This paper describes the DINASTI (DIalogues with a Negotiating Appointment SeTting Interface) corpus, which is composed of 1734 dialogues with the French spoken dialogue system NASTIA (Negotiating Appointment SeTting InterfAce). NASTIA is a reinforcement learning-based system. The DINASTI corpus was collected while the system was following a uniform policy. Each entry of the corpus is a system-user exchange annotated with 120 automatically computable features.The corpus contains a total of 21587 entries, with 385 testers. Each tester performed at most five scenario-based interactions with NASTIA. The dialogues last an average of 10.82 dialogue turns, with 4.45 reinforcement learning decisions. The testers filled an evaluation questionnaire after each dialogue. The questionnaire includes three questions to measure task completion. In addition, it comprises 7 Likert-scaled items evaluating several aspects of the interaction, a numerical overall evaluation on a scale of 1 to 10, and a free text entry. Answers to this questionnaire are provided with DINASTI. This corpus is meant for research on reinforcement learning modelling for dialogue management.


In this paper, an incomplete financial market model was built to illustrate the impacts of the market incompleteness on the benefits of trade liberalization. Particularly, it will focus on the investigation of the impacts of different sequences of opening up the goods market. That is, should the government open up international trade simultaneously with the opening up the domestic trade, i.e. implementing a "shock therapy" approach? Or should the government liberalize the domestic goods market first, then to deregulate the international trade, i.e. following a "gradualism" approach? This paper proves that the gradualism approach by opening domestic goods market before liberalization the international trade can guarantee the successive improvement of everyone's welfare. Therefore the gradualism approach is a Pareto improvement sequence.


Biofuel initiatives in India have gained momentum with the national biofuel policy targeting 20% blending of both petrol and diesel by 2017. Most of India's biofuel plans revolve around using sugarcane for bioethanol and jatropha for biodiesel production. This study, taking the southern Indian state of Karnataka as an example, aims at estimating the potential to achieve policy targets. The study spatially analyses land‐use change owing to biofuel expansion and its effects on food production. We used an integrated modelling framework to simulate land‐use change and bioenergy production under two scenarios – Industrial Economy (IE) and Agricultural Economy (AE). Results indicate that meeting the 20% blending target is a challenging goal to achieve under both scenarios. Bioethanol requirements can be nearly fulfilled (88% under IE and 93% under AE) because of sugarcane expansion. However, biodiesel demands cannot be fulfilled using only degraded lands as currently planned in India, but additional agricultural land (3–4% of the total cropland) will be required for jatropha‐based biodiesel production. Food production will not be directly impacted until 2025, because the largest source of additional land could be short‐ and long‐term fallows. We conclude that conservation oriented initiatives, such as water harvesting and energy conservation measures can increase productivities of biofuel crops and reduce fuel demands, respectively. State support and Clean Development Mechanism opportunities can enhance economic incentives for energy cropping. Therefore, a simultaneous and multipronged approach is needed to accommodate food and fuel demands in India.


The success of many healthcare programs depends on participants' adherence. We consider the problem of scheduling interventions in low resource settings (e.g., placing timely support calls from health workers) to increase adherence and/or engagement. Past works have successfully developed several classes of Restless Multi-armed Bandit (RMAB) based solutions for this problem. Nevertheless, all past RMAB approaches assume that the participants' behaviour follows the Markov property. We demonstrate significant deviations from the Markov assumption on real-world data on a maternal health awareness program from our partner NGO, ARMMAN. Moreover, we extend RMABs to continuous state spaces, a previously understudied area. To tackle the generalised non-Markovian RMAB setting we (i) model each participant's trajectory as a time-series, (ii) leverage the power of time-series forecasting models to learn complex patterns and dynamics to predict future states, and (iii) propose the Time-series Arm Ranking Index (TARI) policy, a novel algorithm that selects the RMAB arms that will benefit the most from an intervention, given our future state predictions. We evaluate our approach on both synthetic data, and a secondary analysis on real data from ARMMAN, and demonstrate significant increase in engagement compared to the SOTA, deployed Whittle index solution. This translates to 16.3 hours of additional content listened, 90.8% more engagement drops prevented, and reaching more than twice as many high dropout-risk beneficiaries.


The use of Internet tools in economic pedagogy is growing. This paper attempts to investigate the impact of Internet tools, as a supplement to traditional teaching methods, on teaching and learning and attempts to answer the question why there are gaps between potential and reality of using Internet tools in economics education, based on our experience of integrating e‐learning into courses at Lancaster University. Responses to student questionnaires suggest that the practical features of e‐learning which are most successful at enhancing the learning experience are: the noticeboard, discussion space, multiple‐choice questions and freedom of expression anonymously. Moreover, the degree of the impact of these e‐learning features is affected by network access, residence off campus and student gender. In spite of the enormous potential of the Internet tools in higher education, it is found that much of it is not fully realized due to the problems encountered by lecturers/tutors and students and technical difficulties. It is important to note the many challenges associated with e‐learning which are yet to be debated and resolved.


This paper defines and conceptualizes hallmark events, as there is neither clarity in the literature about what the term means nor the exact roles they should play within a community and tourism context. This generates a model for use by communities and other event-tourism developers. Our model is structured around three main outcome goals (attraction, image and branding, and the community) and three major process goals (sustainability, marketing, and organization and ownership). This paper is the first attempt to define and conceptualize a critical concept in both the event tourism and event management literature.


Between 1988 and 1992 12 patients were seen who had findings leading subsequently to the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The average age was 50 with a range from 22 to 88 years. Women outnumbered the male by 10 to 2 cases. The number of German patients equalled that of foreign patients. Tuberculosis was mainly localised in the cervical lymph nodes in 6 cases. One patient was seen with manifestation in each case at the palate, larynx, nasopharynx, cheek, parotis and middle ear. Diagnosis was made by histology alone six times, by evidence of acid-fast rods once and by both means in 5 cases. Preoperatively a malignant neoplasm was suspected in most patients, and neither CT nor ultrasound revealed a hint to tuberculosis. Tine-test was positive in all patients. Only in 3 patients was there an evidence of acid-fast rods in sputum and gastric juice. None of them suffered from AIDS. They were treated by combination of rifampicin, ethambutol, isoniazid and partially with pyrazinamide. No relapse was observed to date.


SUMMARY. Hydroquinone (HQ) is a drug reported to possess manifold biological activities. HQ is highly unstable into various topical vehicles, presenting low topical bioavailability and a relevant level of toxicity. The Pluronic® Lecithin Organogel (PLOme) is a phospholipidic microemulsion designed for transdermal purposes. The aim of this work was therefore to incorporate HQ into PLOme. We evaluated the stability, the kinetic profile and the antimicrobial activity of HQ- incorporated PLOme. No relevant pH variation was observed. Long-term stability test showed an HQ degradation which led to a short shelf life. HQ permeation rate obtained was lower from PLOme than from a gel matrix. Free and PLOme-encapsulated hydroquinone showed to have a great in vitro inhibitory potential against of S. aureus strains. The encapsulation of HQ due its unstable characteristics could be an alternative to optimize its therapeutic usage, and so further investigation is required on this pharmaceutical form before commercialization.


In recent years teachers of community medicine have tended to emphasise the statistical aspects of epidemiology and have taken a diminishing interest in the influence of the environment on human health. Yet this is probably the largest and most important issue in medicine at the present time. The contributors to this volume discuss a number of current topics in environmental health. The opening chapter on the general environment is rather scrappy but contains some interesting information. The author gives a clear definition of the environment and supports his assertion that human health is more a product of man's environment than of his genetic make-up. This is followed by an account of the effects of the working environment on health and is dealt with under the headings of the physical and chemical hazards which occur in industry. There then follow two gems of authorship which should be widely read. First, Professor Garnham's chapter on arthropods and disease-an example of concise and informative writing. Secondly, the chapter by Dr C S Muir on the evidence of epidemiology. He sets out the basic approach essential for any epidemiological investigation and gently illustrates the need to use numerical methodology if the evidence is to be acceptable. He uses his own special interest in cancer to present his arguments. The essay on soft water and heart disease is a comprehensive review of the researches in this problem, which is still far from resolved. The final chapter on the advances in the control of air pollution shows how it may take a major health disaster to stimulate public and medical action to tackle a known environmental hazard. At the end of each chapter there is a useful guide for further reading. This is a book which should have a wide circulation as it is up to date and contains valuable information on topics which are at present the subjects of considerable public interest.


We introduce a universal framework for mean-covariance robust risk measurement and portfolio optimization. We model uncertainty in terms of the Gelbrich distance on the mean-covariance space, along with prior structural information about the population distribution. Our approach is related to the theory of optimal transport and exhibits superior statistical and computational properties than existing models. We find that, for a large class of risk measures, mean-covariance robust portfolio optimization boils down to the Markowitz model, subject to a regularization term given in closed form. This includes the finance standards, value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk, and can be solved highly efficiently.


Reducing the rate of false positives is of vital importance in enhancing the usefulness of signature-based network intrusion detection systems (NIDSs). To reduce the number of false positives, a network administrator must thoroughly investigate a lengthy list of signatures and carefully disable the ones that detect attacks that are not harmful to the administrator's environment. This is a daunting task; if some signatures are disabled by mistake, the NIDS fails to detect critical remote attacks. We designed a NIDS, TrueAlarm, to reduce the rate of false positives. Conventional NIDSs alert administrators that a malicious message has been detected, regardless of whether the message actually attempts to compromise the protected server. In contrast, TrueAlarm delays the alert until it has confirmed that an attempt has been made. The TrueAlarm NIDS cooperates with a server-side monitor that observes the protected server's behavior. TrueAlarm only alerts administrators when a server-side monitor has detected deviant server behavior that must have been caused by a message detected by a NIDS. Our experimental results revealed that TrueAlarm reduces the rate of false positives. Using actual network traffic collected over 14 days, TrueAlarm produced 46 false positives, while Snort, a conventional NIDS, produced 818.


