Background/Aim. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder of the unknown origin leading to multifocal demyelization, axonal damage and the loss of the nervous tissue in various parts of the central nervous system. Most MS patients have decreased functionality of the bladder leading to various dysuria disorders during the course of the illness. However, in 2% of the cases dysuric problems are the first symptoms of the disease. Urodynamic testing could help to diagnose functional disorders of the lower urinary tract, which might not be otherwise possible by performing the standard invasive procedures or noninvasive scans, such us ultrasound, computed tomography or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods. Urodynamic testing – cystometry with electromyographic (EMG) potentials from the external anal sphincter (EAS), was performed in 34 patients (25 female and 9 male patients). Those patients fulfilled Mc Donald's multiple sclerosis criteria. The urodynamic values were compared to neurological signs and the present disease symptoms. Results. The MS patients with (27) and without (7) miction problems were tested. Detrusor hyperreflexia is the most common finding, present in 58.8% of the cases. More than a half of the patients have detrusor sphincter dissynergia. Conclusions. Urodynamic testing helps us to determine neurological disorders characteristics and to prepare an appropriate treatment plan. During the course of the disease different urodynamic disfunctions may occur as well as changes in the urinating functionality. The rationale for urodynamic testing in patients suffering from MS before any other treatment procedure is to confirm the diagnosis of dysuric disorders and to secure appropriate treatment.


A recent article in the Times of India (Desai, 2009) discusses the persistent existence of arranged marriages in India over time. Surprisingly, the educated middle class is experiencing a slightly increasing rate of arranged marriages indicating that it still is a widely accepted way of finding a partner. But the advancement of technology has definitely transformed arranged marriages (C NN, 2008). A common way to find a potential spouse these days is through online matchmaking portals like shaadi.com (14 million profiles) or bharatmatrimony. com (1.5 million profiles). Relying on romance or love when entering a marriage involves trying to transform a relationship from its present state into a long-term committed union. The problem is that even though romance may facilitate love, it does not necessarily guarantee a long term bond. Arranged marriages, on the other hand, simply try to transform an uncertain future outcome into a secure long-term contract base d on specific economic, cultural, educational and social factors associated with the potential partners (Desai, 2009). This paper analyses arranged marriages in the context of game theory, highlighting the principles of utility maximization , principal–agent theory and economies of scale .


This study investigated the economic efficiency of alternative types of intervention with language-impaired preschool children. Forty children were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) home-based (parent-delivered) intervention, (b) center-based intervention, (c) both center- and home-based intervention, and (d) no treatment. The home intervention program taught parents to incorporate therapy techniques into ordinary parent-child interactions in the home and to create a language-stimulating home environment. Center-based treatment emphasized language development in individual, small group, and large group settings. The combined intervention group received both the home- and center-based programs. Program effectiveness was measured with two language scales (PLS-R, APPS). Cost analysis encompassed all resources consumed by the program, including the time contributed by parents and students. The results indicated that the home-based program was more efficient. The center-based intervention was more expensive and less effective. Combining the two types of intervention increased costs without significantly increasing effectiveness. Although the study was limited in size and duration, it suggests that future research should investigate the potential of parent-delivered services to be effective, low-cost alternatives to center-based early intervention.


Presentation of one case of Wilms' tumour (nephroblastoma) in a 40-year old woman with clinical and investigational findings common to renal cells carcinoma. Wilms' tumour of the adult is susceptible to the same therapeutic approaches and surgical procedures as applied to childhood's tumours. The most useful prognostic factor is tumoral stage. The presence of anaplasia outside the kidney or a predominant blastemous component qualify the tumour as of "unfavourable histology" rendering it sensitive to the same treatment and prognosis than renal sarcoma. The remaining tumours, gathered under the global heading of "favourable histology", receive a much less aggressive therapy, and the predominant histological component (epithelial, muscular, etc.) does not modify the therapeutic approach.


Capital Asset Pricing Model is one of the most popular models applied to explain the risk premium for capital employment. The model has been tested for developed capital markets with conclusions that emphasised many of its imperfections. Some of these imperfections are connected with company characteristics, such as a company's size, book-to-market value etc. The aim of the research is to test whether the anomalies of the CAPM that have been pointed out so far are also true for Poland. I concentrate on companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange during 2007-2010. The event study is applied to identify these anomalies. The research results reveal that the expected returns approximated by the CAPM are contaminated during the evaluation process. This is in line with the conclusions of a previous research paper discussing developed countries.


This paper presents the design and analysis of a permanent magnet (PM) transverse flux motor with soft magnetic composite (SMC) core by applying multi-level multi-domain modeling. The design is conducted in two levels. The upper level is composed of a group of equations which describe the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the motor. The lower level consists of two domains: electromagnetic analysis and thermal calculation. The initial design, including structure, materials and major dimensions, is determined according to existing experience and empirical formulae. Then, optimization is carried out at the system level (the upper level) for the best motor performance by optimizing the structural dimensions. To successfully deal with such a multi-level multi-domain optimization problem, an effective modeling with both high computational accuracy and speed is required. For accurately computing the key motor parameters, such as back electromotive force, winding inductance and core loss, magnetic field finite element analysis is performed. The core loss in each element is stored for effective thermal calculation, and the winding inductance and back EMF are stored as a look-up table for effective analysis of the motor's dynamic performance. The presented approach is effective with good accuracy and reasonable computational speed.


Theileria annulata is a major protozoan parasite of cattle in tropical and subtropical countries, transmitted by the tick Hyalomma anatolicum The infection in the host is initiated by the sporozoite, which rapidly attaches to and invades host cells. A humoral response to sporozoites has been identified in immune cattle (Preston and Brown 1985). Two McAbs which block sporozoite invasion of lymphocytes "in vitro", McAb 1A7 and 4B11, have been identified in previous work (Williamson 1988). These McAbs recognise different sets of polypeptides on Western blots. T. annulata sporozoite antigen 1 (SPAGl), which contains the epitope recognised by McAb 1A7, has been cloned and sequenced [Hall et al 1992). This work describes research to analyse the bovine T and B cell response to the T. annulata SPAGl. The SPAGl polypeptide, and a range of subclones covering different regions of the antigen, were expressed using pGEX vectors in E. coli and purified in large quantities for the purpose of B and T cell epitope mapping. The recombinant SPAGl polypeptides were used to analyse humoral responses of immunised cattle by Western blotting and enzyme linked immuno-sorbant assay. A number of regions of SPAG1 containing B cell epitopes recognised by bovine antisera raised against T. annulata sporozoites were also identified, and the relevance of this data to SPAGl neutralising determinants discussed. T cell responses to SPAGl were analysed in proliferation assays using peripheral blood mononuclear cells and antigen specific T cell lines. A bovine T cell response was found to be induced to SPAG 1 in cattle immunised with the recombinant antigen. In addition, the SPAGl molecule was found to be highly polymorphic according to restriction fragment analysis on Southern blots. Work was also undertaken to prove the surface location of the SPAGl molecule on sporozoites using immuno-electron microscopy techniques. The final part of this work was to identify, express and characterise the T. annulata sporozoite antigen gene containing the McAb 4B11 epitope. McAb 4B11 was used to screen a lambdagtl 1 T. annulata genomic expression library, and two positive recombinants were subcloned into the expression vector pGEX1lambdaT to give pGEX1lambdaT-KP6 and pGEX1lambdaT-KP8. Southern and Northern blot analysis of the KP6 and KPS inserts confirmed they were parasite sequences expressed at high levels in sporozoites as a 3.1 kb mRNA. However, KPS and KPS did not cross-hybridise, indicating that they contained different sequences coding for the 4B11 epitope. The pGEX1lambdaT-KPS fusion protein was expressed in E. coli and purified. The fusion protein was found to affinity bind antibodies from bovine antisera raised against T. annulata sporozoites, and evoked antibodies capable of blocking sporozoite infectivity of leukocytes "in vitro" and recognising sporozoite antigens in immunofluorescence assays or on Western blots when used to immunise a rabbit.


The aim of this work is to assess the effect of a nature-based solution for reducing wave heights on the Southern Romanian coast. Apart from investigating the presence of seagrass from the environmental point of view, there is also a need to assess its impact on the coastal hydrodynamics. The impact on the wave heights of a seagrass meadow located on the Southern Romanian coast, has been analyzed by means of a wave model. In this purpose, several numerical simulations have been performed, both for low and average offshore wave conditions, available from a previous wave climate study, which used a 30 years climate data set. A first set of simulations have been performed in the absence of seagrass. Then a seagrass meadow has been added to our grid and the wave model has been run in the same offshore wave conditions. The differences in computed nearshore wave heights reach around 4% for moderate energy waves. These results show that, on the Southern Romanian coast, seagrass could be regarded as an additional measure for nearshore wave attenuation.


Complementary product recommendation aims at providing product suggestions that are often bought together to serve a joint demand. Existing work mainly focuses on modeling product relationships at a population level, but does not consider personalized preferences of different customers. In this paper, we propose a framework for personalized complementary product recommendation capable of recommending products that fit the demand and preferences of the customers. Specifically, we model product relations and user preferences with a graph attention network and a sequential behavior transformer, respectively. Two networks are cast together through personalized re-ranking and contrastive learning, in which the user and product embedding are learned jointly in an end-to-end fashion. The system recognizes different customer interests by learning from their purchase history and the correlations among customers and products. Experimental results demonstrate that our model benefits from learning personalized information and outperforms non-personalized methods on real production data.


Probabilistic approaches can offer satisfactory solutions to source separation with a single channel, provided that the models of the sources match accurately the statistical properties of the mixed signals. However, it is not always possible to train such models. To overcome this problem, we propose to resort to an adaptation scheme for adjusting the source models with respect to the actual properties of the signals observed in the mix. In this paper, we introduce a general formalism for source model adaptation which is expressed in the framework of Bayesian models. Particular cases of the proposed approach are then investigated experimentally on the problem of separating voice from music in popular songs. The obtained results show that an adaptation scheme can improve consistently and significantly the separation performance in comparison with nonadapted models.


