Abstract Background: This study investigated the patterns of health service utilization among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and significant somatic symptoms, who visited psychiatrists in a tertiary care setting. Methods: A total of 211 patients (51 males and 160 females) were recruited from a convenience sampling and assessed for severity of depressive and somatic symptoms. A structured questionnaire was employed to assess their pattern of healthcare service utilization, specifically, type of treatment first sought, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and time from onset of depressive symptoms to first treatment. Results: MDD patients with significant somatic symptoms tended to visit a non-psychiatrist physician first. Those with milder somatic symptoms who first visited non-physician practitioners spent a significantly greater amount on out-of-pocket medical expenses than did those who first visited physicians to get treatment. The patients with chief complaints of psychological and emotional symptoms were more likely to visit a psychiatrist first; however, a longer time interval lapsed before these patients received treatment. Conclusions: Patients with MDD experiencing significant symptoms are unlikely to access appropriate services in a timely manner. The results have implications for improving health care delivery for this population.


OBJECTIVES
To present the prevalence of gun ownership among batterers and describe their self-reported use of guns to threaten intimate partners.

METHODS
We used multivariate methods to analyze data from 8529 men enrolled in Massachusetts certified batterer intervention programs between 1999 and 2003.

RESULTS
Seven percent of the sample reported owning guns during the past 3 years. Recent gun owners were 7.8 times more likely than non-gun-owners to have threatened their partners with guns. Gun owners and non-gun-owners were equally likely to have threatened their partners with knives. Batterers reported using guns to threaten their partners in 4 ways, including 1) threatening to shoot them; 2) cleaning, holding, or loading a gun during an argument; 3) threatening to shoot a pet or person the victim cared about; and 4) shooting a gun during an argument with a victim. Identified risk markers for threatening an intimate partner with a gun included substance abuse, homicidal behavior, making knife threats, and gun ownership in the 3 years preceding assessment.

CONCLUSION
Among batterers, owning a gun is highly correlated with using a gun to threaten an intimate partner. Legal restrictions that prohibit batterers from owning and possessing firearms should be enforced consistently. Detailed contextual information about the circumstances in which batterers use guns to threaten intimate partners and potential protective and risk factors relevant to firearm use by batterers should be explored.


The single greatest challenge to an HIV cure is the persistence of latently infected cells containing inducible, replication-competent proviral genomes, which constitute only a small fraction of total or infected cells in the body. Although resting CD4+ T cells in the blood are a well-known source of viral rebound, more than 90% of the body's lymphocytes reside elsewhere. Many are in gut tissue, where HIV DNA levels per million CD4+ T cells are considerably higher than in the blood. Despite the significant contribution of gut tissue to viral replication and persistence, little is known about the cell types that support persistence of HIV in the gut; importantly, T cells in the gut have phenotypic, functional, and survival properties that are distinct from T cells in other tissues. The mechanisms by which latency is established and maintained will likely depend on the location and cytokine milieu surrounding the latently infected cells in each compartment. Therefore, successful HIV cure strategies require identification and characterization of the exact cell types that support viral persistence, particularly in the gut. In this review, we describe the seeding of the latent HIV reservoir in the gut mucosa; highlight the evidence for compartmentalization and depletion of T cells; summarize the immunologic consequences of HIV infection within the gut milieu; propose how the damaged gut environment may promote the latent HIV reservoir; and explore several immune cell targets in the gut and their place on the path toward HIV cure.


In the early 1990s, grocery suppliers and retailers joined forces to streamline operations--an initiative called "efficient consumer response." Today, suppliers feel like they're not getting their fair share of the profits from ECR. But they stand to lose more if they give up on it, the authors say.


As Blank (2008, p. 302) notes, off-farm income earned by farm household plays at least two major roles in agriculture. In a macroeconomic role, off-farm income is a neglected index of a country's economic development. In a microeconomic role, off-farm income is one of the most important risk management tools available to farm households. Blank (2008, p. 133) further emphasizes, "Currently, economy-wide demand for labor is the engine of "growth" in American agriculture. A growing real wage is a sufficient condition for rural household income growth." Gardner (2005) also points out that this is the dominant explanation for the catch-up of farm to urban household income levels observed over recent decades in the U.S. Like in the U.S., off-farm income represents a high and generally increasing percentage of average farm operator household income in Taiwan. Off-farm income accounted for about 80 percent of total farm household income in 2014. The contribution of off-farm income for farm household and rural development are too important to be ignored. In recent decades, the major trends of commercialization, globalization, science and technology are all ongoing and interrelated. The impacts of trade liberalization (e.g., WTO, FTA, or TPP) on Taiwan's agriculture sector has been an important issue in policy debates. Most of the debates focus on decreases in major indicators, e.g., total output value in production agriculture sector, food security, food self-sufficiency rate and on-farm income of farm household. Almost all of them neglect or ignore those potential increases in off-farm employment and income from local economic growth with trade liberalization. For the research methodology, Irwin et al. (2010) provide a selected review of the economics literature over the past 100 years with a focus on the economic transformation of rural places and conclude that "Rural development is a general equilibrium problem that requires general equilibrium tools." The development of computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling techniques by agricultural economists has been a major contribution to the entire economics profession and rural development, in particular. Computable general equilibrium models are the only ones that endogenously determine primary factor supplies as well as all prices and incomes in an economy. In this study, we built the SAM-based GEMTEE (General Equilibrium Model for Taiwanese Economy and Environment) model—a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that depicts the economy of Taiwan and its demographic structure through time—a flexible mechanism to reflect how fertility respond to income and demographic policies, as well as demographers' perspectives. The GEMTEE model is a CGE model derived from the Monash-type CGE model (Dixon and Rimmer 2002) and is calibrated to the 2006 Social Accounting Matrix of Taiwan as the benchmark. We use cross-strait trade liberalization as a case study. The 57 sectors of GTAP (Global Trade analysis Project) dataset and 166 sectors of Taiwan's Input-Output Tables are aggregated into four major sectors: agriculture, agro-processing, manufacture and services. With all tariff rates eliminated from bilateral trade between China and Taiwan, GTAP simulations produce different import and export price changes to both economies. We then use SAM-based GEMTEE model to simulate the impacts of cross-strait trade liberalization on Taiwan's economy, agriculture output off-farm income, farm household income and employment. Simulation results demonstrate that Taiwan's GDP will increase by 1.78%, but total agriculture output will decrease by 0.9%. For per farm household income, although on-farm income decreases by NT$1,648, off-farm income will increase by NT$10,580. In total, per farm household income increases by NT$8,932 with cross-strait trade liberalization. With trade liberalization as the engine of growth and trade adjustment assistance (TAA) mechanism in work, economic growth in Taiwan's agriculture may be maintained and in the long run off-farm income and employment will increase to provide a "safety net" for rural households.


Two anaerobic bacterial strains, MB9-7(T) and MB9-9, were isolated from decomposing algal scum and were characterized using a polyphasic approach. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strains MB9-7(T) and MB9-9 are closely related to each other (99.7% similarity) and they are also closely related to Clostridium tyrobutyricum (96.5%). The two strains were Gram-stain positive and rod-shaped. Growth occurred at 20-45 °C, at pH 4.0-8.0 and at NaCl concentrations of up to 2% (w/v). Acid was produced from glucose, xylose and mannose. Products of fermentation in PYG medium were mainly butyrate, acetate, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The predominant cellular fatty acids were C(14:0) and C(16:0). The cellular polar lipids comprised phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, two glycolipids, one phospholipid, one aminophospholipid and two aminolipids. The DNA G+C contents of strain MB9-7(T) and MB9-9 were 27.9 and 28.7 mol%, respectively. These results support the assignment of the new isolates to the genus Clostridium and also distinguish them from other species of the genus Clostridium. Hence, it is proposed that strains MB9-7(T) and MB9-9 represent a novel species of the genus Clostridium, with the suggested name Clostridium algifaecis sp. nov. The type strain is MB9-7(T) ( =CGMCC 1.5188(T) =DSM 28783(T)).


The removal of arsenic from synthetic effluent was studied using the adsorbent particle flotation technique (APF) and dissolved air flotation (DAF). A sample of an iron mineral was used as adsorbent particles of arsenic, ferric chloride as coagulant, cationic poly-acrylamide (NALCO 9808) as flocculants, and sodium oleate as collector. Adsorption studies to determine the pH influence, contact time, and adsorbent particles concentration on the adsorption of arsenic were carried out along with flotation studies to determine the removal efficiency of adsorbents particles. The results achieved indicate that the adsorption kinetic of arsenic is very rapid and that in range of pH's from 2 to 7 the adsorption percentages remain constant. The equilibrium conditions were achieved in 60 minutes and about 95% of arsenic was adsorbed when used an adsorbent concentration of 2 g/L and pH 6.3. The maximum adsorption capacity of adsorbent particles was 4.96 mg/g. The mean free energy of adsorption (E) was found to be 2.63 kJ/mol, which suggests physisorption. The results of the flotation studies demonstrated that when synthetic effluents with 8.9 mg/L of arsenic were treated under the following experimental conditions; 2 g/L of adsorbent particles, 120 mg/L of Fe(III), 2 mg/L of Nalco 9808, 20 mg/L of sodium oleate, and 40% of recycle ratio in the DAF, it was possible to reach 98% of arsenic removal and 6.3 NTU of residual turbidity in clarified synthetic effluent.