Primary and reworked pyroclastic material in the Ellensburg Formation of central Washington records middle and late Miocene volcanism in the Cascade Range despite the absence of correlative volcanics within the volcanic chain. Volcanics marking sources for Ellensburg detritus were eroded during late Neogene uplift. Facies patterns and paleocurrent data suggest that the bulk of the volcaniclastics were derived from a source near Bumping Lake; a K-Ar date for an intrusion in this area supports this conclusion. Depositional patterns and characteristics of the detritus allow hypothetical reconstruction of the style of volcanism during this period. Eruptive episodes began with modest-sized Plinian eruptions followed by extended periods of dome growth. Aggradation in adjacent sedimentary basins occurred principally in response to introduction of large volumes of lithic pyroclastic material during eruptive episodes.


Until recently, understanding the regulatory behavior of cells has been pursued through independent analysis of the transcriptome or the proteome. Based on the central dogma, it was generally assumed that there exist a direct correspondence between mRNA transcripts and generated protein expressions. However, recent studies have shown that the correlation between mRNA and Protein expressions can be low due to various factors such as different half lives and post transcription machinery. Thus, a joint analysis of the transcriptomic and proteomic data can provide useful insights that may not be deciphered from individual analysis of mRNA or protein expressions. This article reviews the existing major approaches for joint analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic data. We categorize the different approaches into eight main categories based on the initial algorithm and final analysis goal. We further present analogies with other domains and discuss the existing research problems in this area.


Functional decomposition is proposed as a central element of systematic design, and functions are fulfilled by principle solution elements (means, wirk principles). This paper is concerned with answering how to model means and suggests an information model from an analysis of the concept generation in student projects. The paper is a scientific preparatory work for a computer-based design support system for conceptual design enabling the generation of concepts with abstract ""building blocks"" of higher aggregation. The hypothesis is that by using formalised means, solutions of higher quality can be created, and the solution space can be covered better. The goal is to provide suitable support for the designer capable of intuitive steps.


A general fluorimetric method was developed for determination of noradrenaline, adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin in a single sample. Purification of samples was carried out on columns of Dowex 50X4 and 10 in sodium form. As judget by an internal standard the yield of noradrenaline and adrenaline was about 90% and of dopamin -- about 75%. Serotonin was determined by means of a condensation reaction with ninhydrin. A more stable fluorescence of serotonin samples was provided by an increase in warming-up time up to 55 min. Treatment of control probes with iodine solution permitted to eliminate an unspecific fluoresence of the tissues studied. The yield of serotonin was about 75% as estimated by an internal standard.


It has been reported that green tea has a thermogenic effect, due to its caffeine content and probably also to the catechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). The main aim of the present study was to compare the effect of a mixture of green tea and Guarana extracts containing a fixed dose of caffeine and variable doses of EGCG on 24 h energy expenditure and fat oxidation. Fourteen subjects took part to this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over study. Each subject was tested five times in a metabolic chamber to measure 24 h energy expenditure, substrate oxidation and blood pressure. During each stay, the subjects ingested a capsule of placebo or capsules containing 200 mg caffeine and a variable dose of EGCG (90, 200, 300 or 400 mg) three times daily, 30 min before standardized meals. Twenty-four hour energy expenditure increased significantly by about 750 kJ with all EGCG–caffeine mixtures compared with placebo. No effect of the EGCG–caffeine mixture was observed for lipid oxidation. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure increased by about 7 and 5 mmHg, respectively, with the EGCG–caffeine mixtures compared with placebo. This increase was significant only for 24 h diastolic blood pressure. The main finding of the study was the increase in 24 h energy expenditure with the EGCG–caffeine mixtures. However, this increase was similar with all doses of EGCG in the mixtures.


The Vienna RNA secondary structure server provides a web interface to the most frequently used functions of the Vienna RNA software package for the analysis of RNA secondary structures. It currently offers prediction of secondary structure from a single sequence, prediction of the consensus secondary structure for a set of aligned sequences and the design of sequences that will fold into a predefined structure. All three services can be accessed via the Vienna RNA web server at http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/.


Several papers reporting exotic native elements have been published within the last few decades. The "native" occurrences described are rather dubious in view of the lack of solid proof of their relationships with the host-rock minerals. Consequently, the genetic models proposed ranging from bio-reduction to the influence of deep-mantle, strongly reduced fluids, are somewhat speculative. Here we present data for a unique Al0 flake protruding from the phlogopite matrix of a rock specimen collected from a desilicated pegmatite vein. The geologic setting suggests two processes that might have played a key role in the Al0 formation: (1) desilication of pegmatite, resulting in its Al residual enrichment; and (2) serpentinization of an ultramafic body, providing a strongly reduced front (H2 and hydrocarbons) toward the serpentinite/pegmatite contact. These processes have presumably led to the reduction of Al to Al0 at discrete sites of alumina-rich minerals.


and labourers (290,000 exposures), carpenters (227,000 exposures), and heavy equipment operators (127,000). Quantitative exposure level estimates are available for some carcinogens. Conclusions Safety in the construction industry has long been the focus of scientific research. Our work shows that workers in this industry are also exposed to a number of known and suspected human carcinogens, with some exposures being very prevalent currently in Canada. Results from our study may be used by occupational exposure and epidemiologic studies to further investigate exposures and occupational cancer in this unique industry.


Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the research community, the book is a focused exploration of discourse patterns of Alto Perene Arawak, with emphasis on conversational structures. The book's methodological scaffold is based on proposals and insights from multiple research fields, such as comparative conversation analysis, sociology, interactional linguistics, documentary linguistics, anthropological linguistics, and prosodic typology. The interactional patterns of a small Arawak language of Peru are shown to share the common infrastructure reported in the organization of conversation across other languages and cultures. Yet the analysis demonstrates a variety of unique nuances in the organization of interactional behavior of Alto Perene Arawak participants. The peculiarities observed are attributed to the language-specific semiotic resources and participants' orientation to the local cultural norms. The book's structured examination of conversational data of a small indigenous language of South America is anticipated to be of utility to linguistic research on understudied non-Western languages.


An experimental method utilizing a novel specimen geometry was developed to determine dynamic shear strength of adhesive-bonded lap joints using the classical Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique in compression. The specimens were loaded dynamically at four different loading rates, and the transmitted load through the joint was obtained from the time-resolved strain history assuming one-dimensional stress wave propagation. The shear strength of the joint was determined from the maximum transmitted load, assuming the load was transferred predominantly as shear load through the adhesive-bonded joint. The shear strength of a lap joint bonded using a general purpose epoxy adhesive was obtained at loading rates varying from quasi-static to 2300 N/µs. The results indicate that as the loading rates are increased to 1000 N/µs the shear strength of the particular adhesivebonded lap joint increases to three times its static value, after which it stabilizes.


The cluster Re6Se8I63− has been shown to induce preferential cell death of a hepatic carcinoma cell line, thus becoming a promising anti-cancer drug. Whether this cluster induces acute hemolysis or if it interacts with albumin remains unclear. The effect of acute exposure of human red blood cells to different concentrations of the cluster with and without albumin is described. Red blood cells from healthy donors were isolated, diluted at 1% hematocrit and exposed to the cluster (25–150 µM) at 37 °C, under agitation. Hemolysis and morphology were analyzed at 1 and 24 h. The potential protection of 0.1% albumin was also evaluated. Exposition to therapeutic doses of the cluster did not induce acute hemolysis. Similar results were observed following 24 h of exposition, and albumin slightly reduced hemolysis levels. Furthermore, the cluster induced alteration in the morphology of red blood cells, and this was prevented by albumin. Together, these results indicate that the cluster Re6Se8I63− is not a hemolytic component and induces moderate morphological alterations of red blood cells at high doses, which are prevented by co-incubation with albumin. In conclusion, the cluster Re6Se8I63− could be intravenously administered in animals at therapeutic doses for in vivo studies.


In recent times there has been a boom in the number of quantified self devices available for consumers on the market. The famous 'fitBit' is an example of a device which falls under this popular quantified-self movement. These types of devices feed vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate to the user so that they can observe these functions in real-time and track them over time. It is projected that by 2019, over half a billion wearables will be used globally with 16.4m of these in the UK, according to an analysis by International Data Corporation. Of these 16.4m, two thirds are expected to be used for health tracking. So the demand to track one's health is tremendous. However, the ability to allow the data to flow from for example one's FitBit into one's health record is not there yet.