To enable sintering net-shape capabilities, a novel procedure for the fabrication of net-shape functionally graded composites by electrophoretic deposition and sintering are developed. The initial shape of the green specimen produced by electrophoretic deposition is designed in such a way so that the required final shape is achieved after sintering-imposed distortions. The shaped components can be metals, ceramics, polymers, and their combination as long as the material is in the form of powders. Through adjustment of an externally applied electric field and the shielding of electrical filed, the particles in the slurry are selectively deposited onto the porous mold which defines the desired geometry. By changing the slurries' composition, the deposited component's composition can be precisely tailored.


Graduate programs in medicine and biomedical sciences have been severely impacted by the SARS‐CoV‐2/COVID‐19 pandemic over the last 2 years. Following 2 years since beginning of the pandemic, data on student support, educational and academic performance as well as sentiment on changes to educational programs are starting to emerge. We performed and compared results of two cross‐sectional surveys of Swedish and U.S.‐based medical and biomedical graduate students on how the pandemic has affected their studies, research productivity and career trajectory. Students were also asked to assess support provided by the university and supervisors. The surveys also captured student demographics and a range of other factors, such as pressures brought on by caretaking and financial responsibilities. We analyzed answers from 264 and 106 students attending graduate programs in universities in Sweden and the United States, respectively. U.S.‐based students faced more severe restrictions on their research program compared to students in Sweden, reporting more delays in productivity, scientific output and graduation, and increased worries about their career trajectory. Swedish students had more caretaking responsibilities, although these did not cause any delays in graduation. While support by universities and supervisors was comparable between the countries, financial worries and mental health concerns were particularly prominent in the U.S. cohort. Student performance and outlook was hugely dependent on the breadth of the restrictions and the available support. Besides the governmental and university‐led approach to counter the pandemic, societal differences also played a role in how well students were handling effects of the pandemic.


As the capabilities of threat surface-to-air missile systems increased, the US Navy looked to improve upon the performance of the Tactical Air Launched Decoy (TALD), an air launched glider vehicle with switchblade wings designed to resemble attacking aircraft to confuse and saturate enemy air defenses. In the early 1990's the contractor proposed the Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy (ITALD), a turbo jet powered airlaunched vehicle which tripled the existing range and added a radar altimeter to simulate low level attacks. In 1998, after several design iterations, the Naval Air Warfare Center at Point Mugu tested the ITALD for suitability in the defense suppression mission and found major deficiencies with the navigation system and product reliability. The contractor resolved the reliability issues; however the navigation system, a simple dead reckoning 2axis gyro and flight computer, needed improvement. The ITALD navigation system drifted excessively causing the decoy to drift off course and out of field of regard of the intended surface-to-air missile systems. Incorporating a commercial of the shelf (COTS) global positioning system (GPS) proved to be an effective, expeditious and inexpensive solution to the vehicle's navigational problems. In 2001, the new ITALD-GPS was tested during five flights with mostly satisfactory results. The opinions, analysis and conclusions expressed in this thesis are those of the author and have not been officially endorsed by the Department of the Navy, Naval Air Systems Command, or Israeli Military Industries, LTD.


= Abstract Carbohydrate Chemistry and Glycobiology have witnessed a rapid expansion during the last few years with the development of numerous new, imaginative and efficient syntheses which provide further insight into structures and biological interactions of glycoconjugates. Glycosylation reactions are widely used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and bio-active compounds. In biology and medicine oligosaccharides play a central role in immunostimulation, cancer or allergic responses. Glycoscience is a very instructive example of how one common topic of interest stimulates both chemistry and biology to collectively open scientific frontiers. This synergy is made visible in this work. Three leading experts in the fields of Glycochemistry and Glycobiology have invited numerous renowned authors to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent advances and findings in Glycoscience. This four-volume handbook presents an integrated and cutting-edge view, and covers all chemical aspects, such as syntheses and analysis of carbohydrates and oligosaccharides, as well as the biological role and activity of oligosaccharides and carbohydrate/protein interactions.


The 12th Biennial Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction: Developing Potentials for Learning, Budapest, Hungary, 28 August-1 September 2007.


In this article, the authors suggest how to think about a new framework for the analysis of financial bubbles and a possible vector of variables able to signal when an economy enters a state of disequilibrium. The working hypothesis is that market crashes are preceded by a bubble. The authors define a bubble as an anomalous increase in asset prices with respect to the economy. An exponentially growing spread between asset prices and the economy is therefore an indicator of the probability that a bubble is in the making. However, as the authors point out, this indicator alone is not sufficient as anomalous price growth can be generated by different macroeconomic scenarios. The authors discuss different macroscenarios that can lead to bubbles and the related indicators.


Abstract The subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) is the third richest clade in the family, with ca. 369 described species and ca. 700 estimated. It comprises mostly hemiepiphytic or epiphytic plants restricted to the tropics, with three intercontinental disjunctions. Using a dataset representing all 12 genera in Monsteroideae (126 taxa), and five plastid and two nuclear markers, we studied the systematics and historical biogeography of the group. We found high support for the monophyly of the three major clades (Spathiphylleae sister to Heteropsis Kunth and Rhaphidophora Hassk. clades), and for six of the genera within Monsteroideae. However, we found low rates of variation in the DNA sequences used and a lack of molecular markers suitable for species-level phylogenies in the group. We also performed ancestral state reconstruction of some morphological characters traditionally used for genera delimitation. Only seed shape and size, number of seeds, number of locules, and presence of endosperm showed utility in the classification of genera in Monsteroideae. We estimated ancestral ranges using a dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis model as implemented in the R package BioGeoBEARS and found evidence for a Gondwanan origin of the clade. One tropical disjunction (Monstera Adans. sister to Amydrium Schott–Epipremnum Schott) was found to be the product of a previous Boreotropical distribution. Two other disjunctions are more recent and likely due to long-distance dispersal: Spathiphyllum Schott (with Holochlamys Engl. nested within) represents a dispersal from South America to the Pacific Islands in Southeast Asia, and Rhaphidophora represents a dispersal from Asia to Africa. Future studies based on stronger phylogenetic reconstructions and complete morphological datasets are needed to explore the details of speciation and migration within and among areas in Asia.


Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the acute effects of a complex throwing intervention set-up, with light or heavy loads, on the service velocity of elite junior tennis players. Methods: On 3 separate test days, 13 elite juniors (mean (SD) 12.3 (0.8) years, 149 (9) cm, 37.5 (5.5) kg) performed four sets of six serves with different between-set conditions. In a cross-over design, the players performed respectively 6, 4 and 2 maximum effort throws with a 200 g ball (LI, light intervention), 6, 4 and 2 maximum effort throws with a 600 g ball (HI, heavy intervention) and no throws (NI, no intervention) during the 2 min in between-set period. Participants were instructed to serve, with maximum speed, to a target near the midline of the deuce court service box. A two-factor analysis of variance was used to determine the effects of intervention type and set number on "service velocity", "service precision" (eg, percentage of serves in) and "service touch" (11 point rating scale). Results: Mean (SD) service velocity decreased significantly in HI (124.3 (7.8) km/h) as compared to NI (126.6 (9.3) km/h, p<0.05, effect size d = 0.26), yet no such differences were found between LI (125.2 (7.9) km/h) and NI. Service velocity also remained constant between sets (p = 0.406). Service precision and service touch were unaffected by the interventions. Conclusions: Under the conditions of our study, a heavy throwing intervention during service training has no beneficial effect on service velocity in young elite tennis players (under 14).


This paper discusses the new design of a amplifier for the miniature MEMS-type spectrometer. The application problem of the new amplifier was the correct conditioning of the sensor's photoelectric pulses. The processed signal was a sequence of pulses that had variable both frequency and amplitude value. Thus, such a broadband amplifier should have the functionality of automatic gain control. This paper describes the concept of the new circuit, develops its detailed application, and then performs validation tests. Measurement results of the new circuit are discussed in the final section of the paper. Full Text: PDF ReferencesC. Ortolani, Flow Cytometry Today. Detectors and Electronics, (Springer 2022). pp. 97-119, CrossRef D. Maes, L. Reis, S. Poelman, E. Vissers, V. Avramovic, M. Zaknoune, G. Roelkens, S. Lemey, E. Peytavit, B. Kuyken, "High-Speed Photodiodes on Silicon Nitride with a Bandwidth beyond 100 GHz", Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Optica Publishing Group, (2022). CrossRef R. Das, Y. Xie, A.P. Knights, "All-Silicon Low Noise Photonic Frontend For LIDAR Applications", 2022 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), IEEE Xplore (2022). CrossRef FEMTO Messtechnik GmbH, Variable Gain Photoreceiver - Fast Optical Power Meter Series OE-200, DirectLink M. Nehir, C. Frank, S. Aßmann, E.P. Achterberg, "Improving Optical Measurements: Non-Linearity Compensation of Compact Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Spectrometers", Sensors 19(12), 2833 (2019). CrossRef F. Thomas,; R. Petzold, C. Becker, U. Werban, "Application of Low-Cost MEMS Spectrometers for Forest Topsoil Properties Prediction", Sensors 21(11), 3927 (2021). CrossRef M. Muhiyudin, D. Hutson, D. Gibson, E. Waddell, S. Song, S. Ahmadzadeh, "Miniaturised Infrared Spectrophotometer for Low Power Consumption Multi-Gas Sensing", Sensors 20(14), 3843 (2020). CrossRef S. Maruyama, T Hizawa, K. Takahashi, K. Sawada, "Optical-Interferometry-Based CMOS-MEMS Sensor Transduced by Stress-Induced Nanomechanical Deflection", Sensors 18(1), 138 (2018). CrossRef S. Merlo, P. Poma, E. Crisà, D. Faralli, M. Soldo, "Testing of Piezo-Actuated Glass Micro-Membranes by Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry", Sensors 17(3), 8 (2017). CrossRef M.S. Wei, F. Xing, B. Li, Z. You, "Investigation of Digital Sun Sensor Technology with an N-Shaped Slit Mask", Sensors 11(10), 9764 (2011). CrossRef Z. Yang, T. Albrow-Owen, W. Cai, T. Hasan, "Miniaturization of optical spectrometers", Science 371, 6528 (2021). CrossRef Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. Fingertip size, ultra-compact spectrometer head integrating MEMS and image sensor technologies. DirectLink Microchip Technology Inc, MCP6291/1R/2/3/4/5 1.0 mA 10 MHz Rail-to-Rail Op Amp, CrossRef Microchip Technology Inc. MCP6021/1R/2/3/4 Rail-to-Rail Input/Output 10 MHz Op Amps, CrossRef


