The aim of this study was to report the size structure of finescale razorbelly minnow, Salmostoma phulo in the Payra River, Southern Bangladesh, based on length-frequency distribution (LFD), sex ratio (SR), length-weight relationships (LWR), length-length relationships (LLR), condition factors (allometric KA; Fulton's, KF; relative, KR and relative weight, WR) and form factor (a3.0). A total of 306 individuals ranging from 6.00–10.70 cm in total length and from 1.26-9.20 g in body weight were collected using traditional fishing gear from January 2014 to November 2014. The overall sex ratio of the species did not reveal significant variation from the expected value of 1:1 (χ 2 =0.32, p<0.05). The allometric coefficient b calculated for the LWR based on various dimensions indicates both sexes grew allometrically (negative for males: b<3 and positive for females: b>3). Moreover, the values of b for LWR, LLR and condition factors did not differ significantly (p>0.05) between the sexes of S. phulo. The estimated value of WR was very close to 100 indicating the balanced habitat with available food relative to the presence of predators. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first inclusive and comprehensive explanation on the size structure of S. phulo from Bangladesh and it should be crucial for the sustainable management of this SIS fishery not only in southern coastal waters of Bangladesh but also in all of its geographical distributions including India and Myanmar.


Aims: The contextual prerequisites in a country are crucial to the implementation and effectiveness of health impact assessment (HIA). This article aims to show how the Swedish government has been working to create supportive contextual prerequisites for HIA. These prerequisites are described based on the following factors: stewardship, including public health policy, party politics and legal preconditions; organization, including resources and funding; and delivery, which is dependent on the public health culture. The aim has also been to draw conclusions about facilitators of and obstacles to HIA implementation. Methods: The article is based on a review of relevant literature. Results: Since 2000, the Swedish government has taken a number of initiatives to increase the application of public health and HIA. National agencies and all of Sweden's county administrative boards have received government assignments with the National Institute of Public Health in a supportive role. Conclusions: Some facilitators of HIA implementation are: utilizing existing impact assessment knowledge; connecting HIA with the concept of a sustainable social development; and awareness of the time needed to adopt complex information. Obstacles detected are: the lack of a mandatory law for HIA; a lack of funding; and an occasional lack of public health skills. The final conclusion is that the public health policy adopted by the Swedish Riksdag, with its overarching aim of equality in health and its 11 domains of objectives, has had a crucial effect as a framework for HIA in Sweden.


Previous studies on Chinese traditional gates, gatehouses, gateways or city gates were either embedded implicitly in the studies on physical forms and structures of general timber buildings since the 1920s, or dependently hidden in the vast researches on popular customs, literature and religions. In both of these contexts, Chinese gate buildings appeared as beautiful and typical figures as other types of Chinese architecture, with sometimes elaborate yet seemingly randomly and irrational decorations and ornaments that have been taken for granted by the Chinese. The question 'what could Chinese gates mean' in this background is not properly answered.
This thesis is an excursion into the true character of traditional Chinese gate buildings in their relationships with space, rituals and possible cosmological origins, beyond their vivid images of Chinese style. It is proposed in this thesis that traditional Chinese gates, both of imperial palace gates and domestic entrances, are understood as thresholds, a symbol that marks spatial and political class boundaries in need of social protocols, rites and orders, and a unique intermediary that has been taken for granted by people (the Human World) to correspond to ancient Chinese cosmological understandings. This threshold is the result and dynamic symbol of cosmos of the time.
From the oracle bone inscripts for gates/doors of the Shang period to the repeated greetings from the main gate via the U-shaped passage to the main hall in the pre-Han and Han period; from sacrifices to gates to ceremonial pai-lou gateways built for the imperial parade; from the ming-tang in classical texts to the Beijing city gates that practiced the ming-tang ideal; from the symbolic rules for lucky gates to the ritual of opening Wealth gates, sources over a long time span are collected, and arguments are mounted to discover how Chinese gates as architecture might be associated with cosmic symbols and ritual significance, and to further express the fundamental concerns of the implicit and inherent meanings of gates, which truly define them.
The ideas proposed in this thesis are radical. However, what is delivered here attempts to bridge some gaps in the field and to provide a base for understanding and a possible direction for further research on the subjects relevant to Chinese architecture.


Accounting Research aims to serve as a vehicle for publishing original scholarly work in the field of management accounting. The Journal welcomes original research papers using archival, case, experimental, field, survey or any other relevant empirical method, as well as analytical modelling, framework or thought pieces, substantive review articles, and shorter papers such as comments or research notes subject to peer review. The Journal provides an international forum for the dissemination of original scholarly contributions drawing on any relevant source discipline suitable to examine and elicit novel implications for management accounting practices or systems in use in any type of organization globally.


In his paper "The Problem of Domination by Reason and its Non-Relativist Solution" Oskari Kuusela describes a problem about our conception of rationality, which he labels the problem of "domination by reason". This problem has contributed to generate, Kuusela notes, a widespread dissatisfaction with reason, which has resulted in a tendency to discard ideals of rationality altogether. Kuusela, in his paper, provides a response to this dissatisfaction. He argues that Wittgenstein, if we read him correctly, exemplifies a conception of reason that doesn't incur the problem he indicates. In my response, I suggest a possible extension of Kuusela's reflections. Domination by reason, as I argue, may also take another form, different from the one recognized by Kuusela. This alternative form is interesting for two reasons. First, those concerned about rationality's dominance have quite often in mind this latter problem. Second, it is not obvious that the alternative version of the problem can be solved by appealing to the conception of rationality Kuusela locates in Wittgenstein: it could even be argued that such a conception, on a certain construal, may contribute to reinforcing it. I suggest that, if we focus solely on the aspects of Wittgenstein's method highlighted in Kuusela's paper, then such methods may be taken to promote domination by reason (in the alternative sense I introduce). There are, however, other aspects of Wittgenstein's philosophy - most notably, his conception of ethical language - which may help us to dispel this version of the problem.
Keywords: Wittgenstein, rationality, modernity, clarification, James Baldwin


IntroductionThe authors included in this dossier, Early Cinema in South Asia: The Problem of the Archive, initially grouped as a panel for The Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2013 conference, address the need for more specific methods of conducting research on early cinema in South Asia, but they also reveal broader historiographical imperatives for all of us working with similar archival challenges. Indeed, one of the benefits of dossiers such as this is that they operate in multiple registers at once. They sharpen focus on a specific field at the same time that they address methodological questions that speak across specializations. Academic publishing does not always adequately document these exchanges across fields, which occur so often in panel discussions and workshops. I can attest to this personally, as each of the four contributors has influenced my projects on early cinema in the Middle East far more than it is usually possible to acknowledge. My aim here is to help demonstrate the adaptability of their contributions by providing a few points from a neighboring field.Each of the authors takes up the central question, framed by Neepa Majumdar, dar, of the role of space in the definitions of "early" cinemas. This concerns nearly everyone working in regions where the commercial configurations diverged widely from the most robust film industries, and where drastically less material has survived. Periodization is necessary, but it is of course always contingent on several factors, two ofwhich are particularly relevant for the discussion that follows: those related to the archive and those related to the institutions of film study. The typical demarcation of 1915 as the outer limit of early cinema has opened up countless lines of inquiry into European and North American archives, but begins to downright arbitrary when simply transplanted from one archive to another and from one part of the world to another. Each of the writers here shows how the 1915 periodization can cut through the middle of, and thus threaten to marginalize, those very phenomena that it was designed to reveal. When used unreflectively, this definition of early cinema forces researchers to give too much weight to the mostly lost material that fits established methods while potentially ignoring the value of what does remain. The growing attention to the diverse spaces of early cinema, to the locations in which films are created, circulated, and archived, requires a more flexible approach to cinema's chronologies.There are few who would disagree with this idea of revising the definitions of early cinema for different locations, but to do so would involve taking account of the institutions of film scholarship that have made use of these definitions. On this point, let me offer an example from an organization on whose executive committee I currently serve. Domitor, the International Society for the Study of Early Cinema, held its 2012 conference in Brighton to commemorate the influential 1978 Brighton FIAF conference. The opportunity to reflect on the history of the organization and on this historical turn in cinema studies, with talks by some who participated in the 1978 conference, was particularly satisfying for those of us who have come to the field more recently. Presenters reflected on the 1915 boundary as part of an institutional turn designed to highlight aspects of film history left out of the canonical histories written by Georges Sadoul and Lewis Jacobs. One important goal was to bracket cinema's industrial norms as a way of gaining traction in unexplored archives and, indeed, to broaden our sense of what can comprise these archives. It has resulted in an expanded sense of moving-image performance that embraces the ephemeral lectures, songs, lantern slides, and devices of different media ecologies. The majority of this research has focused on Europe and North America, but regardless of which regions have seen the majority of research, the advantages of this shift in methodology for histories of other cinemas have been clear. …


Abstract. Data on 29,411 quails of two selected lines along with a control line were examined over nine generations. Significant genetic gains/generation for 4-week body weight were realized in the two strains (3.70 and 3.10 g). Significant correlated genetic changes were also observed in early body weights (day-old to 3-weeks) as well as in 16-week body weight. Egg number and sexual maturity did not show any significant response while egg weight and egg mass showed desirable genetic gains. Natural selection did not seem to exert any effect. Inbreeding levels of 0.32 to 0.43 % per generation did not appear to be of any significance in affecting the response. Realized heritabilities (0.21–0.24) were reasonably consistent between sexes and matched fairly well with the nine-generation pooled sire-component heritabilities of 0.20 ± 0.04 and 0.25 ± 0.04 in the two lines. There was evidence of maternal effects as indicated by excess of dam- over the sire-component heritability. Time-trend in heritabilities was non-significant. There was good agreement between the predicted and realized genetic gains.