Three restaurant taste panels and an online consumer survey were conducted during 2012-2013 to assess whether Gulf consumers would be willing to pay a premium for place-name specific (i.e., "branded") Gulf oysters over typical "generic" Gulf oysters, and whether consumers in other U.S. markets would be willing to pay for branded Gulf oysters compared to other U.S. branded oysters. Panelists in the two Gulf Coast taste panels had strong preferences for local oyster varieties when they were aware of oyster variety names and harvest locations (i.e., during labeled rounds). In the absence this information (i.e., during blind rounds), panelists had no such preferences, and in the case of the Houston taste panel, actually had a significant distaste for the local Galveston Bay variety. Panelists in the Chicago taste panel had strong preferences for the Island Creek oyster, in both the blinded and labeled rounds, although during the labeled rounds, the Point aux Pins oysters fared equally well (statistically) to the Island Creeks. Additionally, during the labeled rounds, the Apalachicola Bay and Point aux Pins oysters were statistically more likely to be chosen over the San Antonio Bay oysters. Respondents to the online survey tended to have higher perceptions of quality and seafood safety regarding their own regionally-produced oysters relative to oysters from other regions. There was limited variation in perceptions from one Gulf Coast variety to another, with the exception of the Apalachicola Bay variety being rated higher in several cases, and the more general "Gulf of Mexico" category being rated lower. Online survey results indicate that, consumers living in eastern Gulf states such as Georgia and Florida may be willing to pay a premium for branded Gulf oysters, particularly oysters from Florida and Louisiana. Gulf consumers living in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, however, did not show any strong preferences for branded oysters relative to cheaper generic ones. Among non-Gulf consumers, survey results indicate that while a price discount may be needed to sell branded Gulf oysters relative to local oysters (i.e., relative to, say, East Coast oysters in East Coast markets), that Gulf oysters generally fared no worse than other non-local oysters (i.e., West Coast oysters in East Coast markets). Of the Gulf oysters tested, Atlantic Coast respondents appear to prefer Louisiana oysters. Pacific Coast respondents appear to be indifferent between most Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast varieties. Also, it appears that relatively few respondents were concerned about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill when answering questions about oysters, although these concerns did affect preferences for Gulf Coast oysters negatively in some cases. Less than 1% of all respondents indicated any concern regarding Vibrio vulnificus, bacteria, or similar. However, such concerns, though not cited explicitly, may yet be latent in the reported perceptions of oysters from various Gulf Coast locations. These results would indicate that there is some room for opportunity for branded Gulf Coast oysters along these other two coasts in places where other non-local oysters are marketed successfully. The major challenge appears to be whether the price discount necessary to entice consumers in these other markets to buy Gulf Coast oysters relative to local varieties is yet sufficiently high as to remain a profitable enterprise for Gulf Coast producers. The price discounts estimated here in the range of $5-$10 per half-dozen sounds like a steep discount, but given the large differential in retail prices in Atlantic and Pacific markets - where oysters retail anywhere from $15 to $25 per half-dozen-- compared to Gulf Coast markets – where they retail in the neighborhood of $7 to $10 -- it is possible that even with the discounts, the prices received in these alternative markets may remain profitable.


The use of renewable energy source can reduce greenhouse gas emission and fossil fuel pollution. Compared with fossil fuel energy, renewable energy is not stable and cannot supply firm electrical output (i.e., it is nondispatchable). Fluctuating power from renewables may result in grid power oscillation. To reduce grid swing, energy storage is necessary to smooth output from renewable energy. Energy storage with high energy density and fast response time or high power capacity is desired for compensation of fluctuating output. Generally, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) has higher power capacity than battery energy storage, while battery provides higher energy density. Thus, this research proposes a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) composed of an SMES and battery. Novel and practical synergistic control is presented for firming power fluctuation by exploiting the strong power and energy capabilities of the SMES and the battery while within the efficient operating range of (i.e., state of charges of) HESS. Comprehensive case studies demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed HESS topology and control algorithm using PSCAD/EMTDC.


Robust weighted aggregation schemes taking into account imprecision of the decision tree estimates in random forests and in random survival forests are proposed in the paper. The first scheme dealing with the random forest improves the classification problem solution. The second scheme dealing with the random survival forest improves the survival analysis task solution. The main idea underlying the proposed modifications is to introduce the tree weights which take simultaneously into account imprecision of estimations as well as aims of the classification and regression problems. The imprecision of the tree estimates is defined by means of imprecise statistical inference models and interval models. Special modifications of loss functions for the classification and regression tasks are proposed in order to simplify minimax and maximin optimization problems for computing optimal weights. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed


Endogenous and glucose respiration were studied during the life history of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. A generalized picture of the course of respiration during the life cycle is suggested. At the liberation of daughter cells from the wall of the mother cell, or soon after, the respiration rate reaches its lowest level. If the daughter cells are placed in light the respiration rate rapidly increases with time, soon reaches a maximum, and then declines slowly. Two factors are important in the initial increase—the early developmental stage of the cells and the influence of light. In autotrophically developing algae the parts played by developmental processes and by light have not been separated. Direct activation of respiratory enzymes by light, in addition to the level of respiratory substrate, cannot be excluded. The decline of respiration rate over most of the cell history seems to have no connection with light and is probably bound to the developmental processes per se. Darkening the suspension interrupts growth and induces liberation of daughter cells, with concomitant faster decrease in respiration rate. The rate of respiration of small daughter cells decreases in darkness only slowly with time. Illumination seems necessary to bring these cells back to a high level of respiratory activity.


Students across the world have missed face-to-face instruction due to COVID-19 for many months. While schools have made valiant efforts to continue the provision of learning for students, the success of those efforts has varied, and has often been hindered by limited access to technologies and high-speed broadband available in the homes of teachers and students. The changes have enforced existing social inequalities because of insufficient skills, resources, time or health to assist children with remote learning. Closing schools disrupted the education of all children, but some will have coped better than others. Children are differentially advantaged, reflecting their background and circumstances. The aim of this article is to explore how Estonian teachers have experienced the teaching and learning remotely during the first lockdown period in 2020 and what are the possible consequences for vulnerable studentʹ groups. The paper draws on a qualitative method study based on recent interviews with teachers (n = 20) in ten schools. It turned out from the study that there are positive attitudes towards using digital tools in the learning process, but it has not clear impact on the development of digital skills. The results indicated that there is a fragmentation and wide variety of approaches practiced in Estonian general education schools and not all students benefited from the best practices of distance learning. One of the main threats to students with special educational needs (SEN) was the interruption of their study routine, including support services and creating a new daily structure for activities. The involvement of parents and the opportunity to contribute to supporting their children's home learning played a major role.


This document describes how Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are
typically managed, in terms of pre-deployment management, as well as
rationale and means of monitoring and management of MANET routers
running the Optimized Link State Routing protocol version 2 (OLSRv2)
and its constituent MANET Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP).
Apart from pre-deployment management for setting up IP addresses and
security related credentials, OLSRv2 only needs routers to agree one
single configuration parameter (called "C"). Other parameters for
tweaking network performance may be determined during operation of the
network, and need not be the same in all routers. This, using MIB
modules and related management protocols such as SNMP (or possibly
other, less "chatty", protocols). In addition, for debugging purposes,
monitoring data and performance related counters, as well as
notifications ("traps") can be sent to the Network Management System
(NMS) via standardized management protocols.


Regional myocardial blood flow can now be measured non-invasively with contrast echocardiography, CT, MRI, and positron emission tomography (PET). Measurements with PET have advanced furthest; their accuracy and reproducibility are well established, they can be and are employed in the clinical setting, and they are useful for probing the coronary circulation in humans. The ability to quantify myocardial blood flow rather than to only qualitatively evaluate its relative distribution expands current diagnostic capabilities. Flow measurements offer a means for functionally delineating more accurately the extent and severity of coronary artery disease and, importantly, for probing and measuring microcirculatory reactivity as a component of coronary circulatory function that thus far has escaped non-invasive examinations. This article briefly addresses methodological aspects of PET measurements of myocardial blood flow, and then examines how observations made with this new measurement tool relate to coronary circulatory function and how these measurements can uncover disease related alterations.

Several positron emitting radiotracers are available for PET measurements of myocardial blood flow. Oxygen-15 labelled water (O-15 water) is considered the 'ideal flow tracer' because its uptake in myocardium increases linearly with flow. Yet, its physical properties limit its clinical use: the 122 s physical half-life necessitates close coordination of clinical studies with the cyclotron production of the radiotracer. Further, the freely diffusible radiolabelled water equilibrates with the water space of the myocardium but also with those of blood and adjacent anatomical structures. The resulting low myocardium-to-blood activity ratio images require corrections for blood pool activity, either through additional labelled blood pool imaging or by mathematically separating the myocardial from blood pool radiotracer activity. In the clinical setting, most laboratories therefore prefer nitrogen-13 labelled ammonia (N-13 ammonia) or rubidium-82 chloride (Rb-82). Both are administered intravenously and promptly accumulate in myocardium while rapidly clearing from blood. The resulting high signal-to-noise myocardial …


In their quest for a blood meal, hematophagous arthropods must first defeat the host's hemostatic defense. Following injury as it occurs when hematophagous arthropods insert their proboscis into host skin to feed, the host will attempt to stop excessive blood loss through its hemostatic defense mechanism involving platelet aggregation, blood clotting and vasoconstriction. To acquire a full blood meal hematophagous arthropods inject an arsenal of bioactive enzymes which ultimately overpower the host's hemostatic defense. We have looked at a selected number of studies on the molecular biology of arthropod anti-hemostatic proteins and developed commentaries on the suitability of these molecules as target tick vaccine antigens.


Millions of agricultural producers from around the globe now cultivate genetically modified (GM) crops. In both the United States and the European Union, these crops and their food and feed products must be approved after evaluations designed to protect health, the environment, and agriculture. In the United States, federal agencies implement the authorisation process; in the European Community, both Community institutions and Member State authorities play roles. This article describes the comprehensive regulatory provisions that govern GM crops and their products under US and EC law. The article then compares requirements in the two legal systems, with a focus on the process of authorisation, requirements for labelling, and the exercise of precaution in the regulatory process.


