Abstract : This report documents the results of a twelve-month study program directed toward gaining the information necessary to fabricate a high voltage, low inductance hydrogen thyratron switch capable of operating with a peak forward anode voltage of 250kV, a peak forward anode current of 20 to 40 kA for 60 ns, and a current risetime of 10 to 20 ns. Operation under these conditions is ultimately required at high pulse repetition rates. The principal conclusion is that thyratron operation at 250 kV and 40 kA with a current risetime of a few tens of nanoseconds is a feasible proposition. However, the development of a tube having such capabilities is subject to the practical limits that are imposed by the breakdown characteristics of the ceramic insulators that are universally used in the construction of high power tubes. Operation at appreciable repetition rates is clearly subject to the ability of the tube to withstand the heating that results from operation at high average current and high di/dt. During the first phase of a multi-phase program, the emphasis of the work was placed on those factors that affect the voltage-inductance compromise, since it was determined that the tube's inductance (and not its commutation time) would dominate the maximum achievable di/dt.


ABSTRACT: The independence and impartiality of arbitrators is of the essence in the development of international trade arbitration. The fact that parties may appoint non-neutral arbitrators has given rise to negative reactions within the international arbitration community. However, there are some questions that need to be considered, namely: the non-neutrality of party-appointed arbitrators and the presiding arbitrator's role ensuring fair trial, tacit acceptance by one party of the non-neutrality of the arbitrator appointed by the other party and the motion of suspicion on the arbitrator within such context, the contractual nature of arbitration and the appointed arbitrators' disclosure duties, the criteria to appraise the arbitrator's subjective impartiality and the principle of good faith, the partyappointed arbitrator's role of cultural translation within international arbitration and the party's possible research duties on the independence of the arbitrator appointed by the other party.


The wide range of dietary niches filled by modern mammals is reflected in morphological diversity of the feeding apparatus. Despite volumes of data on the biomechanics of feeding, the extent to which the shape of mammal skulls reflects stresses generated by feeding is still unknown. In addition to the feeding apparatus, the skull accommodates the structural needs of the sensory systems and brain. We turned to bats as a model system for separating optimization for masticatory loads from optimization for other functions. Because the energetic cost of flight increases with body mass, it is reasonable to suggest that bats have experienced selective pressure over evolutionary time to minimize mass. Therefore, the skulls of bats are likely to be optimized to meet functional demands. We investigate the hypothesis that there is a biomechanical link between biting style and craniofacial morphology by combining biting behavior and bite force data gathered in the field with finite-element (FE) analysis. Our FE experiments compared patterns of stress in the craniofacial skeletons within and between two species of bats (Artibeus jamaicensis and Cynopterus brachyotis) under routine and atypical loading conditions. For both species, routine loading produced low stresses in most of the skull. However, the skull of Artibeus was most resistant to loads applied via its typical biting style, suggesting a mechanical link between routine loading and skull form. The same was not true of Cynopterus, where factors other than feeding appear to have had a more significant impact on craniofacial morphology.


In most biphasic composite systems consisting of sol-gel derived bioactive glass and a second system that is usually used as a reinforcing agent, thorough stirring is necessary to prevent the precipitation of the grains of the second system. Consequently, the aim of this work is to investigate the impact of various stirring rates on the crystallinity and bioactivity of a bioactive glass in the system 58S. Sol-gel-derived bioactive glass (58S) was produced as described in literature. During the gelation, stirring rates of 0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 rpms were applied producing, respectively, the corresponding glass powders. The in vitro bioactivity of the powders was tested in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) for various immersion times, while the solution was renewed after 6h, 24h and then every 2 days. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) were used to characterize all materials before and after immersion in SBF solution. FTIR and XRD measurements of all powders revealed mainly the formation of an amorphous glass, while the main crystalline phase was identified to be Ca2SiO4. After immersion in SBF solution for 12h, SEM microphotographs revealed apatite formation on the surface of all samples, while FTIR and XRD confirmed the aforementioned findings. Furthermore, since EDS analysis proved a mean molar Ca/P ratio of about1.7 after 6 days of immersion of all samples- besides those stirred at 400 and 600rpm- it can be assumed that a thick apatite layer was formed covering the whole surface.


Abstract The recognition of structures is fundamental to map generalization, furnishing structural information that assists in choosing and parameterizing generalization operators. We specifically focus on the process of recognizing groups of small polygons in geological maps as a prerequisite to subsequent aggregation or typification operators. Proximity between polygons represents an essential criterion in identifying neighboring map objects. Here, network-based analysis is used for effective definition and refinement of candidate group members, applying criteria such as the distance between polygons, polygon size, shape, orientation, and feature attributes such as rock type. Starting off from the Delaunay triangulation of the polygon centroids, the global and local long edges, which initially define the network, are removed. The modified network is loaded with additional criteria, and edges are kept or removed based on the local similarities of the polygons they connect. This approach leads to more homogeneous, meaningful groups of polygon features in geological maps.


In this work, we address the problem of musical timbre transfer, where the goal is to manipulate the timbre of a sound sample from one instrument to match another instrument while preserving other musical content, such as pitch, rhythm, and loudness. In principle, one could apply image-based style transfer techniques to a time-frequency representation of an audio signal, but this depends on having a representation that allows independent manipulation of timbre as well as high-quality waveform generation. We introduce TimbreTron, a method for musical timbre transfer which applies "image" domain style transfer to a time-frequency representation of the audio signal, and then produces a high-quality waveform using a conditional WaveNet synthesizer. We show that the Constant Q Transform (CQT) representation is particularly well-suited to convolutional architectures due to its approximate pitch equivariance. Based on human perceptual evaluations, we confirmed that TimbreTron recognizably transferred the timbre while otherwise preserving the musical content, for both monophonic and polyphonic samples.


The Northern Wei dynasty (386–534) unified north China in the fifth century CE and stood as a powerful rival to the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) in the south. As military campaigns and diplomatic exchange between the two dynasties became more frequent, both courts strove to deploy a variety of strategies to prevail in the competitions of political authority and legitimacy. This article examines the northern emperor Tuoba Tao's (408–452, r. 423–452) self-representation in his letters delivered to the southern audience at the height of the two states' military struggle. Scholars have ascribed the letters' linguistic simplicity to certain unadorned northern style or ethnic characteristics. The author situates the discussion of Tuoba Tao's letters in the context of courtly composition, diplomatic maneuvers, and historiographical intervention and argues that the simple diction was a deliberate rhetorical choice used by the northern court to construct a different imperial image and to exert psychological influence on the intended readers. Moreover, Shen Yue's (441–513) embedding of the letters in a historical narrative as written documents reshapes the reception of the letters and imposes new interpretive frameworks for later readers.


To ensure secure real-time power system operations, the system operator must schedule sufficient resources to meet energy demand and operating reserve requirements simultaneously. Under a joint real-time energy-reserve market regime, a dominant market participant can exercise pricing power by withholding reserve capability or by marking up energy offers. This paper examines the short-term impact of the choice of reserve price cap on participant behavior and market outcomes. A Stackelberg game is utilized to analyze the strategic bidding behaviors of the dominant participants assuming a range of reserve price caps and market conditions. The market participants play the role of the leaders, while the independent system operator is treated as a follower. The proposed model is applied to the New England electricity market. The computed solutions show that although the reserve price cap is unable to eliminate physical withholding behaviors, it disciplines the participants and limits incentives to withhold economically. Also, it limits prices to a reasonable level during reserve shortage events when only supply-side market power mitigation options are available. Absent any transmission improvements or effective demand response participation, the reserve price cap remains an effective tool to mitigate the impact of the exercise of supplier market power.


Ever since the first deep diving competitions were organized, there has been debate about when the ultimate limits of human apnoeic performance will be reached, and which factors will determine these limits. Divers have thus far surpassed all former predictions by physiologists in depth and time. The common factor for all competitive apnoea disciplines is apnoeic duration, which can be prolonged by any means that increase total gas storage or tolerance to asphyxia, or reduce metabolic rate. These main factors can be broken down further into several physiological or psychophysiological factors, which are identified in this review. Like in other sports, the main aim in competitive apnoea is to extend human performance beyond the known limits. While a beginner may extend apnoeic duration by getting closer to his or her personal limit, the elite diver can only extend the duration further by pushing the individual physiological limit further by training. In order to achieve this, it is essential to identify the performance predicting factors of apnoea sports and which factors can be affected by training, work that has only just begun. This is the first of two papers reviewing the main factors predicting performance in competitive apnoea diving, which focuses on static apnoea, while the following paper will review dynamic distance and depth disciplines. Great improvements have been made in all diving disciplines in recent years and the 10-minute barrier in resting 'static apnoea' has been broached. Despite this, current training methods and the strategies employed suggest that duration can be prolonged still further, and divers themselves suggest the ultimate limit will be 15 minutes, which appears physiologically possible, for example, with further development of techniques to reduce metabolic rate.