The concomitant emergence of big data, explosion of ubiquitous computational resources and democratization of the access to more powerful computing make it necessary and possible to rethink pragmatically the practice of statistics. While numerous machine learning methods provide much ever easier access to datamining tools and sophisticated prediction, there is a growing realization that ad hoc and non-prespecified approaches to high-dimensional problems lend themselves to a proliferation of "findings" of dubious reproducibility. This period of fast-paced evolution is thus a blessing for statistics. It is a golden opportunity to build upon more than a century of methodological research in statistics and five decades of methodological research in machine learning to bend the course of statistics in a new direction, away from the misuse of parametric models and reporting of non-robust inference, to tackle rigorously the challenges that we, as a community, are confronted with. The foundation of statistics is incorporating knowledge about the data-generating experiment through the definition of a statistical model (a set of laws), formalizing the question of interest through the definition of an estimand seen as the value of a statistical parameter (a functional mapping the model to a parameter set) at the true law of the experiment and inferring the estimand based on data yielded by the experiment. Typically, one would construct an estimator of (a collection of key features of) the true law and evaluate the statistical parameter at its value. The present special issue broadly focuses on the inference of various statistical parameters in situations where either the data-generating law or the statistical parameter or both are dataadaptively defined and/or estimated. Statistical theory has advanced in sync with scientific computing so practical implementation is now possible for the resulting computationally challenging estimators. We asked researchers currently engaged in cutting edge research on data-adaptive inferential methods to share their views with us. The result is a compelling collection of advances in statistical theory and practice. The special issue consists of 19 articles. Its theoretical spectrum is wide. Semiparametric models and inference, empirical process theory and machine learning are the three major subfields explored in the articles. Across this special issue, the acceptation of the word inference covers the estimation of finite-dimensional parameters and the construction of confidence regions for them, the estimation of infinite-dimensional features (either as an endgame or as a means to an end); testing hypotheses (for the sake of making discoveries), identifying particular subgroups in a population, selecting (groups or clusters of) significant variables, comparing data-adaptive predictors. Cross-validating, decomposing a task in a series of sub-tasks (by partitioning or relying on a recurrence), fluctuating and weighting are the recurring technical concepts. Most articles are motivated by applications arising from medicine (analyzing neuroimages, comparing treatments, inferring optimal individualized treatment rules). The others address challenging theoretical questions. They shed light on delicate theoretical problems, offer guidance for better practice, open exciting new territories to explore. We hope you will enjoy perusing the special issue and that it will serve as a useful pivot towards methods that can address new challenges in data science. We wish to thank warmly the De Gruyter team for its unconditional scientific and technical support, in particular Theresa Haney, Spencer McGrath and John Wolfe.


Background Video and other technologies are reshaping the delivery of health care, yet barriers related to workflow and possible provider fatigue suggest that a thorough evaluation is needed for quality and process improvement. Objective This scoping review explored the relationship among technology, fatigue, and health care to improve the conditions for providers. Methods A 6-stage scoping review of literature (from 10 databases) published from 2000 to 2020 that focused on technology, health care, and fatigue was conducted. Technologies included synchronous video, telephone, informatics systems, asynchronous wearable sensors, and mobile health devices for health care in 4 concept areas related to provider experience: behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical impact; workplace at the individual, clinic, hospital, and system or organizational levels; well-being, burnout, and stress; and perceptions regarding technology. Qualitative content, discourse, and framework analyses were used to thematically analyze data for developing a spectrum of health to risk of fatigue to manifestations of burnout. Results Of the 4221 potential literature references, 202 (4.79%) were duplicates, and our review of the titles and abstracts of 4019 (95.21%) found that 3837 (90.9%) were irrelevant. A full-text review of 182 studies revealed that 12 (6.6%) studies met all the criteria related to technology, health care, and fatigue, and these studied the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and physical impact of workflow at the individual, hospital, and system or organizational levels. Video and electronic health record use has been associated with physical eye fatigue; neck pain; stress; tiredness; and behavioral impacts related to additional effort owing to barriers, trouble with engagement, emotional wear and tear and exhaustion, cognitive inattention, effort, expecting problems, multitasking and workload, and emotional experiences (eg, anger, irritability, stress, and concern about well-being). An additional 14 studies that evaluated behavioral, emotional, and cognitive impacts without focusing on fatigue found high user ratings on data quality, accuracy, and processing but low satisfaction with clerical tasks, the effort required in work, and interruptions costing time, resulting in more errors, stress, and frustration. Our qualitative analysis suggests a spectrum from health to risk and provides an outline of organizational approaches to human factors and technology in health care. Business, occupational health, human factors, and well-being literature have not studied technology fatigue and burnout; however, their findings help contextualize technology-based fatigue to suggest guidelines. Few studies were found to contextually evaluate differences according to health professions and practice contexts. Conclusions Health care systems need to evaluate the impact of technology in accordance with the Quadruple Aim to support providers' well-being and prevent workload burden, fatigue, and burnout. Implementation and effectiveness approaches and a multilevel approach with objective measures for clinical, human factors, training, professional development, and administrative workflow are suggested. This requires institutional strategies and competencies to integrate health care quality, technology and well-being outcomes.


Distributed systems, and systems with microkernel architectures, are becoming widely used. A consequence is that the processing required to perform a user request is often spread over many computers, many programs and many processes. To gain an understanding of the processing involved in carrying out a user request, and therefore of what contributes to user response times, it is important to capture information on the contributions of all processes that perform work as a result of the request. Existing monitors (for sequential, parallel and distributed systems) are not well suited to this task, as they provide information on either overall system activity, or on the entire execution of a single program. Here, we de ne an interaction as a user input and all processing that results from that user input. We de ne an interaction network to be a directed graph representation of all events and activities that occur during an interaction, regardless of the computer, process, or program in which they occur. We present a number of interaction networks constructed from event records obtained by instrumenting the kernel of SunOS. These examples illustrate the value of the interaction network as a tool for understanding and evaluating what happens during an interaction. The examples also help to highlight the substantial di erences between the information available from monitoring of interactions and the information available from monitoring of individual programs. The interaction network is based on very general models of an `interaction' and a `loosely-coupled distributed system', and should be widely applicable.


We report the discovery of three extrasolar planets that transit their moderately bright (mV= 12–13) host stars. WASP-44b is a 0.89-MJup planet in a 2.42-day orbit around a G8V star. WASP-45b is a 1.03-MJup planet which passes in front of the limb of its K2V host star every 3.13 days. Weak Ca II H&K emission seen in the spectra of WASP-45 suggests that the star is chromospherically active. WASP-46b is a 2.10-MJup planet in a 1.43-day orbit around a G6V star. Rotational modulation of the light curves of WASP-46 and weak Ca II H&K emission in its spectra show the star to be photospherically and chromospherically active.

We imposed circular orbits in our analyses as the radial-velocity data are consistent with (near-)circular orbits, as could be expected from both empirical and tidal-theory perspectives for such short-period, ∼Jupiter-mass planets. We discuss the impact of fitting for eccentric orbits for such planets when not supported by the data. The derived planetary and stellar radii depend on the fitted eccentricity and these parameters inform intense theoretical efforts concerning tidal circularization and heating, bulk planetary composition and the observed systematic errors in planetary and stellar radii. As such, we recommend exercising caution in fitting the orbits of short-period, ∼Jupiter-mass planets with an eccentric model when there is no evidence of non-circularity.


In centrifugal compressor design, the volute plays a key role in defining the overall efficiency and operating range of the stage. The flow at the impeller outlet is indeed characterized by a high kinetic energy content, which is first converted to potential energy in the diffuser downstream. The compressed gas is then collected by the volute at the cylindrical outlet section of the diffuser and directed to the intake piping, possibly with a further pressure recovery to enhance the stage performance. Due to the high flow speed at the volute inlet, the capability of ensuring the lowest amount of total pressure loss is pivotal to prevent a detriment of the machine efficiency. Moreover, the flow conditions change when the volute operates far from its design point: at mass flow rates lower than the design one, the flow becomes diffusive, while at higher mass flow rates the fluid is accelerated, thus leading to different loss-generation mechanisms. These phenomena are particularly relevant in turbocharger applications, where the compressor needs to cover a wide functioning range; moreover, in these applications, the definition of the volute shape is often driven also by space limitations imposed by the vehicle layout, leading to a variety of volute types. The present paper reports an analysis on the sources of thermodynamic irreversibilities occurring inside different volutes applied to a centrifugal compressor for turbocharging applications. Three demonstrative geometrical configurations are analyzed by means of three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations using common boundary conditions to assess the overall volute performance and different loss mechanisms, which are evaluated in terms of the local entropy generation rate. The modification of the loss mechanisms in off-design conditions is also accounted for by investigating different mass flow rates. It is finally shown that the use of the entropy generation rate for the assessment of the irreversibilities is helpful to understand and localize the sources of loss in relation to the various flow structures.


