outcomes for trials in people with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019, informed by a survey involving 9,289 respondents from 111 countries. The transcripts were analyzed thematically. The workshop recommendations were used to finalize the core outcomes set. Setting: International. Subjects: Adults 18 years old and over with confirmed or suspected coronavirus disease 2019, their family members, members of the general public and health professionals (including clinicians, policy makers, regulators, funders, researchers). Interventions: None. Measurements: None. Main Results: Six themes were identified. "Responding to the critical and acute health crisis" reflected the immediate focus on saving lives and preventing life-threatening complications that underpinned the high prioritization of mortality, respiratory failure, and multiple organ failure. "Capturing different settings of care" highlighted the need to minimize the burden on hospitals and to acknowledge outcomes in community settings. "Encompassing the full trajectory and severity of disease" was addressing longer term impacts and the full spectrum of illness (e.g. shortness of breath and recovery). "Distinguishing overlap, correlation and collinearity" meant recognizing that symptoms such as shortness of breath had distinct value and minimizing overlap (e.g. lung function and pneumonia were on the continuum toward respiratory failure). "Recognizing adverse events" refers to the potential harms of new and evolving interventions. "Being cognizant of family and psychosocial wellbeing" reflected the pervasive impacts of coronavirus disease 2019. Conclusions: Mortality, respiratory failure, multiple organ failure, shortness of breath, and recovery are critically important outcomes to be consistently reported in coronavirus disease 2019 trials.


An 11-residue peptide with the sequence DSLEFIASKLA was identified from a genomic library of Bacillus subtilis by phage display as an efficient substrate for Sfp phosphopantetheinyl transferase-catalyzed protein labeling by small molecule-CoA conjugates. We name this peptide the "ybbR tag," because part of its sequence is derived from the ybbR ORF in the B. subtilis genome. The site of Sfp-catalyzed ybbR tag labeling was mapped to the underlined Ser residue, and the ybbR tag was found to have a strong tendency for adopting an alpha-helical conformation in solution. Here we demonstrate that the ybbR tag can be fused to the N or C termini of target proteins or inserted in a flexible loop in the middle of a target protein for site-specific protein labeling by Sfp. The short size of the ybbR tag and its compatibility with various target proteins, the broad substrate specificity of Sfp for labeling the ybbR tag with small-molecule probes of diverse structures, and the high specificity and efficiency of the labeling reaction make Sfp-catalyzed ybbR tag labeling an attractive tool for expanding protein structural and functional diversities by posttranslational modification.


Rivers of the Anthropocene" addresses a fundamental problem facing scholars and policy makers alike: despite important advances in our understanding of the earth as a system — one in which humans and human systems have become recognized as prime agents in effecting changes to the earth — we have yet to create an approach that brings together scholars of earth systems with scholars of human systems. This is to the detriment of our overall understanding of global ecological change and limits our ability to respond to escalating crises. Without integrating methods from the earth sciences, social sciences, and humanities, scholars of the environment lose important tools in tackling some of the biggest issues facing humanity in the 21st century. As humans continue to play an increasingly significant role in altering their planet, it is incumbent upon environmental scholars to understand the human-environment interface in all its complexities. It is not enough that scientists measure what humans have done or what they can do to shift environmental systems; it is necessary that they work hand-in-hand with specialists in human systems to understand the limits and feedback mechanisms that beliefs, practices, ideologies, social structures, and cultural norms impose on human action. A comparative study of international river systems is a good place to begin building more meaningful bridges across the science-humanities divide, and it addresses the pressing issue of global water insecurity, which 80% of the earth's population faces. The first stage of "Rivers of the Anthropocene" will create a flexible, interdisciplinary methodological and conceptual framework for examining the human-environment interface, one in which specialists in the earth sciences can learn from the approaches of the humanities and human sciences and vice versa.