This prospective evaluation of 55 consecutive patients, aged 60 years or older, admitted in 1977–1978 to a community hospital coronary care unit for treatment of cardiogenic pulmonary edema, examines mortality during hospitalization and during the subsequent one-year follow-up. Their treatment was based on clinical criteria, without the "advantage" of Swan-Ganz catheters and before widespread use of vasodilators for severe congestive heart failure. Multiple clinical and laboratory features were reviewed to determine possible prognostic clues. The nine patients who died during the initial hospitalization provided several clues to immediate mortality, including admission systolic blood pressure of less than 150 mm Hg, dyspnea for more than four hours, and peak creatine kinase values greater than 1,000 IU/L. The study identified high-risk patients who may benefit from more aggressive in-hospital therapy. The one-year mortality among the 46 patients discharged from the hospital was high (43%). Most noninvasive methods were not useful in attempting to predict one-year survival. The important question of whether newer therapeutic methods including vasodilators will favorably alter the relatively poor long-term prognosis in the elderly needs further study.


We derive the distribution of a proxy for the risk tolerance in a representative sample of US households. Our measure is deduced from the willingness to bear risk as indicated by the variance of returns of each household's observed portfolio. The estimates, obtained assuming constraints on portfolio composition, show substantial heterogeneity across households. We find risk tolerance to reduce with age and increase with wealth. Other variables such as education, gender, race and household size do not have instead a significant relation with risk attitude. Our findings are robust to changes in portfolio definition, asset returns and sample composition.


In this impressively researched and highly original work, Paul Lucier explains how science became an integral part of American technology and industry in the nineteenth century. Scientists and Swindlers introduces us to a new service of professionals: the consulting scientists. Lucier follows these entrepreneurial men of science on their wide-ranging commercial engagements from the shores of Nova Scotia to the coast of California and shows how their innovative work fueled the rapid growth of the American coal and oil industries and the rise of American geology and chemistry. Along the way, he explores the decisive battles over expertise and authority, the high-stakes court cases over patenting research, the intriguing and often humorous exploits of swindlers, and the profound ethical challenges of doing science for money. Starting with the small surveying businesses of the 1830s and reaching to the origins of applied science in the 1880s, Lucier recounts the complex and curious relations that evolved as geologists, chemists, capitalists, and politicians worked to establish scientific research as a legitimate, regularly compensated, and respected enterprise. This sweeping narrative enriches our understanding of how the rocks beneath our feet became invaluable resources for science, technology, and industry.


CONTEXT
Understanding the etiology, diagnosis, and symptoms of hypoparathyroidism may help to improve quality of life and long-term disease outcomes. This paper summarizes the results of the findings and recommendations of the Working Group on Presentation of Hypoparathyroidism.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION
Experts convened in Florence, Italy, in May 2015 and evaluated the literature and recent data on the presentation and long-term outcomes of patients with hypoparathyroidism.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS
The most frequent etiology is surgical removal or loss of viability of parathyroid glands. Despite precautions and expertise, about 20-30% of patients develop transient and 1-7% develop permanent postsurgical hypoparathyroidism after total thyroidectomy. Autoimmune destruction is the main reason for nonsurgical hypoparathyroidism. Severe magnesium deficiency is an uncommon but correctable cause of hypoparathyroidism. Several genetic etiologies can result in the loss of parathyroid function or action causing isolated hypoparathyroidism or a complex syndrome with other symptoms apart from those of hypoparathyroidism or pseudohypoparathyroidism. Neuromuscular signs or symptoms due to hypocalcemia are the main characteristics of the disease. Hyperphosphatemia can contribute to major long-term complications such as ectopic calcifications in the kidney, brain, eye, or vasculature. Bone turnover is decreased, and bone mass is increased. Reduced quality of life and higher risk of renal stones, renal calcifications, and renal failure are seen. The risk of seizures and silent or symptomatic calcifications of basal ganglia is also increased.

CONCLUSIONS
Increased awareness of the etiology and presentation of the disease and new research efforts addressing specific questions formulated during the meeting should improve the diagnosis, care, and long-term outcome for patients.


PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to assess the suitability and readability of printed educational materials for patients with hypertension in Korea.

METHODS
A total of 33 written educational materials related to hypertension were collected from public health centers, hospitals, and internet web site. Among them, we analyzed 19 materials which fit the inclusion criteria: leaflets (n=9), booklets (n=3), and guide book (n=7). Two trained nurses evaluate the materials using suitability assessment tool (SAM; Doak, Doak, & Root, 1996a) and graded lexical items for teaching Korean (Kim, 2003).

RESULTS
Overall, 14 (73.7%) of 19 materials scored adequate, and 5 (26.3%) scored inadequate. On the average, the education materials contained 36.1% to 50.5% of 1st grade reading level words and 12.9% to 21.6% of 4th grade level and over.

CONCLUSION
The reading level of the materials was higher than a 6th grade reading level. It is proposed that the written educational materials should be developed by health professionals according to suitability and quality by taking the target group's literacy capacity into consideration.


: Three muscles were analyzed, Longissimus dorsi, Semimembranosus and Caput longum Tricipitis brachii taken from nine cow buffaloes, by examining the histochemical and morphometrical characteristics of different muscle fibres types and their distribution inside the examined muscles. Cross sectional area, perimeter, maximum and minimum diameter of about 200 fibres were measured for each muscle, and fast-twitch glycolytic fibres (FG), fast-twitch oxidative-glycolytic fibres (FOG), slow-twitch oxidative fibres (SO) were histochemically differentiated. The data have been elaborated with the SPSS software. The variance analysis indicates that there are not significant differences about dimensions between FG and FOG fibres, while the average values of transversal section area and perimeter are greater than the oxidative fibres in all examined muscles. The Semimembranosus muscle in comparison to the Longissimus dorsi and to the Caput longum Tricipitis brachii muscles has muscle fibres with the smallest value of transversal section area and perimeter. The balanced distribution and intense myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatose and succinic dehydrogenase activities of the three fibres types in Caput longum Tricipitis brachii muscle can be justified by the function performed by this muscle which, together with the other heads of the Triceps brachii acts essentially as extensor of the forearm in fact, differences in the dimensions of the different fibre types inside the three examined muscles have been underlined; this fact can be justified for every muscle performs different motor functions.


This study seeks to explore the job expectations of postgraduate students due to enter the workforce in Ireland. The absence of research on postgraduate students and especially from the job expectations position is of precise interest in the context of an increasingly growing and important educational sector in Ireland. The study area which is yet to be conducted in an Irish context seeks to analyze postgraduates expectations of the workforce which could present interesting result for various employers who will be recruiting postgraduate students into their organization and postgraduate students graduating in the coming years.

The researcher concentrated the research question on Postgraduate Student: An exploratory study into the job expectations of postgraduate students, emphasising on those who are due to enter the workforce in Ireland. A cross sectional survey was conducted for this study and all observation and responses were noted and gathered using a qualitative approach. A semi-structured interview was chosen in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic and deduce rich quality data while allowing participants openly provide their views and opinion on the topic.

Also, Braun and Clarke thematic analysis was adopted in allowing both new and existing themes unfold form the data. The respondent chosen for the study were postgraduate students from three different colleges with a mix of Irish and international students. The participants were selected via agreeable and convenience sampling.

Subsequently, several remarkable findings were uncovered in relations to various area of postgraduates job expectations. Career progression opportunities Pay and incentives and training and development were considered a priority. The three above stated themes were also considered priority by postgraduate students when considering career choice amongst job stability and security and work-life balance and flexibility. Participants mentioned that the implementation of the various mentioned expectations may help attract, motivate and retain talented postgraduate students and a major reason for pursuing a postgraduate degree.


Eliciting and advocating the voice of the child remains at the heart of international political agenda and also remains a central role for educational psychologists (EPs). Previous research indicates that EPs tend to use language-based methods for eliciting and advocating views of children. However, these approaches are often limited. Taking a case study approach this paper aims to explain how the use of Forum Theatre offers EPs a legitimate way of eliciting and advocating the views of children. The study worked with seven Year Six children to create a Forum Theatre Performance which was performed in front of the whole school (spect-actors). Focus groups were held with teachers (n = 3) and children (n = 6) from within the school. This study uses a semantic deductive thematic analysis to explain underlying emancipatory processes within the context of a small rural primary school. The results of this study support previous literature demonstrating that Forum Theatre has a wealth of emancipatory processes which might optimise the approach being used to elicit and advocate for the voice of the child. Practical applications and limitations are discussed with some suggestions for further research.


Abstract Recent studies have drawn attention to the evolution of protein dynamics, in addition to sequence and structure, based on the premise structure-encodes-dynamics-encodes-function. Of interest is to understand how functional differentiation is accomplished while maintaining the fold, or how intrinsic dynamics plays out in the evolution of structural variations and functional specificity. We performed a systematic computational analysis of 26,899 proteins belonging to 116 CATH superfamilies. Characterizing cooperative mechanisms and convergent/divergent features that underlie the shared/differentiated dynamics of family members required a methodology that lends itself to efficient analyses of large ensembles of proteins. We therefore introduced, SignDy, an integrated pipeline for evaluating the signature dynamics of families based on elastic network models. Our analysis confirmed that family members share conserved, highly cooperative (global) modes of motion. Importantly, our analysis discloses a subset of motions that sharply distinguishes subfamilies, which lie in a low-to-intermediate frequency regime of the mode spectrum. This regime has maximal impact on functional differentiation of families into subfamilies, while being evolutionarily conserved among subfamily members. Notably, the high-frequency end of the spectrum also reveals evolutionary conserved features across and within subfamilies; but in sharp contrast to global motions, high-frequency modes are minimally collective. Modulation of robust/conserved global dynamics by low-to-intermediate frequency fluctuations thus emerges as a versatile mechanism ensuring the adaptability of selected folds and the specificity of their subfamilies. SignDy further allows for dynamics-based categorization as a new layer of information relevant to distinctive mechanisms of action of subfamilies, beyond sequence or structural classifications.