Poverty measurement in Australia has typically excluded the self-employed because of concerns about a weak relationship between their measured incomes and their living standards. At the same time, however, families containing self-employed individuals receive substantial income support. Is this support well targeted? This paper compares the living standards of low-income self-employed families with low-income employee families using data from the ABS 1993-94 Household Expenditure Survey. The use of expenditure data for the measurement of living standards poses particular methodological problems, for which some new solutions are proposed. The provisional conclusions of the paper are that: average incomes are a poor indicator of the average living standards of the self-employed; poverty is greater among self-employed families; but, because of the weak association between income and expenditure for the self-employed, the average living standards of low-income self-employed are higher than employee families.


BM2 cells are chicken monoblasts transformed by the v-myb oncogene of avian myeloblastosis virus. The constitutively high v-myb expression interferes with the terminal differentiation of BM2 cells, but these cells can be induced to differentiate into macrophage-like cells by phorbol esters. Histone acetylation plays an important role in regulation of transcription and is particularly relevant to the regulation and pathology of hematopoiesis. In the present study, we examined the contribution of elevated histone acetylation to the differentiation of BM2 cells. Inhibition of the activity of endogenous histone deacetylases by trichostatin A (TSA) resulted in histone hyperacetylation causing cell cycle arrest and differentiation of BM2 cells into macrophage polykaryons. TSA did not affect the level of v-Myb protein in BM2 cells, but it downregulated its transcription activation capability. This suggests that chromatin remodeling can be significantly engaged in regulation of proliferation and differentiation of leukemic cells.


Feedback by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is essential for regulating the fast radiative cooling of low-entropy gas at the centers of galaxy clusters and for reducing star formation rates of central ellipticals. The details of self-regulation depend critically on the unknown contents of AGN-inflated bubbles. Observations of the Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) signal of AGN bubbles provide us with the ability to directly measure the lobe electron pressure given a bubble morphology. Here we compute the SZ signal of jet-inflated bubbles in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the galaxy cluster MS0735.6+7421 with the Arepo code, and compare our synthetic SZ results to inferences obtained with popular modeling approaches. We find that cutting out ellipsoidal bubbles from a double-beta pressure profile only matches the inner bubble edges in the simulations and fails to account for the emission of the shock-enhanced pressure cocoon outside the bubbles. This additional contribution significantly worsens the accuracy of the cut-out method for jets with small inclinations with respect to the line of sight. Also, the kinetic SZ effect of the bubbles, a previously neglected contribution, becomes relevant at these smaller inclinations due to entrainment and mixing of the intracluster medium with low-density jet material. Fortunately, the different signs of the kinetic SZ signal in opposite lobes allow this effect to be modeled. We present an approximate method to determine the jet inclination, which combines jet power and lifetime estimates, the stand-off distance between jet head and bow shock, and the kinetic SZ effect, thereby helping to correctly infer the bubble contents.


The paper addresses the application of finding key features within an image utilizing the process termed the Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Understanding this technique is critical for researchers within biometric fields and the larger cyber security field. Research, found in ASEE 2011 Conference Proceedings, titled "Edge Detectors in Engineering and Medical Applications," develops the identification of edges within an image. That paper and this paper give the user two alternate approaches for comparing images. The PCA method was selected for analysis because it requires the use of many mathematical and statistical processes, such as means, standard deviation, variance, covariance, and eigenvalues, leading to a feature vector to compare images. The plan is to identify images, which will be termed authentic images and imposter images. Then the authentic and imposter images will be measured by th Euclidean norm to determine their authenticity. Developing software engineers and/or applied mathematicians using eigenvalues of a matrix can identify the authenticity of an image via that of an imposter image. This paper develops the key mathematical requirements to obtain a feature vector for a particular image.


Machine Learning models are increasingly used for decision making, in particular in high-stakes applications such as credit scoring, medicine or recidivism prediction. However, there are growing concerns about these models with respect to their lack of interpretability and the undesirable biases they can generate or reproduce. While the concepts of interpretability and fairness have been extensively studied by the scientific community in recent years, few works have tackled the general multi-class classification problem under fairness constraints, and none of them proposes to generate fair and interpretable models for multi-class classification. In this paper, we use Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) techniques to produce inherently interpretable scoring systems under sparsity and fairness constraints, for the general multi-class classification setup. Our work generalizes the SLIM (Supersparse Linear Integer Models) framework that was proposed by Rudin and Ustun to learn optimal scoring systems for binary classification. The use of MILP techniques allows for an easy integration of diverse operational constraints (such as, but not restricted to, fairness or sparsity), but also for the building of certifiably optimal models (or sub-optimal models with bounded optimality gap).


Rigid wing is a kind of wing model when making the experiment of high lift mechanism in insect flight and the research of numerical simulation. In this model, we neglect the wing distortion and regard insect wing as a rigid sheet. On the contrary, flexible wing is a wing model that differs from the rigid wing when analyzing the flight theory of the bionics flapping aerocraft. In this model, we think that the wing distortion has a great effect to lift force and regard insect wing as a flexible sheet. When considering the insect wing as a flexible wing, the force analysis of insect flying has a big difference from the traditional analysis to the rigid wing. Based on the viewpoint of the flexible wing, this paper researches some key points on the flight force of the insect wing such as wing structure, the measures of the wing distortion, the influence from the wing distortion for the lead airstreams angle and the lift coefficient, the reciprocity of the wing distortion and the vortex, Magnus Effect and Wake Capture. A clear understanding toward these problems is a help to know the reason why the flexible wing is advanced to the rigid wing and why the bionics wing just need to make a simple rhythmic locomotion. The discussion in this paper will benefit the future research to the bionics flapping aerocraft with flexible wing.


Legal Perspectives is aimed at informing healthcare providers, emergency planners, public health practitioners, and other decision makers about important legal issues related to public health and healthcare preparedness and response. The articles describe these potentially challenging topics and conclude with the authors' suggestions for further action. The articles do not provide legal advice. Therefore, those affected by the issues discussed in this column should seek further guidance from legal counsel. Readers may submit topics of interest to the column's editor, Lainie Rutkow, JD, PhD, MPH, at email@example.com. This article describes and analyzes the body of emergency preparedness, response, and recovery litigation that has arisen since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Search terms were developed to identify judicial opinions related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery activities. Using the Thomson Reuters Westlaw legal database, searches were conducted to collect judicial opinions related to disasters that occurred in the United States between September 11, 2001, and December 31, 2015. An electronic form was used for data abstraction. Cases that did not directly involve emergency response, preparedness, or recovery activities were excluded. Data were summarized with descriptive statistics. We identified 215 cases for data abstraction. Many of the cases stemmed from preparedness, response, and recovery activities related to hurricanes (57.7%) and terrorist attacks (16.7%). The most prevalent emergency response activities at issue were disaster mitigation (29.3%), disaster clean-up (21.9%), a defendant's duty to plan (14.4%), evacuation (12.6%), and conditions of incarceration (12.1%). Although it can be anticipated that litigation will arise out of all phases of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, policymakers can anticipate that the most litigation will result from pre-event mitigation and post-event recovery activities, and allocate resources accordingly.


The issue of migration of refuges and asylum seekers is one which is an
 internationally relevant phenomenon. South Africa is home to a large portion of Africa's refugees,
 who have been exposed to torture and war trauma. In addition to trauma in their country of origin,
 refugees face daily contextual stressors which reflect society's perceptions of refugees as well as the
 social, economic and political milieu of South Africa. These daily contextual stressors exacerbate the
 psychological effects of their past trauma. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation
 is a non-governmental organization that provides psychological services to torture survivors, with
 the aim of promoting psychosocial rehabilitation and mental wellbeing. Using information gathered
 on the CSVR's centralised M&E system as well as through clinical reflections on a case study, this
 paper explores the complexity of providing psychosocial services to survivors of torture in contexts
 of continuous traumatic stress and daily stressors. The implications for therapy in such situations
 are explored as well as the necessity for the clinician to possess a role outside of the traditional
 therapeutic space and the ways in which to build on and promote resilience. Conclusions drawn
 indicate that an empowerment approach has the best utility in fostering resilience in refugees. In
 addition to this, clinicians are required to partake in various roles such as therapist, case manager
 and advocate for their clients. Furthermore, the contextual reality of clients is of utmost importance
 in conceptualising their mental wellbeing as well as therapeutic goals.


This papers presents the results related to design of earthquake resistant building with live load, dead loads; and earthquake loads, the design is based upon the analysis of all structural elements such as slab, column, beam, shear wall, etc. The specifications of IS 456:2000, IS 1893(Part II) and IS 1893(Part IV) with working stress and limit stress are being considered in this design. Dimension of slab is considered as given IS Code 456:2000 recommendation, column size, diameter and depth taken as according to loads and total area as per referred by IS Code. Depth of foundation is based upon the load bearing capacity of the soil being tested through our survey and investigations, which fulfil the criterions of IS code.


Walden is Thoreau's classic autobiographical account of his experiment in solitary living, his refusal to play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth, and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. This new edition traces the sources of Thoreau's reading and thinking and considers the author in the context of his birthplace and sense of history--social, economic, and natural. An ecological appendix provides modern identifications of the myriad plants and animals to which he gave close attention as he became acclimated to his life in the woods by Walden Pond.


Successful development of economical wave energy converter (WEC) systems requires an integrated and balanced research technology development process and a thorough understanding of the economic performance criteria over the system lifecycle. Core performance attributes are associated with WEC concept, technology, operation and wavefarm economics and include survivability, power output, availability and cost. Both integrated system optimisation and successful research technology development routes require appropriate WEC system assessment tools.
The paper describes the structure of an integrated techno-economic WEC system performance assessment framework. This comprises a WEC engineering analysis and a wavefarm lifecycle analysis. Both are presented in content and structure. Six core sub-models of the wavefarm lifecycle analysis are described and generic example results are provided. It is shown how the WEC system performance assessment framework provides a solid foundation for implementation of an integrated techno-economic WEC system optimisation. Finally, the importance of the assessment framework for identifying shortcomings in the development programme and in achieving an objective, efficient and successful research technology development process is discussed.