Interview with Air Force veteran Douglas R. "Roy" Crawford. The interview includes Crawford's personal experiences about early family life, joining the U.S. Army Air Forces, training as a bulldozer operator, removing radioactive debris from Hiroshima, training as a radar operator at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and working as the radar tracker when Major Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 on October 19, 1947. Additionally, Crawford talks about his assignments to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, and Korea, as a forward air observer, his role as an airborne radar operator during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, his various activities with the NASA Space Program, and clandestine missions with the CIA and Air America over Cambodia during the Vietnam War.


Find scholarly books and articles on pedagogy, learning theories, classroom management, & other educational research. Discover children's literature. Find statistics on the education system in the US, individual schools & school districts, and civil right


Micro-grid architecture design is the basis of the micro-grid construction. It is necessary to follow certain design principles when designing micro-grid architecture, which differs from traditional distribution network designing. This paper describes several micro-grid architecture design principles, taking into consideration in the partition and hierarchy principle, as well as resource utilization maximization, energy complementary, energy storage and reactive power compensation. Therefore, according to the micro-grid design principles proposed in this paper, we designed three hybrid AC/DC micro-grid architectures: multiple rings, single ring and complementary ring architecture. Then, we make a comparative analysis of power supply reliability, fault detection and applications. It can be seen that AC/DC hybrid micro-grid is superior to traditional AC and DC micro-grid in power supply reliability, flexibility and economy aspects, and it can be a good solution to the problem of distributed energy connected to the distributed network.


SUMMARY The aim of this work was to assess the effects and efficacy of probiotics on production of one-year old tench and carp fingerlings. The trial was set up as two treatments with three replications. The first group was fed standard diets without addition of probiotic, and served as control. The second group was fed the same mixture with addition of 3% probiotic. Probiotic "Digestase 1000" that was used during the experiment contains a bacterial culture of: Bacillus suptilis, Lactobacillus bifidus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Ruminococcus albus and enzymes. Month old fingerlings of tench and carp, average body mass respectively, 2.01g and 3.51g were set on six ponds of size of one ha. 20,000 fingerlings of tench and 40,000 fingerlings of carp were set on in each pool. Weight of 60 randomly selected fingerlings from each group and both species, selected randomly, was measured at the end of growing season. Final mean weight of tench and carp was respectively, 22.9 g, 67.9g in control group and 25.78g, 74.4g in group that was fed with addition of probiotic, and difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Feed conversion rate was 2.2 for tench and 1.6 for carp in control group and 1.85 for tench and 1.41 for carp in experimental group. Survival rate of tench and carp was respectively 70%, 78% in control group compared with 82% and 87% in group which received probiotic. The research results confirm the usefulness of use probiotics "Digestase 1000" as 3% addition in food for tench and carp fingerlings because it was obvious that use of probiotics reduce losses, increase growth and reduce feed consumption per unit of mass.


to gastrin, increases parietal cell mass and that this is the cause of the well known increased maximal acid output in DU patients compared with controls. This suggestion is at odds with the paper' from this department that demonstrated that H pyloni positive subjects, both patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia and patients with DU, had lower maximal gastric secretion (in response to continuous intravenous histamine) than H pylori negative patients of the corresponding diagnostic groups. Our study


This paper reports seven failure styles found in our experimental investigation for the failure between two neighbor holes located at different angle in an Aluminum-Alloy strip under cycle tensile loadings. In some cases, unlike expected, the initial fatigue crack is found not to nucleate at the center region between the two holes, where the stress concentration is larger than other region. In fact, the initial fatigue crack always nucleates at the outside rim of two holes far apart from the center region. The coalescence between the two holes always occurs far after the initial fatigue crack nucleation.


The issue of sustainability has been around for a long time. However, it has become a hot issue after the Earth Summit taking place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro and in 2002 in Johannesburg. Conference in 1992 led to the formulation of Agenda 21, an action plan containing broad principles to help governments and other institutions in carrying out the policies and programs for sustainable development in their respective countries. The aim of this research was to examine the effectiveness of campus physical development planning in Malaysia in creating a sustainable living on campus by assessed the problems that exist. The study was conducted in four public university campuses and limited to only the campus physical planning. Selected campuses are the research universities campus. The case studies were conducted on each campus. The methodology used in this study is qualitative and quantitative techniques. Quantitative technique involves collecting data using questionnaires distributed among 100 respondents for each campus. Meanwhile, the qualitative technique involves collecting comments and opinions from the respondents obtained from questionnaires, behavioral observation and visual research. The results were then compared for each campus for an explanation of the problem. The findings revealed that all campuses had a similar problem. However, there are some differences about the extent or severity of the problems based on campus physical development plan that is different. The result showed that there are minimal problems occurs on the campus that planned more compact compare to a wide and dispersed campus. It also indicates that a compact campus tend to create a sustainable life on campus.


The permeabilities and selectivities of O3, O2, and N2 through silicone capillary membranes employed to degrade organic pollutants in water or air have been experimentally determined. These characteristics have been studied for silicone membranes used in membrane reactors having the following conditions: O3 in O2 on one side of the membrane, and either water containing pollutants or a perfluorocarbon (FC) phase containing pollutants on the other side. The permeability of O3 (8.8 e-13 kgmol · m/m2 · s · kPa) is four times that of O2 through virgin silicone rubber. Exposure to O3 modifies the polymer and alters the permeabilities of O3 and O2. The presence of water with O3 leads to an increase in O3 and O2 permeability (∼ 30%) and an increase in the selectivity, (∼ 10%). The increased permeabilities are likely to be due to the formation of peroxides on the surface and possibly in the polymer. When the silicone capillary membranes were exposed to a perfluorocarbon (FC), the permeabilities of O3 and O2 decreased (∼ 9%) due to an increase in crosslinking in the polymer matrix; there was also a slight increase in (∼ 2%), which can be ascribed to the smaller molecular sieving radius of O2 compared to N2. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 1263–1273, 1998


The potato cyst nematode Globodera pallida costs the UK potato industry over £50 million per annum. In order to invade a host plant, the infective J2 stage must hatch from eggs within the soil and migrate towards the root system.

Orthologues of Caenorhabditis elegans genes involved in neurotransmission were identified in the G. pallida and G. rostochiensis genome assemblies. The complement of cys loop ligand gated ion channel genes was distinct compared to C. elegans and other parasitic nematodes. Orthologues of genes encoding subunits which comprise the C. elegans levamisole sensitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (cel-lev 1, cel-lev 8, cel-unc 29, cel-unc 63 and cel-unc 38) were searched for, and cel-lev 1 and cel-lev 8 orthologues were absent in both Globodera spp. Two orthologues were identified for cel-unc 29 and cel-unc 38. This suggested that the composition of the G. pallida L nAChR may differ.

The use of C. elegans as a heterologous system to study the expression pattern of G. pallida nAChR genes was explored. GFP expressing lines were created using promoter regions of gpa acr 2 and gpa unc 63. Expression was observed in the ventral nerve cord and nerve ring for pgpa-acr 2. Expression of pgpa-unc 63 was variable, but was found in the head and tail region and along the ventral side of the body.

The impact of this distinct complement of cys loop subunits on anthelmintic sensitivity was demonstrated by the increased resistance of both G. pallida and G. rostochiensis J2s to levamisole. The EC50 of G. pallida and G. rostochiensis was 19.7 mM and 5.6 mM respectively, compared to the EC50 of 9 µM for C. elegans, representing a 500 – 2000 fold increase in levamisole resistance. This increased resistance to levamisole was associated with an orthologue of cel-unc 38 identified in G. pallida, gpa unc 38.1. Rescue of C. elegans unc 38(x20) mutants with gpa unc 38.1 restores normal movement suggesting a functional reconstitution of the L nAChR, but full sensitivity to levamisole is not restored. Gpa unc 38.1 was expressed with the remaining four subunits from C. elegans in Xenopus oocytes to produce a chimeric receptor. The EC50 of the response to acetylcholine and levamisole of the chimeric receptor and the native receptor was comparable and had similar opening responses to different agonists.

Chimeric genes were created to analyse key motifs in gpa unc 38.1 that may affect receptor function and levamisole sensitivity. Gpa unc 38.1 was necessary for structural reformation of the receptor, but not acetylcholine binding. Removal or addition of a loop B glutamate residue, previously associated with levamisole sensitivity of Cel UNC 38, did not affect levamisole sensitivity of Cel-UNC 38 or Gpa UNC 38.1. An amino acid change (I>M) in TM2 of Cel-UNC 38 increased levamisole sensitivity and basal thrashing rate. The reciprocal change (M>I) in Gpa UNC 38.1 comprised basal thrashing rescue. The basis of increased levamisole resistance of gpa unc 38.1 was not identified, as all gpa unc 38.1 chimeric genes retained a higher resistance to levamisole than cel-unc 38. This works reveals that the nAChRs of plant parasitic nematodes have distinct pharmacological characteristics.