We attempted to use hydrogen, iodo and seleno 3,5-bis(triazolyl)pyridinium (btp) motifs to form 3D supramolecular frameworks assembled by hydrogen, halogen or chalcogen bonding to anions. Initially, we prepared flexible ditopic and tetratopic receptors where the pyridinium nitrogen atom was functionalized with a benzylic group but were unable to crystallise extended frameworks. We subsequently developed the use of Zincke methodology to prepare rigid ditopic and tetratopic hydrogen and halogen bonding tectons, and were able to crystallize the sulfate derivative of a tetratopic receptor, although unfortunately this did not have the desired open framework. Several crystal structures were obtained with the receptors and monovalent anions, including one containing an unusually short iodotriazole∙∙∙Cl– halogen bond. Generally, the btp triazole groups show a tendency to rotate away from the desired conformation and it appears that this may contribute to difficulties in obtaining 3D frameworks even when the receptors have a rigid core.


Fully transparent oxide thin-fi lm transistors celebrate their 10th anniversary. Since the beginnings, using crystalline channel layers, there have been manifold improvements in terms of device performance and stability under stress. Today, mostly lowtemperature grown amorphous channel layers are used. However, dielectrics are still fabricated by sophisticated techniques to suppress leakage currents. Metal–semiconductor fi eld-effect transistors based on transparent rectifying contacts as gate electrode represent a promising alternative technology for transparent electronics. Review@RRL


Modern transformer-based models with hundreds of millions of parameters, such as BERT, achieve impressive results at text classification tasks. This also holds for aggression identification and offensive language detection, where deep learning approaches consistently outperform less complex models, such as decision trees. While the complex models fit training data well (low bias), they also come with an unwanted high variance. Especially when fine-tuning them on small datasets, the classification performance varies significantly for slightly different training data. To overcome the high variance and provide more robust predictions, we propose an ensemble of multiple fine-tuned BERT models based on bootstrap aggregating (bagging). In this paper, we describe such an ensemble system and present our submission to the shared tasks on aggression identification 2020 (team name: Julian). Our submission is the best-performing system for five out of six subtasks. For example, we achieve a weighted F1-score of 80.3% for task A on the test dataset of English social media posts. In our experiments, we compare different model configurations and vary the number of models used in the ensemble. We find that the F1-score drastically increases when ensembling up to 15 models, but the returns diminish for more models.


This paper proposes an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) for the global and local equilibrium problem of searching ability. It improves the iterative way of inertia weight in PSO, using non-linear decreasing algorithm to balance, then PSO combines with simulated annealing (SA). Finally, the optimization test experiments are carried out for the typical functions with the algorithm (ULWPSO-SA), and compare with the basic PSO algorithm. Simulation experiments show that local search ability of algorithm, convergence speed, stability and accuracy have been significantly improved. In addition, the novel algorithm is used in the parameter optimization of support vector machines (ULWPSOSA-SVM), and the experimental results indicate that it gets a better classification performance compared with SVM and PSO-SVM.


Background and Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the changes in the clinical characteristics of chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) patients at the initiation of treatment over a 15-years period. Materials and Methods: The study included 659 treatment-naive CHB patients who started receiving nucleos(t)ide analogs between January 2006 and December 2020. The patients included in the study were divided into three groups of five years each, according to the start date of treatment. Results: The mean age was 46.2±14.5 years and 445 (67.5%) were male. Two hundred and five (31.1%) patients had cirrhosis. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) developed in forty-one patients (6.2%). Compared to patients in Group 1, Group 2 were younger and had lower decompensated cirrhosis, HCC and ascites, had higher Child A cirrhosis (all p<0.05). Cirrhosis and esophageal varices were higher in patients in Group 3 compared to patients in Group 2 (all p<0.05). Entecavir or tenofovir use increased from 66.5% in Group 1 to 99.2% in Group 3 (p<0.05). Conclusion: The mean age at initiation of treatment for CHB patients increased. The patients had less cirrhosis. In the last 5 years, almost all patients were treated with entecavir or tenofovir.


2 Abstract— Sensor networks consist of small wireless sensor nodes deployed randomly over an area to monitor the environment or detect intrusion. The coverage provided by sensor networks is very crucial to their effectiveness. Many of the important applications of sensor networks demand autonomous mobility for the sensor nodes. Early failure of sensor nodes can lead to coverage loss that requires coverage maintenance schemes. The process of moving a node to a new location for maintenance of coverage is termed migration. The comparison of the performance of the different algorithms in terms of the improvement in coverage, average migration distance of the nodes and the lifetime of the network is also presented from our survey.


The article argues that the state plays, and has always played, a key role in the internationalization of firms and that theoretical explanations of MNE should take that role into account. The first part of the paper deals with the place of the state in the theories of multinational firms ; most theories can be classified into three currents : those arguing the decline of the Nation-State as a consequence of the growth of MNE, those seeing the territorial expansion of the state as a natural consequence of multinationalism and those arguing the direct but weak thrust of the State in favour of MNE. The second section of the paper analyses the main types of government intervention pushing national firms into foreign operations. The third section studies the most evident case of government intervention on multinationalisation : the case of multinational state enterprises. The article concludes that the state should be included - an increasingly so - as a major purveyor of advantages to national firms seeking to initiate or pursue foreign activities.


This book explores the logic of struggle between radical movements and incumbent regimes, and develops a general theory of strategy in protests, uprisings, and rebellions.Originally published in 1985.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Synthetic hexaploid wheat, created from a cross between durum [Triticum turgidum L. (syn. Triticum durum Desf.)] and Aegilops tauschii Coss., is a good source of new genes for bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) improvement. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the potential and performance of synthetic wheat in Texas. Ten elite primary synthetics from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center(CIMMYT) were backcrossed to two Texas cultivars, TAM 111 and TAM 112. Populations were bulked and "modified bulked" to advance generations. Yield-related agronomic traits were measured on the BCF 4 and BCF 5 populations across five Texas locations. Improvement was observed in South Texas and the Blacklands, which had more disease pressure and fewer intermittent dry spells than locations in the Texas Rolling and High Plains. Selected bulks were not superior to nonselected bulks. Head number per unit area had the highest correlation with yield. Similar to crosses with spring wheat, synthetics contributed to yield through an increase in seed weight. Synthetic populations that produced higher grain yield than both TAM 111 and TAM 112 maintained their large seed size and weight but had increased number of heads and grains per head. Poorer performance in environments with harsh winters could be because of a lack of winter-hardiness in the primary synthetics. Improved yield could result from selecting for increased number of heads per unit area and grains per head in lines derived from these populations.


Background Gene amplification is a frequent manifestation of genomic instability that plays a role in tumour progression and development of drug resistance. It is manifested cytogenetically as extrachromosomal double minutes (DMs) or intrachromosomal homogeneously staining regions (HSRs). To better understand the molecular mechanism by which HSRs and DMs are formed and how they relate to the development of methotrexate (MTX) resistance, we used two model systems of MTX-resistant HT-29 colon cancer cell lines harbouring amplified DHFR primarily in (i) HSRs and (ii) DMs. Results In DM-containing cells, we found increased expression of non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) proteins. Depletion or inhibition of DNA-PKcs, a key NHEJ protein, caused decreased DHFR amplification, disappearance of DMs, increased formation of micronuclei or nuclear buds, which correlated with the elimination of DHFR, and increased sensitivity to MTX. These findings indicate for the first time that NHEJ plays a specific role in DM formation, and that increased MTX sensitivity of DM-containing cells depleted of DNA-PKcs results from DHFR elimination. Conversely, in HSR-containing cells, we found no significant change in the expression of NHEJ proteins. Depletion of DNA-PKcs had no effect on DHFR amplification and resulted in only a modest increase in sensitivity to MTX. Interestingly, both DM-containing and HSR-containing cells exhibited decreased proliferation upon DNA-PKcs depletion. Conclusions We demonstrate a novel specific role for NHEJ in the formation of DMs, but not HSRs, in MTX-resistant cells, and that NHEJ may be targeted for the treatment of MTX-resistant colon cancer.


Contemporary parenting has witnessed a multitude of adaptations over the past decade across various cultural settings. Adolescent attachment patterns with parents have been explored in varying cultural contexts. These attachment patterns have been extensively studied in the light of adolescence as a turbulent phase of development. This chapter offers a systematic review of the cultural factors influencing parenting, with a theoretical analysis specific to adolescents within the Indian context. Based on the exploration of these cultural influences on parenting, the chapter further explores the relevance of mindfulness-based approaches within the Indian culture, with an applicability of a model of mindful parenting specifically with adolescents in India. The conceptualization of mindfulness-based approaches stems from both Eastern and Western cultures, which have significant influences on parenting of adolescents. The components of mindful parenting have shown applicability within the dynamic context of parental-adolescent attachment patterns, especially considering the culture-specific concept of interdependence in a collectivistic culture like India. Such findings have potential implications for the formulation of parenting strategies toward the future of adolescent mental health in the country.