Objectives: The most important factor to design overseas glocalization strategy is to identify the cultural consumption behaviors and patterns of the consumer group in order to accomplish simultaneous production and consumption in accordance with individual's desire for cultural consumption as well as understanding of newly defined supranational media environment developing with media technology. The meaning of so called 'killer contents' to lead the cultural consumption of the world market must be found from the perspective of "What do they consume?" or "How do they consume?" Methods/Statistical Analysis: Especially the new demands arising from relationship with people in the other cultures must be found, the media environment and cultural consumption structure of the foreign country must be identified in the glocalization perspective, and efforts must be made to include such findings into the media environment. Improving the understanding of new media environment and media technology is important in this context and we must contemplate for means to accept and activate the concept of cultural dissolution and fusion, found in the digital concept, in content perspective. Findings: Some claims that the point of view on Korean Wave must be changed. The Korean Wave must be understood as the process of establishing cultural homogeneity with the consuming country rather than simple propagation of Korean culture, and expand and summarize the concept of Korean Wave expansion stages into the following: "Contents enter new market (spreading new cultural trend)' -> 'Consumption of contents (checking the possibility of grafting into the local culture)' -> 'Forming new consumption culture (cultural sympathy)' -> 'Glocalization or generalization of culture (forming sense of unity of culture)' -> 'Creating conditions for contents to continuously enter the market (cultural exchange)'. Improvements/Applications: It is time to recognize the necessity to treat the concept of glocalization in the aspects of 'cultural exchange' rather than 'cultural expansion'.


Recently, the network mobility (NEMO) is increasing in a hot topic. But, issues for high speed-based vehicular applications such as High Speed Rail are still not addressed. Moreover, most part of the traditional NEMO schemes has been designed based upon the NBS (NEMO Basic Support Protocol) in RFC 3963 or the Route Optimization-Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 with NEMO (RO-HMIPv6) in a Draft. However, the NBS and RO-HMIPv6 suffer from a significant number of signaling messages in related to a series triangle routing and binding update problems, respectively. Therefore, we propose a novel mobility management scheme for L3 (layer 3) 802.20 NEMO environment, called Vehicle-based HMIPv6 (V-HMIPv6), to eliminate these drawbacks. Moreover, multicast extension for VHMIPv6 is also presented in this paper. For supporting V-HMIPv6 operation, a specific binding cache (SBC) needs to be designed. Our scheme takes the advantages of NBS and RO-HMIPv6 that not only with a route optimization but also reduces the signal overhead of binding update generated at the same time by using our proposed SBC. Simulation study has demonstrated that a better performance can be achieved by V-HMIPv6 over the traditional NEMO protocols.


Experiments were conducted on 112 adult male Wistar rats to study the effect of preliminary ionol administration on the activity of oxidation enzymes and ultrastructure of the hematoparenchymatous barrier (HPB) in the myocardium in acute and prolonged hypoxic hypoxia. It is shown that ionol was conducive to minimal damage of HPB ultrastructures in hypoxia and had a positive effect on oxidation metabolism of the myocardium: removed inhibition of isocitrate and malate dehydrogenase, activated the key enzymes of transport of reduction equivalents in the mitochondria.


ABSTRACT A Forest ecology research has been done in Batangtoru watershed, North Sumatra to determine the species composition and vegetation structure. The study was conducted by using plots in four locations: Purnama, Gerhana, Kejora, and Teluk Nauli. A total of 387 species in 184 genera and 77 families were found. The species richness of trees (dbh >10 cm) was 192 species in 116 genera and 55 families, the richness of saplings (dbh 2 - 10 cm) was 211 species in 111 genera and 55 families, while the richness of seedlings (dbh <2 cm) was 153 species in 95 genera and 50 families. Tree density ranged from 850–1,700 individuals/ ha, while basal area was around 66.76 to 104.54 m2/ha. The forest canopy at Purnama and Gerhana plots was relatively similar, forming three layers, while the Kejora and Teluk Nauli plots were simpler with only two canopy layers. Based on a principal components analysis of tree species, the forests in the research area tended to form three community types: 1) forest dominated by Pentaphylacaceae, 2) mixed dipterocarp forest, and 3) 'forest garden', or natural forest communities enriched with a variety of economically valuable forest tree species and therefore classified as an agroforestry system. Keywords : Floristic, structure, forest community type, Batangtoru watershed, North Sumatra


This study with a total of 538 respondents showed the degree and direction of consumer preference towards potato chips. Survey was carried out by face-to-face interview in various shopping complexes using standard questionnaires. This followed by the consumer sensory tests on four commercial potato chips (Hari-hari Oke Chips, Mr. Potato, Pringle's and Wise Cottage Fries). In addition, the descriptive sensory
analysis of 4 commercial potato chips was performed by 8 sensory trained panelists on evaluating ten attributes of chips. Instrumental measurements on the mentioned potato chips were also performed by using texture analyser. Results showed that Pringle's is the most preferred chips among respondents with 45.4%, whereas, Mr. Potato is the most frequently purchased brand (33.89%). Significant association (p<0.000 between age group and amount of potato chips eaten in each session was obtained. Youngsters of the age group from 12 to 30 were determined as the group that consumed most chips. Furthermore, consumers felt the three most convincing promotional methods are discount in price (25.14%), TV advertisements (24.77%), and product sampling (18.90%). Consumers' perceptions for good quality potato
chips must be crispy and have good flavour. As the results of consumer sensory test, Pringle's was top ranked, followed by Wise Cottage Fries, Hari-hari Oke Chips, and lastly Mr. Potato. One-way Analysis of Variance showed significant difference in all six attributes between each brand.
Preference mappings showed that the flavours that preferred by consumers are original, hot and spicy, and sour cream and onion. In texture analysis, samples of all four brands showed Significant difference in the maximum load, where, indicated the crispness varied in brands. This study concludes that consumer preference is not solely dependent upon sensory quality where, non-sensory factors played important roles in consumers' decisions making.


Background: The role of preoperative digital subtraction angiography (DSA) in meningiomas is currently under discussion because of the introduction of noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) angiography to study vascular anatomy associated to the tumor. Preoperative DSA is mainly performed to obtain embolization of the lesion, although a number of complications have been reported after this procedure. Nonetheless, the coexistence of meningiomas with vascular malformations has previously been reported and it has been evidenced that this event could be underestimated because of neglect of preoperative DSA. Here, we report on two challenging cases of giant meningiomas associated to vascular malformations and we discuss the pertinent literature. Case Descriptions: In the first case: A large right temporal meningioma with erosion of the sphenoid greater wing and extension toward infratemporal fossa and right orbit - a large pseudoaneurysm of right middle cerebral artery branch was found end embolized during DSA. In the second case: A giant parieto-temporal meningioma - DSA permitted the full visualization of an abnormal drainage of superior sagittal sinus like a "sinus pericranii" that was respected during the following surgery. Conclusion: We think that MRI angiography is the exam of choice to study vascular anatomy in meningiomas. Nonetheless, DSA remains a useful tool in giant meningiomas not only to embolizate the lesion but also to treat tumor associated vascular malformation and to achieve the full knowledge of vascular anatomy. We think that a wide communication between interventionalist and surgeon is essential for the optimal management of these patients.