This study aims to review prior literature on growth of Islamic banks in Bangladesh (IBB) to explain and analyse the role of institutional theoretical approach systematically. This research examines how the growing level of IBB requirements are fulfilled and maintained throughout the banking structure in society. The present study uses a single-case research method and uses semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection. It considers the perspectives of various stakeholder groups in the IBB. In all, 40 participants have participated in this study. In this research, normative aspects of assign institutional theory (IT) are taken into considerations. They vary in their institutional performance and thus have different levels of bias and efficiency. Researchers, therefore, attempt to outline various inadequate information resulting from the common setup in which both incumbents' structure and banking practices rely on their IT mechanism. The study addresses the structure of the IBB and explains its identity approach, which is one of the important stakeholders. This research proposes a balanced and dominated model of banking practices as a potential solution which increases the institutional identity. This research paper significantly contributes to research on Islamic banking business practices, IT in IBB and banks stakeholders gives a better understanding of the whole growth and identity. Research paper  Keywords: Islamic banks, Identity, Structure, Institutional theory, Bangladesh Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Hossain, S., Kiumarsi, S., & Jansri, W. (2019). The Growth of Islamic Banks and Increase Its Identity through Institutional Approach, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics , 7 (2s), 106–143.


Simultaneous switching noise (SSN) can degrade the performance of digital circuits. In mixed-signal circuits, the performance of analog circuits are degraded by the SSN that is spread from digital circuits through the substrate to the analog circuits. The most critical parameter when considering SSN is the parasitic inductance in the power supply path from off-chip to on-chip. In this paper, basic theories of inductance of current paths are given for parallel interconnects throughout examples. The results from these examples show that the placement of interconnects plays a big role for the effective inductance. Power supply interconnects should be placed with small distances in between, and so that currents in adjacent interconnects are in opposite directions. With this strategy, a low inductance in the power supply current path can be achieved. The importance of choosing a good package for the silicon die is also briefly discussed.


Embryos from five anesthetized mouflons (Ovis gmelini musimon), superovulated with FSH-o (Ovagen?) were transferred into preselected Spanish Merino sheep (Ovis aries). Myorelaxation was complete in four of five donor mouflons. The status of the uterus of potential recipients was evaluated by transrectal ultrasonography, and those ewes with fluid in the uterine horn were rejected. The corpus luteum in each ewe was assessed ultrasonographically the day before surgery. Plasma progesterone levels and the quality of the corpora lutea were the criteria for selection of recipients. Ten embryos were transferred to the five selected Spanish Merino recipients, resulting in four pregnancies and seven live-born lambs, including three sets of twins. This study shows that determination of plasma progesterone levels combined with ultrasonographic assessment of the corpus luteum provides information useful for screening of potential recipients.


Cancer survivors are known to experience significant changes to psychosocial wellbeing (e.g., Everdingen et al., 2007; Houldin, 2000). In particular, cancer is considered to be a highly impactful and traumatic event (Kallay, & Degi, 2014; Kangas, 2013), and often contributes to negative changes in mental and emotional functioning. It has been projected that up to 50% of cancer survivors will experience impairment from mental health symptoms (Derogatis et al., 1983; Honda & Goodwin, 2004; Massie & Holland, 1990), with depression, being the most common, projected to affect 20-30% of cancer survivors (Honda & Goodwin, 2004; Irwin, Henderson, Knight, & Pirl, 2014). Problematically, identification of psychosocial needs of cancer survivors within oncological care is lacking (Adler, Page, & Institute of Medicine, 2008; Holland et al., 2011; Nakash et al., 2014). Oncological primary care providers may often fail to identify psychosocial needs of cancer survivors (Forsythe et al., 2013; Sollner et al., 2001), resulting in unmet psychosocial needs and a lack of mental health referrals (Nakash et al., 2014). Researchers have identified the need for improvements in assessment of psychosocial needs of cancer survivors as a critical step in reducing gaps in psychosocial care (Adler et al., 2008). Biopsychosocial models, which theoretically include physical, emotional, social, and functional health factors (Engel, 1980; Hatala 2012), have been identified as particularly salient in assessing holistic wellbeing of individuals with chronic illnesses such as cancer (Sperry, 2006). Currently, measures of quality of life (QoL) remain the most commonly utilized biopsychosocial assessment tools in cancer care (King & Hinds, 2012; Lavdaniti & Tsitsis, 2015). However, QoL and other biopsychosocial assessments utilized in medical care have been criticized for bias towards the measurement of bio-medical functioning (Jacob, 2013; Moons, Budts, & De Geest, 2006), and may fail to appropriately assess psychosocial factors—particularly those relevant to co-occuring mental health symptoms (Adler et al., 2008; Alonso, 2004; Connell, O'Cathain, & Brazier, 2014). Alternatively, wellness-based models, biopsychosocial models commonly utilized in psychosocial health professions, are generally more inclusive of psychosocial factors, and may provide a more robust assessment of cancer survivors' psychosocial needs (Jamner & Stokols, 2000; Myers et al., 2005a; Swarbrick, 2013). Additionally, researchers have suggested the inclusion of patient feedback in improving disciplinary conceptualization of wellbeing (Connell et al., 2014; Weston, 2005), as QoL and wellness are theoretically subjective concepts of health (Sirgy, 2012). To this end, the purpose of this research study was to examine connections between multidisciplinary frameworks of wellbeing, QoL and wellness, and their ability to assess significant psychosocial factors that impact the holistic wellbeing of cancer survivors. This study also compared multidisciplinary models of wellbeing to significant psychosocial factors identified by cancer survivors. In the current study, both of the examined models of biopsychosocial wellbeing were found to account for significant variance in depression scores among cancer survivors. Additionally, both models were found to have significant commonality, as well as unique contributions in predicting depression among cancer survivors. These findings suggest the utility of multidisciplinary inspection of biopsychosocial assessment models for use in cancer care. Furthermore, whereas the QoL assessment model was found to be superior in capturing the unique social and physical needs of survivors within the cancer context, the wellness model was found to contribute a unique construct to the overall biopsychosocial model of wellbeing: coping styles. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews held with eight cancer survivors resulted in the identification of additional salient psychosocial factors among cancer survivors not present in either of the models; namely, items related to post-traumatic growth, satisfaction with health providers and settings, and the impact of cancer-related financial burden. The qualitative results also provided further support for the quantitative results. Although it is clear that current assessment models utilized in biomedical and mental health settings provide reasonable utility in accounting for the psychosocial needs of cancer survivors, the results of this study indicate the need for further refinement of biopsychosocial models utilized in the cancer context. Interdisciplinary inspection, as well as further analysis of the self-identified needs of cancer survivors may contribute to the creation of more robust biopsychosocial assessment models of wellbeing, and the resultant improvement of psychosocial care for cancer survivors. Furthermore, implications for theory, mental health and biomedical practice, and suggestions for future research will be shared while taking into consideration relevant literature on cancer survivorship.


Numbers of Drosophila sensory bristles present an ideal model system to elucidate the genetic basis of variation for quantitative traits. Here, we review recent evidence that the genetic architecture of variation for bristle numbers is surprisingly complex. A substantial fraction of the Drosophila genome affects bristle number, indicating pervasive pleiotropy of genes that affect quantitative traits. Further, a large number of loci, often with sex- and environment-specific effects that are also conditional on background genotype, affect natural variation in bristle number. Despite this complexity, an understanding of the molecular basis of natural variation in bristle number is emerging from linkage disequilibrium mapping studies of individual candidate genes that affect the development of sensory bristles. We show that there is naturally segregating genetic variance for environmental plasticity of abdominal and sternopleural bristle number. For abdominal bristle number this variance can be attributed in part to an abnormal abdomen-like phenotype that resembles the phenotype of mutants defective in catecholamine biosynthesis. Dopa decarboxylase (Ddc) encodes the enzyme that catalyses the final step in the synthesis of dopamine, a major Drosophila catecholamine and neurotransmitter. We found that molecular polymorphisms at Ddc are indeed associated with variation in environmental plasticity of abdominal bristle number.


While crowdfunding allows firms to raise external capitals from a large group of audience, firms are often unable to control their production process, and the project may fail without being completed on time. Having this in mind and knowing that consumers are heterogeneous in accepting late completion, fundraising firms often offer multiple reward plans to do customer segmentation to maximize the fund they may raise. Popular segmentation tools include early shipment promise and refund policy. Using a game-theoretic model, we show that the firm should adopt one of the two screening tools, but not both. Which tool a fundraising firm should choose is also examined. Our conclusions offer insights into managerial decisions for firms using crowdfunding in their early project development.


Background: No proven therapies exist for refractory chronic cough (CC). Neurokinin(NK)-1 antagonists may modulate the central neural hypersensitivity causing CC. The NK-1 antagonist orvepitant was assessed in CC in a Phase 2b dose-ranging study. Methods: A randomised, controlled, parallel group study recruited subjects with CC ≥1 yr and awake cough count >10/hr. Subjects took placebo (PBO) or one of 3 orvepitant doses (10, 20 or 30mg) once daily for 12-wks. Primary endpoint was awake cough frequency (CF) at Wk-12, using a VitaloJAK ambulatory cough monitor. Other efficacy measures were the patient recorded outcomes (PROs): Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ), Cough Severity (CS) & Urge-to-Cough (UTC) VASs, and global ratings of change (GRoC). Results: 315 subjects were randomised and 275 were evaluable at Wk-12. Orvepitant 30mg resulted in clinically relevant and significant improvements in PROs in the full analysis set (FAS) at Wk 12: LCQ (PBO-corrected improvement 1.6, p=0.009), CS VAS (9.0mm, p=0.034) and UTC VAS (11.8mm, p=0.005). GRoC scores: for cough severity p=0.054, and frequency p=0.124. The CF endpoint was not significant in the FAS due to an exaggerated PBO response at Wk 12, most evident in the lower CF subjects. In a pre-defined sub-group of higher CF subjects (≥study median awake CF at baseline), a greater efficacy signal is evident with 30mg orvepitant in primary (geometric mean ratio vs PBO 0.71, p=0.066) and secondary efficacy endpoints (e.g. LCQ 1.9, p=0.041), with most being significant despite the study not being powered for sub-group analyses. Orvepitant was safe and well-tolerated. Conclusions: These data support orvepitant's further evaluation in CC.