The aim of this paper is to provide an exploration of the perspectives relating to equality, diversity and anti-discrimination legislation from multi-actors at different levels of seniority and with varying involvement with equality issues and diversity management within a Higher Education institution. The role of management has been regarded as key in providing the leadership required and sending out the message that equality and diversity issues are significant in order to ensure that legislation is adhered to, not just by the letter, but also the spirit. "This top-down commitment and support was regarded by line managers as extremely important for leading the cultural change which was felt necessary in order to achieve equality for all..." (Greene, A. et al (2005) p36) The same may be said of the role of management within Higher Education Institutions where "[t]he extent and importance of managers in higher education has increased considerably in recent years as UK higher education has expanded…and the commitment of senior managers to equality of opportunity is clearly of considerable significance…" (Deem, R et al (2005) p82) Management perspectives of the meaning of equality therefore have an impact on establishing the priorities for an institution thereby determining how equality and diversity issues are dealt with. In addition, a comparison between management perspectives of the meaning and scope of equality and other members of staff as well as students is significant as these perceptions may differ depending on the role and status of the individual. Previous research has found that "[t]here appeared to be a considerable gulf between the views of staff…and the perceptions of their senior managers." (Deem, R et al (2005) p6) Differing perspectives of equality may affect the relationships between various actors within the institution and how the politics of equality and diversity are managed. Of particular interest are the views and perceptions of equality and diversity practitioners within Higher Education. Their position and role within the case study institution is unique as they are neither regarded as part of the academic departmental structure of the institution, nor part of the management structure and are therefore poised somewhere in between. Once again, their positioning within the institution, their role and status will be explored and the impact on the politics of diversity management considered. This research aims to further understanding of how perceptions of equality and diversity, and the role of equality and diversity practitioners, affect the management of equality and diversity within Higher Education and implications for the practice of equality will be considered


This paper focuses on new Nigerien Hausa diaspora communities in U.S. cities. The economic and political policies of nation-states and international financial institutions exacerbate the abject poverty of Niger and impel Hausa to migrate to the U.S. where they work in the shadows of the formal economy or in the globalized informal economy. They rely on fluid, overlapping face-toface, imagined, and virtual communities to mitigate their marginalized position. Nigerien Hausa are creatively mediating and adapting global technologies of time-space compression—especially the Internet, telephones, and electronic money transfer services—to benefit and link their already established and newly emergent communities in diaspora. Based on multi-sited ethnographic evidence, this paper highlights the culturally specific ways that Nigerien Hausa navigate through global constraints and opportunities in their active efforts to survive and support their transnational families and communities, while maintaining dignity and solidarity.


This thesis presents the results of a photo and thermally stimulated luminescence study of europium-doped barium chloride in relation to its potential application as a storage phosphor in glass ceramics for radiation imaging, particularly for neutron imaging. Previous work done on lithium borate (LiBO) glasses containing BaCl2:Eu2+ nanocrystals at Victoria University of Wellington had demonstrated comparable imaging capability with commercially available BaFBr:Eu2+ based imaging plates, though the sensitivity and spatial resolution were inferior to that material, and there was a substantial afterglow during the read-out process which degraded any image. These problems are addressed here. The effect of various different co-dopants on the storage properties was examined using the thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) technique, with dopants primarily chosen from the alkali and alkaline earth elements. The resulting glow curves have been analysed to determine the activation energies associated with the various traps, and tentative assignments of structural defects to the various glow curve peaks are proposed. It was found that Li+ and Na+ gave small increases (20% and 50% respectively) in efficiency, though other dopants tended to reduce the overall output. In particular, K+ and Rb+ were found to substantially reduce the output efficiency. It was found that Li+ co-doped BaCl2:Eu2+ contained thermally unstable traps which at room temperature could result in the observed afterglow in LiBO/BaCl2 glass ceramics through a read-out induced phototransfer process. The experimental measurements required substantial hardware and software development of the existing VUW facilities for TSL, and these improvements are also described here. The most significant improvements are an extension of the operating range at the lower end of the existing TSL spectrometer to -50 degrees C through a cooled gas flow system, and the engineering of a completely new system to record TSL from 25 K to 400 K.


In two recent papers [5] and [6], we generalized some classical results of Harmonic Analysis using probabilistic approach by means of a $d$- dimensional rotationally symmetric stable process. These results allow one to discuss some boundedness conditions with weaker hypotheses. In this paper, we study a multiplier theorem using these more general results. We consider a product process consisting of a $d$-dimensional symmetric stable process and a 1-dimensional Brownian motion, and use properties of jump processes to obtain bounds on jump terms and the $L^p(\mathbb{R}^d)$-norm of a new operator.