Ensuring reliability of operations under increasing temperature and process variations has emerged as a major design concern at nanometer scale. Adaptive systems that can dynamically change its operating conditions (voltage, frequency etc.) to accommodate for temperature and process variation has emerged as a promising solution. Such a system, however, requires efficient design techniques that can detect these variations and calibrate the system dynamically to adapt to the variations. In this paper, we propose a low-overhead design technique that helps an adaptive system to accurately estimate the temperature-induced delay variations and adapt to it, thus avoiding an overly-conservative design approach with respect to temperature variations. The principal idea is to choose the most temperature-sensitive timing paths in a circuit; dynamically transform them to a ring oscillator during calibration; and use the frequency of the ring oscillator to estimate the operating frequency of the system. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique for a set of ISCAS89 benchmark circuits with less than 3% error in delay estimation while incurring 1.7% average overhead in delay, 3.4% in area and 0.2% in power


BACKGROUND
Despite advances in managing nonimmune hydrops fetalis (NIHF), perinatal mortality is still significant. Fetal cardiac failure eventually occurs regardless of etiology. However, no previous study has addressed NIHF from fetal cardiologists' perspective. Therefore, we evaluated etiology and management of a NIHF cohort requiring fetal cardiologist consultation in a developing country.

METHODS
A single-center retrospective cohort study of 70 cases with NIHF that were referred to a fetal cardiology unit over four years was performed. Demographics, etiologic diagnosis, and outcomes of the cases were assessed. Antenatal management was evaluated using cardiovascular profile score (CVPS).

RESULTS
The most frequent diagnosis was Idiopathic hydrops 42(62.6%), followed by hydrops due to cardiac diseases 19(28.4%), and 3 dead fetuses were detected at the first fetal echocardiography. Treatment of fetal tachyarrhythmia (n = 7) had 100% success rate in terms of antenatal hydrops resolution. Digoxin was used in cases of structural heart diseases, twin- twin transfusion syndrome, and dilated cardiomyopathy with perinatal mortality occurring in all cases (n = 9). In cases of idiopathic hydrops, 14 fetuses received digoxin with intrauterine hydrops resolution in 2/14 (14%) while non-treated cases had intrauterine or early neonatal death.

CONCLUSION
Nonimmune hydrops is the worst complication of diverse etiologies. Limitations in resources for advanced investigations in developing countries increase the possibility of categorizing NIHF as idiopathic. Tachyarrhythmia induced hydrops can be entirely reversed with antenatal therapy while non-tachyarrhythmia fetal cardiac disease outcomes are unfavorable regardless of therapy. On the other hand, idiopathic hydrops shows a limited potential response to digoxin in utero.


In recent years, bankers have come to realise that banking operations, in particular lending, affect and are affected by the environment and that consequently the banks might have an important role to play in helping to raise environmental standards. Stricter environmental regulations have forced companies to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and pollution control measures and in turn generated lending opportunities for bankers. However, the environment also presents significant risks to banks including direct, indirect and reputational. This article begins with an attempt to define environmental risk in the context of bank lending. It goes on to assess the relative environmental risk exposures of the UK's major clearing banks using publicly available data on current market shares of environmentally sensitive industry sectors.


[1] This study defines the Mio-Pliocene to present-day stress regime acting at the northeastern Mediterranean along the SE border of the Neogene Adana basin along the Misis Range. The inversion of earthquake focal mechanisms shows that the present-day state of stress is dominantly a transtension, combined the strike-slip and extension with a consistent ENE (N83°E) trending σHmin (σ3) axis. The inversion slip vectors measured on fault planes and chronologies between striations indicate a consistent strike-slip stress regime that varied from transpressional initially to transtensional during Pleistocene time, with the latter continuing into recent times as indicated by earthquake focal mechanism inversions. Both states have consistent NNW (N15°W) trending, compatible with NNW Arabian drift direction, and ENE (N75°E) trending σHmax (σ1) and σHmin (σ3) axes, respectively, but have significantly different mean arithmetic stress ratio (Rm) values: Rm = 0.75 indicating transpression for the old regional stress regime and Rm of 0.20 denoting transtensional for the younger regional stress regime. The crosscutting of striations confirms also the change within the strike-slip stress regime. Both stress regimes induce sinistral displacement along the major strike-slip fault systems, i.e., East Anatolian Fault, Karatas-Osmaniye Fault. The temporal stress regime change probably occurred during Quaternary time and resulted from coeval influence of the superimposed forces owing to subduction processes in the southwest along the Cyprus arc, continental collision in the east, and westward escape of the Anatolian Block in the north and west.


Background: Broset Violence Checklist (BVC) and Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression-Inpatient Version (DASA-IV) are risk assessment instruments of violence that nurses can use in psychiatric services, but their accuracy of the instruments in predicting violent behavior in 24 hours need to be tested. Objective: This study aims to examine the sensitivity and specificity of BVC and DASA-IV instruments in predicting violent behavior within 24 hours and which is more accurate. Method: This is a diagnostic study with a cross-sectional approach. The sample of this study was 112 patients. The respondents' behaviors were observed, based on parameters assessed by BVC and DASA-IV as well as recording incidents of violent behavior using AOS (Aggression Observation Short) as the gold standard. Sensitivity, specificity, and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) tests were conducted to assess the accuracy of the two instruments in predicting violent behavior within 24 hours. Results: 23.2% of the respondents in this study experienced violent behavior in the first 24 hours. BVC has a sensitivity value of 65.4% and specificity of 94.5%. DASA-IV has a sensitivity value of 69.2% and a specificity of 95.5%. The level of accuracy of BVC is 87.9%, and of DASA-IV is 92.2%. Conclusion: DASA-IV is more sensitive, higher in its specificity, and is more accurate in predicting violent behavior within 24 hours in schizophrenic patients compared to BVC


Implantable medical devices must undergo thorough evaluation to ensure safety and efficacy before use in humans. If a device is designed to degrade, it is critical to understand the rate of degradation and the degradation products that will be released. Oxidative degradation is typically modeled in vitro by immersing materials or devices in hydrogen peroxide, which can limit further analysis of degradation products in many cases. Here we demonstrate a novel approach for testing the cytocompatibility of degradation products for oxidatively-degradable biomaterials where the materials are exposed to hydrogen peroxide, and then catalase enzyme is used to convert the hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen so that the resulting aqueous solution can be added to cell culture media. To validate our results, expected degradation products are also synthesized then added to cell culture media. We used these methods to evaluate the cytocompatibility of degradation products from an oxidatively-degradable shape memory polyurethane designed in our lab and found that the degradation of these polymers is unlikely to cause a cytotoxic response in vivo based on the guidance provided by ISO 10993-5. These methods may also be applicable to other biocompatibility tests such as tests for mutagenicity or systemic toxicity, and evaluations of cell proliferation, migration, or gene and protein expression.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how those engaged in service user involvement (SUI) initiatives perceive involvement and recovery; whether involvement is related to their recovery process and, if so, how.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory qualitative method, social constructionist grounded theory, was adopted throughout the research process. Nine semi-structured interviews were undertaken with participants who self-defined as having current or previous mental health problems and who were engaged in SUI initiatives.

Findings

Most participants identified explicit links between their own experiences of SUI and recovery. These links represented a connection between the characteristics they perceived to be inherent to involvement and their personal definitions of recovery. In contrast, experiences of consultation and involvement as patient service users was limited and identified as an area for improvement. The core of the tentative grounded theory constructed suggests that individuals found in involvement elements which were concordant with and supported their own definitions of recovery and which were not apparent in their experiences as patients.

Research limitations/implications

The small sample and narrow constituency of participants limit the nature of the claims made by the study.

Practical implications

This study highlights the value of involvement in promoting recovery and indicates the merit of promoting meaningful involvement across the spectrum of the service user experience.

Originality/value

This study offers a unique contribution to the current literature, highlighting the links made between involvement and personal recovery.


Press-fit and porous femoral components for total hip replacements are currently designed for aggressive canal filling. The bulk of the implants and their manner of insertion have created new femoral fracture problems in hip arthroplasty. Sixteen femoral fractures occurred in a series of 79 press-fit or porous arthroplasties in 72 patients. All cases in this report were reviewed through the period of fracture healing. The fractures were classified as follows: type I, at the neck medially, or proximal to the isthmus laterally; type II, running in a spiral oblique pattern from the stem tip; type III, originating in stress risers in the femoral shaft; and type IV, miscellaneous unclassifiable fractures. All fractures healed, leaving painless hips (Harris hip score average, 84). Collared implants are recommended in proximal fractures to protect against acute subsidence due to a wedging mechanism.


The importance of rock type and tectonic history on rates of glacial erosion, and the relative roles of glacial quarrying and abrasion, are poorly understood. We use concentrations of cosmogenic 10Be in glacial polish and measurements of bedrock fracture spacing to explore the relationship between erosion rates and rock fracturing at 23 sites along Tuolumne River valley and five sites in Tenaya Canyon in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Most sites yield 10Be concentrations that can be best explained as reflecting solely postglacial nuclide accumulation. Six sites, however, display anomalously high concentrations, implying incomplete removal of the pre-glacial nuclide inventory during the last glaciation; these require that erosion in the last glacial cycle was <2–3 m. These low-erosion sites occur preferentially in massive units of the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite and the El Capitan Granite. Fractures in high-erosion sites are more closely spaced than in low-erosion sites, with spacings that average 1.1 ± 0.03 m and 3.3 ± 0.1 m, respectively. Our data suggest that the distance between fractures in the rock, dictated in part by the original spacing in a particular pluton, and in part by the specific tectonic history of the Sierra Nevada, governs the pace of glacial erosion in Yosemite.


