Gracillariidae is the most species-rich leaf-mining moth family with over 2,000 described species worldwide. In Europe, there are 263 valid named species recognized, many of which are difficult to identify using morphology only. Here we explore the use of DNA barcodes as a tool for identification and species discovery in European gracillariids. We present a barcode library including 6,791 COI sequences representing 242 of the 263 (92%) resident species. Our results indicate high congruence between morphology and barcodes with 91.3% (221/242) of European species forming monophyletic clades that can be identified accurately using barcodes alone. The remaining 8.7% represent cases of non-monophyly making their identification uncertain using barcodes. Species discrimination based on the Barcode Index Number system (BIN) was successful for 93% of species with 7% of species sharing BINs. We discovered as many as 21 undescribed candidate species, of which six were confirmed from an integrative approach; the other 15 require additional material and study to confirm preliminary evidence. Most of these new candidate species are found in mountainous regions of Mediterranean countries, the South-Eastern Alps and the Balkans, with nine candidate species found only on islands. In addition, 13 species were classified as deep conspecific lineages, comprising a total of 27 BINs with no intraspecific morphological differences found, and no known ecological differentiation. Double-digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD) analysis showed strong mitonuclear discrepancy in four out of five species studied. This discordance is not explained by Wolbachia-mediated genetic sweeps. Finally, 26 species were classified as "unassessed species splits" containing 71 BINs and some involving geographical isolation or ecological specialization that will require further study to test whether they represent new cryptic species.


With the rapid development in deep learning, deep neural networks have been widely adopted in many real-life natural language applications. Under deep neural networks, a pre-defined vocabulary is required to vectorize text inputs. The canonical approach to select pre-defined vocabulary is based on the word frequency, where a threshold is selected to cut off the long tail distribution. However, we observed that such a simple approach could easily lead to under-sized vocabulary or over-sized vocabulary issues. Therefore, we are interested in understanding how the end-task classification accuracy is related to the vocabulary size and what is the minimum required vocabulary size to achieve a specific performance. In this paper, we provide a more sophisticated variational vocabulary dropout (VVD) based on variational dropout to perform vocabulary selection, which can intelligently select the subset of the vocabulary to achieve the required performance. To evaluate different algorithms on the newly proposed vocabulary selection problem, we propose two new metrics: Area Under Accuracy-Vocab Curve and Vocab Size under X% Accuracy Drop. Through extensive experiments on various NLP classification tasks, our variational framework is shown to significantly outperform the frequency-based and other selection baselines on these metrics.


Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder of multiple etiological factors characterized by chronic hyperglycemia with disturbance of carbohydrate, fat  and  protein metabolism which resulted from either insufficient Insulin secretion, resistance to the action of Insulin or both .The purpose of this study was to assess Knowledge, attitude and practice of diabetic patients ( type II)  regarding life style modification . A descriptive study was conducted using a structured questionnaire amongst 150 type II diabetic patients seen at the diabetic clinic at Qena University Hospital in( UpperEgypt) from the first of June (2015) to the end of August (2015). Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants were obtained and their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding lifestyle modification were assessed. Results showed that more than three quarter of the participants had poor knowledge regarding the benefits of exercise and weight loss ,while 84% had poor knowledge regarding a healthy diet. About the practice, participants showed poor practice to life style modification. Nevertheless, our patients had positive attitude toward healthy lifestyle habits which could potentially be harnessed and translated into healthy lifestyle practices. A Life style modification has important roles in management and prevention of many chronic diseases like (type II) DM. It was recommended that implementation of health education programs about life style modification importance of physical exercise and weight loss, fast food, smoking and drinking (alcohol) to the general society should be by the responsible body. Medical nutrition intervention program should be implemented with a multidisciplinary team (nurses, doctors, dietician, pharmacists…) Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus (type II) - knowledge, attitude, practice and life style modification


GETTING STARTED 1. DEVELOPING YOUR IDEA AND DOING THE RESEARCH The Role of the Producer Testing the Waters Narrative Structures Doing the Research Gaining Access to Sources The Long-term Project and You 2. BUILDING CHARACTERS AND THE VISUAL STORY The Interplay of Characters and Sequences Subjects as Personalities Capturing Visual Sequences Visual Style Decisions Ethics and Visuals 3. PREPARING FOR COLLABORATION Friendly Collaboration Participants Outside Collaborators Choosing Collaborators Contracts 4. PROPOSALS, BUDGETS, AND FUNDRAISING Preparing for Fundraising Sources of Money Grants Co-productions and Pre-sales Proposals and Budgets Sample Treatment PREPRODUCTION 5. PREPARATION FOR THE LONG HAUL Office Needs Access Problems Shooting Abroad Scripting in Advance Legal Issues Equipment and Crews PRODUCTION 6. PLANNING FOR INTERVIEWS Priorities The Art of Conversational Inquiry Planning a Visual Style At the Interview Location During the Interview 7. SOUND CONSIDERATIONS The Value of Good Audio The Sound Recordist The Types of Location Sound The Cinematographer Alone Audio Basics Legal Issues 8. NATURAL OR PORTABLE LIGHTING Light and Cameras Using Natural Light Light Basics Portable Lights Safety Issues 9. PRODUCTION: SHOOTING THE DOCUMENTARY The Art of Cinematography The Director and the Cinematographer Production Crews Visual Grammar Framing Shots with Intention Schedules and Preparation Selecting Additional Equipment 10. INTERNET AND SMALL SCREEN VIDEO The Internet's Promise Trailers and Web Buzz User Generated Sites Aesthetics of the Small Screen Copyrights and Pirating POSTPRODUCTION 11. USING MUSIC IN YOUR DOCUMENTARY Choosing the Music Pre-recorded Music and Licenses Original Music 12. THE PRODUCER'S SEARCH FOR STRUCTURE Overall Organizing Strategies Finding the Story in the Edit Room Structural Models Paper Edit Scripts Writing for the Ear 13. PRACTICING THE EDITOR'S ART The Relationship of the Producer and Editor Finding Structure Preparation for the Edit Process Beginning Post With and Without Scripts The Timeline of Editing 14. EXPOSURE, PUBLICITY, DISTRIBUTION, AND FESTIVALS Publicity Exposure and Deals Deliverables, Screeners, and Press Kits Website Types Rights Film Festivals and Film markets Broadcast and Educational Markets Screenings and Local Display APPENDIX 1. DOCUMENTARIES TO SEE


A piezoelectric cantilever force sensor consisting of a mechanical cantilever probe, an analog amplifier and an embedded digital signal processing unit is presented. The sensor is constructed from a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezo disc, which was cut into four segments and a 33-mm-long metal probe attached to it perpendicularly to the piezo disc plane. The signal of the piezoelectric elements was amplified with a four channel operational amplifier circuit having voltage gain of 10 (20 dB) in each channel and input resistance of 50 $\text{M}\Omega $ . The digital signal processing was implemented on an Arduino Due -based hardware. Signal pre-processing block consists of three cascaded digital infinite impulse response (IIR) filters were composed: A DC-blocking filter, a notch filter and a low pass filter. Additionally, a moving average filter was implemented to further enhance the system tolerance to power line interference and to reduce the sampling rate to 50 Hz. Finally, a LabVIEW software is used to provide an interface for the Arduino Due. The calibration of the system was carried out with a texture analyzer and it was capable of sensing biaxial forces in the range of 2 millinewton with a RMS error of less than 60 micro Newton and hysteresis in the order of 0.25 millinewton or 12.5% of the full scale reading. Cross talk ratio between axes was 25.3 or 28.0 in dB. The applicable force measurement frequency range was 0.5 – 10 Hz.


Although dissimilar in chemical structure and pharmacokinetics, the two available angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors captopril and enalapril have proved to be comparably effective in controlling essential and renal forms of hypertension in studies of once and twice daily dosing. Abundant data from controlled clinical trials and worldwide experience, particularly for captopril, indicate the safety and absence of subjective side effects when used alone in relatively low dosage or in combination with a diuretic.