For more than 2 years, Scratch programming has been taught in Taiwanese elementary schools. However, past studies have shown that it is difficult to find appropriate learning methods or tools to boost students' Scratch programming performance. This inability to readily identify tutoring tools has become one of the primary challenges addressed in Scratch programming studies. To cope with this problem, we propose an innovative approach, which combines an Annotation-based Scratch Programming ( ASP) tool with the problem-solving-based teaching approach in Scratch programming pedagogy. The ASP tool was developed to enable students to create, review and share Scratch programming and homework annotations. In a quasi-experimental study, we have evaluated Scratch programming pedagogy at a North Taiwanese elementary school to investigate the effects of instructional-tools-supported programming instructional modes on Scratch programming performance. The experimental results show that students who received ASP tool support in conjunction with a problem-solving-based teaching approach performed significantly better than the other groups. Based on our findings, the innovative approach was believed to play an important role in improving the learning patterns of younger pupils. Therefore, we suggest that teachers consider incorporating the innovative method into their teaching environments in order to boost students' learning achievements in the area of Scratch programming and the subsequent learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Recent research emphasizes the pressure technological change exerts on middlewage occupations by automating routine tasks. I argue that technology only partially automates these tasks, which often still require labor. Rather, technology reduces task complexity enabling a less skilled worker to do the same job. The costs of automation, then, are not only the costs of the technology itself but also of low-wage workers to use it. By raising the cost of low-wage labor, the minimum wage reduces the profitability of adopting automating technologies. I test this prediction with state variation in the minimum wage and industry variation in complementarity between low-wage workers and technology. I show that accounting for state price differences induces new and useful minimum wage variation, derive new measures of complementarity from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the CPS Computer Use Supplement, and build a measure of technology based on IT employment, the largest component of IT spending. My results imply a $1 decrease in the minimum wage raises the average industry's technology use by 30% and decreases the routine share of the wage bill by 1 percentage point (3.3%), both relative to a counterfactual without complementarity. Routineintensive industries often exhibit high complementarity, making the minimum wage an important policy lever to influence the pace of routine-biased technical change.


Introduction: Aim of this retrospective study is to bibliometricaly analyze dental activity of five countries with the highest growth rate of scientific publication in 2011. Materials and Methods: To evaluate dental activity SCImago journal and country rank were used. Searches were done in all categories of dentistry subject area in Feb 2013. Number of published articles, number of citations, number of self-citation, number of international collaborations and H index were used as bibliometric variables. Countries with more than 5% increase in the number of published articles in 2011 were included in the study. Results: For showing the way of differences between countries, we have presented the trend graphs according to the number of dental articles, number of citations, number of self-citations, and number of international collaborations for each country. Discussion: India has the most published dental articles. Yet, its number of citations and H index are not the first. China has the largest number of citations and international collaborations. Spain and South Korea have the highest H index. Thus far, they have the highest mean of self-citation. Scientific output has grown 11 times faster in Iran than the world average. Yet, its dental activity is generally lower than other growing countries in the area of knowledge creation.


Article history: Received: February 2015 Received in the revised form: March 2015 Accepted: May 2015 The objective of the paper was to evaluate the impact of microwave stimulation of bean seeds on their germination process. Laboratory tests were carried out in 2012-2014 with the use of certified bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) of Igolomska cultivar. Shortly before sowing, bean seeds were radiated with microwaves for 10, 30 and 60 seconds. Microwaves came from a magnetron which operated with 100 W power and produced waves of 2.45 GHz frequency. The germination process was described and parameters, which define the sowing value of bean seeds, were determined. Germination ability, relative germination ability (Maguier's index) and average germination time (Pieper's index). Fresh and then dry mass of plant mass were determined. The obtained results allow the statement that microwaves modify the germination process of bean seeds.


As organizations innovate by increasingly opening their boundaries, resources and actors in innovation ecosystems are interacting to shape these innovations. Our review of the literature on digital innovation and ecosystems suggests that our efforts to develop, understand, and utilize digital innovations may benefit from taking the ecological perspective seriously, not just as metaphors, but as a modeling strategy. Specifically, the concept of ecosystem can be applied to multiple levels of the digital innovation landscape, linking diverse entities such as processes, organizations, industries, communities, and society, as they draw on resources, including attention, knowledge, technologies, and capabilities, to create, distribute, and realize the value of digital innovations. This multilevel, ecological model can help revitalize existing theories, resolve theoretical puzzles, and break new ground in the research both on digital innovation and on innovation ecosystems.


Summary: Pollution is a major, overlooked, global health threat that was responsible in 2015 for an estimated 9 million deaths and great economic losses. To end neglect of pollution and advance prevention of pollution-related disease, we formed the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Despite recent gains in understanding of pollution and its health effects, this Commission noted that large gaps in knowledge remain. To close these gaps and guide prevention, the Commission made research recommendations and proposed creation of a Global Observatory on Pollution and Health. We posit that successful pollution research will be translational and based on transdisciplinary collaborations among exposure science, epidemiology, data science, engineering, health policy, and economics. We envision that the Global Observatory on Pollution and Health will be a multinational consortium based at Boston College and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that will aggregate, geocode, and archive data on pollution and pollution-related disease; analyze these data to discern trends, geographic patterns, and opportunities for intervention; and make its findings available to policymakers, the media, and the global public to catalyze research, inform policy, and assist cities and countries to target pollution, track progress, and save lives. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3141


In experiments on anaesthetized dogs with modeling of experimental ischemia (90 min) and reperfusion (180 min) the cardioprotective influence of the preischemic activation of ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels by intravenous introduction of flokalin, a new fluorine-containing opener of these channels was shown. Flokalin was introduced in dose 0.1 mg/kg of animal body weight which practically did not change the parameters of hemodynamic in conditions of normoxia. Thus, the experiments performed about flokalin influence on changes of cardiohemodynamic during ischemia-reperfusion of myocardium showed certain features of ischemia-reperfusion syndrome development under conditions of K(ATP) channels activity stimulation. In our opinion, positive influence offlokalin can be explained by moderate decrease of blood pressure that decreases loading of the damaged heart and allows to preserve cardiac emission in the first period of ischemia. Also, these positive effects can be explained by prevention of the increase of coronal vessel resistance and relative preservation of myocardium contractility indexes by flokalin in the period of reperfusion. All protective properties of flokalin showed above result in diminishing of infarct size of myocardium after ischemia-reperfusion on 37% versus control experiments.


MutS homologues have been identified in nearly all organisms examined to date. They play essential roles in maintaining mitotic genetic fidelity and meiotic segregation fidelity. MutS homologues appear to function as a molecular switch that signals genomic manipulation events. Here we describe the identification of the human homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae MSH5, which is known to participate in meiotic segregation fidelity and crossing-over. The human MSH5 (hMSH5) was localized to chromosome 6p22-21 and appears to play a role in meiosis because expression is induced during spermatogenesis between the late primary spermatocytes and the elongated spermatid phase. hMSH5 interacts specifically with hMSH4, confirming the generality of functional heterodimeric interactions in the eukaryotic MutS homologue, which also includes hMSH2-hMSH3 and hMSH2-hMSH6.


Risk management is important in the sports industry to provide and ensure a safe environment for all sports
programs. Sports risk management aims to control, prevent and minimize the risk of accidents and injuries.
Developed countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom have adopted a standard model of risk
management. It indicates that an organization that offers or implements programs or sports activities, needs a
coach or instructor with basic theoretical knowledge and a clear philosophy, is skilled and has the
characteristics of a proper attitude to handle the program. This study was conducted to determine the
Elements of Identification of Risk Management Practices for Sport (EIRMPS) Coach Institute of Teacher
Education (ITE) of the perception of athletes. This study focuses on th e dominant EIRMPS. This review had
a total of 120 ITE athlete respondents who are students at the Institute of Teacher Education, comprising 67
male athletes and 53 female athletes. The instrument was a questionnaire and a pilot study data analysis was
conducted using the Rasch measurement model for the purposes of carrying out four diagnosis functionality
check items. The findings of the pilot analysis indicated the Cronbach alpha reliability and trustworthiness of
individuals is 0.92 (very good) and the r eliability is 0.72, indicating a good level. The results showed
EIRMPS ITE coach at a high level and is the dominant element of liability and tort; equipment and facilities;
and demographic coach.


We describe the annotation of a multimodal corpus that includes pointing gestures and haptic actions (force exchanges). Haptic actions are rarely analyzed as fullfledged components of dialogue, but our data shows haptic actions are used to advance the state of the interaction. We report our experiments on recognizing Dialogue Acts in both offline and online modes. Our results show that multimodal features and the dialogue game aid in DA classification.


The peculiarities of contact-induced deformation in nano-, micro- and macroscopic scale of silicon nitride ceramic composites have been studied by using quasistatic macro- and microindentation techniques, dynamic nanoindentation technique and microstructure investigations. The addition of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to the ceramic matrix showed the modification of microstructure leading to the modification of mechanical behavior of material: increase of fracture toughness along with the decrease of hardness. The general tendency of hardness increase with decrease of deformation volume was observed for silicon nitride ceramics, as well as, a high fracture resistance in micro- and nano-deformed volumes of material.