The governance of natural hazards in Chile involves how different actors participate in all stages of managing natural hazards and their impacts. This includes monitoring and early warning systems and response to the most significant hazardous events in the country: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hydrological and meteorological events, and wildfires. Other general processes, such as disaster recovery, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and political economy and socioenvironmental processes of disaster risk creation are fundamental to understanding the complexity of natural hazard governance.
 Chile has a long history of disasters linked to its geographical and climatological diversity as well as its history and development path. The country has made significant advances toward an effective disaster risk management (DRM) system, which is backed up by sophisticated monitoring systems for earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hydro- and meteorological events, and wildfires. These technical advances are integrated with disaster response mechanisms that include trained personnel, regulatory frameworks, institutions, and other actors, all under the direction of the National Emergency Office. The Chilean mode of DRM and DRR is characterized by a centralized, top-down approach that limits the opportunities for community organizations to participate in discussions of DRR and decision-making. It also centralizes planning of post-disaster processes such as reconstruction. Likewise, the dominant politico-economic model of Chile is neoliberalism. This development path has reproduced the root causes of disaster vulnerability through socioeconomic inequalities as well as poorly regulated urbanization and the practices of extractive industries. This has created numerous socioenvironmental conflicts throughout the Chilean territory with sometimes hazardous effects on local communities, especially indigenous groups. The governance of hazards and risk reduction in Chile still has a long way to go to secure the country's path to sustainable human development.


We consider a robust reinforcement learning problem, where a learning agent learns from a simulated training environment. To account for the model mis-specification between this training environment and the real environment due to lack of data, we adopt a formulation of Bayesian risk MDP (BRMDP) with infinite horizon, which uses Bayesian posterior to estimate the transition model and impose a risk functional to account for the model uncertainty. Observations from the real environment that is out of the agent's control arrive periodically and are utilized by the agent to update the Bayesian posterior to reduce model uncertainty. We theoretically demonstrate that BRMDP balances the trade-off between robustness and conservativeness, and we further develop a multi-stage Bayesian risk-averse Q-learning algorithm to solve BRMDP with streaming observations from real environment. The proposed algorithm learns a risk-averse yet optimal policy that depends on the availability of real-world observations. We provide a theoretical guarantee of strong convergence for the proposed algorithm.


: One hundred thirteen medical schools which offered full degree programs were identified and surveyed by questionnaires to obtain information which identified the existence, characteristics and involvement of physical medicine or rehabilitation medicine programs. The survey also attempted to identify specific changes which have occurred in undergraduate medical education in rehabilitation medicine since the Commission of Education and Rehabilitation Medicine survey of 1963-64. The results suggest that growth of the programs has not followed the expansion in the number of medical schools nor in the number of students enrolled. The programs have however, improved their administrative standing and involvement in medical schools. The impact on the undergraduate medical student is not satisfactory as judged by elective enrollment and recruiting of residents. Lack of funding was found to be one of the major obstacles to curriculum development, along with a marked shortage of academic physiatrists. The impact of the changes in undergraduate medical school curricula on rehabilitation medicine has produced considerable conjoint teaching in conjunction with a large number of basic science and clinical departments.


Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent diseases found in the world population. In 2012, according to the WHO report, 1.5 million people died due to diabetic related complications. Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. The currently prescribed medication lacks the specificity for targeting particular pathways or molecules involved in the complications. The appropriate understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the diabetes mellitus and its related complications can pave the way to the discovery of the target specific drugs for effective treatment. The current project makes a comprehensive study to get an insight into the probable mechanisms involved and the ways to counteract them. The study specifically centers around in vitro induction of BSA glycation and its inhibition, exploration of the effect of extracellular and the intracellular AGEs on the macrophages, protein glycation analysis and inhibition in diabetic serum. The in vitro glycation model using BSA confirmed the formation of the both fluorescent and non fluorescent advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the hyperglycaemic condition. The amount of the AGEs formed increased with the duration of exposure to the hyperglycaemic condition as reflected by increased fluorescent intensity. The oxidative stress induced by hyperglycaemic condition was validated and quantified by NBT assay and H2DCFDA assay. Moreover, the ROS generation in macrophages was increased with addition of extracellular AGEs in the medium. The reduction in the cell viability as a consequence of high ROS production and the presence of the extracellular AGEs was confirmed by MTT assay. During inhibitor study, ascorbic acid exhibited pro-oxidant activity upon adding to the diabetic serum that makes the therapeutic use of ascorbic acid alone debatable unless otherwise verified further. At the same time, GSH and EDTA act as anti-oxidants in macrophages (hence, probably reduced the AGEs formation). In silico docking study was conducted to understand the mechanism of inhibition. The binding affinity of EDTA for BSA was significantly more compared to glucose that didn't reduce much to glycated BSA. This concludes that EDTA can prevent glycation non-competitively and may also halt the progress of glycation of the protein. The results were a step ahead in exploring the novel molecules for inhibiting the protein glycation in T2DM. For a more conclusive finding, a metacentric study involving more number of diabetic patients is needed.


When answering natural language questions over knowledge bases (KBs), different question components and KB aspects play different roles. However, most existing embedding-based methods for knowledge base question answering (KBQA) ignore the subtle inter-relationships between the question and the KB (e.g., entity types, relation paths and context). In this work, we propose to directly model the two-way flow of interactions between the questions and the KB via a novel Bidirectional Attentive Memory Network, called BAMnet. Requiring no external resources and only very few hand-crafted features, on the WebQuestions benchmark, our method significantly outperforms existing information-retrieval based methods, and remains competitive with (hand-crafted) semantic parsing based methods. Also, since we use attention mechanisms, our method offers better interpretability compared to other baselines.


OBJECTIVE
To compare pain and psychological outcomes in veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or pain alone and to determine if veterans with comorbidity respond differently to a stepped-care intervention than those with pain alone.

DESIGN
Secondary analysis of data from the Evaluation of Stepped Care for Chronic Pain (ESCAPE) trial.

SETTING
Six Veterans Health Affairs clinics.

SUBJECTS
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (N = 222) with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

METHODS
Longitudinal analysis of veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain and PTSD or pain alone and available baseline and nine-month trial data. Participants randomized to either usual care or a stepped-care intervention were analyzed. The pain-PTSD comorbidity group screened positive for PTSD and had a PTSD Checklist-Civilian score ≥41 at baseline.

RESULTS
T tests demonstrated statistically significant differences and worse outcomes on pain severity, pain cognitions, and psychological outcomes in veterans with comorbid pain and PTSD compared with those with pain alone. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) modeling change scores from baseline to nine months indicated no statistically significant differences, controlling for PTSD, on pain severity, pain centrality, or pain self-efficacy. Significant differences emerged for pain catastrophizing (t = 3.10, P < 0.01), depression (t = 3.39, P < 0.001), and anxiety (t = 3.80, P < 0.001). The interaction between PTSD and the stepped-care intervention was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS
Veterans with the pain-PTSD comorbidity demonstrated worse pain and psychological outcomes than those with chronic pain alone. These findings indicate a more intense chronic pain experience for veterans when PTSD co-occurs with pain. PTSD did not lead to a differential response to a stepped-care intervention.


Abstract The analysis of the factors of corporate governance is divided into four thematic sections. In the first part corporate governance is defined as part of the broader economic context. The second part deals with the principles of corporate governance. In the third part, the relation between the index of corporate governance and individual indicators (an indicator of commitment, transparency, and disclosure, caring for partners, and control and audit) regarding ownership is defined. An analysis was undertaken for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. A higher level of foreign ownership had a positive correlation with the corporate governance index. On the other hand, the correlation between state ownership and corporate governance index was not clear. The prevention of poor banking practices does not only lie in controlling functions, but also in the general corporate and risk-taking cultures, and the social perception of managerial roles, regardless of ownership structure.


This paper presents the development and evaluation of the train-the-trainer (TTT) workshop for lay resident leaders to be lay health promoters. The TTT workshop aimed to prepare the trainees to implement and/or assist in conducting a series of community-based family well-being activities for the residents in a public low rent housing estate, entitled "Learning Families Project", under the FAMILY project. The four-hour TTT workshop was conducted for 32 trainees (72% women, 43% aged ≥ 60, 41% ≤ elementary school education). The workshop aimed to promote trainees' knowledge, self-efficacy, attitude and practice of incorporating the positive psychology themes into their community activities and engaging the residents to join these activities and learn with their family members. Post-training support was provided. The effectiveness of the TTT was examined by self-administered questionnaires about trainees' reactions to training content, changes in learning and practice at three time points (baseline, and immediately and one year after training), and the difference in residents' survey results before and after participating in the community activities delivered by the trainees. The trainees' learning about the general concepts of family well-being, learning family, leadership skills and planning skills increased significantly with medium to large effect sizes (Cohen's d: 0.5–1.4) immediately after the training. The effects of perceived knowledge and attitude towards practice were sustained to one year (Cohen's d: 0.4–0.6). The application of planning skills to implement community activities was higher at one year (Cohen's d: 0.4), compared with baseline. At one year, the residents' survey results showed significant increases in the practice of positive communication behaviours and better neighbour cohesions after joining the family well-being activities of LFP. Qualitative feedback supported the quantitative results. Our TTT workshop could serve as a practical example of development and evaluation of training programs for lay personnel to be lay health promoters. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02844244


Sub/near-threshold computing has been proposed for ultra-low power applications. FinFET devices are considered as an alternative for bulk CMOS devices due to the superior characteristics, which make FinFET an excellent candidate for ultra-low power designs. In this paper, we first present an improved analytical FinFET model covering both sub- and near-threshold regimes. This model accurately captures the drain current as a function of both the gate and drain voltages. Based on the accurate FinFET model, we provide a detailed analysis on stack sizing of FinFET logic cells, and derive the optimal stack depth in FinFET circuits. We also provide a delay optimization framework for the FinFET circuits in the sub/near-threshold region, based on the stack sizing analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that provides in-depth analysis of the stack sizing of FinFET logic cells in the sub/near-threshold region based on the accurate FinFET modeling. Experimental results on the 32nm Predictive Technology Model for FinFET devices demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization framework.