A carbon offset program is likely to be part of any future federal cap-and-trade program and is included in both the U.S. House of Representatives passed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and the Kerry-Boxer Senate draft greenhouse gas legislation. Internationally, Energy-from-Waste (EfW) facilities in emerging economies are eligible for carbon offset credits under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. These carbon offset credits can be purchased by developed countries, such as those in Western Europe, to help comply with their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Although a similar mandatory market does not yet exist in the United States, there is a growing voluntary market in carbon offsets and a set of standards designed to provide some order to this market. One of the key players in the voluntary market is the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS). Project types, such as EfW, that are eligible for credits under the Clean Development Mechanism are also eligible to generate voluntary carbon credits under the VCS. This paper reviews the current methodology for calculating offsets from EfW projects. The current methodology is very conservative, severely restricts the accounting for avoided landfill methane, and significantly underestimates greenhouse gas savings relative to life cycle assessments performed on waste management practices. The current methodology for offsets is compared and contrasted with a more realistic methodology more in line with life cycle assessment calculations. A review of the potential for EfW offsets under evolving state and federal programs and precedents for offsets generated based on avoided landfill methane is also completed.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


In a recent study, 1 garlic ( Allium sativum ) was found to be the most frequent cause of contact dermatitis on the fingertips of housewives. However, patch tests with the undiluted juice of garlic were positive in several control subjects also. Although it was suggested that positive patch tests in the controls should indicate latent hypersensitivity to garlic, further studies were undertaken to substantiate the conclusions. Subjects and Methods Ten cases of patients having contact dermatitis on their fingertips and 35 controls with contact dermatitis due to some other agent, but with no dermatitis on their fingertips, were investigated. The controls were of two types: (1) 23 individuals who cooked routinely and were exposed to the juice of raw garlic and (2) 12 individuals who had never handled garlic. The diagnosis in each case was made on the basis of a detailed history, pattern of distribution of the lesions, patch tests,


Prescribing of medicines for older people who live in nursing homes is a very common intervention. Undoubtedly, medicines have contributed to longevity and improved health outcomes in the population, but they are not without their side effects and can give rise to adverse events. The nursing home population is particularly at risk as residents have multiple comorbidities and receive multiple medications. Moreover, the quality of prescribing has been criticised with long-standing concerns about inappropriate prescribing, particularly overuse of medications which are not clinically indicated or which are no longer required. It has been suggested that pharmacists could use their skills to improve prescribing in the nursing home population and this review paper outlines the evidence for this type of intervention. The studies which have been included were rigorously designed and conducted. A number of interventions consisted of medication reviews, which often focused on specific drugs, notably antipsychotics, hypnotics and anxiolytics. In some cases, the pharmacist was solely responsible for the delivery of the intervention while in others a multidisciplinary approach was taken involving other key healthcare professionals. A number of outcome measures were employed to assess the impact of the intervention, ranging from a change in the number of inappropriate medications to differences in hospitalizations or health-related quality of life. Owing to the variation across studies, it is difficult to be definitive about the impact of pharmacy interventions in this setting. In an older, frail population such as nursing home residents, consideration needs to be given to appropriate and relevant outcome measures including a reduction in inappropriate prescribing, optimization of prescribing, reduced costs and improved health-related quality of life. Pharmacists and other healthcare professionals should continue to strive to meet these challenges in this particular demographic.


Electrochemical machining (ECM) technology has the advantage of machining the workpiece with complex profile on the basis of electrolysis. In this study, turbulated holes with the rib's shape of spiral and annular were processed by ECM by using the shaped cathodes. Experimental system was built which consists of electrolyte supply module, power supply unit and workpiece holding device. Machining experimentations were carried out on the built system. Analysis and discussions were done according to the experimental results. It indicated machining efficiency is high by using the shaped cathode. Machining error could be controlled within 10-20%.