That climate change may trigger large-scale (involuntary) human migration has been predicted by many scholars and international organizations. However, to date, there is no scientific consensus how and under what conditions climatic changes and variability influence population movements. To this end, this study aims to quantitatively synthesize the growing evidence on the relationship using a meta-analysis approach. For reasons of comparability, we focus on 25 macro-level studies (>1200 distinct climate effects) using country-level data, which were identified in a systematic literature search. Employing an innovative standardization approach, we harmonize migration estimates across studies. Besides average effects, we investigate the heterogeneity in effects across study lines considering in particular the role of non-environmental contextual factors and different theoretical mechanisms in influencing human mobility. This allows us to not only determine the scale and scope of the relationship, but to also study under which conditions climate migration most likely occurs and why.


Recreation managers need information about use of multiuse trails to manage systems effectively. This research note illustrates how traffic monitoring procedures can be adapted for trail monitoring and describes variation in trail traffic across the tri-state, 10-county Cincinnati Metropolitan Region, Ohio. Infrared sensors were used to monitor trail traffic at 78 locations along 15 trail corridors in 2017. Data were obtained from 10 permanent monitoring stations. Short-duration (7-day) samples were completed at 68 locations. Across 78 trail segments, annual average daily trail traffic ranged from 8 to 1,897. Trail users traveled approximately 11.1 million miles over 136 miles of the network. Analyses of traffic patterns indicate trails were used mostly for recreation such as cycling and walking and less for commuting. Recreation managers can use results to track trends and prioritize investments in trail development, safety, and maintenance. Partnerships to implement trail traffic monitoring can be replicated in other regions. Subscribe to JPRA


Introduction: Choristoma is defined as the presence of cells in abnormal locations due to defects during embryological development. The word choristoma implies a neoplasm; whereas heterotopia refers to a displaced tissue without necessarily being a swelling or a neoplasm. Literature contains reports of cartilaginous choristoma in the cervix, endometrium, breast tissue, and oral region. Case Reports: Three cases of cartilaginous choristoma, which were accidentally found during microscopic examination of excised tonsil tissues, are presented. Conclusion: Choristomas may cause difficulty in the differential diagnosis of true neoplasms, since they are rare and may grow. Therefore pathologists should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cartilaginous lesions, because cartilaginous choristomas of the tonsil are a rare entity.


This article presents the implementation of secure laptop-based testing in an undergraduate nursing program. Details on how to design, develop, implement, and secure tests are discussed. Laptop-based testing mode is also compared with the computer-laboratory–based testing model. Five elements of the laptop-based testing model are illustrated: (1) it simulates the national board examination, (2) security is achievable, (3) it is convenient for both instructors and students, (4) it provides students hands-on practice, (5) continuous technical support is the key.


Seismic inversion requires two main operations relative to changes in the frequency spectrum. The first operation is deconvolution, used to increase the high frequency component of the observed seismic data and the second operation is integration of a reflectivity function to decrease the high frequencies and increase low frequencies of the seismic signal. The first operation is very unstable and non-unique for noisy seismic data. The second operation is very sable in high frequencies but has problems in low frequencies due to undefined low frequency data in seismic traces. By performing both of these operations simultaneously the operation will be stable in high frequency area and can be effectively stabilized in low frequency area based on an a priori acoustic impedance power spectrum and use Tikhonov and Arsenin"s (1979) regularization technique. This approach can be applied to poststack and pre-stack seismic data.


Designed for nursing educators and students interested in the field of nursing education, Integrating Technology in Nursing Education: Tools for the Knowledge Era provides valuable, easy-to-use strategies on incorporating technology into the classroom. The text examines the increased role of technology in healthcare and its transformational impact on that field, allowing nurses to understand current and future trends and thus, integrate technology into nursing education in order to effectively prepare students for a new, technologically-driven healthcare environment. Also featured are topics on learning theories, the instructional design process, changes in higher education, and variations in learning environments. Using case studies, critical-thinking exercises, weblinks, and more, the text challenges nurses to think critically and formulate compelling teaching strategies. Written by a renowned nursing educator, instructional designer, informaticist, and simulation expert, Integrating Technology in Nursing Education: Tools for the Knowledge Era gives nurses the tools they need to step boldly into the technology era.


A series of model underfill resins with different chemical structures have been characterized using flow microcalorimetry (FMC). FMC allows the direct observation of the strength of adsorption of molecules on to a surface. In this case, epoxy monomers, curing agents, and adhesion promoters, were adsorbed on to a borosilicate glass powder in an effort to predict adhesive strength. Adhesive strengths were measured mechanically using an asymmetric double cantilever beam test. Adhesive strengths of filled and unfilled epoxy resins were measured and often correlated to FMC results. Scanning electron and optical microscopy were used to identify mechanisms of plasticity/damage at interfacial crack tips. Greater adhesion strength can be attributed to increased damage near the crack tips. Such damage is enabled by strong molecular interactions at the interface.


This work studies the performance of heat pipe solar collector for water heating. Experimental results are validated using numerical modeling. Homemade heat pipes with distilled water as a working fluid were used for experimental tests. Both natural and forced convective heat pipe condensing mechanisms are studied and their results are compared with conventional natural circulation solar water heating system. Cross flow and parallel flow heat exchanger were tested in forced type heat pipe condensing mechanism. Experimental and numerical results showed good agreement. Heat pipe solar collectors outperformed conventional solar collector because of their efficient heat transport method. Forced convective heat exchanger was found to give higher efficiency compared to natural convective heat pipe condensing system. However, natural convective heat pipe condensing is free from parasitic power and low system weight. It also showed appreciable system efficiency and can be further developed to be used in rural areas where grid electricity is scarce. Cross flow and parallel flow heat exchanger have been tested for forced convective heat pipe condensing mechanism and no appreciable difference was found due to higher fluid velocity in heat exchangers.


The EU Commission may have lost Starbucks on the burden of proof, but it has clearly won that State aid case on principle: the Commission is competent to check autonomously whether cross-border intragroup transactions conform to conditions that would obtain in open competition between independent legal entities, irrespective of whether any arm's length principle has been incorporated in the national law of that State. Even agreement with OECD transfer pricing methods does not per se produce immunity from Commission scrutiny, as in State aid law, the arm's length principle is not so much a principle of international division of taxing jurisdiction to protect a State's tax base against BEPS, but rather a principle of competition law to safeguard inter-entrepreneurial and interstate equality, preventing EU Member States from selectively allocating away tax base into voids in order to attract multinationals. Apple and Ireland have thus already lost their cases on principle, but may still win on the burden of proof and the evaluation of the evidence adduced. The Starbucks and Fiat cases seem contradictory as regards the acceptability of residual calculation


Geometric instabilities in bilayered structures control the surface morphology in a wide range of biological and technical systems. Depending on the application, different mechanisms induce compressive stresses in the bilayer. However, the impact of the chosen origin of compression on the critical conditions, post-buckling evolution and higher-order pattern selection remains insufficiently understood. Here, we conduct a numerical study on a finite-element set-up and systematically vary well-known factors contributing to pattern selection under the four main origins of compression: film growth, substrate shrinkage and whole-domain compression with and without pre-stretch. We find that the origin of compression determines the substrate stretch state at the primary instability point and thus significantly affects the critical buckling conditions. Similarly, it leads to different post-buckling evolutions and secondary instability patterns when the load further increases. Our results emphasize that future phase diagrams of geometric instabilities should incorporate not only the film thickness but also the origin of compression. Thoroughly understanding the influence of the origin of compression on geometric instabilities is crucial to solving real-life problems such as the engineering of smart surfaces or the diagnosis of neuronal disorders, which typically involve temporally or spatially combined origins of compression.


The differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to prescribed cell fates enables the engineering of patient-specific tissue types, such as hyaline cartilage, for applications in regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug screening. In many cases, however, these differentiation approaches are poorly controlled and generate heterogeneous cell populations. Here we demonstrate robust cartilaginous matrix production in three unique hiPSC lines using a highly efficient and reproducible differentiation protocol. To purify chondroprogenitors produced by this protocol, we engineered a COL2A1-GFP knock-in reporter hiPSC line by CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. Purified chondroprogenitors demonstrated an improved chondrogenic capacity compared to unselected populations. The ability to enrich for chrondroprogenitors and generate homogenous matrix without contaminating cell types will be essential for regenerative and disease modeling applications.


Background: None of the anterolateral procedures used in combination with ACL reconstruction (ACLR) to control rotational laxity have demonstrated superiority. The objective was to compare the capacity of the main anterolateral procedures associated with ACLR to restore intact knee kinematics in case of combined ACL and anterolateral structure injury. Methods: The complete kinematics of 10 cadaveric knees, previously modelled by TDM, were recorded using a 3D Motion Analysis® system. Intact knee kinematics, including internal rotation (IR) of the tibial and anterior-posterior (AP) laxity at 30 and 90° flexion were initially assessed, followed by a sequential section of the ACL and anterolateral complex (ALC) (anterolateral ligament (ALL), ALL capsule and Kaplan fibers). After the ACLR, 5 anterolateral procedures were performed consecutively on the same knee: ALLR; Ellison; Deep Lemaire; Superficial Lemaire; and MacIntosh. The last three procedures were randomized. For each procedure, the graft was fixed in neutral rotation at 30° flexion with a tension of 20 N. Results: ACLR alone did not restore overall knee kinematics when there was an ACL+ALC injury, and resulted in residual rotational laxity of the tibia (p > 0.001). Only the ALLR (p=0.262) and modified Ellison (p=0.081) procedures restored normal global IR kinematics. Superficial/deep Lemaire and MacIntosh procedures resulted in over-constrained kinematic profiles (respectively: p=0.013, p=0.018 and p=0.030). In terms of ACLR, the addition of an anterolateral procedure did not provide additional control over AP translation at 30 and 90° (p > 0.05), exception for the surficial Lemaire procedure at 90° (p = 0.032). Discussion: ACLR alone was not sufficient to restore normal kinematics in ACL and ALC-deficient knees. ALLR and Ellison procedures restored physiological kinematics, unlike the MacIntosh procedure which caused additional control of IR and thereby induced over-constraint. Conclusion: The addition of ALLR or the modified Ellison procedure, which restore intrinsic kinematics, might be useful during primary ACL reconstruction to avoid repeated injury without a risk of over-constraint. The superficial/deep Lemaire and MacIntosh procedures resulted in over-constrained kinetics but provided additional rotation control that could be useful in revision surgery.