ABSTRACT Alternaria brown spot, caused by Alternaria alternata pv. citri, affects many tangerines and their hybrids, causing loss of immature leaves and fruit and reducing the marketability of the remaining fruit. Conidial production of A. alternata was greatest on mature leaves moistened and maintained at near 100% relative humidity (RH) for 24 h, whereas leaves that had been soaked or maintained at moderate RH produced few conidia. Conidial release from filter paper cultures and infected leaves was studied in a computer-controlled environmental chamber. Release of large numbers of conidia was triggered from both substrates by sudden drops in RH or by simulated rainfall events. Vibration induced release of low numbers of conidia, but red/infrared irradiation had no effect. In field studies from 1994 to 1996, air sampling with a 7-day recording volumetric spore trap indicated that conidia were present throughout the year with periodic large peaks. The number of conidia captured was not closely related to rainfall amounts or average wind speed, but was weakly related to the duration of leaf wetness. Likewise, disease severity on trap plants placed in the field weekly during 1995 to 1996 was not closely related to conidial numbers or rainfall amounts, but was weakly related to leaf wetness duration. Sufficient inoculum appears to be available to allow infection to occur throughout the year whenever susceptible host tissue and moisture are available.


Transmission expansion planning (TEP) plays an important role in the integration of renewable energy sources (RES). In fact, the standards of expansion plans have significantly changed due to the speedily increase renewable penetration. In addition, stronger security requirements have been imposed in order to avoid blackouts associated with outages of system elements. In this paper, we propose a methodology to devise the optimal expansion plan while taking into account the possibility of system failures and uncertainty in renewable output. Since the uncertainty characterization of RES output still represents a challenge for operators and planners, the methodology proposed is general enough to accommodate a set of eligible RES probability distributions. Structurally, the proposed TEP formulation is a particular instance of the risk-constrained adjustable robust optimization (R-ARO) framework, modelled as a (hierarchical) three-level system of optimization problems. An IEEE-based test system is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the TEP model.


Collecting is mentioned as a kind of consumption by many scientists. However, there are varieties in the type of consumptions which are also related to the behavior of the consumer. This paper regarding comprehensive review of the literature focuses on consumption behavior and considers it through collecting. The related researches categorize the factors which influence on collecting consumption to compulsive purchase, obsession, culture, desires, luxury aspects, a kind of addiction, set completion, passion, social activities, prestige, financial causes and limitations, the elements related to value, and etc. Besides, issues related to collecting consumption are also considered as issues for society, family, and individuals. Collecting is a type of consumption beyond everyday needs. It is luxury and based on desire. Collecting also transfers consumable features to culture.


Turbulence Diagnostic Simulator is an assembly of simulation codes to clarify the formation mechanism of turbulent structures by numerical diagnostics in magnetically confined plasmas. Global simulations are carried out using a reduced MHD model of drift-interchange mode in helical plasmas, and time series data of 3-D fluctuation fields are produced. It includes localized modes in their rational surfaces, and broad modes spread in the radial direction. Magnitudes of nonlinear couplings from the convective derivative are evaluated in the nonlinear saturated states. The radial profile shows that there exist strong mode excitation near the center, various modes and nonlinear couplings with higher m modes in the middle radius, small number of propagating modes near the edge, which contribute to the pressure profile modification. For the detection of the different features, combination of several diagnostics is necessary. c


Landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) continue to kill, injure and destroy lives and livelihoods. They cause an estimated 11 to 12 casualties daily and are not confined to a single part of the world. The six countries with the highest landmine and ERW casualties in 2011 – Afghanistan, Cambodia, Colombia, Myanmar, Pakistan and South Sudan – belonged to different regions.1 Twenty years after the establishment of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and 15 years after the monumental Mine Ban Treaty, the world has yet to overcome this scourge, which harms far more innocent civilians than military personnel.1

In a paper in this issue of the Bulletin, Durham et al. note that in Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies, the true number of landmine and ERW casualties has historically been underreported.2 Their paper was written before the release in December 2012 of the GBD 2010 report, which fails to specifically discuss accidents caused by landmines and ERW and categorizes them under "collective violence".3 In line with the Landmine Monitor's reporting on landmine and ERW casualties, the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to collective violence have declined.4 However, the problem of landmines and ERW persists and it would be a grave misjudgement to consider it solved.

The health community has a major role to play in matters pertaining to landmines and ERW. The most apparent is ensuring an adequate health-care response, both immediate (e.g. acute trauma care and surgery) and long-term (e.g. rehabilitation), to the physical and psychological trauma of people injured by landmines and ERW casualties. Most of these people live in poverty, which tends to get worse after the accident. Furthermore, health services equipped to treat people with landmines and ERW injuries are often found in urban areas only, yet most accidents occur in rural and remote areas.

Those who survive but with permanent disabilities, often face social and environmental barriers that can preclude their full and equal participation within their communities. With many health campaigns and calls to action to promote child health and survival, it is worth noting a substantial proportion of civilian landmine and ERW accidents occur in children – 42% on average, according to the Landmine monitor 2012.1

Landmine and ERW contamination can also undermine the health of a population indirectly by destroying food security as well as access to safe water and to vaccination and health facilities in general.5 These weapons can also prevent community-based health teams from carrying out their activities. As succinctly noted by Maddocks, "infectious diseases move freely … but health teams are restricted to safe areas".6 The tragic deaths of two polio workers recently killed by a landmine blast in Pakistan drives this message home, especially now that the international health community has focused its attention on health worker safety.7

Today we understand that to improve the health of a population, we must address the social determinants of health. Landmine and ERW contamination is among these social determinants. The social detriment it causes is incompatible with sustainable development and with the three fundamental aspects of human well-being: economic development, environmental sustainability and social inclusion.8 The indirect impact of landmines and ERW on health are not reflected in GBD studies or captured by data gathered in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases. Durham et al. call for better integration of mine action and health reporting systems to better inform resource allocation and planning. Similarly, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, in her commentary in the special edition of The Lancet on GBD 2010, warned that national health information is not fully integrated into global data collection: "…we need to agree on common standards for documentation and sharing of data … that maximises benefits to countries".9

Assisting the victims of landmines and ERW by providing them with health care and ensuring their thorough integration into society is an obligation under two major disarmament treaties – the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions – and is one of the five pillars of mine action. The other four are clearance of landmines and ERW, stockpile destruction, advocacy for a universal ban and mine risk education. Despite this, victims continue to face a dire situation in most countries contaminated by landmines and ERW.10 Moreover, direct international support for victim assistance has decreased sharply; it dropped by almost 30% from 2010 to 2011, the year when it reached its lowest level since funding for monitoring mine action was initiated.1 At a time when countries are seeking to address their health problems through integrated approaches, all sectors must focus their attention on the fight against landmines and ERW.


Recently, it was proposed to use negatively charged electron beams for compensation of beam-beam effects due to protons in the Tevatron collider [1]. We show that a similar compensation is possible in space-charge dominated low energy proton beams. The idea has a potential of several-fold increase of the FNAL Booster beam brightness. Best results will be obtained using three electron lenses around the machine circumference, using co-moving electron beam with time structure and profile approximately matched to the proton beam. This technique, if feasible, will be more cost effective than the straightforward alternative of increasing the energy of the injection linac.


This article outlines the need for a sustained investigation into London's relationship with terrorism. Drawing on recent critiques of security studies, and challenging histories of London's violence, the article demands that we prioritize an analytical approach centred upon terrorism's spatial impact. London's built environment is loaded with symbolic resonances (from imperialism to neo-colonialism, institutional power to high finance), all of which have made (and make) this city a recurrent target for terrorism. Crucial to this reading of the city is an awareness of London's transnational circuitry — that is, how violence committed in London is tethered to violence enacted abroad. By understanding terrorism through these spatial politics, it also becomes possible to isolate London as the historic origin of a new form of terrorist violence — one orientated around place alienation as opposed to targeted assassination. This shift can be located in the nineteenth century and connected to technological advances. It is this conjunction between terrorism and urban modernity that has been a constant refrain in London's development.


Pseudo-pseudo Meig's syndrome (PPMS) is an exceedingly uncommon disease in patients with diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). This is a case report of a 23-year-old woman with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), presented with rapidly increasing abdominal girth, facial/pedal edema, oliguria, and dyspnea, who was presumed to be developing pre-eclampsia in her 35th week of gestation. She was managed by an emergency Cesarean-section, and an incidental finding of peri-operative ascitic fluid was obtained and a right-sided pleural effusion. Upon further investigations, her CA-125 levels were found to be elevated. Her anti-double-stranded DNA titers were increased whereas complement levels (C3 and C4) were reduced indicating SLE flare. All these features suggested the diagnosis of pseudo-pseudo meig's syndrome, a rare condition associated with SLE. It is asserted in our case that her pregnancy triggered the lupus flare.