A simple sustainable method has been reported for the synthesis of highly active Au nanoparticles (NPs) having sharp edges and corners using oxalic acid as a reducing agent. Different chloroauric acid to oxalic acid mixing ratios were studied and it was found that the 1 : 3 ratio gives better structures with high energy {110} facets, which are highly efficient for catalysis and metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) activities because of the presence of many edges and corners. The reaction rate was also found to be fast at 50 °C compared to that under the ambient conditions. In the case of microwave (MW) heating, the control of the size and shape of Au NPs was better than that in hotplate heating. The MEF of rose bengal (RB) dye was found to be 5.0 times better for Au NPs synthesized at a 1 : 3 mixing ratio and under MW heating compared to spherical NPs. The same NPs were also found to have very good efficiency in metal enhanced singlet oxygen generation and catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.


Keipert syndrome is a rare condition comprising sensorineural deafness associated with facial and digital abnormalities. To date, Keipert syndrome has been reported in six male patients including two sib pairs; however the genetic basis of Keipert syndrome is yet to be elucidated. We report on the diagnosis of Keipert syndrome in the nephew of the brothers in the first report of Keipert syndrome, with a pedigree consistent with X‐linked recessive inheritance. Linkage analysis using microsatellite markers along the X‐chromosome suggests that the gene for Keipert syndrome is located in the region Xq22.2–Xq28. We postulate the Keipert syndrome is caused by a novel gene at Xq22.2–Xq28. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In the mid of 2020, the COVID– 19 disease began rapidly disrupting lives, economies, and workplaces and continues to do so. It was when the disease was brought in a global debacle it forced the world to go into complete lockdown with strict government guidelines of social distancing. The pandemic resulted in the loss of jobs and high rate of unemployment. The COVID – 19 plagues forced organizations to make rigorous changes to the workplace leading to complete chaos to employee and employer experience. One of the most drastic changes was "Work from Home". The human resource management department was forced to come up with new strategies to face the challenges of remote working. Scholars including Snell et al. (2002) and Ulrich et al. (2017) have argued the relevance of a strategic HR approach during such challenging times as essential in ensuring institutional competitiveness. Accordingly, institutions turned their attention to virtual employee management (VEM) as an alternative to the traditional system of employment management. According to Henderson et al. (2016), at the time, the adoption of Virtual Employee Management becomes mandatory to facilitate collaboration across isolated employees and stakeholders. Virtual Employee Management is co-dependent groups who work from the comfort of their places with the help of virtual tools or apps like Zoom, Skype and Google meet to communicate work. The major responsibility lies in making productive 'remote teams' a crucial challenge for human resource managers. A survey was conducted on 50 employees and lecturers from esteemed universities by providing them a questionnaire. Remote team leaders' constant hurdles were managing projects, lack of team communication technology issues at home, geographical and cultural barriers. The virtual employee faced core challenges such as overworking after work, maximizing productivity, overcoming distractions and staying motivated. This paper is an empirical paper presenting the problems being faced in virtual employee management by the influence of COVID -19 in general and provides strategies to overcome them to face this epidemic.


Background Recent research has highlighted naturalistic uptake as a key barrier to maximizing the impact of mental health technologies. Although there is increasing evidence regarding the efficacy of digital interventions for mental health, as demonstrated through randomized controlled trials, there is also evidence that technologies do not succeed as expected when deployed in real-world settings. Objective This paper describes the naturalistic deployment of Pesky gNATs, a computer game designed to support cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for children experiencing anxiety or low mood. The objective of this deployment study was to identify how therapists use Pesky gNATs in real-world settings and to discover positive and negative factors. On the basis of this, we aimed to derive generalizable recommendations for the development of mental health technologies that can have greater impact in real-world settings. Methods Pesky gNATs has been made available through a not-for-profit organization. After 18 months of use, we collected usage and user experience data from therapists who used the game. Data were collected through an online survey and semistructured interviews addressing the expectations and experiences of both therapists and young people. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes in the interview and survey data. Results A total of 21 therapists, who used Pesky gNATs with 95 young people, completed the online survey. Furthermore, 5 therapists participated in the follow-up interview. Confirming previous assessments, data suggest that the game can be helpful in delivering therapy and that young people generally liked the approach. Therapists shared diverse opinions regarding the young people for whom they deemed the game appropriate. The following 3 themes were identified: (1) stages of use, (2) impact on the delivery of therapy, and (3) customization. We discuss therapists' reflections on the game with regard to their work practices and consider the question of customization, including the delicate balance of adaptable interaction versus the need for fidelity to a therapeutic model. Conclusions This study provides further evidence that therapeutic games can support the delivery of CBT for young people in real-world settings. It also shows that deployment studies can provide a valuable means of understanding how technologies integrate with the overall mental health ecosystem and become a part of therapists' toolbox. Variability in use should be expected in real-world settings. Effective training, support for therapist autonomy, careful consideration of different approaches to customization, the reporting of deployment data, and support for communities of practice can play an important role in supporting variable, but effective, use.


Depth of planting has been acknowledged in the literature as a factor which modifies grass seedling morphology. However, the type and extent of this modification has not been clearly documented. A growth chamber study was conducted to evaluate the mesocotyl, coleoptile, and leaf internode development of smooth bromegrass 'Lincoln' (Bromus inermis Leyss.), sideoats grama 'Pierre' [Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr.], and western wheatgrass 'Rodan' [Agropyron smitilii Rydb.; syn. = Pascopyron smithii Rydb. (Love)] seedlings when planted at 6, 25, 51, 76, and 102-mm soil depths. Environmental conditions within the growth chamber were held constant for all treatments. Mesocotyl, coleptile, and/or leaf internodes did not elongate equally for all planting depths. Shallow-planting lessened elongation while deep planting maximized elongation within the genetic limits possible for each species and individual genotype. When evaluating grass seedling morphology, regardless of species or seed size, planting depth must be great enough to allow inherent genetic expression in the development and elongation of the mesocotyl, coleoptile, and leaf internodes. When planting for a grass stand, the sower should keep in mind that percent emergence for smooth bromegrass, sideoats grama, and western wheatgrass decreased significantly when planted deeper than 26, 8, and 52 mm, respectively. Adventitious root numbers at the coleoptilar node decreased significantly when planting depths exceeded 25, 51, and 51 mm for smooth bromegrass, sideoats grama, and western wheatgrass, respectively.


Herein we report the facile, green syntheses of three new polyoxomolybdate-based inorganic–organic hybrid materials using room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmim)[BF4], as a green and reactive solvent. The organic imidazolium component of the RTIL was incorporated into all three structures, the μ5-oxo octamolybdate cluster compound (bmim)3NH4[Mo8O26] (1) and two Keggin-type cluster compounds, one being a charge transfer salt (bmim)4[PMoVMo11O40] (2) and the other having the unreduced anion (bmim)3[PMo12O40] (3). Phase pure and highly crystalline samples were obtained. In 1 the Mo8O26 moiety is a tetranionic cluster in its β phase. Compound 1 contains three bmim cations and an NH4+ molecule to complement the −4 charge on the octamolybdate anion. The α-phase Keggin-type anion in 2, [PMoVMo11O40]4−, contains one Mo atom in the +5 oxidation state, indicating that 2 is a charge transfer complex. The α-phase Keggin-type anion in 3, [PMo12O40]3−, has 12 fully-oxidized Mo atoms. Compound 3 has a band gap ∼3.5 eV. The catalytic nature of compound 3 in the oxidation of styrene to benzaldehyde was investigated. The maximum styrene conversion was 83%, while the maximum selectivity to benzaldehyde was 96.5%. The catalyst was successfully used for five cycles without significant loss in activity or selectivity. The structure of the catalyst remains unchanged after repeated use. Our work points to the feasibility of generating a wide variety of new and useful POM-based compounds through a 'green' synthesis route.


This research consists of two experimental studies investigating the dominance of moral character on athlete endorser perception and the influence of perceiver characteristics on tarnished athlete endorser perception and brand evaluations. Perceiver characteristics are discussed from the perspectives of dispositional tendency, innate moral intuitions and self-location. The first study compared the dominance of moral character and warmth on endorser perception. The second study examined the impact of perceiver characteristics on tarnished athlete endorsers and brand evaluations. The findings reveal that moral character is more influential than warmth on endorser evaluations. Tarnished athlete endorsers with immoral character exert more negative influence than tarnished endorsers with coldness character on brand evaluations. Innate moral intuitions and self-location moderate brand evaluations. Highmorality consumers and heart-locators are more vulnerable than low-morality and brain-locators to the brands endorsed by tarnished endorsers, respectively.