In this paper we propose a new multi-filter firewall method instead of only a single e-mail server to enhance the efficiency of the processing of spam. The idea of a multi-filter firewall is to combine firewall, mail frontier and mail server, and with their different functions such as virus scan, anti-spam find, link brush-off in IP blacklist of unwelcome senders to ensure the safety of the mail server and efficient lift-up. In addition, to estimate system performance, we use a serial equivalent model representing a multi-filter firewall. Due to the use of the multi-filter firewall when processing e-mail our method stops spam by a cooperation method and reduces the workload of the actual mail server. For the receiving and sending nodes we use a Firewall Virtual Private Network (VPN) to share the loading for mail processing. Because the VPN is not only a virtual private Internet established between two nodes but also the use of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), it is like an interior Internet passing data quickly between two nodes. MPLS supports Multi-Protocol Networks Transfer Protocol and core networks transfer with efficient label switching. MPLS VPN is also compatible with many communication protocols and supports free safety services.


Previous research on recruiter characteristics has generally focused on recruitment outcomes related to generating applicants and maintaining their interest. The current study expanded previous research by examining recruitment outcomes at preand posthire stages of the recruitment process. These outcomes included time to fill position, job offer acceptance rate, job fit, job satisfaction, and retention. Findings indicate that recruiter conscientiousness compared to extraversion is most consistently associated with pre-hire outcomes such as time to fill position and accepting hiring recommendations. Conscientiousness was also related to note-taking in the interview. Recruiter informativeness and personableness were associated with hiring managers' and new hires' satisfaction with the hiring process. Finally, recruiter informativeness was related to new hires' post-hire attitudes.


The article covers the legal institution of suggestions, signals, and complaints, as an out-of-court mechanism for civil rights defense, and as means for influence and control over the acts and actions of the administration. The institution of suggestions and signals becomes an effective instrument for influence of citizens over the process of public decision making, for providing institutionalized defense of various social interests in the modern, democratic, legal and social state.


/* This procedure finds all trees that span a nondirected graph on n nodes. The essential step of this procedure partitions the set T(G) of trees which span graph G into two classes. Trees of one class contain a branch connecting a selected pair of nodes, i and j ; trees of the other class exclude such branches. To formalize the effect of partitioning with respect to nodes i and j , we let A~' be the "attachment se t" of branches between them, and G~i be the graph derived from G by combining i and j into a single node. Then


The DNA sequence around the beginning of the genes coding for the large and small ribosomal RNAs in yeast mitochondria has been established. In order to determine the 5'-end points of the ribosomal RNAs, DNA fragments were labelled in vitro at a restriction site within each gene and hybridized with ribosomal RNA. The hybrids were then treated with S1 nuclease and the products analysed for size by gel electrophoresis. This enabled us to identify where in the determined DNA sequence the 21S ribosomal RNA and the precursor for 15S ribosomal RNA (15.5S rRNA) start, since both transcripts are initiated de novo (Levens et al. (1981) J.Biol.Chem., 256, 5226-5232). Comparison of the DNA sequences around the start points of transcription reveals the existence of a homologous stretch of 17 nucleotides. This conserved sequence may be an essential element of a promoter in mtDNA.


Living things in nature have long been utilizing the ability to "heal" their wounds on the soft bodies to survive in the outer environment. In order to impart this self-healing property to our daily life interface, we propose Self-healing UI, a soft-bodied interface that can intrinsically self-heal damages without external stimuli or glue. The key material to achieving Self-healing UI is MWCNTs-PBS, a composite material of a self-healing polymer polyborosiloxane (PBS) and a filler material multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), which retains mechanical and electrical self-healability. We developed a hybrid model that combines PBS, MWCNTs-PBS, and other common soft materials including fabric and silicone to build interface devices with self-healing, sensing, and actuation capability. These devices were implemented by layer-by-layer stacking fabrication without glue or any post-processing, by leveraging the materials' inherent self-healing property between two layers. We then demonstrated sensing primitives and interactive applications that extend the design space of shape-changing interfaces with their ability to transform, conform, reconfigure, heal, and fuse, which we believe can enrich the toolbox of human-computer interaction (HCI).


The objective of this project was to produce a smog-season data base on mixing depth and stability patterns in the San Francisco Bay and Delta Region, for input to air quality simulation models. To meet this objective a network of 13 sodars (acoustic radars) was operated from mid-August to early November 1976. Ancillary measurements of temperature and humidity profiles, haze and cloud layering, and 10-m winds were made by airplane, lidar and anemometer. Techniques of filming and manual digitization were developed to convert the continuous sodar data to hourly digital parameters describ ing mixing depth and near-surface echo type (a stability indicator). The sodar-inferred mixing depths were compared to those inferred from the ancillary measurements. These and previous tests show good overall agreement and demonstrate that sodar measurements compare very favorably with alternate techniques for determining mixing depth in the Bay Area. To illustrate the use of the data, time-dependent maps of mixing depth are derived for a two-day period. These maps show spatial patterns of mixing layer growth caused by solar heating of land surfaces, compensat ing downward motions over the bays, and the inland progression of a sud den lifting that marked the end of an air pollution incident. Appendices include the digitized sodar, airplane, and wind data. The sodar and wind data are also available on computer cards. This report was submitted in fulfillment of Contract A6-066-80 by SRI International under sponsorship of the California Resources Board. Work was completed as of 25 August 19 77.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) incorporation on the flexural strength (FS) of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). PMMA specimens (65 mm × 10 mm × 3.3 mm for flexural test, 50 mm × 6 mm × 4 mm for impact test) containing different sizes (40, 50, 60 nm) and concentrations (0.05%, 0.2%) of AgNPs were prepared, along with a control group with no AgNP. Impact strength (IS) and FS of all specimens were measured, and one-way ANOVA and Tukey–Kramer post hoc multiple comparisons tests were used to identify any statistical differences between groups. The addition of AgNPs has no effect on IS of PMMA. The incorporation of AgNPs affected the FS of PMMA depending on the concentration of nanoparticles. The addition of large-sized nanoparticles to PMMA increases its FS. Accordingly, adding AgNP with proper concentrations to PMMA may enhance the mechanical properties of denture bases used in clinical practice. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 135, 45807.


The research on solid catalysts is of immense interest due to several applications in many areas of the chemical industry. An estimated 95 % of the products of chemical industry are based on catalytic processes. Almost all the processes involved in crude oil processing and petrochemical industry such as purification, refining and chemical transformations involve catalysts. Further, organic intermediate products required for plastics, pharmaceuticals, dyes, resins, pigments and crop protection agents are produced by several catalytic technologies. Environmental protection measures such as automobile exhaust control and purification of gases released from power stations and industrial plants would be inconceivable without the use of catalysts. Reasons for widespread use of catalysis are economically and environmentally compelling, as catalytic processes can be carried out under industrially feasible conditions of pressure and temperature. This leads to lower operating costs and yield higher products with fewer by-products compared to non-catalytic processes. In this thesis, an attempt has been made to systematically study of the effect a few selected solid acid and base catalysts in alkylation and catalytic hydride transfer reactions. The thesis has been organized into six individual chapters.
Chapter 1 includes introduction and significance of solid catalysts in various domains of chemical industry, importance of solid acid and base metal oxide catalysts and characterization of these materials. The importance of solid acid and base catalysts such as anion modified zirconia and magnesia are outlined. The aims and objectives of the present investigation are also described at the end of this chapter.
Chapter 2 deals with the preparation and intensive characterization of tungstate promoted zirconia solid acid catalysts and their application in organic synthesis. To investigate the structural and textural properties, the synthesized catalysts were characterized by various physico-chemical characterization techniques. In this study, tungstate promoted zirconia catalysts were evaluated for selective tert-butylation of catechol. This chapter also describes the effect of variation of different experimental conditions on the selectivity of products and conversion of reactants respectively.Chapter 3 incorporates the investigation of tungstate promoted zirconia catalysts for iso-propylation of m-cresol. Based on the product distribution, a reaction mechanism has been proposed and a kinetic model tested. The results of the theoretical model were found to fit with the experimentally observed data reasonably well. The activation energies for various steps were determined from the estimated kinetic and adsorption parameters.
Chapter 4 includes the structure and catalytic activity correlation of different magnesium oxide catalysts obtained from various precursors. In this chapter, a systematic preparation and characterization of magnesium oxide catalysts are described. Dehydrogenation selectivity in the benzyl alcohol reaction was used for investigating the acid-base properties of catalysts at the selected vapor phase reaction conditions. Effort has been made to correlate physico-chemical properties with vapor phase alkylation of aniline with various alcohols on MgO catalysts.
Chapter 5 presents an in-house designed and fabricated vapor phase pulse reactor coupled on-line to a GC-MS and its application as a screening tool for rapid testing of small amounts of heterogeneous catalysts for activity towards selected vapor phase organic synthesis. We have employed this system to study the vapor phase catalytic hydride transfer reduction of nitrobenzene with methanol as hydrogen donor on MgO catalyst as a model reaction. Structural information of all the by-products that are formed consistently was useful to understand the reaction mechanism. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimise the conversion of reactants and selectivity of products.
Chapter 6 describes the details of the experimental work, results and discussion concerning vapor phase catalytic hydrogen transfer reduction of nitrobenzene on an inexpensive catalyst such as MgO, using abundantly available methanol as hydrogen donor. The effect of ZrO2 and ZnO as dopants on the catalytic activity of MgO has been studied. All the three catalysts were characterized by various physico-chemical techniques. Catalytic activity studies have been performed using pulse reactor coupled to a GC-MS as an on-line catalyst testing technique. The feed composition of nitrobenzene, methanol, flow rate and the reaction temperature were optimized to obtain maximum aniline selectivity.
Chapter 7 includes summary of the research outcome and future prospects in this area of catalysis.