Purpose: The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the dosimetric consequences of patient setup and tracking technique decisions for 4D adaptive SBRT treatments. Method and Materials: Clinical fiducial tracking scenarios of 450 SBRT cases, 120 of them treated with 4D adaptive SBRT, were analyzed and classified into different case scenarios. A flowchart was created to systematically display each clinical tracking scenario and the decision options. Based on the flowchart, scenarios which could cause a deviation from delivered dose to planned dose were identified. For these situations, each tracking decision was evaluated for dosimetric impact by simulating the situation in treatment planning software using a patient CT and an artificially created elliptical tumor.Results: Only two clinical scenarios were identified as having dosimetric consequences. One scenario contains tumors which rotate significantly (>5 degrees) during the respiratory cycles. For rotations smaller than 5 degrees we saw no differences in the DVH than non‐rotating tumors. For tumors with rotation angles larger than 6 degrees, the DVH shows increasing, but still small, tumor underdose. The second scenario with potential dosimetry changes was a small rotational change (<5 degrees) of the tumor position relative to the global patient position. Our calculations show that changing the global patient position to move the tumor into the treatment field did change the DVH, because the SSD and obliquity of incoming beams changes. A third tracking scenario was identified in which a repeat simulation is necessary. Conclusion: Fiducial setup and rotational tumor tracking decisions for SBRT treatments were classified. Dosimetric impact was studied for the two relevant class decisions. A class of patients which needed re‐CT was identified. Our flowchart and dosimetry studies will help in the future to systematically identify and address soft‐tissue fiducial tracking scenarios and choice of tracking technique for SBRT.


Equal protection and due process are often intertwined. They work in tandem to illuminate aspects of constitutional questions that can be seen less clearly through the lens of a single clause. Nowhere is this more true than in the context of same-sex marriage, which by its nature implicates both equality and liberty values. This Article examines how courts' interwoven Fourteenth Amendment analysis affects the meaning of the recent marriage cases and shapes the emerging constitutional jurisprudence of gay rights.By choosing to focus on the equality component, courts have emphasized the continuity between laws excluding same-sex couples from marriage and other forms of anti-gay regulation. They have analyzed marriage laws not as sui generis, but rather, as part of an increasingly discredited legal regime that accords gays and lesbians secondary status. This regime was founded on a set of descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes: Homosexuals were viewed as enemies of the family, sexually predatory, and dangerous to children, and anti-gay regulations sought to channel men and women into traditional sexual and gender roles. Courts in recent marriage cases have held that laws that reflect and reinforce such stereotypes are no longer consistent with equal protection. But this anti-stereotyping approach also has implications for how courts understand the liberty component of the marriage question. Historically, anti-gay regulations sought to dissuade people from engaging in homosexual behavior and to steer them into heterosexual relationships and conventionally gendered family structures. Part of what courts are protecting when they protect the right to marry a partner of the same sex is the right to be free from such regulation. Now that same-sex marriage is inevitable, some former opponents have begun to argue that the marriage cases are all about marriage — that these decisions affirm "traditional family values" and validate efforts by the state to steer all Americans into marriage and punish those who remain outside it. This interpretive frame overlooks the intertwined nature of liberty and equality in the recent marriage cases and obscures the implications of these cases for the rights of gays and lesbians more generally — whether or not they're the marrying kind.


In this paper, we contrast three major pathways to human level AI, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), and we investigate how safety considerations compare between the three. The first pathway is de novo AGI (dnAGI), AGI built from the ground up. The second is Neuromorphic AGI (NAGI), AGI based loosely on the principles of the human brain. And third is Whole Brain Emulation (WBE), AGI built by emulating a particular human brain, in silico. Bostrom has previously argued that NAGI is the least safe form of the three. NAGI would be messier than dnAGI and therefore harder to align to arbitrary values. Additionally, NAGI would not intrinsically possess safeguards found in the human brain – such as compassion – while WBE would. In this paper, we argue that getting WBE first would be preferable to getting dnAGI first. While the introduction of WBE would likely be followed by a later transition to the less-constrained and therefore more-powerful dnAGI, the creation of dnAGI would likely be less dangerous if accomplished by WBEs than if done simply by biological humans, for a variety of reasons. One major reason is that the higher intelligence and quicker speed of thinking in the WBEs compared to biological humans could increase the chances of traversing the path through dnAGI safely. We additionally investigate the major technological trends leading to these three types of AGI, and we find these trends to be: traditional AI research, computational hardware, nanotechnology research, nanoscale neural probes, and neuroscience. In particular, we find that WBE is unlikely to be achieved without nanoscale neural probes, since much of the information processing in the brain occurs on the subcellular level (i.e., the nanoscale). For this reason, we argue that nanoscale neural probes could improve safety by favoring WBE over NAGI.


Cystoid macular oedema (CMO) is a primary cause of reduced vision after cataract surgery even after uneventful surgery. The incidence of clinical CMO following modern cataract surgery is 1.0–2.0 % but the high number of surgeries performed worldwide makes this entity an important problem. Pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and intra-operative complications increase the risk of developing CMO post-operatively. CMO is caused by an accumulation of intra-retinal fluid in the outer plexiform and inner nuclear layers of the retina, as a result of the breakdown of the blood–retinal barrier. The mechanisms that lead to this condition are not completely understood. However, the principal hypothesis is that the surgical procedure is responsible for the release of inflammatory mediators, such as prostaglandins. Optical coherence tomography is at present an extremely useful non-invasive diagnostic tool. Guidelines for the management CMO should be focused essentially on prevention and are based on the principal pathogenetic mechanisms, including the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.


Previous research studies directed at the influence of information on consumers' preferences and choices of food in the context of genetically modified (GM) food assume that information is exogenous, in that this is provided to consumers from external sources. Information made available to consumers is also typically treated as being received and processed. Other literature and observation suggests that these two features tend not to apply in practice. Using data from a choice experiment on consumers' choices for genetically modified food in which respondents were able to voluntarily access information, this study allows information to be endogenous; consumers' product choices and information access decisions are examined within a simultaneous choice framework. We find that these two types of decisions are related, but not entirely as might be expected from the existing agricultural economics literature since those with more negative attitudes toward GM food were most likely to access information made available. Our results are consistent with research findings in the social psychology literature. There is heterogeneity across consumers in the relationship between information access and consumer choices which may reflect differentiation in attitudes to GM food.


Speech Recognition is a main idea of human machine interaction which led to this research. Speech recognition refers to the ability of listening spoken words and identifying various sounds present in it, and recognizing them as words of some known language. Speech recognition aims to extract the lexical information from the speech signal independently of the speaker by reducing the inter speaker variability. It is concerned with extracting the identity of the person. This paper describes the technical overview of the feature extraction in Speech Recognition such as their property, advantages and disadvantages. The most important part of the speech recognition system which distinguishes one speech from another is Feature Extraction. Brief notes on Automatic Speech Recognition, Methodologies of Speech Recognition and Word Separation are also discussed.


Performance contracts are increasingly common in the drilling industry, especially in recent years. This incentivized contract structure, established as a partnership between operator and contractor, improves both well performance and operational execution while incorporating the rig contractor as an additional stakeholder in the operational performance of the well. Many performance contract styles exist, with one common goal: if targets are met, all parties involved benefit.
 An increasingly common performance contract type is a tier-structure KPI (Key Performance Indicator) format. In this format, metrics in the form of KPIs are determined, and goal ranges are set in a tiered system. Prior research and data collection, requiring effort from multiple departments, is needed to determine achievable and stretch metrics. After the goals are agreed upon, field personnel, experienced rig leadership, and comprehensive technology support are determined, forming a foundation for success.
 Establishing an effective communication structure is crucial for continuous improvement. This is achieved by regular performance improvement meetings, occurring among field and office personnel, for both the rig contractor and operator. Here, relevant performance data is shared regarding both successes and failures, with improvements needed for future wells are captured and implemented. In this instance, a four-tiered incentivized structure with KPIs measuring cycle time ft/day, connection times, tripping speeds and skid times were used.
 Over time, the performance contract structure benefits the operator/contractor relationship, with greater alignment on goals and responsibilities. A constant line of communication allows for frequent brainstorming and an eagerness to trial new methods, leading to a unique opportunity to demonstrate value with near-immediate results. Certain contractor technologies are at the operator's disposal as they benefit the well program, creating more openness to technologies not initially considered. Performance contracts allow for the continuous questioning of, "does this help us achieve our overall goal?" The constant focus on continuous improvement leads to performance benchmarks continually reviewed and fine-tuned with new data. There is no true "one size fits all" solution - despite everyone's best efforts, performance contracts don't all succeed at well release. Both the operator and contractor must continually be prepared to fail fast, identify improvement opportunities, make changes, and work together. However, all performance contracts ultimately play a part in innovative spirit while implementing fundamental changes in an evolving drilling industry and energy landscape.
 Over the course of deployment, this contract structure led to increased and more consistent performance compared to the unincentivized rigs. Overall, the rig experienced an 8.2% increase in average feet drilled per day compared to the operator's prior year benchmark. 42% of wells fell within the half-standard deviation boundaries of the mean ft/day, a highly consistent zone. Additionally, the rig drilled two record-breaking wells in different target formations. We will explore how and why the performance contract structure can yield consistent delivery of high-performance wells.