Low density polyethylene is one of the polymers that is up till date nearly impossible to be degraded safely. Biodegradation is the safest method of breakdown that possibly leaves behind less toxic residue and shows potentials of bio-geo chemical cycling of the substrate. Considerable amount of work has been carried out in this area, but most of them are associated with blended low density polyethylene (LDPE). Previous reports also rely on host consortia for degradation. Various techniques have been implicated in designing this kind of study. BATH test, to evaluate the hydrophobicity of the isolates was performed apart from the calculation of generation time of the isolates in LDPE incorporated growth medium. Biofilm formation was also quantified by using protein estimation technique. Our findings corroborated previous findings in most of the techniques, but in Sturm test, a technique to evaluate concentration of carbon dioxide, a final product of biodegradation of LDPE, we have taken dissolved CO2 (that is, CO2 present in the soluble form in the growth medium, apart from the gaseous CO2 collected in the KOH tube) also in consideration which is not reported by any of the previous workers. The current article investigated the biodegradation ability of bacteria isolated from a municipal landfill area near Pallikaranai, Chennai, South India. The bacteria were subjected to growth in a medium containing LDPE as the sole carbon source with and without a nitrogen source. Four bacterial species were isolated. According to the 16S rRNA gene sequences they were identified as Brevibacillus parabrevis (PL-1), Acinetobacter baumannii (PL-2, PL-3) and Pseudomonas citronellolis (PL-4). Bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon (BATH test) was done to determine the bacterial hydrophobicity. Bacterial biomass was quantified to estimate the population density of the biofilm. This work clearly identifies with our objective to find a right microbe to degrade the resistant LDPE by giving out promising results from the present study.

 Key words: Biodegradation, low density polyethylene (LDPE), bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon (BATH test), sturm test, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Brevibacillus.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of edivoxetine (LY2216684), a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, in pediatric patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

METHOD
A fixed-dose, randomized, double-blind, 8 week study was conducted in patients 6-17 years of age, who were randomized by two strata: 1) Patients with prior stimulant use randomized to placebo, edivoxetine 0.1 mg/kg/day, 0.2 mg/kg/day, or 0.3 mg/kg/day arms in a 1:1:1:1 ratio; 2) Stimulant-naïve patients randomized to placebo, edivoxetine 0.1mg/kg/day, 0.2 mg/kg/day, 0.3 mg/kg/day, or osmotic-release oral system methylphenidate (OROS MPH) (18-54 mg/day based on body weight) arms in a 1:1:1:1:1 ratio. The primary efficacy measure was baseline-to-week 8 change of ADHD Rating Scale (ADHD-RS) total score for edivoxetine 0.2 mg/kg/day and 0.3 mg/kg/day.

RESULTS
A total of 340 patients were randomized to placebo (n=78); edivoxetine 0.1 mg/kg/day (n=76), 0.2 mg/kg/day (n=75), or 0.3 mg/kg/day (n=75); or OROS MPH (n=36). In the stimulant-naïve stratum, the positive control, OROS MPH, was significantly superior to placebo in mean ADHD-RS total score change at end-point (-19.46, p=0.015). The edivoxetine 0.2 mg/kg/day and 0.3 mg/kg/day arms had statistically significantly greater improvement than the placebo arm in mean ADHD-RS total score change at end-point (placebo -10.35; edivoxetine 0.2 mg/kg/day -16.09, p<0.010; edivoxetine 0.3 mg/kg/day -16.39, p<0.010) and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement score (placebo 3.05; edivoxetine 0.1 mg/kg/day 3.01, p=0.860; edivoxetine 0.2 mg/kg/day 2.54, p=0.013; edivoxetine 0.3 mg/kg/day 2.53, p=0.013). In the overall efficacy-analyses data set (n=270), the effect size estimates for edivoxetine doses 0.1 mg/kg/day, 0.2 mg/kg/day and 0.3 mg/kg/day at the week 8 time point were 0.17, 0.51, and 0.54, respectively (for the stimulant-naïve stratum, the effect size estimate for OROS MPH was 0.69). Compared with placebo, edivoxetine treatment was associated with statistically significant increases in blood pressure and pulse (p<0.050), and a smaller increase or slight decrease in weight.

CONCLUSIONS
Edivoxetine at doses of 0.2 mg/kg/day and 0.3 mg/kg/day demonstrated efficacy in ADHD treatment, despite the presence of a sizeable placebo response. No unexpected adverse events were identified. Clinical Trial Registry identifier: NCT00922636.


This paper presents a model order reduction (MOR) approach for high dimensional problems in the analysis of financial risk. To understand the financial risks and possible outcomes, we have to perform several thousand simulations of the underlying product. These simulations are expensive and create a need for efficient computational performance. Thus, to tackle this problem, we establish a MOR approach based on a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method. The study involves the computations of high dimensional parametric convection-diffusion reaction partial differential equations (PDEs). POD requires to solve the high dimensional model at some parameter values to generate a reduced-order basis. We propose an adaptive greedy sampling technique based on surrogate modeling for the selection of the sample parameter set that is analyzed, implemented, and tested on the industrial data. The results obtained for the numerical example of a floater with a cap and floor under the Hull-White model indicate that the MOR approach works well for short-rate models.


Islamic Political economy seems to be a 'new' doscourse' in the Islamic economic discipline. Only a few intellectuals are concerned in this field. Among them are Masudul Alam Choudury, Shukri Shaleh, Mehmet Asutay and others. The causes of the least discussion related to Islamic political economy is because the discipline of this field is considered a new, compared to conventional one which exist since the 17th century. On the other hand, Chapra states that politics is one of the important factors in the development of a prosperous and just economy, the absence of political 'interference', no matter how the economic vision of an ideology, will never exist in society. However, the question are: is it true that Islamic political economy is a new scientific discourse in the Islamic Economic discipline?, and whether in the classical literature does not exist a scientific discourse related to Islamic political economy?. Using literature approach, and documentation methods in data collection, this paper intends to track the existence of Islamic political economic in a review of classical literature. There are several issues to be discussed: first, an overview of the Islamic political economy. Second, finding the root of Islamic political economy in the classical context.  The last, an overview of the agenda of Islamic political economy at the present time. Through this study it is expected to enrich the Islamic economic discourse, and can be an alternative solution to the economic problems of the ummah.


As mobile communication technologies have evolved rapidly during the last few years, wireless communication standards such as WiMax and LTE are developed with the need of new services on mobile devices. In this thesis, the design and implementation of the encoder and decoder of Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel(PHICH)of LTE are presented. PHICH carries Acknowledgements(ACKs) and Negative Acknowledgements(NACKs)from the base station (eNodeB) to the mobile devices (UE). The encoder is designed to encode the ACK/NACK sent from the base station to the UE while the decoder is designed to decode the encoded data and provide control information for the UE. The encoder and decoder are implemented in MATLAB.


Acne vulgaris is one of the most common skin diseases and most often results in scars that are typically associated with aesthetic and psychological problems. To date, there is no standardized treatment for this kind of scarring. Objectives: To evaluate the improvement of distensible type acne scars on the face after treatment with the microneedling technique, followed by the topical application of a gel containing growth factors. Methods: Ten patients with acne scars who were treated from 2012 to 2014 and met the inclusion criteria were selected. All underwent 3 microneedling sessions with intervals of 1 to 2 months, with a 1-year follow up. Pre- and post- procedure photographs were carried out with a regular digital camera, and with a digital camera with a 3D system. Skin biopsies were performed prior to treatment, and 30 days after the last session. Results: Eight patients completed the study. Among these, seven showed a random reduction in the roughness of the scars in the analyzed area, seven showed a decrease in melanin with a homogenization of its distribution across the skin, and seven patients showed an increase in hemoglobin in the area being studied. The appearance of the scars varied among the eight patients. Deep ice-pick type scars did not improve with the procedure. Conclusions: The studied treatment promotes overall improvement in skin texture and a discreet effect on acne scars


Understanding information need and seeking behaviour of information users is very crucial. The nature of information behaviour is vigorous thus, information scientist and librarians need to embark on investigation in order to understand the need of their clientele for service provision and improvement. This paper presented the result of an investigation on information need and seeking behaviour of Diploma students of Federal College of Agricultural Produce Technology, Kano. A cross sectional survey research method was used for this study. Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The investigation revealed that the respondents make maximum utilization of the library; they find the library materials relevant to their information needs. In relation to challenges the respondents faced with the services of the library, the study revealed that some respondents do not know how to find information materials and they do not know how to use the library catalogue. The study also revealed that the students gave some suggestions that will help to improve the library services. Provision of relevant information material and extending the library opening hours were some of the suggestions.