The development of machine learning in particular and artificial intelligent in general has been strongly conditioned by the lack of an appropriate interface layer between deduction, abduction and induction. In this work we extend traditional algebraic specification methods in this direction. Here we assume that such interface for AI emerges from an adequate Neural-Symbolic integration. This integration is made for universe of discourse described on a Topos governed by a many-valued {\L}ukasiewicz logic. Sentences are integrated in a symbolic knowledge base describing the problem domain, codified using a graphic-based language, wherein every logic connective is defined by a neuron in an artificial network. This allows the integration of first-order formulas into a network architecture as background knowledge, and simplifies symbolic rule extraction from trained networks. For the train of such neural networks we changed the Levenderg-Marquardt algorithm, restricting the knowledge dissemination in the network structure using soft crystallization. This procedure reduces neural network plasticity without drastically damaging the learning performance, allowing the emergence of symbolic patterns. This makes the descriptive power of produced neural networks similar to the descriptive power of {\L}ukasiewicz logic language, reducing the information lost on translation between symbolic and connectionist structures. We tested this method on the extraction of knowledge from specified structures. For it, we present the notion of fuzzy state automata, and we use automata behaviour to infer its structure. We use this type of automata on the generation of models for relations specified as symbolic background knowledge.


Background: This case series of consecutive patients evaluated sagittal balance and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 3 decades after in situ arthrodesis for high-grade isthmic spondylolisthesis. Methods: Global sagittal balance, pelvic parameters, and compensatory mechanisms were evaluated on standing lateral radiographs of the spine and pelvis for 28 of 39 consecutive patients, 28 to 41 years after in situ arthrodesis for high-grade L5 to S1 spondylolisthesis. The mean age at surgery was 14 years (range, 9 to 24 years), and the mean age at the time of follow-up was 48 years (range, 39 to 59 years). A subset of the radiographic parameters was compared with the corresponding data from an 8-year follow-up examination of the same patients. HRQoL was evaluated with the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS)-22r questionnaire. Results: We found that 3 of the 28 patients had a global sagittal imbalance (T1 spinopelvic inclination of >0°). Signs of compensatory mechanisms, such as reduced thoracic kyphosis and pelvic retroversion, were frequent. There was a significant decrease in sacral slope compared with 8-year follow-up data (p = 0.01). The median SRS-22r subscore was on the same level as Swedish normative data. We found no association between radiographic parameters and SRS-22r outcome. Conclusions: Three decades after in situ arthrodesis for high-grade spondylolisthesis, radiographic signs of noncompensated sagittal imbalance were observed in only a few individuals. The patients had normal SRS-22r scores. There was no association between any radiographic parameter and SRS-22r outcome. The findings are relevant in the controversial discussion on whether to perform a reduction procedure to treat high-grade spondylolisthesis. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


Abstract The present study is the first to consider human and nonhuman consumers together to reveal several general patterns of plant utilization. We provide evidence that at a global scale, plant apparency and phylogenetic isolation can be important predictors of plant utilization and consumer diversity. Using the number of species or genera or the distribution area of each plant family as the island "area" and the minimum phylogenetic distance to common plant families as the island "distance", we fitted presence–area relationships and presence–distance relationships with a binomial GLM (generalized linear model) with a logit link. The presence–absence of consumers among each plant family strongly depended on plant apparency (family size and distribution area); the diversity of consumers increased with plant apparency but decreased with phylogenetic isolation. When consumers extended their host breadth, unapparent plants became more likely to be used. Common uses occurred more often on common plants and their relatives, showing higher host phylogenetic clustering than uncommon uses. On the contrary, highly specialized uses might be related to the rarity of plant chemicals and were therefore very species‐specific. In summary, our results provide a global illustration of plant–consumer combinations and reveal several general patterns of plant utilization across humans, insects and microbes. First, plant apparency and plant phylogenetic isolation generally govern plant utilization value, with uncommon and isolated plants suffering fewer parasites. Second, extension of the breadth of utilized hosts helps explain the presence of consumers on unapparent plants. Finally, the phylogenetic clustering structure of host plants is different between common uses and uncommon uses. The strength of such consistent plant utilization patterns across a diverse set of usage types suggests that the persistence and accumulation of consumer diversity and use value for plant species are determined by similar ecological and evolutionary processes.


Abstract Super duplex stainless steel is becoming increasingly popular for the manufacture of pressure vessels, conduits and valves used for the transport, storage and control of corrosive fluids. As a result it is the subject of many hot forming processes such as induction bending. This paper explores the effect of the very high temperatures experienced during these forming processes on the mechanical properties of super duplex stainless steel. The authors establish that, over the range of temperatures considered, there is a linear relationship between 0.2% proof stress and temperature, limit of proportionality and temperature, ultimate tensile stress and temperature, and Young's Modulus and temperature. In addition the authors establish that there is a linear relationship between strain rate and 0.2% proof stress at elevated temperatures. Finally the authors suggest that it is possible to estimate the temperature at which the material looses all of its residual elastic behaviour by calculating the point of intersection for lines tying 0.2% proof stress to temperature, 0.1% proof stress to temperature and limit of proportionality to temperature.


Zygomycosis is a rapidly-progressive invasive fungal disease with high mortality rates. Mucor, Rhizopus, Rhizomucor and Absidia species classified in Mucorales order, are the main causative agents of zygomycosis. Uncontrolled diabetes, hematologic malignancies, long term corticosteroid use and immunosuppressive therapies are the main predisposing factors for mucormycosis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the mucormycosis cases from Turkey published in national and international databases in the last 17 years by means of age, gender, co-morbidities, signs and symptoms, diagnostic methods, therapeutic modalities, and mortality rate by pooling analysis. In our study, two national (http://uvt.ulakbim.gov.tr, http://www.turkmedline.net) and two international (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, http://apps.webofknowledge.com) databases were used. A total of 64 manuscript (34 from national and 30 from international databases) published between 1995 and 2012, which were eligible for the study criteria and accessible as full text were included in the study. A total of 151 mucormycosis patients (71 female, 80 male; mean age: 45.4 ± 21.4 years) from these studies, with definitive diagnosis of invasive fungal infections according to the criteria of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) have been evaluated. Of 151 patients 91 (60%) were diagnosed as rhinocerebral, 42 (%27.8) were sinoorbital, 7 (4.6%) were pulmonary, 6 (3.9%) were disseminated, 3 (1.9%) were skin, and 2 (1.3%) were gastrointestinal mycormycosis. The most common symptoms and signs were; swelling of eye and face (n= 95, 63%), fever (n= 72, 48%), nasal obstruction (n= 60, 40%), headache (n= 58, 38%) and opthtalmoplegia (n= 48, 32%). The most common co-morbidity was diabetes (49%) followed by hematological malignancies (39.7%). Mycological cultures were performed for 82 patients, and fungal growth were detected in the clinical specimens of 51 cases. The distribution of strains isolated in culture were as follows: Mucor spp. (n= 19, 37.2%), Rhizopus spp. (n= 13, 25.5%), Zygomycetes (n= 9, 17.6%), Rhizopus oryzae (n= 4, 7.8%), Rhizopus spp. + yeast (n= 3, 5.9%), Rhizomucor spp. (n= 2, 3.9%) and Rhizosporium spp. (n= 1, 1.9%). In 133 patients, histopathological investigation and in 126 patients radiological examinations were performed for diagnosis. Both surgical debridement and antifungal therapy were employed in 115 patients. Four patients had received only surgical debridement and 30 only antifungal therapies. Classical amphotericin B (AMP-B) therapy for 77 cases, liposomal AMP-B for 60 cases, liposomal AMP-B + posaconazole for six cases and lipid complex AMP-B for two cases have been started as antifungal therapies. Total mortality rate was detected as 54.3% (82/151). In conclusion, despite new diagnostic tools and therapeutic agents, mortality rates in mucormycosis are still very high. For the management, mucormycosis should be considered early in risky patients, and surgical debridement together with effective antifungal therapy should be applied as soon as possible.