This paper presents a further elaboration of the use of the digital twin concept in digital machining. The main goal of the research is an attempt to combine digital representations of different objects involved in the machining process in a holistic manner. Digital twins of the in-process workpiece, cutting tool, clamping, and machine tool along with the process twin are connected in a framework in which all these elements can influence each other. The framework shows different levels of integration of different digital twins and practical recommendation on the implementation. Besides, the framework supports a simulation layer that provides data for the intensity of the interaction. Such interactions can result in, for instance, cascading calculations of cutter workpiece engagement, cutting forces, tool wear, tool deflection, chatter, and so on. Eventually, a design for a software mockup was elaborated to present the developed framework. The entire workflow to simulate part machining in such a digital representation can be used as an ultimate tool for CAM simulation and NC verification within the Zero Defect Manufacturing paradigm.


Iterative optimization is a simple but powerful approach that searches for the best possible combination of compiler optimizations for a given workload. However, each program, if not each data set, potentially favors a different combination. As a result, iterative optimization is plagued by several practical issues that prevent it from being widely used in practice: a large number of runs are required for finding the best combination; the process can be data set dependent; and the exploration process incurs significant overhead that needs to be compensated for by performance benefits.Therefore, while iterative optimization has been shown to have significant performance potential, it is seldomly used in production compilers.
 In this paper, we propose Iterative Optimization for the Data Center (IODC): we show that servers and data centers offer a context in which all of the above hurdles can be overcome. The basic idea is to spawn different combinations across workers and recollect performance statistics at the master, which then evolves to the optimum combination of compiler optimizations. IODC carefully manages costs and benefits, and is transparent to the end user. We evaluate IODC using both MapReduce and throughput compute-intensive server applications. In order to reflect the large number of users interacting with the system, we gather a very large collection of data sets (at least 1000 and up to several million unique data sets per program), for a total storage of 10.7TB, and 568 days of CPU time. We report an average performance improvement of 1.48×, and up to 2.08×, for the MapReduce applications, and 1.14×, and up to 1.39×, for the throughput compute-intensive server applications.


The SCOrWare project objectives are to develop: ● A runtime platform for deploying, executing, and managing SCA based applications. ● A set of development tools for modeling, designing, and implementing SCA based applications. ● A set of demonstrators. This document specifies the set of tools used to design, develop, test, and deploy elements to build a distributed architecture compound of components, services, and business services. These tools are based on standards like MDA (Model Driven Architecture) [1], DSL (Domain Specific Language) [2], SCA (Service Component Architecture), and are build on top of Eclipse. Some of these tools complete currently available tools proposed in the SOA Tools Platform (STP) project [3], and others are specific to the SCOrWare project. Section 1.1 lists existing STP tools, and Section 1.2 gives an overview of the contributions of the developed SCOrWare tools, and a summary of next chapters.


We describe distributed reflexive complex mechanisms of decision-making in a SMART city. These complex mechanisms are a cognitive self-organizing decision support system for development governance. These mechanisms utilize local information from all nearby sensors of city sensors on buildings, sensors on other cars, sensors on pedestrians and some additional information. We describe the way to a new level of safety of citizens by additional vision and automated reasoning. It provide transparency in Augmented Reality Devices by virtually eliminating obstacles e.g. buildings. The problem is that development of a city is a process so people still have to make suggestions and now these suggestions are about awareness of other agents. Distributed reflexive complex mechanisms can assist and support their decisions in solving these problems.


Female macaque monkeys self-administered high doses of alcohol (2.9 to 4.4 grams per kilogram per day) for 3 to 6 1/2 months. Amenorrhea, atrophy of the uterus, decreased ovarian mass, and significant depression of luteinizing hormone levels were associated with chronic alcohol intoxication. Reproductive system failure in female primates following self-induced dependence on alcohol parallels the results of clinical studies of alcoholic women.


Maize and grass silages are commonly used as major feed materials for dairy cows in Europe and are becoming common parts of dairy cow rations in other parts of the world. Thenutritive value of maize and grass silages varies greatly due to variation in chemical composition. A combination of different factors such as the use of various cultivars, fertilization practices, growing conditions, harvesting technology, maturity at harvest and ensiling conditions cause this variation in chemical composition. The first aim of this thesis was to investigate relationships between the chemical composition and the in situ rumen degradation characteristics and in situ mobile nylon bag digestibility of dietary nutrients of maize and grass silages. Maize and grass silages with a broad range in chemical composition and quality parameters were selected from different Dutch commercial farms. The broad range in the chemical composition of the maize and grass silages resulted in a large variation in rumen degradable fractions of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and starch. The intestinal digestibility of CP, NDF and/or starch was affected by the concentration of these components in the maize and grass silages, by the rumen incubation time and the rumen escape content. Regression equations were developed describing relationships between the chemical composition and the in situ ruminal and postruminal degradation characteristics of dietary nutrients of maize and grass silages. A number of the developed regression equations presented in this thesis can be used for accurate and rapid estimation of the ruminal and postruminal degradation characteristics of dietary nutrients of maize and grass silages, without conducting time consuming and expensive in situ experiments. The second aim of this thesis was to determine whether three cows are sufficient to cover the variation between individual cows in in situ rumen degradation characteristics of dietary nutrients of maize and grass silages. Significant differences (P 0.05) between individual cows were found for all the parameters of DM, OM, CP and NDF. The results suggest that using three cows are sufficient for nylon bag incubations of grass silages and pooling of rumen incubated residues is allowed to obtain a representative sample. The third aim of this thesis was to compare two fractionation methods; the washing machine method and a modified method, for nitrogen (N) and starch fractions of maize silages and N fractions of grass silages. The N and/or starch fractions of maize and grass silages determined, using the washing machine method (washing with water for 40 min) and the modified method (shaking with buffer solution for 60 min) were compared. The different methodological approaches of both methods resulted in different values for the washout (W), the soluble (S) and the non-washout (D+U) fractions of N of maize and grass silages and for the W, the insoluble washout (W-S) and the D+U fractions of starch of maize silages. The loss of insoluble small particles of starch was less during shaking of nylon bags in buffer solution, compared to washing nylon bags in the washing machine. Therefore, large differences were found between the D+U fractions of starch determined by both methods compared to the D+U fractions of N of maize silages. The developed regression equations for W, S and D+U fractions of N in grass silages and for D+U fractions of starch in maize silages determined by both methods can be used for rapid estimation of these fractions from chemical characteristics of maize and grass silages. The information on nutrient bioavailability of maize and grass silages presented in this thesis can be used to more accurately formulate dairy ration in terms of maintenance, health and production of dairy cows.


Distributed systems based on cluster of workstation are more and more difficult to manage due to the increasing number of processors involved, and the complexity of associated applications. Such systems need efficient and flexible monitoring mechanisms to fulfil administration services requirements. In this paper, we present PHOENIX, a distributed platform supporting both applications and operating system monitoring with a variable granularity. The granularity is defined using logical expressions to specify complex monitoring conditions. These conditions can be dynamically modified during the application execution. Observation techniques, based on an automatic probe insertion combined with a system agent, allow the system to minimize the execution time overhead. The platform extensibility offers a suitable environment to design distributed value added services (performance monitoring, load balancing, accounting, cluster management, etc.).


Purpose
Women remain underrepresented in academic STEM, especially at the highest ranks. While much attention has focused on early-career attrition, mid-career advancement is still largely understudied and undocumented. The purpose of this paper is to analyze gender differences in advancement to full professor within academic STEM at a mid-size public doctoral university in the western USA, before and after the National Science Foundation (NSF)-ADVANCE Program (2003–2008).

Design/methodology/approach
Using faculty demographics and promotion data between 2008 and 2014, combined with faculty responses to two waves of a climate survey, the magnitude and longevity of the impact of ADVANCE on mid-career faculty advancement across gender is evaluated.

Findings
This study documents increased representation of women in all ranks within the STEM colleges, including that of full professor due to ADVANCE efforts. It also demonstrates the role of greater gender awareness and formalization of procedures in reducing the variability in the time as associate professor until promotion to full professor for all faculty members, while also shrinking gender disparities in career attainment. As a result of the codification of the post-tenure review timeline toward promotion, more recently hired faculty are promoted more swiftly and consistently, irrespective of gender. Post-ADVANCE, both male and female faculty members express a greater understanding of and confidence in the promotion process and no longer see it as either a hurdle or source of gender inequality in upward career mobility.

Research limitations/implications
While data were collected at a single university, demographics and career experiences by women mirror those at other research universities. This study shows that within a given institution-specific governance structure, long-lasting effects on faculty career trajectories can be achieved, by focusing efforts on creating greater transparency in expectations and necessary steps toward promotion, by reducing barriers to information flown, by standardizing and codifying the promotion process, and by actively engaging administrators as collaborators and change agents in the transformation process.

Originality/value
This study addresses mid-career dynamics and potential mechanisms that explain gender gaps in the promotion to full professor, a largely understudied aspect of gender disparities in career attainment within STEM. It shows how institutional policy changes, intended to alleviate gender disparities, can benefit the career trajectories of all faculty members. Specifically, this study highlights the crucial role of codifying procedures and responsibilities in neutralizing subjectivity and inconsistencies in promotion outcomes due to varying departmental climates.


held at Sutton Bonington in 1982 and brought together carefully selected group of speakers and other participants from five continents. The 20 papers presented discussed various sources of waste, methods by which they could be recovered (with particular emphasis on practical processes already available) and processed for animal and possibly human food. Detailed implications and economic considerations were also presented, with attention focused on the increasing contribution which upgraded wastes were likely to make to the nutritional resources of the world in compounded animal feeds, petfoods and (notwithstanding the psychological problems of persuading people to eat such products, which were clearly recognised) human food. The individual papers in addition to their


OBJECTIVES
Bisphosphonates are widely used to treat bone diseases such as osteoporosis. However, they may cause osteonecrosis of the jaw. Here, we investigated whether in vivo exposure to bisphosphonates has a different effect on long bone and jaw osteoclasts, and on the turnover of these different bones.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Zoledronic acid (0.5 mg kg-1 weekly) was administered intraperitoneally to 3-month-old female mice for up to 6 months. The effects on the number of osteoclasts, bone mineralization and bone formation were measured in the long bones and in the jaw.