Abstract Objective: The effects of genetic variants in genes encoding the target structures of antidepressants on the therapeutic efficacy of antidepressant drugs have been investigated with unconclusive results. One possible confounding factor in most studies was the fact that drug serum concentrations had not been determined. Methods: Within a clinical setting, 56 inpatients suffering from depressive episodes in the context of either major depressive disorder or bipolar affective disorder were studied. Response to venlafaxine was assessed after 4 weeks of treatment and correlated to serum concentration and functional variants in genes encoding the norepinephrine (SLC6A2; rs28386840) and the serotonin transporter (SLC6A4; [5-HTTLPR], rs25531). Symptom change was evaluated using the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale. Results: No association between therapeutic response, venlafaxine serum concentration (active moiety) and rs28386840 was found. In carriers of the high expressing SLC6A4 genotype (lAlA-), a poor response to venlafaxine was found significantly more often. In subsamples stratified for serum concentration this held true for patients with serum concentrations between 201 and 400 ng/mL (n=21), while in patients with sub- (≤ 200 ng/mL; n=12) and supra-recommended (> 400 ng/mL; n=23) concentrations, no significant differences were observed. Discussion: The observed association is consistent with findings of some previous studies, whereas others showed differing results highlighting the need for further investigations.


Earthquake location using relative arrival time measurements can lead to dramatically reduced location errors and a view of fault-zone processes with un- precedented detail. There are two principal reasons why this approach reduces lo- cation errors. The first is that the use of differenced arrival times to solve for the vector separation of earthquakes removes from the earthquake location problem much of the error due to unmodeled velocity structure. The second reason, on which we focus in this article, is that waveform cross correlation can substantially reduce measurement error. While cross correlation has long been used to determine relative arrival times with subsample precision, we extend correlation measurements to less similar waveforms, and we introduce a general quantitative means to assess when correlation data provide an improvement over catalog phase picks. We apply the technique to local earthquake data from the Calaveras Fault in northern California. Tests for an example streak of 243 earthquakes demonstrate that relative arrival times with normalized cross correlation coefficients as low as 70%, interevent separation distances as large as to 2 km, and magnitudes up to 3.5 as recorded on the Northern California Seismic Network are more precise than relative arrival times determined from catalog phase data. Also discussed are improvements made to the correlation technique itself. We find that for large time offsets, our implementation of time- domain cross correlation is often more robust and that it recovers more observations than the cross spectral approach. Longer time windows give better results than shorter ones. Finally, we explain how thresholds and empirical weighting functions may be derived to optimize the location procedure for any given region of interest, taking advantage of the respective strengths of diverse correlation and catalog phase data on different length scales.


This paper contributes to an under-researched area through an exploration of the factors motivating the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies and practices in businesses in Botswana. The focus of analysis is a developing country where HIV/AIDS is acknowledged to have had a detrimental impact on its human resources. The objective of this research was to assess whether a voluntary, non-legally binding National Policy on HIV/AIDS is an adequate motivator for the adoption of HIV/AIDS policies in businesses. The study engaged employers and managers across a number of key sectors in Botswana. The findings are explored through a theoretical lens that acknowledges institutional isomorphism and rational economic decision-making as potential motivating factors. The data indicate that the National Policy on HIV/AIDS had motivated certain businesses to adopt such policies, but a variety of other factors were also found to be involved in this process. There was, however, lack of engagement with the National Policy and with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS by a high number of the participating organisations. The research findings reveal the complexity of factors involved in adopting HIV/AIDS policies in a developing country, and therefore provide an insight in an under-researched area. They can serve as a foundation for future research on human resource management policies and practices in relation to HIV/AIDS in African economies.


Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease characterized by elevated blood sugar levels. In diabetic patients, oxidative stress induced by the presence of excessive free radicals is closely associated with chronic in?ammation, leading to potential tissue damage. Melatonin (MEL) is a compound synthesized by the pineal gland and a scavenger of free radicals. The aim of this study was to research the effects of MEL on oxidative stress and its DNA protective effects in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. In total, 32 rats were equally divided into four experimental groups: control, melatonin, diabetic, and diabetic + melatonin. A single dose of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg) was given by intraperitoneal route to induce experimental diabetes. MEL (10 mg/kg daily) was administrated to rats by intraperitoneal route for 6 weeks. Oxidative stress parameters were evaluated in rat liver, kidney, brain, and pancreas tissues. Body weight, plasma glucose, and HbA1c levels were studied. DNA damage was analyzed by comet assay in lymphocytes, while % tail DNA and mean tail moment parameters were evaluated. The study results indicate that the intraperitoneal administration of 10 mg/kg MEL over 6 weeks may cause amelioration in oxidative stress parameters against diabetes, leading to beneficial effects based on % tail DNA and mean tail moment parameters in rat lymphocytes.