Quantum dots (QDs) synthesis has been widely carried out in Schlenk line systems. However, there are two drawbacks of these systems, which have restricted their use for large scale or commercial production of QDs. One is the use of expensive and high-boiling point solvents and the other is that QDs need to be continuously produced with high production rate to reduce production costs. Nowadays, microfluidic flow systems are the most popularly used systems for the continuous production of QDs. However, their narrow channels limit the reaction volume and flow rate. In this report, a non-microfluidic flow reactor system has been developed to synthesize high quality CdSe QDs by injecting the solution containing the mixture of Cd–oleic acid (Cd–OA) and Se–tributylphosphine (Se–TBP) into near critical or supercritical hexane. The optical properties of the produced CdSe QDs can be fine-tuned to almost cover the entire visible region (450–630 nm) by changing the reaction parameters. The CdSe QDs produced with this approach are similar to those produced in Schlenk line, and can be functionalized with a ZnS shell to enhance PL efficiency. Moreover, we have also achieved a continuous synthesis of 5 g CdSe QDs with a production rate of 2.5 g h−1 to demonstrate the potential capability of mass production with this system. White light emitting diodes can be prepared by using CdSe QDs as the phosphor dye. Finally, other types of QDs, such as CdS, ZnS, and ZnSe, were also synthesized to demonstrate the generalization of the developed approach.


Style transfer aims to rewrite a source text in a different target style while preserving its content. We propose a novel approach to this task that leverages generic resources, and without using any task-specific parallel (source–target) data outperforms existing unsupervised approaches on the two most popular style transfer tasks: formality transfer and polarity swap. In practice, we adopt a multi-step procedure which builds on a generic pre-trained sequence-to-sequence model (BART). First, we strengthen the model's ability to rewrite by further pre-training BART on both an existing collection of generic paraphrases, as well as on synthetic pairs created using a general-purpose lexical resource. Second, through an iterative back-translation approach, we train two models, each in a transfer direction, so that they can provide each other with synthetically generated pairs, dynamically in the training process. Lastly, we let our best resulting model generate static synthetic pairs to be used in a supervised training regime. Besides methodology and state-of-the-art results, a core contribution of this work is a reflection on the nature of the two tasks we address, and how their differences are highlighted by their response to our approach.


Modern microprocessors offer more instruction-level parallelism than most programs and compilers can currently exploit. The resulting disparity between a machine's peak and actual performance, while frustrating for computer architects and chip manufacturers, opens the exciting possibility of low-cost instrumentation for measurement, simulation, or emulation. Instrumentation code that executes in previously unused processor cycles is effectively hidden. On two superscalar SPARC processors, a simple, local scheduler hid an average of 13% of the overhead cost of profiling instrumentation in the SPECINT benchmarks and an average of 33% of the profiling cost in the SPECFP benchmarks.


The increasing pressure to move towards sustainable development has encouraged many organizations to prioritize sustainable growth, especially the transportation sector since it is one of the highest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. With the current economic growth, there is an increase demand in freight services. This leads to the need of thorough and proper planning of shipment routes. Optimization of the fleet structure is necessary in order to cope with the growing number of customers. A well planned journey is vital in reducing the transportation cost and risk to the environment. This thesis presents the development of the differential evolution algorithm with local search for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem. The capacitated vehicle routing problem is a classical vehicle routing problem with additional constraint where the capacity of the vehicle travelling on a specific route cannot exceed the maximum vehicle capacity. Local search techniques help to refine the solutions found. The proposed differential evolution algorithm with local search is tested on capacitated vehicle routing problem instances described by Augerat et al. and Christofides & Eilon. The proposed differential evolution algorithm with local search approach generate quality solutions for the benchmark problems tested and are comparable to the algorithms reported in the literature. The second part of this thesis explores the field of multi-objective optimization problem with green logistics. The differential evolution algorithm with local search is expanded to consider multi-objective problems. Hence, a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm is presented to solve the capacitated vehicle routing problem by minimizing the hazardous risk and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed algorithm incorporates differential evolution algorithm with Pareto ranking and crowding distance techniques. A series of Pareto Front are provided as the solution to the multi-objective capacitated vehicle routing problem on capacitated vehicle routing problem instances described by Augerat et al. The decision-maker can then consider the trade-off and choose from the set of optimal solutions in the Pareto Front. Computational results found proved the viability of the multi-objective differential evolution algorithm to solve the multi-objective problem with a certain trade-off to achieve an efficient and feasible route.


Abstract The amorphous solid dispersions of telmisartan salts were prepared by cogrinding, in presence of alkalizers and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVPk30). Five alkalizers in this study were MgO, Na2CO3, K2CO3, NaHCO3 and meglumine. In soft mode using a roll mill, the drug could not form salt with MgO or NaHCO3, whereas partial drug had been transformed into salt with carbonates or meglumine. Under cogrinding, the organic base meglumine was easier to react with telmisartan than other two carbonates. For getting good dissolution performance, the drug had to be transformed into salt completely. A high intensity oscillating mill was applied for producing telmisartan meglumine salt. Multi-instrumental characterizations attested the formation of amorphous salt by high mechanical process, involving dissolution test, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffractometry. It was evident that solid dispersions of telmisartan meglumine salt significantly increased the drug dissolution rate in intestinal fluid.


We suggest a candidate physical mechanism, combining there dimensional structure and temporal development, which is potentially able to produce suprathermal populations and cross-tail current disruptions in the Earth's plasma sheet. At the core of the proposed process is the "akis" structure; in a thin current sheet (TCS) the stretched (tail-like) magnetic field lines locally terminate into a sharp tip around the tail midplane. At this sharp tip of the TCS, ions become non-adiabatic, while a percentage of electrons are accumulated and trapped: The strong and transient electrostatic electric fields established along the magnetic field lines produce suprathermal populations. In parallel, the tip structure is associated with field aligned and mutually attracted parallel filamentary currents which progressively become more intense and inevitably the structure collapses, and so does the local TCS. The mechanism is observationally based on elementary, almost autonomous and spatiotemporal entities that correspond each to a local thinning/dipolarization pair having duration of ~1 min. Energetic proton and electron populations do not occur simultaneously, and we infer that they are separately accelerated at local thinnings and dipolarizations, respectively. In one example energetic particles are accelerated without any dB/dt variation and before the substorm expansion phase onset. A particular effort is undertaken demonstrating that the proposed acceleration mechanism may explain the plasma sheet ratio T i /T e ≈7. All our inferences are checked by the highest resolution datasets obtained by the Geotail Energetic Particles and Ion Composition (EPIC) instrument. The energetic particles are used as the best diagnostics for the accelerating source. Near Earth ( X ≈10 R E ) selected events support our basic concept. The proposed mechanism seems to reveal a fundamental building block of the substorm phenomenon and may be the basic process/structure, which is now missing, that might help explain the persistent, outstanding deficiencies in our physical description of magnetospheric substorms. The mechanism is tested, checked, and found consistent with substorm associated observations performed ~30 and 60 R E away from Earth.


Multi-label classification is a well-known supervised machine learning setting where each instance is associated with multiple classes. Examples include annotation of images with multiple labels, assigning multiple tags for a web page, etc. Since several labels can be assigned to a single instance, one of the key challenges in this problem is to learn the correlations between the classes. Our first contribution assumes labels from a perfect source. Towards this, we propose a novel topic model (ML-PA-LDA). The distinguishing feature in our model is that classes that are present as well as the classes that are absent generate the latent topics and hence the words. Extensive experimentation on real world datasets reveals the superior performance of the proposed model. A natural source for procuring the training dataset is through mining user-generated content or directly through users in a crowdsourcing platform. In this more practical scenario of crowdsourcing, an additional challenge arises as the labels of the training instances are provided by noisy, heterogeneous crowd-workers with unknown qualities. With this motivation, we further augment our topic model to the scenario where the labels are provided by multiple noisy sources and refer to this model as ML-PA-LDA-MNS. With experiments on simulated noisy annotators, the proposed model learns the qualities of the annotators well, even with minimal training data.


The talk by Dr Meriel Watts, a farmer-scientist-advocate, shows the relationship of science, practice and movement-building in agroecology. Listen to her speak as she emphasizes agroecology giving importance to farmers' and communities' control over their own farms and food supply, whilst providing enough healthy food to feed the world without destroying the environment. She also outlines the 7 core principles in agroecological farming practice, which is strongly discussed in her book, Phasing Out Highly Hazardous Pesticides With Agroecology.


Several international projects and collaborations have emerged in the last years due to the increasing demand for grid distributed resources around the world. One important aspect of these initiatives deals with the "gridification" of computing intensive scientific applications otherwise difficult to run efficiently. The EELA Project (E-Infrastructure shared between Europe and Latin America) is a collaboration between Latin American and European institutions that has developed a potent e-infrastructure for e-Science applications. This paper describes the consolidated EELA e-infrastructure and the progress achieved so far. The EELA project is funded by the European Commission under the contract number IST-2006-026409.