RESULTS
Long-term treatment with zoledronic acid reduced the number of jaw bone marrow cells, without affecting the number of long bone marrow cells. Zoledronic acid treatment did not affect the number of osteoclasts in vivo. Yet, the bisphosphonate increased bone volume and mineral density of both long bone and jaw. Interestingly, 6 months of treatment suppressed bone formation in the long bones without affecting the jaw. Unexpectedly, we showed that bisphosphonates can cause molar root resorption, mediated by active osteoclasts.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings provide more insight into bone-site-specific effects of bisphosphonates and into the aetiology of osteonecrosis of the jaw. We demonstrated that bisphosphonates can stimulate osteoclast activity at the molar roots.


This paper describes the design and experimental results of a 4 × 10 Gb/s vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) driver using the asymmetric emphasis technique. Conventional symmetric emphasis techniques can compensate for the influences of parasitic capacitances; however, they cannot compensate for the nonlinear effects of a VCSEL. To overcome this problem, an asymmetric emphasis technique that can separately control the emphasis pulses at the rising and falling edges is proposed. This allows fast transition in VCSEL output waveform suppressing ringing. A driver circuit that has two separate emphasis circuits for the rising and falling edges is proposed in order to implement the asymmetric emphasis technique. This configuration enables us to separately control the height, width, and setup time of the emphasis pulses at the rising and falling edges. The test chip fabricated by using 90-nm CMOS technology generates a clearly open optical eye at a data rate of 10 Gb/s, and we can confirm the existence of a wide phase margin by a transmission experiment.


This study assessed the behavior of rock pillar in tunnel diverging area by using a three dimensional numerical analysis. Based on parameters affecting the behavior of rock pillar, this study evaluated different safety factors according to pillar width, depth and rock conditions. It turned out that as the rock pillar width increases, the change curve of safety factors in accordance with depth and rock conditions shows more of the nonlinear behavior. By the assessment of the minimum safety factor, a safety factor chart on the behavior of rock pillar in tunnel diverging area was suggested.


The understanding of phase transformation upon activation, reaction and deactivation of catalysts is of prime importance for tailoring catalysts with better performances. Herein we combined Quick-EXAFS and Raman spectroscopies in operando conditions through the monitoring of reaction products by mass spectrometry in order to study in depth active species and deactivating ones for Ethanol Steam Reforming reaction. Quick-EXAFS data analyzed by multivariate analysis allows one to determine the nickel and copper species involved during the activation of a Ni-Cu hydrotalcite-like precursors. Upon reaction and regeneration monitoring, Raman spectroscopy combined with mass spectrometry highlights the side products formed upon ESR leading to the formation of amorphous coke species encapsulating active metallic species and inducing catalyst deactivation. The coke encapsulation of active species was demonstrated by the simultaneous observation of oxidation of nickel and copper as soon as the amorphous coke was burnt by the oxidative regeneration treatment. Formation of filamentous coke species is also confirmed as causing little impact in catalyst deactivation.


Ischemia of the basilar artery is one of the most devastating types of arterial occlusive disease. Despite treatment of basilar artery occlusions (BAO) with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator, antiplatelet agents, intra-arterial therapy or a combination, fatality rates remain high. Aggressive recanalization with mechanical thrombectomy is therefore often necessary to preserve life. When direct access to the basilar trunk is not possible, exploration of chronically occluded vessels through collaterals with angioplasty and stenting creates access for manual aspiration. We describe the first report of retrograde vertebral artery (VA) revascularization using thyrocervical collaterals for anterograde mechanical aspiration of a BAO followed by stenting of the chronically occluded VA origin. Our novel retrograde–anterograde approach resulted in resolution of the patient's clinical stroke syndrome.


Abstract The development of modelling in aquatic ecology has focused on mechanistic biogeochemical models. However, such models have substantial data requirements for inputs and also for proper validation, which hinders their use for less studied systems. Another significant problem with complex models is their structural and computational difficulty, and thus often an associated absence of proper uncertainty analysis for the model results. This makes the use of the outputs for public policy making (e.g. in lake management) rather questionable. We see no compelling reason (other than lack of awareness of choices) why all lakes and all questions should necessarily be studied using the same high-profile models. Here we review two alternative statistical approaches, Linear Mixed Modelling and Structural Equation Modelling, and the different ways they have been used to extract maximum information from existing data. These methods offer promise for tackling the problems highlighted above, although our aim is not to promote any one method over the others. Rather, we want to stimulate debate about the remaining unknown factors in lake modelling as well as about the balance between data and models, and the still too uncritical way in which model outputs are interpreted and used for decision making.


The energy landscape in organic semiconducting materials greatly influences charge and exciton behavior, which are both critical to the operation of organic electronic devices. These energy landscapes can change dramatically depending on the phases of material present, including pure phases of one molecule or polymer and mixed phases exhibiting different degrees of order and composition. In this work, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements of ionization energies (IEs) and external quantum efficiency measurements of charge‐transfer (CT) state energies (ECT) are applied to molecular photovoltaic material systems to characterize energy landscapes. The results show that IEs and ECT values are highly dependent on structural order and phase composition. In the sexithiophene:C60 system both the IEs of sexithiophene and C60 shift by over 0.4 eV while ECT shifts by 0.5 eV depending on molecular composition. By contrast, in the rubrene:C60 system the IE of rubrene and C60 vary by ≤0.11 eV and ECT varies by ≤0.04 eV as the material composition varies. These results suggest that energy landscapes can exist whereby the binding energies of the CT states are overcome by energy offsets between charges in CT states in mixed regions and free charges in pure phases.


The ultimate understanding of drug–protein interactions relies on understanding drug behaviours in solution, at the molecular level. The conformation of a drug contributes to drug–protein docking, hence, drug potency and spectroscopy. Some drugs, such as the anti-cancer drug SKF86002, are chromophores, which are promising tools for optical reporting, as they may change colour or fluorescence when interacting with cells. In the present study, four conformers of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor SKF86002 (stability: B > A > C > D) were obtained with B and A from this study through optimisation, and C and D from the literature. As the global energy minimum structure, SKF86002B is 0.17 kcal mol−1, 10.75 kcal mol−1 and 12.52 kcal mol−1 lower in energy than A, C and D, respectively. Although the total energy difference is small between B and A, the orientation of the fluorophenyl and the pyridinyl rings with respect to the heterocyclic imidazothiazole ring i.e., the shape, is quite different. The UV-Vis spectra of the conformers in dichloromethane solution were calculated using time dependent density functional theory. The absorption spectra of A, B and C exhibit two major bands at 325.3 nm and 240.4 nm, in the vicinity of the measured bands, whereas D displays one major band (249.1 nm). In addition, the calculations assign the major bands to different transitions of the conformers, indicating that the UV-Vis spectrum of SKF86002 is, in fact, conformation dependent. The UV-Vis spectra of SFK86002 may serve as a useful optical reporting property for drug conformational changes in cells.


This study offers an empirical framework for analyzing farmers* joint decisions to adopt organic farming practices and to seek technical (i.e., farming) information from various sources. To that end, a trivariate ordered probit model is specified and implemented in the case of organic land conversion in Crete, Greece. Findings suggest that the decisions of information acquisition and organic land conversion are indeed correlated, and different farming information sources play a complementary role. Structural policies improving the farmer's allocative ability are found to play an important role in encouraging organic farming adoption.


We analyze the price effect of the introduction of collective action clauses (CACs) in newly issued sovereign bonds of eurozone countries as of January 1, 2013. By allowing a majority of creditors to modify payment obligations, such clauses reduce the likelihood of holdouts, while facilitating strategic default by the sovereign. We find that CAC bonds trade in the secondary market at lower yields than otherwise similar no-CAC bonds. The yield differential widens in countries with worse ratings and in those with stronger legal systems, especially if of midrange quality. Hence, CACs are seen as pro- rather than anticreditor provisions.


Purpose
Brain tumor segmentation and classification is the interesting area for differentiating the tumorous and the non-tumorous cells in the brain and classifies the tumorous cells for identifying its level. The methods developed so far lack the automatic classification, consuming considerable time for the classification. In this work, a novel brain tumor classification approach, namely, harmony cuckoo search-based deep belief network (HCS-DBN) has been proposed. Here, the images present in the database are segmented based on the newly developed hybrid active contour (HAC) segmentation model, which is the integration of the Bayesian fuzzy clustering (BFC) and the active contour model. The proposed HCS-DBN algorithm is trained with the features obtained from the segmented images. Finally, the classifier provides the information about the tumor class in each slice available in the database. Experimentation of the proposed HAC and the HCS-DBN algorithm is done using the MRI image available in the BRATS database, and results are observed. The simulation results prove that the proposed HAC and the HCS-DBN algorithm have an overall better performance with the values of 0.945, 0.9695 and 0.99348 for accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach
The proposed HAC segmentation approach integrates the properties of the AC model and BFC. Initially, the brain image with different modalities is subjected to segmentation with the BFC and AC models. Then, the Laplacian correction is applied to fuse the segmented outputs from each model. Finally, the proposed HAC segmentation provides the error-free segments of the brain tumor regions prevailing in the MRI image. The next step is to extract the useful features, based on scattering transform, wavelet transform and local Gabor binary pattern, from the segmented brain image. Finally, the extracted features from each segment are provided to the DBN for the training, and the HCS algorithm chooses the optimal weights for DBN training.