This thesis presents two applications of 2,2'-bipyridine (bipy) derivatives, the first involves their use as stabilizers for nanoparticle (NP) catalysts and the second is concerned with the use of bipy ligands for ruthenium dye molecules applied in dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Chapters 2 and 3 describe the work concerning the ability of bipy derivatives to stabilize catalytically active Rh NPs for ionic liquid based, biphasic arene hydrogenation, with cationic bipy derivatives being first evaluated with a series of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The recyclability of the cationic bipy stabilized Rh NP systems were evaluated in catalysis and analyzed further by X-ray spectroscopy. The stereoelectronics were examined with respect to catalytic activity using various neutral bipy ligands. The differences in catalytic activity were rationalized with steric and electronic arguments throughout. Chapter 4 concerns the application of a cationic bipy derivative as a modifier/stabilizer in the Pd NP catalyzed partial hydrogenation of hexyne to 1-hexene. Factors for the high selectivity have been studied, including the presence of a ligand and/or an IL. The Pd NPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Leaching was investigated by atomic absorption spectroscopy and the kinetcis of the reaction analyzed using a Langmuir-Hinshelwood model. Chapter 5 describes three heteroleptic ruthenium complexes incorporating new ancillary bipy based ligands synthesized by sequential connection of different alkyl functionalities using a triazole linker, prepared via click chemistry. These complexes were effective dyes when applied in DSCs with both a volatile and non-volatile IL electrolyte. The complexes were characterized and compared using their photovoltaic conversion efficiencies as well as their photophysical and electrochemical properties. A stability study was conducted at 60 °C for 1000 h to determine the most stable substituent.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Preoperative embolization of primary and metastatic spinal tumors is often performed to decrease intraoperative blood loss and facilitate surgical resection. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of spinal tumor embolization and the variables that may influence intraoperative blood loss. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 100 spinal tumor embolization procedures was performed. Multiple variables were evaluated with respect to intraoperative blood loss, including tumor pathology, degree of tumor embolization, embolization above/below the levels involved, PVA particle size, surgical approach, and invasiveness. RESULTS: There was 1 significant complication of the 100 embolization procedures performed. Evaluation of the entire set of embolization procedures demonstrated that RCC was associated with increased intraoperative blood loss ( P (cid:1) .009) relative to other tumor types, as were the surgical approach and invasiveness of the surgery performed. No other variables were found to be statistically significant predictors of intraoperative blood loss. Subset analysis of all RCCs demonstrated that complete embolization resulted in decreased blood loss compared with partial embolization ( P (cid:1) .03) and that male sex was associated with increased blood loss ( P (cid:1) .029). CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative embolization of spinal tumors is a safe procedure. Complete embolization of RCCs results in lower intraoperative blood loss compared with partial embolization. The effectiveness of preoperative embolization of non-RCCs is unclear. Using smaller embolic particles and embolizing beyond the levels affected by tumor may not provide added benefit.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 8 weeks aquatic resistance plyometric training (ARPT) on lower limb strength, jumping performance, dynamic stability and muscle soreness, and also to determine the persistence of training effect following 4 weeks detraining in collegiate basketball players. Fifteen Division I male basketball players from Chinese Culture University (CCU) (age: 19.8 ± 0.9 yr, height: 186.1 ± 5.7 cm, weight: 82.9 ± 5.7 kg) were randomly assigned into ARPT and C (control) groups. After the pretests, participants in both training groups performed two 60-min training sessions per week for 8 weeks. Posttest analyses were conducted after first and fourth week of detraining. Results indicated that 4 weeks detraining significantly improved the relative peak torque of knee extension with angular velocity set at 60°.S^(-1) and 180°.S^(-1), and jump height of three-step jump (TSJ) compared to pre-test in ARPT group. Furthermore, relative peak torque with angular velocity set at 180°.S^(-1) and contact time of TSJ were also significantly improved following 4-week detraining than 1 week after training. The Star Excursion Balance Test of ARPT group was significantly improved than pre-test following 1 and 4 weeks of detraining. We conclude that the aquatic resistance plyometric training significantly improved the dynamic stability of the lower limbs, and these effects appear to be sustained until 4 weeks following detraining. Although the effect of ARPT has a delay phenomenon in lower limb strength and jumping performance after 8-week training, however, following 4-week detraining, the effects are significantly better than pre-test and 1 week after training. We recommend that aquatic resistance plyometric training could be applied with tapering, which may be beneficial to maintain the s pecific physical fitness in the longer season.


In this comment we examine the conclusion by Forgey, Rutherford, and VanBuskirk (1994) "that the foreclosed properties sold at a 23% discount," using a sample of nearly 2,000 residential property sales from the Las Vegas, Nevada area. We found that when not controlling for location with a set of dummy variables for ZIP codes, HUD foreclosed properties sold for between 12.18% and 13.96% below a random sample of properties not within one block of foreclosed properties. When controlling for location, using a set of thirty-one dummy variables for ZIP codes, the foreclosure discount fell to between 8.45% and 9.72%. When controlling for the common characteristics between foreclosed properties and their neighbors, we found foreclosure discounts are very small (between 0.17% and 2.48%) and no longer statistically significant. We conclude that foreclosure does not provide an opportunity for arbitrage profits, and this study does reinforce the findings of other studies that conclude real estate markets operate efficiently.


Earlier work on the perception of stop contrasts by infants and of lexical tone by Yoruba adults sets the context for the results presented here, which demonstrate the sensitivity of sixto eight-month old Yoruba babies to the tonal contrasts of their native language. Like adult speakers, they discriminate high tone from other tones in a single nuclear domain, but fail to discriminate mid from low tone. English-acquiring controls remain completely uninterested in such distinctions. These findings are readily aligned with the characterisation of melodic objects as privative elements, and so lend psycholinguistic credence to this model and provide evidence of the acquisition of laryngeal phonological contrasts in the first year of life.


Unconjugated monoclonal antibodies have emerged as important therapeutic agents for selected malignancies. One mechanism by which antibodies can exert cytotoxic effects is antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). In an effort to increase the efficiency of ADCC at tumor sites, we have focused on the construction of bispecific antibodies specific for the tumor antigen HER2/neu and the Fc RIII-activating receptor (CD16) found on NK cells, mononuclear phagocytes, and neutrophils. Here, we describe the production of bispecific minibodies in two distinct binding formats. The parent minibody was constructed such that the IgG1 CH3 constant domain serves as the oligomerization domain and is attached to an anti-CD16 and an anti-HER2/ neu single-chain Fv via 19and 29-amino acid linkers, respectively. This molecule can be expressed in mammalian cells from a dicistronic vector and has been purified using sequential affinity purification techniques. Analysis by surface plasmon resonance shows that the bispecific minibody can bind to HER2/neu and CD16, both individually and simultaneously. Furthermore, cytotoxicity studies show that the minibody can induce significant tumor cell lysis at a concentration as low as 20 nM. A trimeric, bispecific minibody (TriBi) that binds dimerically to HER2/neu and monomerically to CD16 induces equivalent cytotoxicity at lower antibody concentrations than either the parent minibody or the corresponding single-chain dimer. Both minibody constructs are stable in mouse and human serum for up to 72 h at 37 °C. These minibodies have the potential to target solid tumors and promote tumor lysis by natural killer cells and mononuclear phagocytes.


Abstract Smoking and PTSD are predictors of poor physical health status. This study examined the unique contribution of PTSD symptoms in the prediction of the SF-36 physical health status subscales accounting for cigarette smoking, chronic medical conditions, alcohol and drug use disorders, and depression. This study examined baseline interview and self-report data from a national tobacco cessation randomized, controlled trial (Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study 519) that enrolled tobacco-dependent veterans with chronic PTSD (N = 943). A series of blockwise multiple regression analyses indicated that PTSD numbing and hyperarousal symptom clusters explained a significant proportion of the variance across all physical health domains except for the Physical Functioning subscale, which measures impairments in specific physical activities. Our findings further explain the impact of PTSD on health status by exploring the way PTSD symptom clusters predict self-perceptions of health, role limitations, pain, and vitality.


In this paper, we present a comparative performance evaluation of our proposed neighbor discovery scheme versus other basic neighbor discovery schemes based on omnidirectional broadcast. The scheme is able to discover nodes beyond the omnidirectional transmission range with the help of minimal number of neighbors. It does not require high-power broadcast and works in a distributed manner. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is able to discover neighbors faster than other basic neighbor discovery schemes.


This dataset contains data collected during the Canadian-Swedish expedition Arctic Ocean 2016. The research cruise took place August through September 2016, using the icebreaker Oden.

For ship data from the cruise, as well as graphics and files describing the route, see https://ecds.se/dataset/meteorological-oceanographic-and-ship-data-from-arctic-ocean-expedition-aug-sept-2016

For descriptions of Work Packages and research conducted during the cruise, see the SWEDARCTIC Arctic Ocean 2016 Expedition Report: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-3475

Additional information on the expedition, including links to publications, is available at http://www.polarforskningsportalen.se/en/arctic/expeditions/arctic-ocean-2016

Work Package: Meteorology, Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Surface Fluxes

The meteorology work package has three distinct objectives:

1) Profiling of the thermodynamic structure of the polar atmosphere from the surface to approximately 25 km to provide information on synoptic structure.

2) Measurement of turbulent surface exchange (momentum, heat, water vapour), the surface energy balance, and evaluation of exchange coefficients over sea ice. This objective is primarily aimed at the development and evaluation of surface flux parameterizations for use in numerical models, both for operational forecasting and climate studies.

3) Measurement of the aerosol particles on which polar clouds and fog form. The Arctic boundary layer is extremely clean compared to that over the open oceans or continental landmasses – aerosol concentrations are often exceptionally low. Our understanding of the sources of aerosol particles on which Arctic cloud and fog droplets form is poor, and models of aerosol typically struggle to reproduce even basic features of the size distribution and seasonal variability.

Data include:

Measurements: Wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, water vapour concentration, surface temperature, overhead cloud base height, cloud fraction statistics, backscatter profiles from aerosol/cloud droplets, solar and infra red radiation, cloud/fog droplet spectrometry, and aerosol size distributions.

Images: 10 second timelapse thermal images of the ice off port side, 10 second (port/stb) and 60 second (forward) visible images of the surface to the horizon.

Sampling: Fog water droplets, aerosol particles.

A detailed description of data, methods, and equipment is available in the file 'AO16 Meteorological and Aerosol Data Info'.


The gluconeogenic capacity of mammary tissue of lactating cow was investigated by incubating mammary tissue slices with alanine, glutamate, lactate, pyruvate, or glycerol in conjunction with acetate and glucose (10mM or 1 mM). In no case was any substrate incorporated into glucose per se. In lactose synthesis, glucose was the major source of carbon although glycerol also was incorporated into lactose. Alanine, glutamate, lactate, or pyruvate were not incorporated into lactose at optimum (10 mM) or suboptimum (1 mM) concentrations of glucose. Activity of glucose-6-phosphatase was negligible in mammary tissue, less than 1% of the activity in liver or kidney tissue from the same cows. Pyruvate carboxylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and fructose-1,6-diphosphatase were in cow mammary tissue, but the activities were lower than in liver. Gluconeogenic substrates were not converted to glucose regardless of whether the incubation contained an optimum (10 mM) or a suboptimum (1 mM) glucose concentration. Consistent with the inability of cow mammary tissue to convert gluconeogenic metabolites to glucose is the virtual absence of glucose-6-phosphatase and the lack of excess gluconeogenic substrates available to the intact mammary gland of lactating cow.