In recent years there has been increasing attention to the transition toward a bioeconomy. From comparable transitions toward sustainability, we know that transitions require integral, inclusive approaches toward developing a long-term strategy, focusing not only on technological innovation, but also on involving the public. This is not easy. Public engagement encompasses diverse forms of public and civil society participation, and it is crucial to understand the specificities of these interactions and their effects on potential transition pathways. We present a conceptual-analytical paper where the focus lies on understanding sense-making practices in the construction of publics in the bioeconomy. Using a case-study approach, this article describes five partialities of the constructed public in the bioeconomy and analyzes the orchestration, productive dimensions and effects of these constructions. Our analysis offers a new perspective on, and appreciation of, the partiality of different forms of public participation, and varying degrees in which possibilities of system change in the bioeconomy transition are inclusive or exclusive toward differentially constructed publics. This offers an alternative, constructive way of exploring actor dynamics and politics in system change. We aim to contribute to a more nuanced and integral interpretation of public engagement in sustainability transitions, which is relevant to actors from academia, policy, industry and other spheres relevant to the bioeconomy transition.


This guide will help you find reliable information on the culinary and baking arts, in both print and online sources.


The following mission statements by linguists and literary scholars working in different institutional and cultural contexts and at different stages of their careers are intended to map out the terrain covered by this journal. They tell similar stories about how these scholars came to cross the disciplinary boundary that too often divides their two fields, and they reveal a number of shared interests and emphases. But they also highlight the diversity of methodologies to which this journal is open – from metrics and stylistics to the cognitive sciences and Systemic Functional Grammar. The hopes and expectations voiced by the authors are partly pragmatic, expressing the wish that the journal's Open Access format will have a broader reach than a journal published in the "traditional" way would, notably to colleagues outside of Western Europe. They also, however, emphasise the journal's potential to shape our conception of "literary linguistics" and, therefore, to make an innovative contribution to shaping what continues to be a contested and often misunderstood "field".


In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph. ""Where there is great love," says Willa Cather's Jean Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop, "there are always miracles. . . . The Miracles of the Church . . . rest not so much upon power coming suddenly . . . from far off, but on our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always" (50). In this modern view, a miracle bespeaks the sudden perception or recognition of a power immanent in the world rather than one thrust into ordinary affairs—an idea closer to the showing forth of the Greek "epiphany" than the wonder or marvel of the Latin "miraculum." The modernity of Cather's definition lies also, I believe, in its emphasis on human perception, directing us more toward the experience of the miraculous rather than the underlying nature of the miracle itself. Accordingly, Cather's Latour, priest though he is, leaves richly ambiguous whether the "great love" required by the miracle is God's or our own, and while the divinity of the "power . . . about us always" is clearly implied, it is never explicitly named." This faculty essay is available in Verbum: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/verbum/vol5/iss1/27


Abstract A 61-year-old woman was referred to the hospital by her general practitioner due to non-response to antibiotic treatment. By chest X-ray and subsequently CT scan a 9 cm tumour was detected in the right upper lobe. In addition, severe destruction of the corpus of Th2, Th3 and Th4 was found. A biopsy revealed a schwannoma. Surgery with curative intent was subsequently made, and a 10 × 10 cm big process was removed. The patient had an uneventfull recovery.


Understanding host-specific innate and adaptive immune responses in therapy-naive HIV-1 infected patients is of high importance. In a drug-free environment, the immune system is the most dominant factor shaping the evolution of HIV-1. Mutations can be selected, causing the adaption of the virus to the HLA alleles of the infected individuals, negatively influencing the immunogenicity of epitopes. However, in treatment-experienced patients, the most dominant factors influencing viral evolution are antiretroviral drugs. As a consequence, drug resistance associated mutations (RAMs) within targeted HIV-1 proteins can evolve which can be transmitted (tRAMs) from one individual to another, resulting in the finding of 10 % of persisting tRAMs in therapy-naive patients. It is assumed, that such a persistence of tRAMs in therapy-naive patients is influenced by the HLA alleles of the new host and that persisting tRAMs are most likely located within HLA class I restricted epitopes, leading to immune escape.
Interactions of immune system and antiretroviral treatment could especially be important in the treatment of therapy-naive patients already harbouring tRAMs. The consideration of HLA allele mediated immune selection could exclude antiretroviral drugs promoting a therapy failure by providing a selective pressure for tRAMs conferring not only resistance to the drug but also immune escape. Treatment could be optimized using all available information regarding virus and host to facilitate a long lasting therapy success.
In this work, a statistical analysis was performed using Fishers exact test and correcting for multiple testing, identifying nine significant associations between protease inhibitor (PI), nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor tRAMs, found in a cohort of 139 therapy-naive HIV-1 infected patients and the patients' HLA alleles.
This statistical analysis was used as the basis to establish a cell culture model to identify a direct impact of tRAMs on host-specific innate and adaptive immune responses in the background of certain HLA types. Immature monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs), the most important antigen presenting cells, were transduced using lentiviral vectors to introduce HLA alleles of interest (here: HLA-A*02:01 and HLA-B*44:03). Subsequently, these moDCs were infected with HIV-1 ADA_V82A and ADA_L210F, respectively while ADA_V82A included the possible immune escape mutant V82A (protease), which is at the same time associated with PI resistance, ADA_L210F carried the already described immune escape mutation L210F. In order to study the impact on both, the innate as well as the adaptive immune system, infected recombinant moDCs were co-cultured with either CD16+CD56+ NK cells or CD8+ T cells. For the screening of characteristic cytokines and/or chemokines a human 25-plex luminex assay was used. While the secretion of IL-7 is decreased in co-cultures with CD8+ T cells, levels of IL-15 are comparably low in co-cultures with CD16+CD56+ NK cells. The secretion of IL-8 is decreased in co-cultures with both, CD16+CD56+ NK cells and CD8+ T cells, upon encountering the putative immune escape mutation in the background of the restricting HLA allele.
These data identified IL-7, IL-8 and IL-15 as putative biomarkers monitoring immune activation regarding immune escape. However, more research has to be done to strengthen the role of IL-7, IL-8 and IL-15.


Odonates have been recognized as an important group for evaluating ecosystems since they are used as bioindicators of the conservation status of the habitat they occupy, in addition to being generalist predators feeding on invertebrates and small vertebrates. In this work, the biodiversity of adult odonates from a locality near the San Marcos River, in Puebla, Mexico, is analyzed through systematic sampling performed during 2018. Species richness and composition patterns were analyzed and compared between the rainy and dry seasons; the results were also compared with those of similar studies at the regional level. There were six families, 21 genera and 37 species that represent about 40% of the 95 species registered in Puebla. Coenagrionidae, with Argia, was the best representative of the Zygoptera, and Libellulidae was the best for the Anisoptera. Three of the species collected in the San Marcos River increased the species number from 95 to 98 for Puebla, making it currently placed 14th of 32 Mexican states in terms of the species richness of odonates nationwide. According to the Chao2 and Bootstrap estimators, the completeness of the inventory varied from 61% to 67% in the dry season, from 73% to 83% in the rainy season, and from 74% to 86% for the annual completeness. There were no significant differences in species richness and composition between the rainy and dry seasons. The species richness of odonates in this locality is the second highest known for Puebla and can still provide important data for this group.


A short linear cavity erbium fiber laser is adapted to become a Q-switched laser by using a new and simple loss switching technique. The technique utilizes the inherent flexibility of optical fiber to rapidly drive the fiber end in and out of alignment with a cavity mirror, creating the conditions necessary for Q-switching. We investigate the effectiveness of different Q-switch configurations and analyze the Q-switch opening time of each configuration.


The service-oriented paradigm offers support for engineering service-based systems (SBSs) based on service composition where existing services are composed to create new services. The selection of services with the aim to fulfil the quality constraints becomes critical and challenging to the success of SBSs, especially when the quality constraints are stringent. However, none of the existing approaches for quality-aware service composition has sufficiently considered the following two critical issues to increase the success rate of finding a solution: 1) the complementarities between services; and 2) the competition among service providers. This paper proposes a novel approach called combinatorial auction for service selection (CASS) to support effective and efficient service selection for SBSs based on combinatorial auction. In CASS, service providers can bid for combinations of services and apply discounts or premiums to their offers for the multi-dimensional quality of the services. Based on received bids, CASS attempts to find a solution that achieves the SBS owner's optimisation goal while fulfilling all quality constraints for the SBS. When a solution cannot be found based on current bids, the auction iterates so that service providers can improve their bids to increase their chances of winning. This paper systematically describes the auction process and the supporting mechanisms. Experimental results show that by exploiting the complementarities between services and the competition among service providers, CASS significantly outperforms existing quality-aware service selection approaches in finding optimal solutions and guaranteeing system optimality. Meanwhile, the duration and coordination overhead of CASS are kept at satisfactory levels in scenarios on different scales.