Findings
The experimentation of the proposed HAC with the HCS-DBN algorithm is analyzed with the standard BRATS database, and its performance is evaluated based on metrics such as accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The simulation results of the proposed HAC with the HCS-DBN algorithm are compared against existing works such as k-NN, NN, multi-SVM and multi-SVNN. The results achieved by the proposed HAC with the HCS-DBN algorithm are eventually higher than the existing works with the values of 0.945, 0.9695 and 0.99348 for accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, respectively.

Originality/value
This work presents the brain tumor segmentation and the classification scheme by introducing the HAC-based segmentation model. The proposed HAC model combines the BFC and the active contour model through a fusion process, using the Laplacian correction probability for segmenting the slices in the database.


Innate immune cells can switch from a pro-inflammatory state that defends against pathogens and to an anti-inflammatory state that repairs damaged tissue. Pro-inflammatory myeloid cells activate cytotoxic T cells to eliminate pathogens, but anti-inflammatory myeloid cells inhibit T cell mediated immunity, stimulate angiogenesis, and stimulate fibrosis, all of which promote tumor progression. The predominant isoform of PI(3)Kinase in myeloid cells, PI3Kgamma, controls the switch between immune stimulation and immune suppression during inflammation and cancer. Myeloid cell PI3Kgamma and its effectors Akt1, mTor, and S6Kinase stimulate C/EBPbeta-dependent expression of immunosuppressive factors, including Arginase and TGFbeta, but suppress NFkappaB-dependent expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL12 and IFNgamma, thereby inducing tumor immune suppression and consequent tumor growth and metastasis. In contrast, inhibition of PI3Kgamma activity by genetic or pharmacological means suppresses C/EPBbeta-mediated transcription of anti-inflammatory factors and stimulates NFkappaB-mediated transcription of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL12 and IFNgamma, thereby restoring CD8+ T cell-dependent cytotoxicity that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis. Therefore, inhibitory targeting of PI3Kgamma indirectly restores cytotoxic T cell immune responses that elicit tumor suppression without unwanted side effects. Our studies highlight the strong therapeutic potential of targeting this kinase to control inflammation and cancer. This work was supported by grants to JAV from the NIH (5R01CA126820), the Landon Foundation-AACR (12-60-27-VARN), the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research and the Whitworth Foundation for Cancer Research. Citation Format: Megan M. Kaneda, Judith A. Varner. Macrophage PI3Kgamma signaling promotes cancer immune suppression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 718.


Solar collectors mainly produced from poly-crystalline (P-Si) and micro-crystalline silicon
(μ-Si) are in high demand in Nigeria due to persistent power challenges. The silicon are
mostly imported and μ-Si is preferable due to its low cost. The μ-Si is extracted from Rice
Husk (RH). However, the procedure of setting its optimal process variables (temperature,
time and solvent volume) which are determinants of the reduction in cost is under reported
in the literature. The aim of this study was to develop an approach for the optimisation of
the extraction of μ-Si from rice husk using Genetic Algorithm (GA).
Ofada (F36) RH was collected from Erin-Oke town of Osun State in Nigeria. The RH was
analysed for Volatile Matter (VM), Fixed Carbon (FC) and Ash constituents using standard
method. The RH (1Kg) was run through two processes, one was treated with water to obtain
Prewashed Rice Husk (PRH), while the other with 1 mole of oxalic acid in the range of 10-
50 mL to obtain Leached Rice Husk (LRH). Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to
determine the experimental combinations of the predictor variables: temperature (400-
800oC), time (2-6 h) and solvents (water and oxalic acid).Ten grams each of PRH and LRH
were used to determine their silica yields (Y1 and Y2). Response equations were used as a
fitness function for the GA optimisation. Optimal process variables levels predicted by the
GA were validated by confirmatory experiments. The silica and silicon were characterised
using X-Ray Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscope. Optimal silicon was
investigated using Raman spectroscopy. Data were analysed using t-test at 0.05  .
The VM, FC and ash content were 70.7, 11.3 and 18.0%, respectively, while the Y1 and Y2
for the 75 experimental combinations from CCD were 86.9-92.3% and 93.2-98.0%,
respectively. Second order response surface equations gave the best fit for Y1 and Y2. The
optimal values of the predictor variables from the GA, namely: temperature, time and
solvent volume were 648.8oC, 6 h, 40.0 mL and 657.9oC, 3.6 h, 40.0 mL for PRH and LRH,
respectively. There were no significant differences between the values obtained from GA
and those of the validation. The characterisation for both PRH and LRH showed amorphous
silica, which implies that it is not hazardous to human beings. However, silica from LRH
revealed porosity of large grain size due to acid leach, which makes it better for solar
collectors' production than silica from PRH. The morphology of silicon produced from PRH
iv
and LRH revealed P-Si and μ-Si, respectively. Silicon yield of 2.3 g was observed in PRH
and 4.2 g was observed in LRH respectively. Peak of 520.0 cm-1 was observed for silicon
from LRH which was not significantly different from the peak for   Si (521 cm-1).
Leached Rice Husk was best for the production of Micro-crystalline silicon, while
Prewashed Rice Husk was best for Poly-crystalline silicon through Genetic Algorithm. This
is an effective tool for the determination of optimal predictor variables levels for silica
production.


This research aims to design a self-organizing decision support system for early diagnosis of key physiological events. The proposed system consists of pre-processing, clustering and diagnostic system, based on self-organizing fuzzy logic modeling. The clustering technique was employed with empirical pattern analysis, particularly when the information available is incomplete or the data model is affected by vagueness, which is mostly the case with medical/clinical data. Clustering module can be viewed as unsupervised learning from a given dataset. This module partitions the patient vital signs to identify the key relationships, patterns and clusters among the medical data. Secondly, it uses self-organizing fuzzy logic modeling for early symptom and event detection. Based on the clustering outcome, when detecting abnormal signs, a high level of agreement was observed between system interpretation and human expert diagnosis of the physiological events and signs.


In this paper we characterise fiscal policy in terms of non-linear processes. We find that government spending and taxes can be described as being non-linear trend stationary processes instead of unit roots. A long run equilibrium relationship - a non-linear co-trend - does exist between the two series, fulfilling the intertemporal government budget constraint. We use Italian data spanning from 1861 to 1998.


This paper investigates the phenomenon of repairs in simultaneous interpreting. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the paper combines research carried out in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics on speech production with studies in the pragmatics of speech reception. A principally qualitative method is used in the analysis of a trilingual corpus (English/French/German) of eight professional conference interpreters recorded at four different international conferences. This paper presents eight examples from English into two different A languages: French (5 examples) and German (3 examples). Levelt's (1983, 1989) nomenclature of repairs in spontaneous speech is slightly amended in order to take the simultaneous interpreting process into account. The results show that interpreters not only repair errors, but take time to attend to their outputs for different reasons. The limited quantitative analysis shows a discrepancy between interpreters. The various dimensions of repair mechanisms highlighted in this paper give us some insights into the interpreter's mind at work, or the interpreter's deployment of processing capacities and decision-making processes.


This study aims to investigate about how students' English speaking skills can be enhanced through the employment of role play technique. The sample population of the study was taken from the grade XI students of Bagiswori Secondary School. The experimental group was taught through role play technique while the control class was taught through the traditional grammar based techniques. The total population of this study was 30 students who were enrolled in the academic year 2020/2021. It was experimental study. The tools applied in this research were observation sheet and speaking test. After 15 lessons of the teaching, the post-test of speaking was conducted in which the students in both groups were asked to answer. The results revealed that the experimental group's motivation has been enhanced and has improved English speaking skill significantly.


The debate whether to use caning or not as a form of disciplinary measures in Tanzania and many other parts of the world is still alive. Based on this premise this study undertook a case study approach in order  to  describe and explain patterns related to disciplinary measures; To identify relationships of learning and disciplinary measures; To assess the implementation of the national policy of disciplinary measures; To propose opportunities for change. The data was gathered through face to face interviews where six secondary school teachers were involved. Although the number of participants appear to be small, but this is where the strength of the study lies. It is because such a reality gave an opportunity to delve deeper on issues involved. The overall finding is that although human rights movements from all over the world are pushing for a complete eradication of caning in school setting; but it appears that Tanzania as a sovereign state is not ready. This is due to deeply embedded reasons related to efficiency, culture and religious aspects. The study climaxes by borrowing a Swahili phrase, " samaki mkunje angali mbichi ," [bend the fish while fresh]. The expression means that you need mold child's behavior while still young. It needs to be known that the process of molding differs from one culture to another. Also it needs to be known that global culture must not be necessarily superior to local culture. Keywords : corporal punishment, culture, human rights, case study