AIMS
Elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-17A (IL-17) are associated with hypertensive autoimmune diseases; however, the connection between IL-17 and hypertension is unknown. We hypothesized that IL-17 increases blood pressure by decreasing endothelial nitric oxide production.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Acute treatment of endothelial cells with IL-17 caused a significant increase in phosphorylation of the inhibitory endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase residue threonine 495 (eNOS Thr495). Of the kinases known to phosphorylate eNOS Thr495, only inhibition of Rho-kinase prevented the IL-17-induced increase. IL-17 caused a threefold increase in the Rho-kinase activator RhoA, and this was prevented by an IL-17 neutralizing antibody. In isolated mouse aortas, IL-17 significantly increased eNOS Thr495 phosphorylation, induced RhoA expression, and decreased NO-dependent relaxation responses, all of which were prevented by either an IL-17 neutralizing antibody or inhibition of Rho-kinase. In mice, IL-17 treatment for 1 week significantly increased systolic blood pressure and this was associated with decreased aortic NO-dependent relaxation responses, increased eNOS Thr495 phosphorylation, and increased RhoA expression. Inhibition of Rho-kinase prevented the hypertension caused by IL-17.

CONCLUSION
These data demonstrate that IL-17 activates RhoA/Rho-kinase leading to endothelial dysfunction and hypertension. Inhibitors of IL-17 or Rho-kinase may prove useful as anti-hypertensive drugs in IL-17-associated autoimmune diseases.


Deep autoencoder neural networks have been widely used in several image classification and recognition problems, including hand-writing recognition, medical imaging, and face recognition. The overall performance of deep autoencoder neural networks mainly depends on the number of parameters used, structure of neural networks, and the compatibility of the transfer functions. However, an inappropriate structure design can cause a reduction in the performance of deep autoencoder neural networks. A novel framework, which primarily integrates the Taguchi Method to a deep autoencoder based system without considering to modify the overall structure of the network, is presented. Several experiments are performed using various data sets from different fields, i.e., network security and medicine. The results show that the proposed method is more robust than some of the well-known methods in the literature as most of the time our method performed better. Therefore, the results are quite encouraging and verified the overall performance of the proposed framework.


This paper describes a technique developed to measure the uniaxial compressive stress - strain properties of polymers at strain rates appropriate to ballistic and impact events over time scales of tens of microseconds using a crossbow as the projectile launch system. The instrument constructed represents a novel development of existing equipment types. The system is used for compression testing giving stress - strain measurements at strain rates of up to and over a temperature range of . Stress is calculated directly from a measured force obtained from a calibrated pressure bar. Strain is calculated from the sample displacement measured directly from the intensity reduction of a laser-photodiode unit. The crossbow system provides a relatively inexpensive, reliable and compact alternative to a standard Hopkinson bar.


The established approach to unsupervised protein contact prediction estimates co-evolving positions using undirected graphical models. This approach trains a Potts model on a Multiple Sequence Alignment, then predicts that the edges with highest weight correspond to contacts in the 3D structure. On the other hand, increasingly large Transformers are being pretrained on protein sequence databases but have demonstrated mixed results for downstream tasks, including contact prediction. This has sparked discussion about the role of scale and attention-based models in unsupervised protein representation learning. We argue that attention is a principled model of protein interactions, grounded in real properties of protein family data. We introduce a simplified attention layer, factored attention, and show that it achieves comparable performance to Potts models, while sharing parameters both within and across families. Further, we extract contacts from the attention maps of a pretrained Transformer and show they perform competitively with the other two approaches. This provides evidence that large-scale pretraining can learn meaningful protein features when presented with unlabeled and unaligned data. We contrast factored attention with the Transformer to indicate that the Transformer leverages hierarchical signal in protein family databases not captured by our single-layer models. This raises the exciting possibility for the development of powerful structured models of protein family databases.1


Thirty outpatients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms were screened by noninvasive cerebral computed angiotomography at Matsuyama Shimin Hospital between 1979 and 1984. Seventeen were male and 13 were female. The ages at diagnosis ranged from 41 to 74 years (mean, 57.7 years), and their distribution was as follows: seven were 40 to 49 years, 10 were 50 to 59 years, 10 were 60 to 69 years, and three were over 70 years. Clinical problems were: headaches in eight, neurological deficits in 11, seizure in three, and tinnitus in one. These clinical problems were mild and unrelated to screened unruptured aneurysms in all. Six had a personal or family history of apoplexy. One was screened during the medical checkup in human dock. Thirty patients had 32 aneurysms; four were on internal carotid arteries, eight were on anterior cerebral arteries (one was distal anterior cerebral artery aneurysm and seven were anterior communicating artery aneurysms), 14 were on middle cerebral arteries, two were on posterior cerebral arteries, and four were on vertebro-basilar tree. The size of aneurysms varied; being 5 mm in eight patients, 6 mm in five, 8 and 9 mm in three each, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 22 mm in two each, and 18, 20, and 29 mm in one each. The aneurysms less than 10 mm in size were 78.1 Yo. Thus, unruptured cerebral aneurysms in the critical range of rupture could be screened by the noninvasive method. In the 15 patients who did not receive operation, eight showed no change of condition, two worsened and four expired due to other causes, and one expired as a result of aneurysmal rupture. Of the 15 patients who were operated on, 11 showed no neurological morbidity and three had transient minor neurological symptoms postoperatively, and one experienced acute cardiac infarction 1 month after operation. The long-term results showed 10 patients in good condition, two in deteriorated conditions, and three who expired due to other causes. The results show that these unruptured cerebral aneurysms should belong to a new category of unruptured cerebral aneurysms. Generally, unruptured cerebral aneurysms, once discovered, should be operated on from the standpoint of prevention of the subarachnoid hemorrhage. However, the indication for surgery is still controversial.


The corpus of Onwueme's plays highlights issues that impact on women. Her writings, like those of most other female writers, reify women as buffeted by all manner of repressive traditions, taboos and a myriad of other dos and don'ts. She also projects issues of the female quest for space within the Nigerian socio-political milieu. Furthermore, her plays interrogate issues that border on governance, morality and justice. In all these she deliberately constructs the woman as an indispensable partner in the quest for solutions besetting the society. Therefore, unlike the poor, hapless, vitiated pictures of the woman projected in previous Nigerian drama, she enlivens her female heroine, imbuing her with power hence her ability to contribute in moving the society.  In this paper, we shall attempt an analysis of this female gendering within the Niger Delta crisis in Nigeria as discussed in her play Then She Said It and the role that women play in resolving the problem.


The vehicle routing problem of relief supplies distribution, a typical NP-hard problem, is a hot topic in transportation research. Aiming at a two-echelon supply chain made up of a set of depots and stricken-points, the paper studies the problem how to decide delivery objects and the optimal delivery scheme; This paper decomposes the distribution VRP of relief supplies into an assignment problem and a problem similar to Traveling Salesman Problem, applies the theory of Thiessen Tessellation in spatial analysis to solve the assignment problem. For the sake of the problem of relief supplies distribution with uncertain time, a concept of risk exceeding time has been brought forth, and a multi-layer planning model with the least risk exceeding time has been established, too. At last, an example for this algorithm is given to prove the applicability of the model.


The Northern Calcareous Alps are generally thought to have been part of the same southern Tethyan continental margin as the southern Alps during Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous time. Contrasting Liassic paleomagnetic data from the Northern Calcareous Alps and the southern Alps can be explained by large-scale clockwise rotation during Late Cretaceous and Tertiary tectonic emplacement of the Northern Calcareous Alps onto the European continental margin. Alternatively, the data can be reconciled by postulating that the Northern Calcareous Alps did not undergo the African Mesozoic rotational history seen in the southern Alps and were separated from the southern Alps by a short-lived branch of Jurassic ocean. Facies analysis in the Karwendel-Thiersee syncline of the Northern Calcareous Alps indicates that the Jurassic basin sediments in this area were deposited in an east-west-oriented sinistral strike-slip fault system. In the southern Alps and central Austroalpine complex, coeval basin sedimentation was controlled by north-south-oriented normal faults. This contrasting basin evolution and evidence for a source of ophiolitic detritus south of the Northern Calcareous Alps argue for a short-lived ocean basin south of the Northern Calcareous Alps that was closed by Early Cretaceous time.