Point of use drinking water treatment with the BioSand filter (BSF) allows people to treat their water in the home. The purpose of this research was to document the ability of the Hydraid plastic-housing BSF to reduce diarrheal disease in households who received a BSF in a randomized controlled trial. The trial of the Hydraid plastic-housing BSF was carried out in rural, mountainous communities in Copan, Honduras during April of 2008 to February of 2009. A logistic regression adjusting for clustering showed that the incidence of diarrheal disease in children under 5 years was reduced by approximately 45% (odds ratio = 0.55, 95% confidence interval = 0.28, 1.10) in households that had a BSF compared with those households without a BSF, but this finding fluctuated depending on season and was not statistically significant. Households with a BSF had significantly better drinking water quality regardless of water source or season.


In this paper, we propose a novel experience representation approach for artificial cognitive system (such as a robot). The artificial cognitive system with the ability to store experiences and to adapt plans and behavior according to experiences will be beneficial for understanding the human representation of experience and be useful for developing practical service robot. Here an artificial cognitive system experience is defined as a record about the events occurred in the past. Three kinds of experiences (ontology, robot activities and environment activities) are introduced. In this work, we demonstrate the mobile cognitive system with a PR2 platform in a restaurant environment and a corresponding simulation environment. Four different scenarios (Serve-A-Coffee, Deal-with-Obstacles, Clear-Table and Well-set-Table) have been set to demonstrate the performance and collect the corresponding experiences.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design, application and findings of a case study in which the application of a machine learning algorithm is utilised to identify the grievances in Twitter in an Arabian context.

Design/methodology/approach
To understand the characteristics of the Twitter users who expressed the identified grievances, data mining techniques and social network analysis were utilised. The study extracted a total of 23,363 tweets and these were stored as a data set. The machine learning algorithm applied to this data set was followed by utilising a data mining process to explore the characteristics of the Twitter feed users. The network of the users was mapped and the individual level of interactivity and network density were calculated.

Findings
The machine learning algorithm revealed 12 themes all of which were underpinned by the coalition of Arab countries blockade of Qatar. The data mining analysis revealed that the tweets could be clustered in three clusters, the main cluster included users with a large number of followers and friends but who did not mention other users in their tweets. The social network analysis revealed that whilst a large proportion of users engaged in direct messages with others, the network ties between them were not registered as strong.

Practical implications
Borum (2011) notes that invoking grievances is the first step in the radicalisation process. It is hoped that by understanding these grievances, the study will shed light on what radical groups could invoke to win the sympathy of aggrieved people.

Originality/value
In combination, the machine learning algorithm offered insights into the grievances expressed within the tweets in an Arabian context. The data mining and the social network analyses revealed the characteristics of the Twitter users highlighting identifying and managing early intervention of radicalisation.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease, with a poor prognosis. The pathophysiologic mechanism of PAH is unknown, but may involve both tissue remodeling and inflammatory processes. Hyaluronan (HA) is a large glycosaminoglycan polymer and a major component of the extracellular matrix. In the present study, we measured plasma HA levels in PAH associated with systolic congestive heart failure (CHF, n = 16) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, n = 18). The control group was consisted of 14 healthy individuals without pulmonary or cardiovascular disease. Plasma HA levels (ng/mL) were determined in all patients by an enzyme linked HA binding assay. Pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) was calculated in echocardiography (mmHg). Pulmonary arterial pressures were significantly higher in CHF and COPD (CHF: 55.0 ± 11 mmHg and COPD: 62.5 ± 21 mmHg, p < 0.001 for each), compared to the control group (25.4 ± 5.9 mmHg). Plasma HA levels were significantly higher in CHF (73.0 ± 37.5 ng/ml, p = 0.007) and COPD (87.3 ± 53.2 ng/ml, p = 0.001) compared to control patients (26.2 ± 8.4 ng/ml). There was no significant difference in plasma HA levels between the CFH and COPD groups (p = 0.690). In COPD, plasma HA levels were significantly correlated with PAP, left atrium diameter. There was no significant correlation between plasma HA levels and age or with echocardiography parameters in CHF. Both CHF and COPD are associated with increased plasma HA levels. Elevated plasma HA may contribute to the development of PAH.


Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) produced by gastrointestinal microbiota regulate immune responses, but host molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Unbiased screening using SCFA-conjugated affinity nanobeads identified apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), an adaptor protein of inflammasome complex, as a noncanonical SCFA receptor besides GPRs. SCFAs promoted inflammasome activation in macrophages by binding to its ASC PYRIN domain. Activated inflammasome suppressed survival of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in macrophages by pyroptosis and facilitated neutrophil recruitment to promote bacterial elimination and thus inhibit systemic dissemination in the host. Administration of SCFAs or dietary fibers, which are fermented to SCFAs by gut bacteria, significantly prolonged the survival of S. Typhimurium–infected mice through ASC-mediated inflammasome activation. SCFAs penetrated into the inflammatory region of the infected gut mucosa to protect against infection. This study provided evidence that SCFAs suppress Salmonella infection via inflammasome activation, shedding new light on the therapeutic activity of dietary fiber.


The issue of what the role of grammar is and how it should be taught is still considered a dilemma among English teachers. Though various schools of thought and methodologies were discovered, the convincing postulations and effective practices in language learning are still in constant exploration. As an attempt to alleviate this dilemma, this research aims to identify teacher beliefs and practices when it comes to grammar. Utilizing a single case study method, perspectives and methodologies were studied from an English teacher in the Philippines. Findings revealed that grammar was still an important aspect in the language learning and teaching. However, fluency was greatly emphasized over accuracy. In practice, Communicative Language Teaching was the most commonly observed method utilized in teaching grammar. It is suggested that there should be a balance between form and function aspects of teaching grammar.


Iterative demodulation and decoding of convolutionally encoded data is treated as a special case of the previously proposed serial concatenation of interleaved codes. It is shown that by exploiting the recursive nature of the differential modulation schemes (for example, DBPSK, DQPSK, CPM, etc.), large interleaving gains can be achieved similar to serial concatenation schemes. We also show that when memoryless modulation is used, precoding can be used to create a rate-1 recursive inner code in order to obtain interleaving gains without adding redundancy from the inner code.


Backgound: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are at high risk of further cardiac events and benefit from early intervention, as reflected by international guidelines recommending early transfer to interventional centres. The current average waiting time of up to 21 days contravenes evidence based early intervention, creates geographical inequity of access, wastes bed days, and is unsatisfactory for patients. Methods: A regional transfer unit (RTU) was created to expatiate access of ACS patients referred from other centres to the revascularisation service. By redesigning the care pathway patients arriving on the RTU undergo angiography within 24 hours, and then leave the RTU the following day, allowing other ACS patients to be treated. Results: During the first six months of the RTU, the mean waiting time from referral to procedure decreased from 20 (SD 15) days (range 0–51) to 8 (SD 3) days (range 0–21) for 365 patients transferred from a distict general hopsital. Ninety seven per cent of patients underwent angiography within 24 hours, 61% having undergone percutaneous coronary intervention at the same sitting, and 78% were discharged home within 24 hours. Conclusions: Delivering standards laid out in the National Service Framework, reducing inequalities of care across the region, and facilitating evidence based strategies of care represents a challenging and complex issue. For high risk patients suffering ACS who need early invasive investigation, a coordinated network wide approach together with the creation of an RTU resulted in a 62% reduction in waiting times for no extra resources. Further improvements can be expected through increased capacity of this verified strategy.


Aggression is ubiquitous, influencing reproduction through inter- and intraspecific effects in ways that reflect life-history strategies of species. In many social mammals, females remain in their natal group for life, whereas males emigrate and compete for rank in other social groups. Competition for rank is inherently risky. Therefore, it has long been hypothesized that risks of injury depend on an individual's sex, rank, and age in ways that maximize an individual's reproductive output. However, studies quantifying such risks have been lacking. We analyzed 20 years of long-term data on wounds among olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Males received significantly more wounds than female baboons, and both sexes received the most wounds at ages when they competed most intensely for rank. Immature females received more wounds than immature males in their natal groups, and immature females were more likely to be wounded by females than were immature males. Males in their natal group were wounded less often than immigrant males of the same age. The risk of wounding did not depend on rank in females but rose with rank in immigrant males. Lastly, females received significantly more wounds when cycling (not pregnant or lactating). This study is among the first to quantify the risk of injury for competitors of different sexes, ages, and ranks in social groups. Our results support the prediction that individuals target aggression toward present and future competitors and suggest that sexual coercion increases the risk of wounding in cycling females.


Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have been undergoing major changes recently. While old constellations are getting modernized, new ones are being completed. These developments mean that more satellites than ever are in orbit and broadcasting GNSS signals. This ever-increasing number of satellites is naturally having major effects on the positioning performance of the Precise Point Positioning (PPP) measurement processing technique. Indeed, while PPP suffers from relatively long initial convergence times, it has been proved that making use of as many signals as possible helps in decreasing this PPP convergence time. On the other hand, Ambiguity Resolution (AR) has also proved to be very effective in reducing convergence time, especially when combined with multiple constellations and multiple frequencies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of AR in the current multi-GNSS context and vice versa using static, geodetic receiver measurements. At first, the effect of the number of used constellations and AR on the PPP performance is investigated. The results indicate that fixing ambiguities with fewer constellations can be more beneficial than processing more constellations without any AR. For instance, a typical fixed GPS + float GLONASS solution converges in 9.5 minutes compared to 11.5 minutes for a typical float GPS + GLONASS + Galileo + BeiDou solution. These results illustrate that AR is still relevant even with the myriad of satellites currently in orbit. The next step in the paper analyzes the relationship between the number of satellites and multi-GNSS float and fixed solutions through the simulation of obstructions. Results show an exponential decay in the convergence time as the number of satellites increases for both float and fixed solutions, following the law of diminishing returns, meaning that ever-increasing the number of satellites is not the answer to improving the PPP performance. In that case, AR is a good alternative to further reduce the PPP convergence time, as the fixed solution results in reduced (40% to 50%) convergence times for all the tested average number of processed satellites. Results also show that even with a 30° elevation mask, a multi-GNSS PPP-AR solution can be comparable and have an even shorter convergence time (17%) than a float multi-GNSS solution without any obstructions – despite the full float solution using more than 9 additional satellites compared to the obstructed solution.


The increasing popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) -- games involving thousands of players participating simultaneously in a single virtual world - has highlighted the scalability bottlenecks present in centralised Client/Server (C/S) architectures. Researchers are proposing Peer-to-Peer (P2P) architectures as a scalable alternative to C/S; however, P2P is more vulnerable to cheating as it decentralises the game state and logic to un-trusted peer machines, rather than using trusted centralised servers. Cheating is a major concern for online games, as a minority of cheaters can potentially ruin the game for all players. In this paper we present a review and classification of known cheats, and provide real-world examples where possible. Further, we discuss counter measures used by C/S architectures to prevent cheating. Finally, we discuss several P2P architectures designed to prevent cheating, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.


This paper is based on an ethnographic fieldwork that was carried out in Tuscany, Italy, on blood gift and transfusion hospital ward with cord-blood donors, patients and doctors. The research was focused on the epistemological battle between the biomedical knowledge and the logics and the practices of gift in the healthcare space. By using the moral frame of gift, donors can increase their agency and can face the hegemony of clinical discourse. A theoretical change occurs when we analyze the practices of gift and their development in a complex social body like healthcare space is. The representations of actors, the making of ideologies, the production of meaning and the dialogue between different agencies structure the practices and should not be excluded by researchers. The ethnographic data show the need to go beyond the common dichotomies between gift and market, "generalized altruism" and methodological individualism. The plurality of logics characterizing the healthcare space has in the conception of time a further misunderstanding: social actors at stake (the doctors, the patients, the donors) convey different experiences of time (the time of pregnancy, the time of work, the time of wait) that coexist inside the hospital ward. In particular, the biomedical discourse is unable to take into account the different aspects of time in patient's experience. Thus, we observe different social constructions of time and how their development gives rise to personal, political, psychological, institutional conflicts.


Invasive ship rats (Rattus rattus) pose a threat to the biota of Goat Island (9.3 ha), New Zealand. In June 2016 we installed 10 Goodnature A24 CO2 powered self-resetting rat and stoat traps equipped with digital strike counters (Goodnature Ltd., Wellington, NZ) to control rat numbers on the island. The self-resetting traps were monitored with motion-activated cameras to develop a measure of rat abundance from camera traps. All devices were checked on 10 occasions from August 2016 to October 2017. The videos revealed high rat activity on the island, which reduced over time. Counting only the number of videos that showed rats did not result in any loss of information when compared to more laboriously counting individual rats in videos and was therefore the preferred method for obtaining an index of relative rat abundance. We also found that digital strike counters designed to record the number of times an A24 is triggered, accurately reflected the number of individuals killed by A24s. However, measuring rat abundance in number of rat videos per 100 camera nights was shown to be of greater value when rat abundance was low and A24s failed to detect the remaining individuals.


The study investigated the existence of polymorphism at transferrin (Tf) locus in Najdi sheep breed. A polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under alkaline condition was used to distinguish Najdi Tf alleles. Analysis of 35 animals revealed that all animals were polymorphic, showing many genotypes with clear biodiversity in the Tf gene. Six Tf genotypes consisting of three homozygote types (AA, BB and CC) and three heterozygote types (AB, AC and BC) were detected. These genotypes are controlled by codominant autosomal gene according to the Mendelian laws of inheritance. The highest gene frequencies were calculated as 0.47 for Tf B. Differences between expected and observed number of tf genotypes were significant. Therefore, polymorphism of sheep tfs can be used for the identification of its offspring and its possible benefit in genetic improvement programs of domestic animals and the conservation of bio-diversity. This will also be useful in genetic improvement process by enhancing selection and breeding programs.


Many Latin American states are facing epidemic levels of organised and interpersonal violence. This violence is attributed to a number of risk factors, even if the illegal drugs trade and punitive responses to trafficking are widely credited with being the principal drivers. Yet while trafficking in narcotics is commonly associated with insecurity, weakening governance and underdevelopment, drugs as such are not the central problem. Rather, it is competition among criminal factions for control over the trade and a protracted "war" declared against drugs that have ratcheted up insecurity from Mexico to Brazil. The outcomes of this four-decade-long war are at best uneven, with gains in one country overshadowed by severe declines in others. More optimistically, a regional debate is under way that is challenging the status quo with a more concerted focus on prevention and demand reduction. Latin American societies are beginning to explore alternative approaches to drug control tailored to regional and national needs and priorities. There is a visible shift toward a discourse that emphasises prevention and treats consumption as a public health issue, focuses repression on the most violent criminal organisations and redirects law enforcement toward harm reduction. The hope is that this may presage a turn toward investment in policies that are animated more by evidence than ideology.


In this paper, we describe the fundamental differences between three-dimensional (range) images and two-dimensional (luminance) images. A number of problems arise which are unique to range data, including in particular a strong sensitivity to quantization effects. Although range images and luminance images are both arrays of scalars, the range image conceptually represents a surface in space and cannot be naively manipulated using the conventional image processing functions such as 3 × 3 convolution kernels. If the range data are regarded as a sampling of a surface parametrized by the focal plane coordinates, it is possible to find a representation for the surface normal and for the surface curvature in terms of familiar-looking convolution kernels.


ABSTRACT Near traffic routes and urban areas, the outdoor air particle number concentration is typically dominated by ultrafine particles. These particles can enter into the nearby buildings affecting the human exposure on ultrafine particles indoors. In this study, we demonstrate an aerosol generation system which mimics the characteristic traffic related aerosol. The aerosol generation system was used to determine the size-resolved particle filtration efficiencies of five typical commercial filters in the particle diameter range of 1.3–240 nm. Two different HEPA filters were observed to be efficient in all particle sizes. A fibrous filter (F7) was efficient at small particle sizes representing the nucleation mode of traffic related aerosol, but its efficiency decreased down to 60% with the increasing particle size. In contrast, the filtration efficiency of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) increased as a function of the particle size, being more efficient for the soot mode of traffic related aerosol than for the nucleation mode. An electret filter with a charger was relatively efficient (filtration efficiency >85%) at all the observed particle sizes. The HEPA, F7 and electret filters were found to practically remove the particles/nanoclusters smaller than 3 nm. All in all, the filtration efficiencies were observed to be strongly dependent on the particle size and significant differences were found between different filters. Based on these results, we suggest that the particulate filter test standards should be extended to cover the ultrafine particles, which dominate the particle concentrations in outdoor air and are hazardous for public health. Copyright © 2017 American Association for Aerosol Research


While different neural models often exhibit latent spaces that are alike when exposed to semantically related data, this intrinsic similarity is not always immediately discernible. Towards a better understanding of this phenomenon, our work shows how representations learned from these neural modules can be translated between different pre-trained networks via simpler transformations than previously thought. An advantage of this approach is the ability to estimate these transformations using standard, well-understood algebraic procedures that have closed-form solutions. Our method directly estimates a transformation between two given latent spaces, thereby enabling effective stitching of encoders and decoders without additional training. We extensively validate the adaptability of this translation procedure in different experimental settings: across various trainings, domains, architectures (e.g., ResNet, CNN, ViT), and in multiple downstream tasks (classification, reconstruction). Notably, we show how it is possible to zero-shot stitch text encoders and vision decoders, or vice-versa, yielding surprisingly good classification performance in this multimodal setting.