Based on previous results showing partial resistance of fatty acyl amides to ruminal biohydrogenation, butylsoyamide was added to sheep diets in an attempt to increase unsaturation of plasma fatty acids. Twelve wethers averaging 34 k 3.2 kg BW were randomly assigned to three diets containing either no added fat (control), 5% soybean oil, or 5% butylsoyamide. Dry matter intake was greater ( P .05) for sheep fed butylsoyamide than for sheep fed soybean oil (740 and 581 g/d, respectively), but neither fat supplement differed from the control diet (680 g/d). The soybean oil supplement reduced ( P < .05) total VFA concentration (59.0 and 38.7 mM) and acetate:propionate (4.10 and 2.56) in ruminal samples compared with the control diet. Butylsoyamide had no effect ( P > .05) on total VFA (54.4 mM) or acetate:propionate (2.96). Total tract ADF digestibility was not affected ( P > .05) by either fat supplement. Relative to the control diet, soybean oil increased ( P < . 05 ) plasma linoleic acid concentration 22% compared with a 58% increase from feeding butylsoyamide (26.7, 32.6, and 42.1% of total fatty acids, respectively). Linoleic acid concentration in plasma neutral lipids, relative to the control diet, increased 15.8% ( P < .05) for soybean oil compared with 64.9% ( P < .05) for butylsoyamide (31.6, 36.6, and 52.1% of total fatty acids, respectively). Converting soybean oil triglycerides to fatty acyl amides substantially reduces negative effects of the oil on ruminal fermentation and increases unsaturated fatty acids in plasma. The increase in plasma unsaturated fatty acids demonstrates at least partial resistance of fatty acyl amides to ruminal biohydrogenation and their digestion and absorption postruminally.


Middle Eocene land mammals from La Meseta Formation, Seymour (Marambio) Island are reviewed. A taxonomically diverse fossil land-vertebrate assemblage with small and medium-size mammals has been recovered from four localities. The depositional setting is shallow marine and most of the mammal-bearing beds are in reworked, moderate to high energy subtidal facies. The characteristics of these mammals not only confirm but also strengthen the biogeographical relationships between southern South America (Patagonian Province) and the Antarctic Peninsula during the Paleogene and rule out the possibility of a major barrier between these areas. The Antarctic ungulates (Astrapotheria and ?Litopterna) are plesiomorphics in retaining low crowned cheek teeth and are more similar to those from the Pancasamayoran local faunas of southern South America (Patagonia).


Heparanase is a β-D-endoglucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulfate, a complex glycosaminoglycan found ubiquitously throughout mammalian cells and tissues. Heparanase has been strongly associated with important pathological processes including inflammatory disease and tumor metastasis, through its ability to promote various cellular functions such as cell migration, invasion, adhesion, and cytokine release. A number of cell types express heparanase including leukocytes, cells of the vasculature as well as tumor cells. However, the relative contribution of heparanase from these different cell sources to these processes is poorly defined. It is now well-established that the immune system plays a critical role in shaping tumor progression. Intriguingly, leukocyte-derived heparanase has been shown to either assist or impede tumor progression, depending on the setting. This review covers our current knowledge of heparanase in immune regulation of tumor progression, as well as the potential applications and implications of exploiting or inhibiting heparanase in cancer therapy.


The Oslo negotiations——and the specter of a Palestinian renunciation of the right of return——greatly increased the insecurities of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The new uncertainties in turn triggered the emergence in the refugee camps of commemorative practices different from those previously sponsored by the Palestinian leadership. The new forms of commemoration, centered on the villages left behind in Palestine in 1948 and including popular ethnographies, memory museums, naming practices, and history-telling using new technologies, have become implicit vehicles of opposition and a means of asserting the refugees' membership in the Palestinian polity. Beyond reflecting nostalgia for a lost world, the practices have become the basis of the political identity of the younger generations and the motivation for their political mobilization.


In this paper, we introduce a deep learning model to classify children as either healthy or potentially having autism with 94.6% accuracy using Deep Learning. Patients with autism struggle with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and communication, both verbal and non-verbal. Although the disease is considered to be genetic, the highest rates of accurate diagnosis occur when the child is tested on behavioral characteristics and facial features. Patients have a common pattern of distinct facial deformities, allowing researchers to analyze only an image of the child to determine if the child has the disease. While there are other techniques and models used for facial analysis and autism classification on their own, our proposal bridges these two ideas allowing classification in a cheaper, more efficient method. Our deep learning model uses MobileNet and two dense layers to perform feature extraction and image classification. The model is trained and tested using 3,014 images, evenly split between children with autism and children without it; 90% of the data is used for training and 10% is used for testing. Based on our accuracy, we propose that the diagnosis of autism can be done effectively using only a picture. Additionally, there may be other diseases that are similarly diagnosable.


Natural ester seed oil based dielectric fluid is an environmentally advantaged fluid that is increasingly being used as a replacement for mineral oil and for high temperature flashpoint liquids, including silicone and R-TEMP. This report updates experience with use of the fluid over the last two years. Considerable studies have been conducted to investigate heat aging performance of cellulose, electrical contact thermal stability, dielectric strength, moisture sensitivity, and cold temperature performance. A series of reports presents a summary of work that has been completed to date and examines customer experience with the use of Natural Esters in real transformers. The work contains both new transformers and retro-fills in Distribution and Power Transformers as well as Step Voltage Regulators and Switchgear.


Fat embolism syndrome (FES) is a serious clinical disorder occurring in trauma patients. The diagnosis of fat embolism syndrome may be difficult to establish clinically. We therefore wanted to investigate the usefulness of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in the diagnostic evaluation of fat embolism syndrome. We analysed the presence of fat droplets in BAL cells in 32 trauma patients (7 with full diagnostic criteria of fat embolism syndrome, 17 with incomplete diagnostic criteria, and 8 with no diagnostic criteria at the time of bronchoscopy), 9 nontrauma patients with acute respiratory failure and radiographic pulmonary infiltrates, and a control group composed of 10 individuals. An increased percentage of oil red O positive alveolar macrophages (cut-off point > 3%) in BAL was found in 6 out of 7 patients with definite clinical criteria of fat embolism syndrome, and in 6 out of 20 trauma patients without the clinical diagnosis of fat embolism syndrome. In two patients with fat embolism syndrome, sequential BAL showed that the percentage of positive macrophages decreased when the clinical manifestations disappeared. An increased number of BAL macrophages with fat droplets was also observed in two trauma patients without evidence of fat embolism syndrome after long-bone surgical intervention. By contrast, all non-trauma patients had a percentage of positive cells lower than 3%. Our findings suggest that BAL oil red O positive macrophages are frequently observed in trauma patients irrespective of the presence of fat embolism syndrome. Conceivably, a high number of oil red O positive macrophages could reflect clinically silent fat embolization.


The labeling of electricity is considered an important mechanism to differentiate renewable power generation and, thus, to incentivize the expansion of green energy. However, today's systems for documenting and trading green energy certificates suffer from multiple challenges. These could be addressed by a digital solution that holistically collects and processes production and consumption data. Blockchain-based architectures have repeatedly been suggested for this purpose since they can provide transparency and can likely be accepted by a broad group of stakeholders. Yet, there are significant scalability and privacy issues of a blockchain-based approach for storing and processing fine-grained production and consumption data. In this paper, we propose and discuss a potential solution that levers succinct cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs to balance the required level of transparency and privacy while at the same time providing a high degree of scalability.


has had many experiences of building networks to leverage change for people living in poverty worldwide, and aims to learn from these about what makes such alliances more or less effective. This case study focuses on two networks developed in the South Caucasus region, which were recently analysed using Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology. The main objective of the paper is to share the learning on using SNA as a tool. It presents the main challenges, learning and best practices, and provides recommendations both for the South Caucasus project and for the development of networks analysis more generally.


Antibodies to DNA (anti-DNA) are the serological hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus, a prototypic autoimmune disease. These antibodies bind to conserved sites on single-stranded and double-stranded DNA and display variable region somatic mutations consistent with antigen selection. Nevertheless, the interaction of anti-DNA with DNA has unconventional features. Anti-DNA antibodies bind by a mechanism called monogamous bivalency, in which stable interaction requires contact of both Fab sites with determinants on the same extended DNA molecule; the size of this DNA can be hundreds to thousands of bases, especially in solid phase assays. This binding also requires the presence of the Fc portion of IgG, a binding mechanism known as Fc-dependent monogamous bivalency. As shown by the effects of ionic strength in association and dissociation assays, anti-DNA binding is primarily electrostatic. Like anti-DNA autoantibodies, anti-DNA antibodies that bind specifically to non-conserved sites on bacterial DNA, a type of anti-DNA found in otherwise healthy individuals, also interact by monogamous bivalency. The unconventional features of anti-DNA antibodies may reflect the highly charged and polymeric nature of DNA and the need for molecular rearrangements to facilitate monogamous bivalency; the Fc portion contributes to binding in an as yet unknown way.


Since the 1990s, CLIL has become a popular and well-established educational approach in English Language and Teaching (ELT) and has been cited for its positive learning outcomes. CLIL's rising popularity in ELT is predicated on the necessity of internationalisation and unprecedented population mobility (Nikula, Dalton-Puffer and Llinares, 2013). Another reason why CLIL has attracted scholarly attention is attributed to CLIL's pedagogical practicality. As Coyle (2006) suggests, CLIL can offer "opportunities involving problem-solving, risk-taking, confidence building, communication skills, extending vocabulary, self-expression and spontaneous talk" (p. 7) because it fuses content and language learning with a dual-approach. Such being the case, the aim of this collective case study was to investigate 5 in-service high school EFL teachers' perceptions about and needs of CLIL. In line with this goal, relevant data were collected through 1) reflective essays written by the participants after reading the article about CLIL, which was distributed to them for raising awareness purposes, 2) semi-structured interviews with them after these lessons. This was a purely qualitative study with the aims of gaining an in-depth insight into the topic at hand from the teachers' points of view and creating a venue for their voices to be heard. Data garnered from these tools were carefully scrutinized, and the pattern coding generated three main themes regarding the research questions, namely CLIL's benefits and challenges and teachers' needs.