Thirty-five males (age: 18-45 years) suffering of chronic bronchitis were examined. The patients showed a reduced level of blood serum testosterone, increased level of luteinizing hormone in males with chronic obstructive bronchitis. The level of luteinizing hormone in males with atrophic bronchitis does not exceed the value in the control group.


The recent technological developments and the increased interest for public information lead to a fast-growing use of microsensors for air quality monitoring. Measurement campaigns are conducted to assess the potential of these low-cost instruments by deploying fixed sensors (e.g. on top of buildings, street lights or reference stations) and/or mobile sensors (e.g. on top of cars, bikes, or carried by citizens). These experiments allow to measure pollutant concentrations at high resolution in space and time. The large amount of collected information offers new opportunities of developments in air quality modelling and mapping. This work aims to take the best of these sensors despite the related measurement uncertainty to produce urban air pollution maps at fine spatial and temporal resolution. A geostatistical methodology (data fusion) is presented, which uses sensor observations as well as dispersion model outputs. It is applied to PM10 data in the French city of Nantes. It involves new challenges such as the consideration of the quick change of the sensor location if it is mobile, the temporal variability of the measurements, the analysis of numerous and heterogeneous data, the spatial representativeness of the measurements and the measurement uncertainties. Also, efforts still need to be done on the sampling design to ensure appropriate spatial coverage of the considered domain and get more accurate estimates.


In an increasingly competitive UK graduate labour market (GLM) the value of degree credentials has shifted, thus it is vital to recognise key stakeholder perspectives on the continued value of such credentials for a graduate's employability. This is especially the case for graduates of HR undergraduate (UG) programmes, a discipline which is seeing increasing numbers of graduates entering the profession, characterised by Elias and Purcell (2004) as a 'new graduate occupation'. This study focuses on qualitative inquiry into the 'demand' side of the GLM - perceptions of graduate employers. This paper aims to provide key insights, drawing from these employer perceptions, into the value of a HR UG degree for graduates hoping to pursue a HR career and expectations of HE providers in regard to HR curriculum. Findings hold implications for both theory and practice, particularly for HR academics responsible for the design and delivery of UG HR programmes.


A simple geometry model for tortuosity of flow path in porous media is proposed based on the assumption that some particles in a porous medium are unrestrictedly overlapped and the others are not. The proposed model is expressed as a function of porosity and there is no empirical constant in this model. The model predictions are compared with those from available correlations obtained numerically and experimentally, both of which are in agreement with each other. The present model can also give the tortuosity with a good approximation near the percolation threshold. The validity of the present tortuosity model is thus verified.


The aim of this paper is to study the shear transfer mechanism through the horizontal contact surface of two rigid blocks. The shear resistance offered by this contact interface is the main mechanism mobilized by the structural elements of many ancient stone dry-masonry structures in order to transfer horizontal actions from earthquakes and wind forces to the foundation. In some cases a certain connection exists between two blocks at the contact surface, which is materialized by wooden or metal parts at the central area of the blocks (poles, empolia). The role of this connection in transferring horizontal forces and its influence on the seismic behaviour is a point long debated by the research community. Cyclic experiments were performed at the laboratory of Strength of Materials and Structures of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki-Greece in order to study this sliding behaviour at the interface between two rigid blocks. The experimental sequence under investigation can be divided into two groups. The first group includes specimens without any connection between the rigid blocks, while the second group includes specimens with poles and empolia connecting the rigid blocks. During all tests the imposed cyclic horizontal sliding displacement was combined with constant level of vertical load applied at the top of the upper block. Through this experimental process, it became possible to describe the shear transfer mechanism through diagrams of horizontal sliding displacement versus horizontal load, and study the effects on the shear transfer behaviour between these rigid blocks without or with the connection with poles and empolia between them. Numerical finite element simulations of this shear transfer mechanism were also performed utilizing two commercial Finite Element Software packages.


We consider the problems of societal norms for cooperation and reputation when it is possible to obtain cheap pseudonyms, something that is becoming quite common in a wide variety of interactions on the Internet. This introduces opportunities to misbehave without paying reputational consequences. A large degree of cooperation can still emerge, through a convention in which newcomers "pay their dues" by accepting poor treatment from players who have established positive reputations. One might hope for an open society where newcomers are treated well, but there is an inherent social cost in making the spread of reputations optional. We prove that no equilibrium can sustain significantly more cooperation than the dues-paying equilibrium in a repeated random matching game with a large number of players in which players have finite lives and the ability to change their identities, and there is a small but nonvanishing probability of mistakes. Although one could remove the inefficiency of mistreating newcomers by disallowing anonymity, this is not practical or desirable in a wide variety of transactions. We discuss the use of entry fees, which permits newcomers to be trusted but excludes some players with low payoffs, thus introducing a different inefficiency. We also discuss the use of free but unreplaceable pseudonyms, and describe a mechanism that implements them using standard encryption techniques, which could be practically implemented in electronic transactions. Copyright (c) 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


1 SUMMARY Since several decades many efforts have been made to establish a powerful spatial data infrastructure all over Germany to support as many users as possible. One important subset of SDI is provided by the German surveying authorities. This subset can be looked as the backbone of a comprehensive SDI which covers all segments of spatial data. On the other hand, local authorities usually start from a different status of their IT development. Some of them already use geoprocessing software tools, others don't do. The requirements concerning spatial data contents, spatial data formats, etc. often looks different. Sometimes this is due to organisational reasons, sometimes due to other reasons. All these circumstances have to be kept in mind when developing a strategy to improve SDI at all levels. The current situation concerning SDI, mainly at the local and regional levels, suffers from its heterogeneity and, partly, its nonavailability. Further efforts have to be made to bring together those elements of an SDI which are already available with all other SDI components provided by a broad community of current and potential users. Improvements are necessary at both, technical and organisational, levels. Integration of SDIs from different levels is a core part of functionality. Guidelines on how to achieve this integration can help to promote the integration work in practice. A broad survey took place to explore the current situation in regional administration bodies in the south-western part of Germany. The result of this survey was a documentation concerning the current status of the use of geoprocessing software tools and the users needs with regard to spatial data structures and spatial data processing routines. Implementation of a spatial data infrastructure including all needed data, IT functionality, personnel skills, etc. is an ample task, sometimes long lasting and costly. That is why, usually, a step by step approach has to be used. Cost benefit considerations were made to identify the potential benefits obtainable through an SDI. From the concrete benefit numbers a priority list was generated, which can be used as a guide for the subsequent implementation steps which will take place in the near future. The users needs were collected in a comprehensive document which consists of a detailed description of all requirements and which is intended to be used as a technical base for future IT acquisition procedures.


The effect of the cavity field (CF) on electronic circular dichroism spectra simulated using a polarizable continuum model (PCM) is analyzed. The difference between classical and effective electric field, arising from the charges induced on the surface of the cavity by the radiation field, is shown to have a nonnegligible effect on the rotatory strengths computed within a TDDFT PCM in the case of R-(+)-3-methyl- cyclopentanone, a chiral molecule whose ECD spectrum, both in the gas and in several solvents, has been studied both experimentally and theoretically in recent times. PCM CF factors are on the order of 10% smaller than predicted by the Onsager model for the lowest, S1 excited state, in the two conformers known to accommodate almost the whole population at room temperature, in the gas phase and in solution. The percentage increases quite substantially for the second, S2 excited electronic state. In PCM, CF factors are not merely scalar multiplicative factors for the gas-phase rotational strengths. Instead, they show an anisotropy along the axes of the cavity—a consequence of the adoption of nonspherical cavities. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011


Enclosed with No. 799. Growing shortage in Germany of foodstuffs and raw materials for industry; many older, more experienced, and less radical officers of government are being replaced by younger and more radical men, who in turn are rapidly used up because of over indulgence; in effort to get money, more pressure will be applied to Jews, business men, and all who have wealth; they will be obliged to give up all holdings abroad; army will not intervene, unless there is real crisis, as long as government supplied money for armaments; Churches, both Protestant and Catholic, still suffering oppression, but continue to resist; much suspicion and spying even among top leadership; amusing story about General [Erhart] Milch and Goering; Milch's father part Jewish, but as Goering wanted to keep him, he had Milch's mother sign statement saying that her husband was not Milch's father; the story goes, "Why is Goering greater than-Christ? Because Christ only made wine out of water, but Goering made an Aryan out of Milch."


Productivity Index of Horizontal Gas Well Abdullah A. Almuraikhi One of the most direct techniques to evaluate gas well production capacity is by productivity index (PI). As the application of horizontal wells has significantly increased since 1980s, a number of correlations for predicting the horizontal well PI have been developed by modification of the PI correlations for vertical wells. However, the predicted PI values by different correlations differ significantly. Furthermore, there are no available guidelines for proper application of the various correlations. The objective of this research is to determine the most reliable correlation for horizontal well productivity index in a gas reservoir and identify the key parameters that impact PI of horizontal gas wells. In order to achieve the objectives, a numerical reservoir model was utilized to determine the productivity index for a horizontal well in a gas reservoir. A parametric study was then conducted to investigate the impact of different reservoir/well parameters including reservoir thickness, lateral length, horizontal permeability, and vertical permeability on PI. The productivity index determined by the simulation model was then compared against the values predicted by different correlations. The results indicate that in all cases the Renard-Dupuy anisotropic correlation will provide the closest value to the model average PI value. Moreover, Kuchuk correlation resulted in the highest value for PI, whereas Babu-Odeh correlation value resulted in the lowest value for PI in all cases.