The Tibetan Plateau (TP) with an average elevation of over 4000 m a.s.l. is the world's highest and most extensive highland. The scarcity of climatic observations limits our understanding of surface air temperature change in the region. Thus, we compare temperatures and their trends from 71 homogenized surface stations (with elevations above 2000 m a.s.l.) with National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis (NCEP/NCAR hereafter) and European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA‐40 hereafter) in the eastern and central TP during 1961–2004. For current climatology, ERA‐40 is more similar to the surface stations than NCEP/NCAR. Compared with surface stations, both NCEP/NCAR and ERA‐40 reanalyses have cold biases, which are mainly a result of differences in topographical height, and station aspect and slope. Warming trends at the surface stations are on average stronger than in both reanalyses, but ERA‐40 captures the surface warming more clearly than NCEP/NCAR on an annual and seasonal basis. Since ERA‐40 more closely represents the surface temperatures and their trends in the central and eastern TP, ERA‐40 predictions are selected to examine change in the western TP where there are few surface stations. NCEP/NCAR, on the other hand, is more representative of free air temperature conditions. The 'observation minus reanalysis' (OMR) method can be used to estimate the impact of surface changes on climate by computing the difference between surface observations and NCEP/NCAR (which only contains the forcing influencing the assimilated atmospheric trends). The OMR trend is significantly increasing but the extent to which the changes in local environment are responsible needs further study. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society


Scaling a web applications can be easy for simple CRUD software running when you use Platform as a Service Clouds (PaaS). But if you need to deploy a complex software, with many components and a lot users, you will need have a mix of cloud services in PaaS, SaaS and IaaS layers. You will also need knowledge in architecture patterns to make all these software components communicate accordingly. In this article, we share our experience of using cloud services to scale a web application. We show usage examples of load balancing, session sharing, e-mail delivery, asynchronous processing, logs processing, monitoring, continuous deployment, realtime user monitoring (RUM). These are a mixture of development and system operations (DevOps) that improved our application availability, scalability and performance.


Based upon the results of three empirical studies conducted in Chile, this paper discusses: (1) the expansion of the perception of a specific type of inequalities in this society: interactive inequalities. These are perceived inequalities that focus on the treatment received in ordinary interactions between individuals and between these and institutions; (2) The fact that these new perceptions must be understood in the context of specific socio-historical transformations of the meanings and scope of the notion of equality. Therefore, this paper pays attention to the paths by which equality has acquired new content in Chilean society – equality in the social bond – making possible and legitimizing the perception of what we have called interactive inequalities. Finally, it argues for the importance and analytical priority of the sociological study of equality, especially when approaching inequalities.


More than 10% of the world's working-age population are migrants. Migration issues are particularly relevant in Europe, as 2.7 million people came to Europe in 2019 alone. According to the report "WWWforEurope", the quantity of research investigating cultural diversity is on the rise, the authors of the report Dohse and Gold (2014) have also noted that cultural diversity affects critical economic variables - economic growth, innovation, and the social welfare. Therefore, Gelfand et al. (2017) argue that research on organizational behavior should include more theories of cultural diversity. There has been little such research in Lithuania, so this article aims to analyze immigrant diversity perspectives in Lithuanian organizations. The qualitative empirical research was conducted using expert interviews. Content analysis was conducted using NVivo software. The results show that Lithuania has a low level of immigrant diversity, but therefore there is currently a growing interest and awareness related to this topic. Immigrant diversity is occurring in international organizations, globally born companies, organizations expanding into foreign markets or organizations founded by immigrants themselves. Two types of organizations (according to immigrant diversity perspectives) were categorized: 1) monolithic organization (this type is more prominent, based on resistance and "discrimination-and-fairness" paradigms and highly related to the cultural context of the country); 2) multicultural organization (focus on "integration-and-learning" and "access-and-legitimacy" paradigms).


Abstract "Clinical equipoise" is defined as the genuine uncertainty by the expert medical community of the most beneficial treatment. A survey performed in 2013 by a patient support group, Ovacome, of gynaecological oncologists in the UK on ultra-radical surgery in advanced ovarian cancer has shown that there is a wide variation in surgical practice across the country. In addition, there were mixed views on the quality of published evidence justifying it's performance, signifying a state of clinical equipoise. The survey also identified widespread insufficient infra-structural resources and lack of surgical training and skills. The majority of respondents would be prepared to undertake additional training to acquire the surgical skills and/or refer to other centres/surgeons already performing the surgery and/or recruit to surgical trials investigating ultra-radical surgery in advanced ovarian cancer.


Both elementary and high school curricula prescribe educational activities aimed at student well-being. Many references to well-being in these curricula are based around and refer to engaging in "bodily practices." In this paper, we examine the academic and social practices that teachers can draw upon to improve the well-being of their students, in order to make them responsible for managing their own well-being, as per the institutional recommendations. Defining these academic and social practices and, at the same time, reflecting on them and their common and specific features leads us to consider and discuss the issues underlying this attempt at a definition. These include the categorization of so-called "bodily well-being" practices at school in the professional literature, the place and role dedicated to the body in the social practices to which they refer, and finally, the assignment of purposes to these activities in schools.


Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy is introduced as an in situ diagnostic for phenol and intermediate products in an aqueous solution degraded by corona discharges. The complications that are inherent in applying LIF as a diagnostic for aqueous solutions are experimentally examined. The LIF intensities of phenol and the intermediate products are measured as a function of time. The absolute phenol concentration is determined. We confirm the applicability of LIF spectroscopy for monitoring phenol concentration during degradation.


"Floodplain Management" outlines a new paradigm for flood management, one that emphasizes cost-effective, long-term success by integrating physical, chemical, and biological systems with societal capabilities. It describes our present flood management practices, which are often based on dam or levee projects that do not incorporate the latest understandings about river processes. And it suggests that a better solution is to work with the natural tendencies of the river: retreat from the floodplain by preventing future development (and sometimes even removing existing structures); accommodate the effects of floodwaters with building practices; and protect assets with nonstructural measures if possible - and with large structural projects only if absolutely necessary.


By means of linearized-body theory and reverse-flow theorems, the wave drag of a system of fusiform bodies at zero angle of attack and supersonic speeds is studied to determine the effect of varying the relative location of the component parts. The investigation is limited to two-body and three-body arrangements of Sears-Haack minimum-drag bodies. It is found that in certain arrangements the interference effects are beneficial, and may even result in the two or three-body system having no more wave drag than that of the principal body alone. The most favorable location appears to be one in which the maximum cross-section of the auxiliary body is slightly forward of the Mach cone from the tail of the main body. The least favorable is the region between the Mach cone from the nose and the forecone from the tail of the main body. (author).


Observations are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity loss, and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives demand unbiased, integrated and regularly updated biodiversity and ecosystem service data. However, efforts to monitor biodiversity are spatially and temporally fragmented, taxonomically biased, and lack integration in Europe. EuropaBON aims to bridge this gap by designing an EU-wide framework for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. EuropaBON harnesses the power of modelling essential variables to integrate different reporting streams, data sources, and monitoring schemes. These essential variables provide consistent knowledge about multiple dimensions of biodiversity change across space and time. They can then be analyzed and synthesized to support decision-making at different spatial scales, from the sub-national to the European scale, through the production of indicators and scenarios. To develop essential biodiversity and ecosystem variables workflows that are policy relevant, EuropaBON is built around stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange (WP2). EuropaBON will work with stakeholders to identify user and policy needs for biodiversity monitoring and investigate the feasibility of setting up a center to coordinate monitoring activities across Europe (WP2). Together with stakeholders, EuropaBON will assess current monitoring efforts to identify gaps, data and workflow bottlenecks, and analyse cost-effectiveness of different schemes (WP3). This will be used to co-design improved monitoring schemes using novel technologies to become more representative temporally, spatially and taxonomically, delivering multiple benefits to users and society (WP4). Finally, EuropaBON will demonstrate in a set of showcases how workflows tailored to the Birds Directive, Habitats Directive, Water Framework Directive, Climate and Restoration Policy, and the Bioeconomy Strategy, can be implemented (WP5).