The Aerospace Corporation has independently developed a distributed "ring bus" electric power system for picosatellites. This distributed power system architecture is being implemented on a number of upcoming picosatellite missions. The first implementation of this architecture will be flown on the PowerSphere Flight Experiment and the Pico Satellite Inflatable Reflector Experiment (PSIREX). To date all of the picosatellite missions do not have attitude control or deployable solar array structures. Solar cells are body mounted on the various sides of the picosatellite. The "ring bus" architecture was conceived to solve the problem of obtaining the maximum amount of electric power from a solar array, that has multiple panels, that are not arranged on a single planar surface. Aerospace Corporation researchers working on developing viable power systems for picosatellites were awarded patents 6,127,621 October 2, 2000 "Power Sphere" and 6396167 B1 May 28, 2002 "Power Distribution System" for this unique solution for distributed power system architecture for a multifaceted solar array. The authors have developed a prototype of the ring bus and have completed initial testing of its performance.


Many existing conditional score-based data generation methods utilize Bayes' theorem to decompose the gradients of a log posterior density into a mixture of scores. These methods facilitate the training procedure of conditional score models, as a mixture of scores can be separately estimated using a score model and a classifier. However, our analysis indicates that the training objectives for the classifier in these methods may lead to a serious score mismatch issue, which corresponds to the situation that the estimated scores deviate from the true ones. Such an issue causes the samples to be misled by the deviated scores during the diffusion process, resulting in a degraded sampling quality. To resolve it, we formulate a novel training objective, called Denoising Likelihood Score Matching (DLSM) loss, for the classifier to match the gradients of the true log likelihood density. Our experimental evidence shows that the proposed method outperforms the previous methods on both Cifar-10 and Cifar-100 benchmarks noticeably in terms of several key evaluation metrics. We thus conclude that, by adopting DLSM, the conditional scores can be accurately modeled, and the effect of the score mismatch issue is alleviated.


Background The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), developed for use with adults, has potential with adolescents. Aims To test the HADS's validity with adolescents. Method The HADS was given to 248 schoolchildren and to 48 psychiatric outpatients and 38 deliberate self-harm inpatients aged 12–17, and validated against ICD–10 diagnoses for the out-patients. Results The HADS has adequate test-retest reliability and factor structure, and discriminates between adolescents diagnosed with depressive or anxiety disorders and those without these diagnoses. Conclusions The psychometric properties of the HADS and its shortness make it useful for screening and in clinical settings with adolescents.


Assembly of voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels (VDCCs) with their associated proteins regulates the coupling of VDCCs with upstream and downstream cellular events. Among the four isoforms of the Rab3-interacting molecule (RIM1 to -4), we have previously reported that VDCC β-subunits physically interact with the long α isoform of the presynaptic active zone scaffolding protein RIM1 (RIM1α) via its C terminus containing the C2B domain. This interaction cooperates with RIM1α-Rab3 interaction to support neurotransmitter exocytosis by anchoring vesicles in the vicinity of VDCCs and by maintaining depolarization-triggered Ca2+ influx as a result of marked inhibition of voltage-dependent inactivation of VDCCs. However, physiological functions have not yet been elucidated for RIM3 and RIM4, which exist only as short γ isoforms (γ-RIMs), carrying the C-terminal C2B domain common to RIMs but not the Rab3-binding region and other structural motifs present in the α-RIMs, including RIM1α. Here, we demonstrate that γ-RIMs also exert prominent suppression of VDCC inactivation via direct binding to β-subunits. In the pheochromocytoma PC12 cells, this common functional feature allows native RIMs to enhance acetylcholine secretion, whereas γ-RIMs are uniquely different from α-RIMs in blocking localization of neurotransmitter-containing vesicles near the plasma membrane. γ-RIMs as well as α-RIMs show wide distribution in central neurons, but knockdown of γ-RIMs attenuated glutamate release to a lesser extent than that of α-RIMs in cultured cerebellar neurons. The results suggest that sustained Ca2+ influx through suppression of VDCC inactivation by RIMs is a ubiquitous property of neurons, whereas the extent of vesicle anchoring to VDCCs at the plasma membrane may depend on the competition of α-RIMs with γ-RIMs for VDCC β-subunits.


The 48 XXYY syndrome is a distinct clinical and genetic entity with an incidence of 1/40000 to 1/18000. A 15-month-old child was admitted in genetic clinics for psycho-motor delayed management. The patient disclosed a dysmorphism with hypertelorism, up slanting palpebral fissure, broad, high and bulging forehead, hypertelorism, very marked furrow of the filtrum and the mouth in the shape of a cocked hat, a microstomy and a development delay. The Karyotype study showed a 48, XXYY chromosome which was present in all analyzed cells. Here, we report a case of a patient with 48, XXYY syndrome diagnosed at the age of 15 months old in order to show the particularities of this syndrome in a beninese child.


Why have Blacks won political empowerment in some cities and remained subordinated in others? Through case studies of Chicago, Gary, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, Keiser argues that electoral competition among White factions has created opportunities for Black leaders to win political empowerment and avoid subordination. In the absence of electoral competiion, Black votes become superfluous and separatist, and messianic appeals from leaders like Louis Farakhan gain resonance.


The article addresses the critical, and much-discussed, issue of the growth of executive branch secrecy from a unique perspective. It identifies the case of United States v. Nixon - a case that ironically is celebrated for limiting presidential power - as a foundation for the modern culture of excessive executive secrecy, and especially for the use of executive privilege to block legislative inquiries into executive-branch policy. The article first sets forth the reasoning in the Nixon case, and traces the spread of excessive executive secrecy to the presumption, established by the Nixon Court, that a president's communications with his advisors must remain confidential. This presumption is based on the premise that, without an assurance of confidentiality, presidential advisors will not offer candid advice. The article then turns a critical eye on Nixon's reasoning, demonstrating that the basic premise on which the Nixon Court relied in recognizing the presumption of secrecy is fatally flawed. The presumption of secrecy itself is both wrong and dangerous. Wrong because it rests on a misunderstanding of the true relationship between secrecy and candid advice; and dangerous because it undermines the constitutional structure of checks and balances while ignoring the dangers that secrecy poses to democratic governance. The article then goes on to explain the proper view of executive secrecy from the perspective of the Constitution's structure, and finally to offer some ideas regarding how each branch of government could act to combat the insidious effects of the Nixon presumption.


Comparison between the sedimentary sequences outcropping in the emerged areas of Sicily and Calabria, and the seismic lines present in the southern Tyrrhenian, has allowed recognition of the morphostructural elements that together constitute a forearc basin. The collapse of the southern Tyrrhenian margin, that has occurred since the Late Pliocene, is due to the roll-back of the African crust recorded in the thrust-belt areas of Sicily and to the contemporary roll-back of the subduction hinge in the Ionian Sea. This new geodynamic setting has caused the SE-ward shifting of the whole forearc/back-arc system and the consequent corresponding extension of the Marsili Basin during the Pleistocene. The segmentation of the forearc basin, and therefore the crustal back-stop of the chain, is linked to some structures that constitute the kinematic junction, that has driven the SE-ward retreat of the slab and the consequent restructuring of the whole system. Extensional fault systems, in some cases seismogenetic, are developed on the "carapace" of the chain, and they overprint the preceding compressive structures of the forearc basin, thus marking the passage from active accretion to extension. The comparison between the geologic data on-land and the seismic lines in the Tyrrhenian off-shore of Sicily and Calabria, has allowed the evolution of the convergent system to be defined. This has produced a complex forearc/back-arc structure, with the consumption of the oceanic crust of the Ionian Sea since the Middle-Late Miocene The contemporaneous emplacement of a wide accretionary wedge, extending from Sicily to the Southern Apennines through the Calabrian Arc, and the opening of the Tyrrhenian back-arc basins occurred in this time span. The recognition of the morphostructural features of the Plio-Pleistocene forearc basin that constitutes the modern southern Tyrrhenian Sea, allows discrimination of the character of the deep crustal structure making up the backstop of the whole chain and establishes some first order structural trends for the understanding of the evolution of this sector of the Mediterranean area.


Energy-efficient electrolytic hydrogen generation is highly desired but still remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate that a Cu3P nanoarray on copper foam (Cu3P/CF) behaves as a high-performance electrocatalyst for hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) in alkaline electrolytes. A full electrolytic system employing Cu3P/CF as both an anode for HzOR and a cathode for hydrogen evolution reaction drives 100 mA cm−2 at a voltage of 0.72 V in 1.0 M KOH aqueous solution with 0.5 M hydrazine. It also demonstrates high long-term stability.