When machine learning is outsourced to a rational agent, conflicts of interest might arise and severely impact predictive performance. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for incentive-aware delegation of machine learning tasks. We model delegation as a principal-agent game, in which accurate learning can be incentivized by the principal using performance-based contracts. Adapting the economic theory of contract design to this setting, we define budget-optimal contracts and prove they take a simple threshold form under reasonable assumptions. In the binary-action case, the optimality of such contracts is shown to be equivalent to the classic Neyman-Pearson lemma, establishing a formal connection between contract design and statistical hypothesis testing. Empirically, we demonstrate that budget-optimal contracts can be constructed using small-scale data, leveraging recent advances in the study of learning curves and scaling laws. Performance and economic outcomes are evaluated using synthetic and real-world classification tasks.


In the last two and a half decades, the expectations of motherhood and the understanding of women's reproductive choices in Ukrainian state policy discourses have been changing. Nevertheless, the regime of »compulsory motherhood« has remained dominant, stating that reproduction is what makes a woman. In this paper I explore how the norm of traditional »natural« motherhood is constructed in labor and welfare policy so that it holds through the policy changes influenced by the ideologies of state paternalism, neoliberalism, and conservatism. In the policy discussions from 1990 to 2015, women's bodies are constructed as vulnerable, particularly in terms of their fertility, as a result of poverty, excessive working responsibilities, or societal moral »decay.« The goal of this paper is to grasp the regime of »compulsory motherhood« and to understand how the subject of voluntarily childless woman becomes unthinkable in these conditions due to the construction of mothering as a biological function of the female body.


Machek, SB, Hwang, PS, Cardaci, TD, Wilburn, DT, Bagley, JR, Blake, DT, Galpin, AJ, and Willoughby, DS. Myosin heavy chain composition, creatine analogues, and the relationship of muscle creatine content and fast-twitch proportion to Wilks coefficient in powerlifters. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-Little data exist on powerlifting-specific skeletal muscle adaptations, and none elucidate sex differences in powerlifters. Powerlifters tend to display higher fast-twitch fiber content and phosphagen system dependence. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether fast-twitch fiber or muscle creatine content are predictive of competitive powerlifting performance (via Wilks coefficient). Twelve actively competing powerlifters (PL; n = 6M/6F; age = 21.3 ± 1.0; 3.0 ± 1.8 year competing; 7.3 ± 6.6 meets attended) and 10 sedentary controls (CON; n = 5M/5F; age = 19.4 ± 2.0 year) underwent vastus lateralis muscle biopsies and venipuncture to compare the myosin heavy chain (MHC) fiber type and creatine analogue profiles between groups of both sexes, and determine whether MHC IIa and muscle total creatine (MTC) composition predict powerlifting performance. Samples were analyzed for specific MHC isoform (I, IIa, and IIx) content via mixed homogenate SDS-PAGE, and creatine analogues (MTC, muscle creatine transporter [SLC6A8], serum total creatine [STC], and serum creatinine [CRT]). Furthermore, MHC IIa and MTC content were compared with Wilks coefficient using Pearson correlation coefficients. Male PL MHC content was 50 ± 6% I, 45 ± 6% IIa, and 5 ± 11% IIx, versus 46 ± 6% I, 53 ± 6 IIa, and 0% IIx in female PL. Conversely, male CON MHC content was 33 ± 5% I, 38 ± 7% IIa, and 30 ± 8% IIx, vs. 35 ± 9% I, 44 ± 8% IIa, and 21 ± 17% IIx in female CON. Muscle total creatine, SLC6A8, STC, and CRT did not significantly differ between groups nor sexes. Finally, neither MHC IIa content (r = -0.288; p = 0.364) nor MTC (r = 0.488; p = 0.108) significantly predicted Wilks coefficient, suggesting these characteristics alone do not determine powerlifting skill variation.


Rural-to-urban migration in Zimbabwe has led to the convergence of different ethnic groups in urban areas. Globalisation has also added to the cultural and linguistic diversity of urban areas. This study investigates the language used by front office personnel in formal workplace discourse. It attempts to identify the language/s that characterise formal workplace discourse, taking into consideration the multilingual nature of the country. Information was collected through observation (both full participant and complete outsider) and semi-structured interview methods. Front office personnel make language choices with the ultimate aim of achieving certain intentions. Thus, language used in a formal workplace context is basically functional in nature. It serves the main purpose of creating, maintaining and attracting new clients to the business. Although the context of the present study is formal workplace discourse, language choice in this context is not only determined by business factors, but also correlates with social norms and values. For the indigenous people of Zimbabwe, the establishment and maintenance of long-lasting relationships is at the very core of cultural existence. It is this need for unity and co-operation that is carried over into the business domain with the ultimate aim of fostering such relationships for commercial benefit.


A novel method for the synthesis of 2,6-dihydroxy substituted chalcones via Claisen-Schmidt is introduced using recyclable PEG-400 as an alternative reaction solvent. The reaction is clean with excellent yield, shorter reaction time and reduces the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by IR, mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis.


Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate a meticulous pharmacognostic cram is to supplement constructive information with regard to its identification, characterization, and standardization of endemic and endangered medicinal climber Cayratia pedata var. glabra and also screening the antibacterial activity of this climber. Materials and Methods: The morphological characters of study plant, microscopic examination of leaf powder, anatomy of young stem, physicochemical analysis of plant powder, extractive values, phytochemical analysis, powder with different chemical reagents, fluorescence analysis of plant powder, and other World Health Organization (WHO) recommended for standardization were analyzed. The antibacterial activity of this study plant is also analyzed. Results: C. pedata var . glabra belongs to the family Vitaceae, commonly known as "Kattuppirandai" is one such endemic and endangered species in Thaisholai, Nilgiris South Division, Western Ghats. With the patronage of veteran ethnic group traditional knowledge of this region, the species C. pedata var . glabra was selected for the pharmacognostical examination and antibacterial screening. There were no pharmacognostical reports of this plant, specifically to determine the anatomical and other physicochemical standards required for its quality control. The current study deals with pharmacognostical parameters for the aerial parts of study plant, which mainly consists of macromorphological and microanatomical characters, physicochemical constants (ash values and extractive values), fluorescence analysis, and phytochemical screening, one of the WHO accepted parameter for the identification of medicinal plants. The pharmacognostical exploration was undertaken for this species with the purpose of sketch the pharmacopeial standards. The antibacterial activity of this plant confirms the therapeutic power. Conclusion: The information obtained from pharmacognostical studies will be of used for supplementary pharmacological and therapeutical evaluation of the species and will assist in standardization for quality, purity, and authentication with the help, of which adulteration and substitution can be prevented. The antibacterial activity of this plant confirm the traditional knowledge of local healers on the wound healing property of this species and also suggest this plant species can be used as a promising source for the development of new pharmaceuticals that address the therapeutic needs to cure infectious diseases.


Current technologies aimed at supporting processes – whether it is a business or learning process – primarily follow a metadataand data-centric paradigm. Whereas process metadata is usually based on a specific standard specification – such as the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) or the IMS Learning Design Standard – the allocation of resources is done manually at designtime, and the used data is often specific to one process context only. These facts limit the reusability of process models across different standards and contexts. To overcome these issues, we introduce an innovative Semantic Web Service-based framework aimed at changing the current paradigm to a context-adaptive service-oriented approach. Following the idea of layered semantic abstractions, our approach supports the development of abstract semantic process model reusable across different contexts and standards that enables a dynamic adaptation to specific actor needs and objectives. To illustrate the application of our framework and establish its feasibility, we describe a prototypical application in the E-Learning domain.


Because radiometers do not measure the earth's outgoing flux directly, angular distribution models (ADMs) are used to invert measured radiances at the top of atmosphere (TOA) to flux. However, data used to build ADMs are generally not sorted for mixed scene types, and anisotropic correction factors for such scenes are not usually available. In the present study, we have analyzed shortwave (SW) flux values retrieved over nine areas representative of a junction between two different ADM scene types in the Meteosat-7 field of view. The Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) broadband SW ADMs were used to perform the radiance-to-flux conversion. Because of the large anisotropy difference that can exist between ADMs, use of the ADM that corresponds to the scene type with the highest percent coverage over footprints containing a mixture of scene types generates instantaneous as well as systematic errors in the retrieved SW flux values. Nevertheless, in the absence of available mixed scene type ADMs, we show that the CERES on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite SW ADMs can be combined together to provide reliable mixed scene types anisotropic correction factors. The use of such anisotropic factors appears to be especially well suited along the coastline of continents.


Product catalogue for virtual garden company, Bushland Blooms. The catalogue lists available products, product codes, images, prices, features and benefits.