The formation energy and charge states of substitutional and interstitial C impurities and their complexes in ZnO have been studied using density functional theory calculations. While single CZn defects have the highest absolute stability, interstitial C in n-type ZnO prefers to form interstitial C2 pairs or CZn–Ci complexes, thereby lowering the defect formation energy. Moreover, those atomic C impurities that have low formation energy are found to be nonmagnetic in their stable charge states. However, both in p-type and n-type ZnO, certain charge states of C2 complexes possessing a spin magnetic moment are identified. This might give a clue why both p-type and n-type magnetism have been reported for C-doped ZnO samples.


High molecular weight polymers have been shown to improve the efficacy of systemic herbicides such as glyphosate. The mode of activity of these polymeric adjuvants is not well understood. In this study a commercial polymer/ammonium sulfate (AMS)-based adjuvant was tested with commercial glyphosate formulations. The effect of the various treatments on the mass of spray deposited, droplet bounce, and droplet run-off was determined. The polymeric/AMS adjuvant was found to improve the deposition of the commercial glyphosate formulations in that: the loss of active due to spray drift was reduced, i.e., the mass of spray deposited was increased; droplet bounce of the spray solutions was reduced, i.e., droplet retention was improved; the polymeric/AMS adjuvant did not significantly affect the angle at which droplets were detached from leaves, therefore the adjuvant should not affect droplet run-off.


In a previous study on maize (Zea mays, L.) several quantitative trait loci (QTL) showing high dominance-additive ratio for agronomic traits were identified in a population of recombinant inbred lines derived from B73 × H99. For four of these mapped QTL, namely 3.05, 4.10, 7.03 and 10.03 according to their chromosome and bin position, families of near-isogenic lines (NILs) were developed, i.e., couples of homozygous lines nearly identical except for the QTL region that is homozygote either for the allele provided by B73 or by H99. For two of these QTL (3.05 and 4.10) the NILs families were produced in two different genetic backgrounds. The present research was conducted in order to: (i) characterize these QTL by estimating additive and dominance effects; (ii) investigate if these effects can be affected by genetic background, inbreeding level and environmental growing conditions (low vs. high plant density). The six NILs' families were tested across three years and in three Experiments at different inbreeding levels as NILs per se and their reciprocal crosses (Experiment 1), NILs crossed to related inbreds B73 and H99 (Experiment 2) and NILs crossed to four unrelated inbreds (Experiment 3). Experiment 2 was conducted at two plant densities (4.5 and 9.0 plants m-2). Results of Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed previous findings as to QTL effects, with dominance-additive ratio superior to 1 for several traits, especially for grain yield per plant and its component traits; as a tendency, dominance effects were more pronounced in Experiment 1. The QTL effects were also confirmed in Experiment 3. The interactions involving QTL effects, families and plant density were generally negligible, suggesting a certain stability of the QTL. Results emphasize the importance of dominance effects for these QTL, suggesting that they might deserve further studies, using NILs' families and their crosses as base materials.


Background: This study was aimed to assess the quality and content of the YouTubeTM videos that provide information about Invisalign. Methods: As indicated by the Google Trends application, the Invisalign-related YouTubeTM videos were searched using the key word "Invisalign". We selected the 140 videos from the first 156 results obtained after searching the key word "Invisalign" on YouTubeTM. An 18-point scale system was used to classify the videos into low- and high-content videos. The video information and quality index (VIQI) was applied to determine the quality of the videos. Statistical analyses were done using Chi-square test, logistic regression analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: 44 videos were classified as high-content and 96 as low-content. Most videos were uploaded by laypeople (64.28%). Definition of Invisalign, Procedure and Instructions were the most commonly discussed topics (85.71%), followed by oral hygiene (48.57%), optimal wear time, No. of trays (45.71%), and attachments (42.85%). Least discussed were third molar extractions (8.57%), Speech problems (22.85%), cost (30%) and Lip scarring and tongue soreness (31.42%). The high-content video groups had a higher mean number of views as compared to low-content video groups (211653 vs. 163817.90, P=0.394) but statistically it was not significant. The high content videos had less ''likes'' on an average as compared to low content videos (211653 vs. 307056.38, P=0.017) but statistically not significant. There was no difference in the total VIQI score between the groups (P=0.071). Conclusion: YouTubeTM videos on Invisalign usually had incomplete content. Procedure, oral hygiene, number of trays, attachments, lip scarring and tongue soreness, and optimal wear time were discussed by most videos. Very few videos discussed retention, psychological impact and cost factor. General dentists and orthodontist should be aware of the information available on YouTube about Invisalign. They should be cautious prior advising their patient's for YouTubeTM surfing for Invisalign. Healthcare professionals, academic institutions, and professional organizations have a responsibility for improving the content of YouTube (™) about Invisalign by uploading useful videos, and directing patients to reliable information sources.


We have studied systems of asymmetric coupled GaAs V-groove quantum wires, in which the electrons and holes are injected into different wires. Our experimental results indicate efficient electron and hole tunneling, despite a 7 nm thick AlGaAs tunnel barrier. Temperature dependent electroluminescence exhibit clear effects of tunneling up to room temperature but cannot distinguish electron/hole tunneling from exciton tunneling.


Laser additive direct deposition of metals is a new rapid manufacturing technology, which combines with computer aided design, laser cladding and rapid prototyping. The advanced technology can build fully-dense metal components directly from CAD files without a mould or tool. With this technology, a promising rapid manufacturing system called "Laser Metal Deposition Shaping (LMDS)" is being constructed and developed. Through the LMDS technology, fully-dense and near-net shaped metallic parts can be directly obtained through melting coaxially fed powder with a laser. In addition, the microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-formed samples were tested and analyzed synthetically. The results showed significant processing flexibility with the LMDS system over conventional processing capabilities was recognized, with potentially lower production cost, higher quality components, and shorter lead time.


According to the Slepian-Wolf theorem [1], the output of two correlated sources can be compressed to the same extent without loss, no matter if they communicate with each other or not, provided that the decompression takes place at a common decoder having both compressed outputs available. In this paper, as an application of the Slepian-Wolf theorem, an advanced distributed source coding scheme for correlated images is presented. Assuming that the correlated image is a noisy version of the original, the scheme involves modulo encoding of the pixel values and encoding (compression) of the resulting symbols with binary and nonbinary turbo-codes, so that rate savings are achieved practically without loss.


Pressure measurements were recorded in the esophagus, stomach, and at the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) of 16 normal volunteers before, during, and after a period of negative pressure mechanical ventilatory assistance in an Emerson tank respirator. Esophageal pH was simultaneously measured in eight of these 16 volunteers. In 50%, the normal LES to stomach pressure gradient (which prevents reflux) was abolished during mechanical assistance of inspiration. In another 25%, it was substantially reduced, but not eliminated. The occurrence of reflux, as assessed by the level of decrease in esophageal pH, correlated significantly with the change in LES pressure. There was no evidence for gastric insufflation as a mechanism of reflux. The majority of normals studied in the tank respirator showed evidence for reflux, the mechanism seeming to be induction of lower esophageal sphincter dysfunction.


Objective Low socioeconomic status (SES) early in life is one of the most well-established social predictors of poor health. However, little is understood about why some adults who grew up in low-SES environments do not have poor health outcomes. This study examined whether the psychological characteristic of "shift-and-persist" protects adults from the physiological risks of growing up in low-SES households. Shift-and-persist consists of reframing appraisals of current stressors more positively (shifting), while simultaneously persisting with a focus on the future. We hypothesized that this characteristic would be associated with reduced physiological risk in low-childhood SES individuals. Methods A national sample of 1207 adults (aged 25–74 years) from the Survey of Midlife Development in the United States completed psychological questionnaires and were queried about parent education. Biologic assessments consisted of 24 different measures across seven physiological systems, from which a composite measure representing cumulative physiological risk (allostatic load) was derived. Results Among adults who grew up in low-SES households, those who engaged in high-shift-and-high-persist strategies had the lowest allostatic load (b = −0.15, p = .04). No benefit of shift-and-persist was found for those from higher-childhood SES backgrounds (p = .36). Conclusions Identifying the health-related protective qualities that naturally occur in some low-SES individuals represents one important approach for developing future health improvement interventions for those who start out life low in SES. Moreover, the psychological qualities that are protective from future disease risk for those from low-SES backgrounds are different from those beneficial to high-SES individuals.


The paper presents a novel probabilistic logical model to describe the nanodevice states. It describes the probability distribution of outputs. The model is based on observations on statistical physics and Markov random field. Different from previous model [Bahar (2004), Nano, Quantum and Molecular Computing: Implications to High Level Design and Validation, S. Shukla and R. I. Bahar, Eds. Norwell, MA: Kluwer], it uses probability density function to describe the probability behavior of the nanoscale circuits, which is more reasonable and flexible.


This research investigates the life-cycle energy consumption of the windows used for the building's exterior cladding, and its environmental potential aspects by utilizing the LCA. The research scope has taken account of the entire life-cycle of the windows from the extraction of raw materials to its disposal, of which given sample building type is an apartment building. Results gained from the LCA of the windows as one of the steps in analysis reflects the current global interest and analysis trend towards the world's environmental issue on all fields of industry including the architectural industry, of which its newly established standards of architectural windows can further promote more environmentally sustainable factor compared to the previous analysis (focused more on energy efficiency assessment of the use stage).