Chronic viral infections represent major challenges in contemporary medicine, virology and pharmacology. The virus-bearing hosts are commonly found in every parts of the world and it is extremely difficult to manage these patients. In addition, considerable numbers of these patients develop progressive diseases and severe complications. Finally, most of these patients act as permanent reservoirs of virus. Understandings of viral life cycle during the last decade of 20th century and the first decade of 21st century have allowed development of hundreds of antiviral agents for different diseases. But, the clinical efficacy of these drugs is not yet satisfactory. In addition, virologists have provided conclusive evidences suggesting that eradication of most chronic virus from infected hosts may an unachievable goal. In this context, it is essential to develop alternative, novel, and evidence-based therapeutic maneuver for these patients. Manipulation of host immune system may be one of these approaches. We would discuss about scopes, limitations, and strategies for manipulation for controlling of chronic viral infections. The primary function of the host's immune system is to mount responses that protect the individual from various microbial infections including viruses. Host's immune responses also control the spread and virulence of the viruses [1]. This is applicable to viruses that cause acute infection. After entering the hosts, these viruses are localized in host's tissues, proliferate and induce antiviral immunity. These cellular events may cause damage and destruction of tissues and the host exhibit features of acute inflammatory diseases. However, the viruses are either almost completely eliminated from the hosts or adequately controlled in situ by host's immune systems. However, chronic infection is established by many viruses because the hosts induce improper and uncoordinated immune responses against these viruses. Most viruses cause persistent infection by evading the host immune surveillance mechanism. Both virus-related factors and host-dependent factors are primarily responsible for viral persistency in subjects with chronic viral infections. doi: 10.3329/blj.v1i1.2620 Bangladesh Liver Journal Vol.1(1) 2009 p.13-19


(This work deals with the Arab conquest from 622 A.D. to 656 A.D, with particular reference to Mobility, and is based mainly on Arabic sources such as Tabari, Baladhuri, Waqidi, Ibn Hisham, Ya'qubi and Abd al-Hakam. It is divided into six chapters. Chapter I is introductory and outlines conditions in Arabia and in the Persian and Byzantine Empires on the eve of the conquests. Chapter II is a brief regional geography of the regions conquered in the first invasions, Chapter III is a discussion on the camel: its main characteristics; the historical and geographical spread of camel-culture. Chapter IV is a summary of the history of the early conquests. Chapter V is a survey of Arab military affairs and covers many aspects of this subject including: conditions of service; weapons; numerical strengths; troop formations; command; tactics; static warfare; deception; the Arab woman in battle; provisioning; care of wounded; treatment of the slain and of prisoners; booty; the origin, planning and direction of the conquests; administration of the conquered lands; pensions; Muslim morale. Chapter VI deals with Mobility and is divided into two sections. Section I is devoted to a discussion of the use of the camel and the horse in the daily life of the Arabs. Section II considers the use made by the Arabs of mobility as an instrument of war in the early conquests. A short Conclusion summarises the advantages and disadvantages possessed by the Arabs when they began their wars of conquest. Superior mobility is assessed as one of the important assets.


Purpose: To show the feasibility of acquiring homogenous 3-dimensional datasets with high temporal and spatial resolution from computed tomographic angiographic (CTA) scans of the lower extremities and to assess automated vessel-tracking techniques for vascular evaluation. Methods: Eighteen men (mean age 67.0 years, range 43–83) with aneurysmal or occlusive vascular diseases underwent contrast-enhanced CTA of the lower limb arteries utilizing a 16-row CT imager. Curved multiplanar reformations were generated by manual selection of vessel centerlines in the infrarenal aorta and the arterial vasculature in the pelvis, thigh, and calf based on volume-rendering techniques. For each vessel, opacification and depiction were quantitatively evaluated. The manually segmented images were compared to datasets processed with automated vessel-tracking strategies by 5 radiologists, who evaluated diagnostic reliability and image quality. A Differential Receiver Operating Characteristic (DROC) analysis was performed. Results: An increase in the temporal and spatial resolution led to acquisition of high quality CTA datasets. Significant homogeneity of the vascular contrast-to-noise ratios was achieved in the pelvic (coefficient of variance 1.5% to 10.1%), thigh (0.1% to 9.4%), and calf (3.3% to 19.2%) vessels. The assessment of vascular delineation revealed full-width-at-half-maximum contrast values of 96.4%, 95.5%, and 111.3% in the pelvis, thigh, and calf, respectively. Observers were not able to distinguish between manual and automated vascular segmentation, as represented by a 0.56 value for the area under the DROC curve. Conclusions: High-resolution CTA lower extremity datasets were acquired successfully, presenting vascular signal intensities of high homogeneity suitable for automated vessel-tracking techniques. Automated 3D visualization tools produced reliable, reproducible, and time-efficient centerline extractions that were comparable to manually defined centerlines.


A complete, comprehensive methodology and framework for adopting and managing a successful service oriented architecture environment Achieving Service-Oriented Architecture helps to set up an SOA Architecture Practice defining the policies, procedures, and standards that apply not just to IT developers but to the entire corporation as it relates to business applications. Why a new architectural approach is necessary for your business to achieve all the value SOA has to offer Focuses on setting up an enterprise architecture practice for service-oriented architecture Discusses the implementation and governance processes for SOA Defines and describes an overall architectural framework for managing SOA assets at an enterprise architecture level Shows how to set up and run an SOA Enterprise Architecture Practice using the methodology and framework presented Defining how an Architecture Practice can transform itself and your corporation to maximize the benefits of the SOA approach, Achieving Service-Oriented Architecture provides a pragmatic enterprise architecture approach and framework for implementing and managing service oriented architecture from a business organization and business practices perspective. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


1. An examination of a large number of toads has confirmed the conclusion that unilateral integrity of the sensory and motor nerve supply to one segment is necessary for the maintenance of the normal diagonal pattern of ambulation. The site of the intact segment is immaterial; segments of the body are equally effective as those of a limb provided the number of sensory nerve fibres is approximately the same.

2. If three limbs and the body are de-afferentated, a stimulus applied to the fourth intact limb can evoke well co-ordinated ambulation in all four limbs. If the motor roots of the fourth limb are cut, a stimulus applied to this limb invariably elicits only a monophasic response in each of the remaining three limbs. The nature of the monophasic response is always such as tends to move the body away from the source of stimulation.

3. A central nervous system totally isolated from stimulation of proprioceptor or labyrinthine origin cannot sustain co-ordinated movements of a toad either on land or in water.


Solar-powered vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFB) have emerged as an attractive method for large-scale and efficient energy storage and conversion. However, due to the stringent charging voltage requirements of vanadium-based systems (1.4–1.7 V), common photobatteries, applying standard photovoltaics with nonoptimized photovoltages, cannot be completely charged bias-free, i.e. by only using bias-free solar energy, or if they can be, only at unpractical low current densities of just a few mA cm−2. In response to this critical challenge, the present study aimed to design and test a compact device combining a high-photovoltage silicon multijunction solar cell with an all-vanadium continuous-flow battery. In particular, we applied a monolithic triple junction solar cell, which can provide photovoltage of up to 2.2 V. Additionally, we have introduced the concept of increased illumination intensity for the solar VRFB. As a first demonstration, a complete bias-free solar charging at 25 mA cm−2 (300 mW cm−2 illumination) is reported. Moreover, we investigated the influence of the operation parameters of the redox-flow battery itself: the membrane type and the vanadium concentration in the electrolyte (i.e. storage capacity). The presented results provide evidence that the low-cost thin-film silicon based solar VRFB can be considered as an outstanding alternative for practical energy storage and conversion usage. A maximum bias-free solar conversion efficiency of 12.3% was achieved during charging, combined with promising and competitive energy efficiencies for the complete charge–discharge process that can guarantee an overall solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency of  >10%.


Summary The prevalence of antibodies to various viruses was investigated in a series of serum samples collected from horses in the Netherlands between 1963 and 1966 and from 1972 onwards. Neutralizing antibodies to equine rhinopneumonitis virus, equine arteritis virus and to equine rhinovirus types 1 and 2 were detected in respectively 76%, 14%, 66% and 59% of the equine serum samples tested. The observed incidence of serum samples positive to equine adenovirus in the complement fixation test was 39%. Precipitating antibodies to equine infectious anaemia virus were detected only in serum samples from two horses imported from abroad. Haemagglutination inhibiting antibodies to Myxovirus influenzae A / equi-1, M. Influenzae A / equi-2, and Reovirus types 1, 2, and 3 were present in respectively 82%, 50%, 10%, 33% and 3.6% of the serum samples tested. The most frequently observed incidence of antibodies to the various equine respiratory viruses occurred in the groups of horses having repeatedly contact with other horses.


In this work we take the case of damages actions brought by victims of antitrust violation, and refer to the current discussion originated by the EC Commission's projected reform (the 2005 Green Paper), to show some of the many failures of damages actions in performing a deterrence function, and their dependence on the specific features of each case. These problems are analysed in a conceptual framework in which three sets of choices are identified, namely those related to: (a) the definition of the illegal conducts; (b) the management of the risk; (c) the management of the consequences. We illustrate how the three groups are relatively independent of each other, and use such independence to address the (supposed) conflict between deterrence and compensation. Three possible goals of a deterrence policy are considered: discouraging all illegal conducts, discouraging only those illegal conducts which are socially inefficient, avoid deterring legal conducts which are similar to illegal ones. For each of them, the possible disparities between optimal levels of deterrence and the effects of antitrust damages actions are shown, to conclude that some consequences of the proposed boost in damages actions (especially those in terms of over-deterrence) seem overlooked in the current discussions. Moreover, we maintain that the design of the reform should not be influenced by a given preference to deterrence or to compensation as the goal to be accorded priority, since they lie theoretically on autonomous grounds. Rather, attention should be paid to the empirical interferences, that may require corrective devices as may be the case with a continuous adjustment of Public Enforcement to restore appropriate levels of deterrence once the deterrence effects of the (reformed) private damages actions are observed.


In the development of a market economy, the ability to cooperate is a major factor determining the competitiveness of economic actors. With complex instruments intended to stimulate cooperation among the actors in farming, the agri-food chain, forestry and rural development, strengthening cooperation is a priority of the Common Agricultural Policy in the current European Union programming period. This paper evaluates the development of different forms of vertical and horizontal cooperation between actors in Hungarian agriculture in the period 2007-2013. Our definition of cooperation is based on a regular market relationship,and our analysis includes not only formal forms of horizontal and vertical cooperation but also the informal networks offering business benefits for producers. The main conclusion is that, owing to the continuing low level of horizontal cooperation in Hungary, high-level vertical integration ensures that producers can achieve a favourable negotiating position, and this in turn reduces the potential for the development of horizontal cooperation. Informal relationships, such as doing favours without charge, are not negligible ways of accessing resources, especially for small farms. A development path for agricultural cooperation in Hungary might be for actors to make collective investments in order to increase value-added and utilise economies of scale, and to organise themselves into alliances, associations, networks and clusters. Beyond the benefits originating from market concentration, these steps could stimulate the dissemination of expertise, improve efficiency and increase innovation capacities.