GENERAL Classification, diagnosis, and management of drug-induced respiratory disease Mechanisms of chemically induced respiratory toxicities Imaging of drug-induced lung disease Bronchoalveolar lavage in drug-induced lung disease Pathology of drug-induced respiratory disease Drug allergy in lung disease DRUG-INDUCED RESPIRATORY EMERGENCIES Drug-induced upper airway obstruction Drug-induced bronchospasm Drug-induced pulmonary oedema and acute respiratory distress syndrome Pulmonary complications of blood transfusion Drug-induced alveolar haemorrhage Pulmonary complications of illicit drug use Iatrogenic tracheobronchial and chest injury ONCOLOGY AND ALLIED CONDITIONS Pulmonary reactions to chemotherapeutic agents: The 'chemotherapy lung' Pulmonary reactions to novel chemotherapeutic agents and biomolecules Radiation-induced lung disease Pulmonary complications of bone-marrow and stem-cell transplantation Pulmonary complications of solid-organ transplantation Pulmonary infection induced by drugs Therapy-induced neoplasms NON-ONCOLOGICAL CONDITIONS Pneumonitis induced by non-cytotoxic agents Amiodarone pulmonary toxicity Eosinophilic pneumonia induced by drugs Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia induced by drugs or radiotherapy Coughing induced by drugs Pleural disease induced by drugs Lupus erythematosus syndrome induced by drugs Vasculitis induced by drugs Pulmonary hypertension induced by drugs and toxins Respiratory involvement from herbals


Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify which comorbidities are more common in patients with urinary incontinence compared with patients without this diagnosis. Design of study: Case-control study. Setting/methods: The data for this study were obtained from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2) performed in 2001 and were extracted from the electronic medical records of all patients registered in the participating practices in the year of study (2001). Conditional logistic regression was performed using the PHREG (proportional hazards regression) procedure. Results: Urinary tract infections, constipation, and depression were more prevalent in both men and women with urinary incontinence than in controls. In men, heart failure is more common than among controls, and in women, diabetes mellitus, genitourinary prolapse, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)/asthma are more common than among controls. Conclusion: General practitioners could ask for the presence of urinary incontinence in patients with the above described comorbidities.


Toxoplasma is a protozoan parasite in the phylum Apicomplexa, which contains a number of medically important parasites that rely on a highly unusual form of motility termed gliding to actively penetrate their host cells. Parasite actin filaments regulate gliding motility, yet paradoxically filamentous actin is rarely detected in these parasites. To investigate the kinetics of this unusual parasite actin, we expressed TgACT1 in baculovirus and purified it to homogeneity. Biochemical analysis showed that Toxoplasma actin (TgACT1) rapidly polymerized into filaments at a critical concentration that was 3-4-fold lower than conventional actins, yet it failed to copolymerize with mammalian actin. Electron microscopic analysis revealed that TgACT1 filaments were 10 times shorter and less stable than rabbit actin. Phylogenetic comparison of actins revealed a limited number of apicomplexan-specific residues that likely govern the unusual behavior of parasite actin. Molecular modeling identified several key alterations that affect interactions between monomers and that are predicted to destabilize filaments. Our findings suggest that conserved molecular differences in parasite actin favor rapid cycles of assembly and disassembly that govern the unusual form of gliding motility utilized by apicomplexans.


Aim: To investigate factors associated with early management of intermittent exotropia (X(T)) in hospital eye departments in the UK in a prospective cohort study. Methods: An inception cohort of 460 children aged <12 years with previously untreated X(T) (mean age 3.6 years, 55.9% girls) was recruited from 26 UK hospital children's eye clinics and orthoptic departments. Participants received a standard ophthalmic examination at recruitment and orthoptic assessment at three-monthly intervals thereafter. The influence of severity of exotropia (control measured by Newcastle Control Score (NCS), and angle of strabismus, visual acuity and stereoacuity) and age on the type of management was investigated. Results: Within the first 12 months following recruitment, 297 (64.6%) children received no treatment, either for impaired visual acuity or for strabismus. Ninety-six (21%) children had treatment for impaired visual acuity. Eighty-nine (19.4%) received treatment for strabismus (22 of whom also received treatment for defective visual acuity); in 54 (11.7%) treatment was non-surgical and in 35 (7.6%) eye muscle surgery was performed. Children with poor (score 7–9) control of strabismus at recruitment were more likely to have surgery than children with good (score 1–3) control (p<0.001). Children who had no treatment were younger (mean age 3.38 years) than those who were treated (mean 4.07 years) (p<0.001). Stereoacuity and size of the angle of strabismus did not influence the type of management received. Conclusions: X(T) can be a presenting sign of reduced visual acuity. Most children with well controlled X(T) receive no treatment within 12 months following presentation.


Multiple robot manipulators are used in a coordinated way for carrying out tasks which cannot be performed by a single robot. When two or more robots handle a large object in free space, it is necessary to control the internal force applied on the object as well as the positions of the robot end effectors. In this paper, a learning control algorithm is proposed for the iterative-type position and force control of multiple manipulators carrying an object in free space. The learning control algorithm is of the D-type, and uses acceleration errors and internal force errors for learning. A proof of the convergence of the position and internal force trajectories to the desired trajectories is given. Simulation and experimental results are presented for two-robot manipulator systems to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed learning controller.


This article reports on a school improvement initiative undertaken by a private university in Pakistan. The Whole School Improvement Programme, designed with the purpose to improve the quality of education appropriate to children and teachers of poor communities, is being implemented in selected elementary schools. Central to the program is capacity-building of teachers as leaders. The program seeks to gain a better understanding into the ways in which teacher leadership can influence school change leading to improved student learning. The program focuses on institutional capacity-building through development of teacher leadership. Twenty teachers were developed as Lead Teachers. The Lead Teachers are responsible for leading the work of school improvement as internal change agents. The immediate impact of the training program on the Lead Teachers was assessed through comparison of pre-course and post-course test data supplemented by qualitative data. Comparison of the data indicated significant impact of the program on the confidence level of the participants in their competence as Lead Teachers. The qualitative data showed that a considerable shift has occurred in how they think about school improvement, how they perceive their role in school improvement and how they judge their abilities to work as Lead Teachers.


In this article, we explore rituals and ritualized care practices in a hospice in the Netherlands. The research is guided by two research questions. First, we want to know what kind of rituals and ritualized care practices are taking place in the hospice. Second, we aim to understand these practices from a cultural perspective, i.e., to what cultural values do these practices refer? We distinguish five types of ritual: (1) care practices in the morning; (2) meals; (3) care practices in the evening; (4) care practices in the dying phase; (5) a farewell ritual after a patient has died. Ritualization takes place in various degrees and forms, depending on changes in the state of liminality. Analysis of ritualized care practices shows that everyday care practices are enriched with non-instrumental elements that have a strong symbolic meaning, referring to the cultural value of the 'good death'.


Ryan and Jetha's 2010 book "Sex at Dawn" caused a huge controversy within the academic community, with several papers, commentaries, and even a whole book, "Sex at Dusk: lifting the shiny wrapping from Sex at Dawn" published in 2012 by Saxon, being written to attack it. However, when one reads the so-called 'scientific' publications that were produced after, and as a reaction to, Sex at Dawn, one can see that the major controversy is not really about monogamy vs polygamy, as the general public tends to think, but about our 'sexual nature' being mainly polygynous (1 male having several females) as argued in Sex at Dusk, vs multimale-multifemale (each female and each male having various partners of the other sex) as argued in Sex at Dawn. In other words, both models assume that it is mainly part of our 'human nature' to have a male copulating with several females: what hit the nerve of people, with the publication of Sex at Dawn, is mainly its idea that it is also part of our 'nature' to have a female having the sexual drive/desire to copulate with various males. What is particularly interesting is that Saxon published Sex at Dusk mainly as if it were an analysis of the evolution of sex in humans based on 'accurate', 'deep knowledge' of evolutionary biology, an idea often accepted in the few book reviews published about this book, which considered the book to be a 'scientific rebuttal' of the 'pseudo-science' of Sex at Dawn. However, despite the crucial importance of the subjects debated in these books for discussions on human evolution, and the huge repercussion of these debates for the media and broader public, puzzlingly no publication has examined so far, in detail, if the 'evolutionary framework' followed in Sex at Dusk is truly a reflection of a 'deep knowledge' of current evolutionary ideas. In this paper I will show that a careful analysis of Sex at Dusk shows that the book instead uses old-dated, extremist adaptationist 'selfish genes' evolutionary ideas that were popular 5 decades ago but that have been more and more discarded since then. In fact, Sex at Dusk has nothing new or progressive: it is just one more repetition of misogynistic narratives/just-so stories that have been strongly contradicted by empirical data in the last decades. That is, Sex at Dusk written exclusively to attack Sex at Dawn, a book precisely aimed to put in question such old-dated, misogynistic tales just confirms the premonition made in works such as Ackerman's Natural History of Love: that due to a powerful combination of strong biases and the use of antiquated fallacious evolutionary ideas, such narratives will in fact likely not "change very soon".