: The use in QSAR studies of parameters measuring the ability of an unlabeled molecule to compete for the binding site with a radioligand is examined. It is shown that in order to employ them within a recently developed formal model it is previously necessary to carry out a linear transformation. This necessarily demands the adoption by investigators of a standard measuring procedure.


This paper presents a new CAD model reconstruction method for finite element mesh analysis. It has been accepted by many researchers that modification of a model is often a necessity as a precursor to effective mesh generation. We design an IGES surface model transformation and repairing method based on trimmed B-spline surface patches, and give an algorithm for reconstructing Brep model from surface model without correct topology information. In processing Brep model for numerical simulation, the critical issues involves the rectification of geometrical and topological errors, clearing up sharp edges and cracks, geometry healing will be emphasized. Our model-healing algorithm essentially simplifies the problems of the imperfect models and allows one to deal with simple surface model rather than complex surface representations for finite element mesh.


The aim of this study is to highlight a neglected tradition of women's experimentation with the dystopian genre. The dystopia has been marginalised in critical work on speculative fiction as a sub-genre of the utopia; I argue here for a reading of the 'bad place' as a distinctive and potentially radical genre. The thesis concentrates on contemporary women's fiction (post-1969) and two issues in particular. In the first part of the study, I focus on texts such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Michele Roberts' The Book of Mrs Noah, and Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue, to examine the ways in which feminist writers use the non-realist form of the dystopia to foreground and challenge the cultural silencing of women. I discuss literary form, narrative authority, and language as especially important areas in this challenge. In the second part, I describe the dystopia as a subversive representational space in which the construction of feminine identity can be re-imagined. To demonstrate this, I consider the representation of the maternal body; feminine desire, and gender and space. Primary texts here include Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains, Elizabeth Baines' The Birth Machine, and Rebecca Brown's The Terrible Girls. I am also interested in points of connection between the feminist dystopia and feminist critical theory. My readings of the primary texts also consider feminist theoretical work on language, motherhood, the female body, and desire. An historical overview of the feminist dystopia is provided in the form of a primary bibliography (1877-1993).


A high temperature Pyrolysis (600°C) correlated with GC/MS was used to analyze the bioactive components of acetone extractives from oil-tea cake. The analytical result showed that 44 peaks were obtained from the 600°C pyrolyzate of acetone extractives of oil-tea cake and 42 compounds representing 99.12 % of the total areas were acetone extractives of oil-tea cake by 600°C-based pyrolysis- GC/MS were as: 3',5'-Dimethoxyacetophenone (22.16%), 9-Octadecenal, (Z)- (13.47%), Hexadecanoic Acid (8.36%), Dodecane, 1-Fluoro- (5.19%), Benzothiazole, 2-(Methylthio)- (4.61%), Naphthalene, 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-1,4,6-Trimethyl- (3.87%), .Gamma.-Sitosterol (3.16%), Naphthalene, 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,8a-Octahydro-1,8a-Dimethyl-7-(1-Methyletheny (3.12%), 1,4-Dimethyl-1,2,3,4- Tetrahydronaphthalene (2.69%), Squalene (2.08%), Bis(2-Methoxyethyl) Phthalate (1.83%), Ergost-5-En-3-Ol, (3.Beta.)- (1.65%), etc. The result of function analyses showed that the 600°C pyrolyzate of acetone extractives of oil-tea cake contain abundant components of rare natural medicinal materials, and materials of high-grade spice and cosmetic.


Low selectivity of contemporary antitumor drugs requires a search for its improvement. In this context, nitroxyl radicals are of interest as promising pharmacological agents. The introduction of nitroxyl radical into the structure of antitumor cytostatics was found to reduce considerably their general and specific toxicity. In this work, we demonstrate a detoxifying effect of tempol upon its combined injection with cytostatics at their absolute lethal dose in the intact mice as well as an improvement of sensitivity of tumor-bearing animals to 6-MP. Tempol is shown to normalize the level of oxidized form of P450 cytochrome in a liver, reduced as a result of the injection of 6-MP.


This work presents MarIA, a family of Spanish language models and associated resources made available to the industry and the research community. Currently, MarIA includes RoBERTa-base, RoBERTa-large, GPT2 and GPT2-large Spanish language models, which can arguably be presented as the largest and most proficient language models in Spanish. The models were pretrained using a massive corpus of 570GB of clean and deduplicated texts with 135 billion words extracted from the Spanish Web Archive crawled by the National Library of Spain between 2009 and 2019. We assessed the performance of the models with nine existing evaluation datasets and with a novel extractive Question Answering dataset created ex novo. Overall, MarIA models outperform the existing Spanish models across a variety of NLU tasks and training settings.


With an aging population there is a growing need to assist people with disabilities. Particularly crucial is assisting people who cannot stand between positions necessary for everyday living, such as from a wheelchair to the toilet. It is unsafe to transfer people with direct manual techniques, thus a patient handling device is required. To reduce the burden on the healthcare system it is beneficial for disabled people to be cared for in-home. Many in-home caregivers may be physically impaired, thus patient handling devices for this use must require as little effort as possible. This thesis found that existing manual patient handling devices contained significant weaknesses when used for in-home care and there is potential to improve upon them. Expert interviews, computer modelling and physical models were used to develop a novel patient handling device which addresses these identified weaknesses. A reduction in the number of operator tasks, operation time and operation force was achieved. A method of supporting the patient solely by their upper body is required by the novel patient handling device, though an acceptable way of incorporating this has yet to be achieved. Testing of an upper body enclosure support revealed that a person may be supported by their lower thorax without substantial clamping or physical effort from the patient. Such a support has potential to be developed into an acceptable solution. Further development and testing in variable conditions encountered during practical patient handling is required.


In order to identify the nature of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR)-expressing neurons and pituitary cells that potentially mediate the negative effects of stress on reproductive performance, double immunohistochemical stainings were performed in the brain and pituitary of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). To avoid possible cross-reactions during the double staining studies, combinations of primary antibodies raised in different species were used, and we report here the generation of an antibody raised in guinea pig against the rainbow trout glucocorticoid receptor (rtGR). The results obtained in vitellogenic females showed that GnRH-positive neurons in the caudal telencephalon/anterior preoptic region consistently exhibited rtGR immunoreactivity. Similarly, in the anterior ventral preoptic region, a group of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons, known for inhibiting gonadotropin (GTH)-2 secretion during vitellogenesis, was consistently shown to strongly express GR. Finally, we show that a large majority of the GTH-1 (FSH-like) and GTH-2 (LH-like) cells of the pituitary exhibit rtGR immunoreactivity. These results indicate that cortisol may affect the neuroendocrine control of the reproductive process of the rainbow trout at multiple sites.


The paper proposes an approach to assessing the performance of educational institutions with regard to their specific social features. To develop this approach, the authors relied upon 1) results of numerous studies proving correlations between student performance and contextual factors (both in Russia and abroad); 2) foreign colleagues' experience of solving similar problems; and 3) the idea of providing minimum required information to enable such assessments in contemporary Russia. The fundamental idea behind the proposed assessment tool is that, having the necessary data at hand, one can empirically identify stable correlations between student performance and contextual factors (e. g., the social composition of students). In research practice, these correlations were revealed through multiple regression analysis. The results of such analysis—established empirical correlations—may then be used to "discount" formal progress; that is, to have justifiably higher expectations about institutions in more favorable contexts and lower expectations about those in less favorable situations. The authors consider two ways of using this information— one based on a formula and one based on a specific index (the index of school social well-being) that they have developed. They also draw attention towards possible constraints associated with using these tools and touch upon the more global problem of considering contextual factors in assessing the quality of education in Russia.