Purpose: To evaluate mental health, cognitive function, and living quality of colon and rectal carcinoma patients with oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity. Methods: Fifty recurrence-free colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy while 50 control patients without oxaliplatin chemotherapy were enrolled in this study. Subjective and objective aspects of oxaliplatin chemotherapy symptoms were assessed with oxaliplatin neurotoxicity classification. Psychological assessment was measured via the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). Cognitive function was measured via Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Quality of Life (QOL) was assessed using the World Health Organization's Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) shortened instrument. Results: Of the patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy, 41 patients had depression and 42 patients had anxiety. Patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy scored higher on average on both the SDS (64.36 ± 7.22) and SAS (67.49 ± 9.41) compared to those without oxaliplatin chemotherapy (SDS, 57.86 ± 5.27, p=0.006; SAS, 61.57 ± 10.06, p = 0.004). Patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy, on average, scored lower on the MoCA (23.46 ± 3.17) compared to patients without oxaliplatin chemotherapy (27.49 ± 2.03, p < 0.05). In addition, patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy scored significantly lower on measures of physical health (18.9 ± 7.8 vs. 37.8 ± 6.2, p<0.05), psychological health (19.3 ± 8.2vs. 39.8 ± 8.1, p<0.05), and social relationship (50.2 ± 10.1 vs. 70.6 ± 10.5, p<0.05) compared to patients without oxaliplatin chemotherapy. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that anxiety and cognitive impairment performance significantly predicted for global Quality of Life (QOL). Conclusions: colorectal cancer (CRC)patients with oxaliplatin chemotherapy experience mood disorders, cognitive impairment, and reduced Quality of Life (QOL). The clinical symptoms severity of oxaliplatin cemotherapy plays an important role in mood change and cognitive function. Decreased Quality of Life (QOL) was associated with anxiety and cognitive impairment.


Recent U.S. evidence suggests that the response of labor share to a productivity shock is characterized by countercyclicality and overshooting. These findings cannot be easily reconciled with existing business cycle models. We extend the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model of search in the labor market by considering strategic interactions among an endogenous number of producers, which leads to countercyclical price markups. While Nash bargaining delivers a countercyclical labor share, we show that countercyclical markups are fundamental to address the overshooting. On the contrary, we find that real wage rigidity does not seem to play a crucial role for the dynamics of the labor share of income.


ith the advent of hyaluronic acid fillers, safe and effective non-surgical facial rejuvenation has been advanced. Hyaluronic acid fillers are becoming increasingly popular amongst patient who seek facial enhancement. In 2013, there were over 1.8 million treatments using hyaluronic acid performed in the US alone, representing a 31% increase from the previous year [1]. Fillers are placed in the dermis using needles in order to improve the appearance of wrinkles, soften folds or hydrate the skin. When fillers are placed in deeper planes, using needles or cannulae, there are many possibilities for facial rejuvenation and beautification. These include the enhancement of bony features, facial shaping and the lifting of soft tissues. The ability of a treatment that uses hyaluronic acid fillers to make a patient appear more attractive, more youthful or refreshed, depends on the operators understanding of the ageing process, aesthetic ideals and proper patient assessment. The need for volume Ageing affects the soft and hard tissues of the face. It is primarily an involutional process, rather than a gravitational one [2]. The bony skeleton, deep and superficial fat compartments of the face deflate over time [3]. As the mandible, zygoma and periorbital bones resorb, structural support for the soft tissues of the jawline, midface, and brows lessens and ptosis becomes apparent. The deep and superficial fat compartments of the face also atrophy asynchronously, such that various hollows, grooves and shadows appear as one ages. The relative resistance of nasolabial and jowl fat to atrophy exacerbates the nasolabial grooves and jowls as the fat in the midface and elsewhere disappears. Therefore, a pseudoptosis of the nasolabial fat and jowls due to volume loss, rather than excess, occurs. Attenuation of facial ligaments and deterioration in the quality of the skin through intrinsic and extrinsic ageing compound these signs. The involutional and atrophic changes that occur with ageing in the face are ameliorated using fillers (Figure 1). The strategy for facial contouring with fillers begins with an assessment using inspection and facial imaging.


Sharing the benefits of distribution systems from the integration of distributed photovoltaic systems (DGPVs) with investors is vital to the coordinated development of DGPVs and active distribution systems (ADN). The investment and development of DGPVs, incentive policies, and the development of distribution system interact, and the interactions vary with the changes in the on-grid capacity of DGPVs. In this paper, an event-driven co-simulation platform is built to simulate the abovementioned interaction among DGPVs, ADN, and incentive policy under a long-term time frame. The platform includes an investment model of DGPV investors and an ADN model with consideration of the growth of the ADN. On this platform, we study how multiple factors, including incentive system, global horizontal radiance (GHR), and cost, affect the investment and integration of DGPVs in the future 10 years. Simulation and analysis showed that investors' decisions are more sensitive to variation in GHR and cost, followed by variation in tariff system, subsidy, and self-use ratio. Distribution subsidies have certain impact on the development of DGPV and could partially replace the national and provincial capacity and generation subsidies. When the on-grid capacity reaches a certain level, the distribution subsidy reaches a dynamic equilibrium.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate whether ultrasound (US) findings indicating monosodium urate (MSU) deposits and US-detected inflammation [i.e. power Doppler (PD) signal] predict gout flares over 12 months.

METHODS
Gout patients on urate-lowering therapy for at least the preceding six months were enrolled consecutively in this 12-month prospective, observational, single-centre study. A nested case-control analysis was performed. Cases were participants with at least one flare in the follow-up period, while controls did not self-report any gout flare. The US assessment included elbows, wrists, 2nd metacarpophalangeal joints, knees, ankles, and 1st metatarsophalangeal joints. The US findings indicating MSU deposits [i.e. aggregates, double contour (DC) sign and tophi] were identified as present/absent according to the Outcome Measure in Rheumatology definitions. PD signal was scored semiquantitatively. Summated scores were calculated for each US finding.

RESULTS
Eighty-one gout participants were enrolled, and 71 completed the study. Thirty (42.3%) of 71 participants experienced at least one flare over 12 months, with a median of 2.0 flares.Cases had a greater US burden of MSU deposits (6.7 ± 4.7 vs 2.9 ± 2.6, p= 0.01) and PD signal (3.73 ± 3.53 vs 0.82 ± 1.44, p< 0.01) than controls, at baseline.The baseline US scores indicating MSU deposits and US-detected inflammation were significantly associated with the occurrence [total MSU score, adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR):1.75, 95%CI : 1.26-2.43; PD score, aOR : 1.63, 95%CI : 1.12-2.40] and the number (total MSU score, aIRR : 1.17, 95%CI : 1.08-1.26; PD score, aIRR : 1.29, 95%CI : 1.19-1.40) of flares over 12 months in multivariate analyses.

CONCLUSIONS
Baseline US findings indicating MSU deposits and US-detected inflammation are independent predictors of gout flares over 12 months.


: Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of S. aureus isolated from skin and soft tissue and antibiotic susceptibility pattern among the patient hospitalized in Razi skin hospital (Tehran-Iran). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients (n=400) with skin and soft tissue infections in Razi skin hospital. Sterilized swabs were used to collect the skin infection samples. S. aureus isolates were confirmed using biochemical tests (gram staining, catalase, coagulase, DNase test and manitol fermentation tests). Result: 51.3 %( 205 out of 400 ) of isolates were S. aureus. Ninety six (46.8%) of isolates were methicillin and penicillin-resistant S. aureus . All of the isolates showed sensitivity to vancomycin, linezolid. 98% of the isolates were susceptible to daptomycin. One-hundred sixteen (56.6%) isolates were multi- drug resistant. Conclusion: More than half of the skin and soft tissue infections were caused by S.aureus. More than 46 percent of the isolates were methicillin resistant. The highest resistance to penicillin was observed.


After an emergency European Council meeting to deal with the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean following the loss of over 800 people from a boat off the coast of Sicily in April 2015, An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny T.D. announced that Ireland would send a naval ship to assist with the humanitarian rescue mission then led by the Italian authorities. Amongst the planning factors to be considered by Defence Forces Headquarters staff were the legal complexities inherent in sending a naval ship to engage in search and rescue humanitarian operations in waters outside those of the State. This included the necessity for a potential Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Italy and also perhaps Malta, who control adjacent maritime search and rescue regions, as well as command and control of the ship and any asylum obligations that Ireland would have towards persons rescued by its navy in international waters. Ireland was clear in declaring its intent from the outset that it would not be participating in any form of border-control; the focus was on search and rescue and humanitarian tasks. The wording of Section 3 of the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006 precluded any members of the Defence Forces being despatched to form part of any other force operating within the Mediterranean. While this mitigated some of the legally complex issues surrounding status of forces agreements and the kind of command and control issues raised by the Defence Forces' participation in UN or EU-led missions, the lack of a standardised legal framework also created its own operational difficulties.
This paper will seek to explore the complex legal imperatives that underpin what on the surface appears to be a straightforward humanitarian operation and to outline the role that law continues to play in planning for and conducting contemporary military operations. It will consider how the moral imperative of saving lives in peril at sea has been overtaken and codified by law, in particular international law of the sea, and latterly by international human rights law. The paper will also explore how both moral and legal imperatives have coalesced to place an onus on both rescuers and States to ensure that those rescued are taken to a place of safety. While reflecting on the competing legal and moral issues involved in operations of this nature, the paper will outline how relevant strands of international law were utilised in the military decision-making and planning process for the deployment of the Defence Forces in support of an international humanitarian rescue mission in the central Mediterranean. Finally, it will also reflect on some of the critical challenges encountered in this deployment, in particular the threat posed by a sophisticated migrant smuggling network and the need for more effective burden sharing in the reception and resettlement of migrants that have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.


Background: Fasting has been documented to have therapeutic benefits. Any consequence of the drop in external nutrient supply to the human gut microbiota during prolonged periods of fasting is unknown.

Methods: We analysed the effects of a ten-day periodic fasting on the human gut microbiota in an observational study including 15 healthy men. We also monitored the energy metabolic switch from carbohydrates to fatty acids and ketones, parameters of intestinal permeability, inflammatory status, and well-being. Participants fasted according to the peer-reviewed Buchinger therapeutic fasting guidelines with a daily caloric intake of 200-250 kcal.

Findings: Serum biochemistry confirmed the metabolic switch from carbohydrates to fatty acids and ketones. Emotional and physical well-being were enhanced. Faecal 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences showed that fasting caused a large decrease in the relative abundance of bacteria known to degrade dietary polysaccharides such as Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae. There was a concomitant increase in Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria (Escherichia coli and Bilophila wadsworthia), known to use host derived energy substrates and in particular to ferment aminoacids. BCAA production increased during the fast. Changes in taxa abundance were associated with serum glucose and faecal BCAA, suggesting that fasting-induced changes in gut microbiota are associated to host energy metabolism. These effects were reversed after three months. Although SCFA levels were not changed at the end of the ten-day fasting period, their levels were increased after three months. The levels of four cytokines (IL-6, IL-10, IFNγ, TNFα) increased when food was reintroduced, suggesting that food intake reactivated the postprandial immune response.

Interpretations. We reveal that changes in faecal microbiota composition of healthy subjects during ten days of fasting are associated with energy metabolism. This suggests that the gut microbiota plays a role in physiological adaptations to a ten-day periodic fasting, potentially influencing its beneficial health effects.

Clinical Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00011165, 24/10/2016).

Funding Statement. The study was financed by Amplius GmbH, Uberlingen, Germany. This company has the task to develop a research department for the Buchinger Wilhelmi Clinics Uberlingen and Marbella who are the funders. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No additional external funding received for this study.

Declaration of Interests: FWT is managing director of Amplius GmbH, that is in charge of the scientific documentation for BWC. Amplius GmbH is a company that conceives, coordinates and develops fasting research. All authors declare that no competing interest exist.

Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the medical council Baden-Wurttemberg (application number: F-2016-090, 27/09/2016) and registered at the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00011165, 24/10/2016). It was conducted at the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic (BWC) in Uberlingen (Germany), in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki between 20/11/2016 and 10/12/2016.


Infertility is defined as inability of a sexually active couple to conceive after 1 year of regular intercourse without contraception. Male factors account for 20%–50% of cases of infertility. The aim of this study was to review medicinal plants that proposed to improve sperm abnormalities in traditional Persian medicine. For this purpose, PubMed, Scopus, GoogleScholar and Cochrane library were explored for medicinal plants used in traditional Persian medicine for sperm abnormalities to obtain studies giving any evidence for their efficacy and pharmacological mechanisms related to male infertility. Data were collected for the years 1966 to March 2015. For some of them, including Chlorophytum borivilianum, Crocus sativus, Nigella sativa, Sesamum indicum, Tribulus terrestris, Mucuna pruriens and Withania somnifera, more reliable evidence was found. The mechanisms involved in the beneficial effects of medicinal plants in sperm abnormalities are antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, anti‐oedematous and venotonic activity as well as containing precursors for sperm production and increasing blood testosterone level. Various phytochemical categories including saponins, phytosterols, carotenoids, oxygenated volatile compounds, phenolic compounds and alkaloids seem to be responsible for these beneficial effects. Further studies are recommended for obtaining more conclusive results about the efficacy and safety of the mentioned medicinal plants.


UltraViolet & infrared Sensors at high Quantum efficiency onboard a small SATellite (UVSQ-SAT) is a small satellite at the CubeSat standard, whose development began as one of the missions in the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE) consortium in 2017. UVSQ-SAT is an educational, technological and scientific pathfinder CubeSat mission dedicated to the observation of the Earth and the Sun. It was imagined, designed, produced and tested by LATMOS in collaboration with its academic and industrial partners, and the French-speaking radioamateur community. About the size of a Rubik's Cube and weighing about 2 kg, this satellite was put in orbit in January 2021 by the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. After briefly introducing the UVSQ-SAT mission, this paper will present the importance of measuring the Earth's radiation budget and its energy imbalance and the scientific objectives related to its various components. Finally, the first in-orbit observations will be shown (maps of the solar radiation reflected by the Earth and of the outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere during February 2021). UVSQ-SAT is one of the few CubeSats worldwide with a scientific goal related to climate studies. It represents a research in remote sensing technologies for Climate observation and monitoring.


Russia and the Baltic States have a long-standing relationship of industrial specialisation, cooperation, division of labour and trade exchange, all dating back to the Soviet Union. Today, this relationship is facing a tough test amid political and ideological challenges and risks. The last two years have seen a profound and large-scale crisis caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the production linkages between Russia and the Baltic States have adapted in response to the existing problems, remaining resistant to the geopolitical and pandemic shocks. This article examines the production linkages between Russia and the Baltic countries, investigating the export-import flows of consumer and intermediate goods in 2003—2020. A comparative study of the Baltic States' production linkages with Russia and their main partners in the EU — Germany and Finland — is carried out. It is concluded that, before the introduction of sanctions in 2014 and the world trade crisis of 2015—2016, Russia was a more promising market than Germany and Finland for the Baltic States' companies trading in intermediate goods.


Attitudes toward languages of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents have not yet become a focus of research. Despite rapid growth in the number of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents across the globe, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to this significant phenomenon.  Bi- and multilingualism is a major consequence of immigration and cross-cultural marriages. Regardless of whether cross-cultural marriage is involved, the immigration of families has considerable linguistic consequences on children and adolescents. This paper draws on five case studies in examining the complex factors determining the attitudinal patterns evinced by bi- and multilingual children and adolescents from immigrant families in Thailand. Five households agreed to participate in this research endeavor and data were also collected from surveys, interviews, observations and field notes acquired through the employment of ethnographic investigative methods.  The data collected were analyzed through constant comparative method and content analysis.  Findings showed consistent patterns for those bi- and multilingual children and adolescents whose Thai-speaking mother was linguistically dominant in a family with an immigrant father speaking a minority language.  The results showed that these children were more likely to perceive Thai as more highly regarded language.  By contrast, it was also found that Thai was not as highly regarded by the children of parents if both were minority-language speaking immigrants. It was concluded that the family structure of immigrant families is associated with the language attitudes of their children.  By the same token, the type of marriage of immigrant families has long-reaching effects on the development of children and adolescents' language attitudes.  Moreover, data showed that a non-migrant mother's dominant language played a more influential role in contrast to the minimal role-played by the migrant father's minority language in the development of children and adolescents' language attitudes.


Recent analyses of Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations indicate substantial declines in many areas but relatively stable populations in other portions of the species' range. Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats necessary to support sage-grouse are being burned by large wildfires, invaded by nonnative plants, and developed for energy resources (gas, oil, and wind). Management on public lands, which contain 70% of sagebrush habitats, has changed over the last 30 years from large sagebrush control projects directed at enhancing livestock grazing to a greater emphasis on projects that often attempt to improve or restore ecological integrity. Nevertheless, the mandate to manage public lands to provide traditional consumptive uses as well as recreation and wilderness values is not likely to change in the near future. Consequently, demand and use of resources contained in sagebrush landscapes plus the associated infrastructure to support increasing human populations in the western United States will continue to challenge efforts to conserve Greater Sage-Grouse. The continued widespread distribution of sage-grouse, albeit at very low densities in some areas, coupled with large areas of important sagebrush habitat that are relatively unaffected by the human footprint, suggest that Greater Sage-Grouse populations may be able to persist into the future. We summarize the status of sage-grouse populations and habitats, provide a synthesis of major threats and challenges to conservation of sage-grouse, and suggest a roadmap to attaining conservation goals.


According to daily reports, the income from internet services is getting lower each year. Landline phone services are running at a loss,  whereas mobile phone services are getting too mainstream and the only bright spot holding together cable operators (ISP)  in positive balance is the income from broadband services (Fast internet, IPTV). Broadband technology is a term that defines multiple methods of information distribution through internet at great speed. Some of the broadband technologies are: optic fiber, coaxial cable, DSL, Wireless, mobile broadband, and satellite connection.  The ultimate goal of any broadband service provider is being able to provide voice, data and the video through a single network, called triple play service. The Internet distribution remains an important issue in Kosovo and particularly in rural zones. Considering the immense development of the technologies and different alternatives that we can face, the goal of this paper is to emphasize the necessity of a forecasting of such investment and to give an experience in this aspect. Because of the fact that in this investment are involved many factors related to population, geographical factors, several technologies and the fact that these factors are in continuously change, the best way is, to store all the data in a database and to use this database for different results. This database helps us to substitute the previous manual calculations with an automatic procedure of calculations. This way of work will improve the work style, having now all the tools to take the right decision about an Internet investment considering all the aspects of this investment.


Despite the growth in the number of masters students entering graduate school in the U.S., relatively little attention is given to academic advising for this group of students.  This piece describes the development and  implementation of Appreciative Advising for students in the Master of Arts gerontology program in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida.  Provided in the article are each of the Appreciative Advising phases and the advising activities for each phase.  Although the article focuses on Appreciative Advising in a single discipline, it presents one approach with potential expansion and application in many fields of study.