This study describes developments and in vitro characterisation of lipid microparticles prepared using spray-drying for drug delivery to the lung via dry powder inhalers. Bioadhesive formulations such as prochitosome or chitosome powders have been introduced to overcome the drawbacks of liposome instability and potentially provide significant increase in the residence time of drug in the lung.
Mannitol or lactose monohydrate (LMH) aqueous solutions were spray dried at inlet temperatures of 90, 130, 170 or 210oC. Soy phosphatidylcholine and cholestrol (1:1 mole ratio) were used in all formulations. Cholesterol was added to increase vesicle membrane rigidity. Proliposomes containing salbutamol sulphate (SS) were prepared by incorporating various lipid:carrier (mannitol or LMH; 1:2, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8 and 1:10 w/w). Prochitosomes including SS or beclomethason dipropionate (BDP) were prepared by adding various chitosan glutamate:lipid ratios of 1:10, 2:10, 3:10 and 5:10 w/w. Chitosomes, including various cryoprotectants (mannitol, LMH, trehalose or sucrose), were prepared by including chitosan glutamate to liposomes generated from ethanol-based proliposomes in the ratio of 3:10 w/w chitosan to lipid. The spray-drying parameters for generation of dry powders were optimised by using an inlet temperature of 120oC, outlet temperature of 73 ± 3°C, aspirator rate of 100%, suspension feed rate of 11%, and spray flow rate of 600 L/h using B-290 Buchi mini spray-dryer.
The production yields were 48.1±2.84%, 69.73±2.05%, 61.33±2.51% and 58.0±3.0% for mannitol and 50.66±3.51%, 68.0±2.0%, 73.66±1.52%, 59.0±2.64% for LMH at 90, 130, 170 or 210oC, respectively. The size of the particles were smaller than 5 µm for both carriers at of 90 and 130 oC, whilst larger than 5 µm at inlet temperatures of 170 and 210 oC. Particles had smooth, spherical and smaller size at 90 and 130 oC than inlet temperatures of 170 and 210 oC. Mannitol kept its crystalline properties after spray-drying, whilst LMH changed to amorphous at all drying temperatures.
Mannitol-based proliposome particles were uniform, small and spherically shaped. In contrast, LMH-based proliposome particles were irregular and large. Entrapment efficiency of SS was higher for LMH-based proliposomes, however, fine particle fraction (FPF) was higher for proliposomes containing mannitol. Higher FPF was obtained for proliposome containing lipid to mannitol ratio of 1:6 (FF= 52.6%). Vesicles size decreased with increasing carrier ratio and the zeta potential was slightly negative for all formulations studied.
Prochitosomes were small, porous and spherically shaped particles. Higher FPF was achieved for prochitosome powders containing chitosan to lipid ratio of 3:10 and 5:10 for both SS (FPF = 58.12±2.86% and 70.25±2.61% respectively) and BDP (FPF = 61.89±9.04% and 61.56±3.13% respectively). Zeta potential and the fraction of mucin adsorbed on the vesicles increased upon increasing chitosan concentration. Vesicle size decreased with increasing chitosan concentration. Entrapment efficiency (EE) of the formulations containing BDP was higher than that for SS. Moreover, the drug EE was higher using chitosomes compared to liposomes.
LMH and trehalose-based liposome or chitosome particles were spherical with less tendency of agglomeration compared to mannitol and sucrose-based particles. Powders containing LMH, trehalose or sucrose were amorphous, whilst mannitol-based powder was crystalline. The FPF values were 14.39±1.81%, 32.29±0.15, 48.99±2.22% and 50.79±3.19% for mannitol, sucrose, LMH and trehalose-based liposome formulations, respectively. However, FPF% values were higher for chitosomes, being 23.48±3.38%, 33.89±0.66%, 54.88±1.85% and 55.9±2.74% for mannitol, sucrose, LMH and trehalose-based chitosomes, respectively. The EE of SS was increased upon coating liposome surface with chitosan regardless of cryoprotectant type.
In conclusion, the findings of this study have demonstrated the potential of lipid microparticles in pulmonary drug delivery and that prochitosomes or chitosomes may offer great potential for enhancing drug resident time in the lung.


Joining of ceramics is of importance from both technical and economical points of view. Joining of recrystallized SiC ceramic to itself has been realized by hot pressing reaction joining process using Ni-51Cr powders (consisting of Ni+51wt%Cr powders) as filler. The optimized technological parameters have been obtained by orthogonal experiment, which are joining temperature of 1150°C, holding time of 20min, joining pressure of 10MPa and cooling rate of 0.25°C/s. The most effective factor to influence the weld strength is joining pressure within the range of testing. Under the optimized conditions, the maximum relative bending strength of joint, 70.7%, is achieved. The microstructure and phase composition of the weld zone were examined by SEM, EDX and XRD. The results show that interdiffusions and chemical reactions take place in the joining process. A reaction layer, which is mainly composed of Ni2Si and Ni3C with a little Cr, exists between the welding base material SiC ceramic and the filler reaction product layer called as interlayer, which is mainly composed of Ni2Si and Cr.


A statistical analysis of physical map data for eight restriction enzymes covering nearly the entire genome of E. coli is presented. The methods of analysis are based on a top-down modeling approach which requires no knowledge of the statistical properties of the base sequence. For most enzymes, the distribution of mapped sites is found to be fairly homogeneous. Some heterogeneity in the distribution of sites is observed for the enzymes Pstl and HindIII. In addition, BamHI sites are found to be more evenly dispersed than we would expect for random placement and we speculate on a possible mechanism. A consistent departure from a uniform distribution, observed for each of the eight enzymes, is found to be due to a lack of closely spaced sites. We conclude from our analysis that this departure can be accounted for by deficiencies in the physical map data rather than non-random placement of actual restriction sites. Estimates of the numbers of sites missing from the map are given, based both on the map data itself and on the site frequencies in a sample of sequenced E. coli DNA. We conclude that 5 to 15% of the mapped sites represent multiple sites in the DNA sequence.


The observed excess in the diphoton mass spectrum around 750 GeV at the 13 TeV LHC possibly indicates the presence of a photonphilic resonance. We show that the excess can be explained by a scalar of the type involved in Bekenstein's framework for varying electromagnetic coupling theories. The scalar, in our model, couples dominantly to photons and is mainly produced by the quark-quark fusion at the LHC. In addition, it can also be produced in photon-photon fusion. Our model has only two free parameters, the mass of the scalar and the scale of the new physics, which are fixed by the LHC excess to 750 GeV and 1.5 - 2 TeV, respectively. The scalar has a large three-body decay to a fermion pair and a photon, which provides an interesting search channel with a dilepton-photon resonance around 750 GeV.


INTRODUCTION
The quality of an original scientific paper (OSP) depends on compliance with the principles of scientific medical writing. This review aimed to enlighten the authors on the roles, organization, mistakes to be avoided and recommendations, related to the structure of an OSP.

METHODS
Narrative review of the literature regarding the structure adopted when drafting an OSP.

RESULTS
The format "IMR@D®" (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References) is now, and will remain, the guiding structure of the majority of OSPs published in biomedical scientific journals. The "Introduction" section is the answer to the question: what is the problem? It describes the reasoning, the purposes and the objectives of the study and concisely describes the study hypothesis. The "Methods" section is the answer to the question: how did the author try to solve the problem? It specifies the study design, the selection process, the applied procedures, the data collected, and the type of statistical analysis that will be performed to confirm/refute the research hypothesis. The section "Results" is the answer to the interrogation: what have the author found? It presents the descriptive and the analytical data of the study. The "Discussion" section is the answer to the question: what difference does it make? It interpreted the results and compared them with these reported in the literature. The "References" section is the answer to the question: what have the author consulted? It clearly explains what is not based on information derived from the study, and provides means to verify that cited statements have been really recorded in the literature.

CONCLUSION
The "IMR@D®" format should make the scientific medical writing more pleasant while increasing the possibility that the OSP is accepted for publication.


Epitaxial thin films of bismuth layer-structured ferroelectrics (BLSF) with different m-numbers, i.e., Bi 2 VO 5.5 (BVO) (m=1), SrBi 2 Ta 2 O 9 (SBT) (m=2), and Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (BIT) (m=3), were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). (00l)-oriented films were deposited on (100)SrTiO 3 . (114)-oriented BVO, (116)-oriented SBT, and (118)-oriented BIT films were deposited on (110)SrTiO 3 . Moreover, (102)-oriented BVO, (103)-oriented SBT, and (104)-oriented BIT films were deposited on (111)SrTiO 3 . On (100), (110), and (111)SrTiO 3 substrates, c-axis of the deposited films was tilted about 0°, 45°, and 56°, respectively, against perpendicular to the surface of the substrates irrespective of m-number. This suggests the growth of crystallographic equivalent orientation. The distinctive surface morphology originated to the feature of the film orientation was observed. The dielectric constant and the leakage current of c-axis-oriented film was smaller than that of non-c-axis-oriented one, indicating smaller dielectric constant and leakage current along c-axis than a- or b-axes. A larger ferroelectric anisotropy was ascertained for SBT and BIT films. Furthermore, the evaluated spontaneous polarization along a- and c- axes of BIT from the data of the epitaxially grown BIT films well agreed with the reported one for the single crystal. This suggests the ferroelectric property was not strongly affected by the strain in the films.


ABSTRACT This study assesses the practices and environmental properties of preschools implementing the Eco-Schools program, targeting education for sustainable development (ESD) in terms of the program's environmental, sociocultural, and economic pillars. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The sample group, determined through criterion sampling, comprised four private and four public preschools in Ankara. A school observation form was used to examine the schools' environmental properties, and a teacher scale was devised to determine teachers' ESD practices. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 16 teachers. Private schools were found to have more elements within all three ESD pillars than public schools. A statistically significant relationship was found between the scores of teachers working at public versus private preschools and between their scores for the environmental and economic pillars. It is suggested that educators, children, and their families be informed about ESD practices and that Eco-Schools programs be made widespread in early childhood.


Venous thrombosis of the upper extremity is a rare form of thrombosis, accounting for around 4% of all venous thromboses, and for which only a few risk factors are known. This case‐control study investigated the effect of coagulation factors on risk of venous thrombosis of the upper extremity. Patients with venous thrombosis of the arm and partner controls were selected from the Multiple Environmental and Genetic Assessment study, a large population‐based case‐control study. Participants with a malignancy were excluded. Odds ratios (OR) were estimated for elevated levels of factor II, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, von Willebrand Factor (VWF), and fibrinogen, low levels of protein C, protein S, and antithrombin, and for blood group non‐O. Substantially increased risks of venous thrombosis of the upper extremity were found for patients with high levels (above 90th percentile versus below) of factor VIII (OR: 4·2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2·2–7·9), VWF (OR: 4·0, 95% CI: 2·1–7·8), fibrinogen (OR: 2·9, 95% CI, 1·5–5·7), and for blood group non‐O compared to O (OR: 2·1, 95% CI, 1·3–3·6). The other factors were not associated with an increased risk. Elevated levels of several procoagulant factors are associated with a strongly increased risk of venous thrombosis of the upper extremity.