The paper presents the development of a method that determines building material and surface properties using relative simple and low-budget experiments, with the following conditions: (I) Constrained: the material is located in building constructions and only non destructive measurements are allowed. (II) Unconstrained: the material if is freely available for optimal testing. The latter comprehends an optimal design of an experimental set up for smart determination of heat and moisture properties using both normal and inverse modeling techniques. The preliminary results show that the inverse modeling method using MatLab is almost perfectly capable of reproducing the material parameters using the 3D Comsol simulations as input. However, using the actual measurements as input for the inverse modeling provides unsatisfactory results so far. It is concluded that the suggested methodology of the inverse problem technique seems promising for estimating material properties but requires that: (1) All measurements errors must be known; (2) The (measured) signals itself should deliver enough input power into the system; (3) The simulated objective data should be sensitive enough for changes in material properties.


Objective: The goal of this work was to assess electrophysiologic response changes to acoustic stimuli as an intracochlear electrode impacted cochlear structures in an animal model of hearing preservation cochlear implantation. The ultimate goal is to develop efficient procedures for assessing the status of cochlear physiology for intraoperative use. Methods: Sixteen gerbils and 18 ears were tested. A rigid electrode was inserted through a basal turn cochleostomy and directed toward the basilar membrane/osseous spiral lamina complex. We recorded acoustically evoked early auditory potentials including cochlear microphonics (CMs) and compound action potentials (CAPs) to a short stimulation sequence consisting of one stimulus frequency and intensity as the electrode was advanced. A microendoscope was used to visualize the electrode insertion progress and to identify the site of electrode impact. After each experiment, the site of intracochlear trauma was confirmed using whole mount preparations. Results: Electrophysiologic changes correlated well with the degree and location of trauma. We observed four distinct patterns. In addition, the endoscope in conjunction with the short recording sequence allowed for the detection of response changes that were reversible when the electrode was retracted. These cases were associated with less than full-thickness damage on histology. Conclusion: The short recording sequence to obtain acoustically evoked intracochlear potentials and the microendoscope allowed us to detect various levels of cochlear trauma including minor and reversible damage. Recordings of this type are potentially available using current implant technology. Future improvements in the measurements can be expected to improve the efficiency of the recording paradigm to produce a clinically useful tool.


Background Growing evidence indicates that measures of body composition may be related to clinical outcomes in patients with malignancies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether measures of regional adiposity–including subcutaneous adipose tissue index (SATI) and visceral adipose tissue index (VATI)–can be associated with overall survival (OS) in Taiwanese patients with bone metastases. Methods This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data. We examined 1280 patients with bone metastases who had undergone radiotherapy (RT) between March 2005 and August 2013. Body composition (SATI, VATI, and muscle index) was assessed by computed tomography at the third lumbar vertebra and normalized for patient height. Patients were divided into low- and high-adiposity groups (for both SATI and VATI) according to sex-specific median values. Results Both SATI (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.696; P<0.001) and VATI (HR: 0.87; P = 0.037)–but not muscle index–were independently associated with a more favorable OS, with the former showing a stronger relationship. The most favorable OS was observed in women with high SATI (11.21 months; 95% confidence interval: 9.434−12.988; P<0.001). Conclusions High SATI and VATI are associated with a more favorable OS in Taiwanese patients with bone metastases referred for RT. The question as to whether clinical measures aimed at improving adiposity may improve OS in this clinical population deserves further scrutiny.


Objective: Hand and foot joints are the primary targets in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and decrease in the periarticular bone mineral density (BMD) is one of the earliest and considerable change in the affected joint. This study aimed to assess the relationship between foot bone mineral density (fBMD) measured by Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and BMD at axial sites, disease activity, functional status and quality of life in patients with RA Materials and Methods: 50 patients with RA, 40 age- and sexmatched patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and 14 voluntary healthy individuals were included in the study. C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), Ritchie Articular Index (RAI), Health Assesment Questionnare (HAQ), and Foot Function Index (FFI) were measured. X-ray of the feet was scored by Larsen and Sharp/van der Heijde methods. Axial and fBMD were measured by DXA. Results: The results of the present study revealed that Turkish patients with RA carrying SE with HLA-DRB1 genes is significantly related with the production of anti-CCP. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of anti-CCP for RA is determined as 73,3% and 100% respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest for the first time that foot BMD measurement by DEXA is a useful and precise method. Foot BMD may reflect both localized and generalized bone loss and may be a potential outcome measure particularly in patients with marked foot involvement. (Turk J Rheumatol 2010; 25: 56-62)


The American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2016 Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium (ASCO-GI), held in San Francisco, California, USA, provided a forum for leading basic scientists and clinical cancer specialists to discuss cutting-edge research in the field of gastrointestinal (GI) oncology. The quest to improve outcomes and patient lives by targeting unmet clinical need, such as refractory illness, fuelled much of the research presented at the 2016 edition of ASCO-GI. The symposium saw the presentation of a number of studies on the current stage of clinical research on regorafenib, an oral tyrosine-kinase inhibitor approved for use in both refractory metastatic colorectal cancer and metastatic GI stromal tumours.


We report the results of our studies on the optical and thermal properties of two nonmesogenic compounds, namely, tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (TTAB) and glacial acetic acid (GAA). The mixture exhibits very interesting schilieren texture of micellar nematic lyophase, smectic A (SmA), and SmG phases for all concentrations of TTAB sequentially when the specimen is cooled from its isotropic phase. The order parameter (S) of the micellar nematic phase is estimated with the help of temperature dependence of optical anisotropy from the measured refractive index and density data. The temperature variation of order parameter of the experimental curve is very well fitted with the Mayer–Saupe theoretical curve. The temperature variation of electrical conductivity is also discussed. The formation of above phases has been confirmed by optical X-ray and differential scanning calorimetry studies.


The purpose of this research was to evaluate the use of PCR for the identification of ocular isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using primers specific to the exotoxin A gene of the bacteria. Genomic DNA was obtained from ocular microbial isolates of keratitis patients. Primers were designed based on the published sequence of the exotoxin A gene of P. aeruginosa. Using the primers designed, PCR reactions were performed on the DNA samples. The PCR was also examined for its specificity and sensitivity. In addition, a direct PCR using heating method was attempted on P. aeruginosa with no separate DNA extraction step. ATCC strains of P. aeruginosa were included as positive controls. The rest of the bacteria other than P. aeruginosa served as negative controls. A single band was obtained when analysed on agarose gel electrophoresis only from samples that contained genomic DNA of P. aeruginosa. The direct PCR method was also successful with the same band produced from the amplification. The whole process was completed within 4 h. The direct PCR amplification targeting at the exotoxin A gene of P. aeruginosa is potentially a rapid, specific, sensitive and relatively simple method for the identification of ocular isolates of P. aeruginosa.


California red scale is suppressed to very low densities by the parasitoid Aphytis melinus. The system also appears stable. We report on an experimental test of the hypothesis that stability is caused by a refuge for scale. In a grapefruit grove in southern California in 1984-1985, the bark in the interior part of the tree provided a partial refuge from parasitism. Scale were -100 times denser there than in the exterior of trees. In a field experiment, we removed Argentine ants from some blocks of trees to test whether (1) ants caused the refuge by interfering with Aphytis and (2) the expected reduction in scale density in the refuge would lead to an unstable interaction in the exterior. We also tested for density- dependent parasitism, host mutilation, and predation by analyzing data from samples and from scale placed in the field. The temporal variability of the scale was at the low end of the range recorded in field populations. The experiment provided some evidence in support of the refuge hypothesis. The population in the refuge fluctuated much less than that in the exterior. Ant exclusion led to increased parasitism and lower scale density in the interior, and to increased fluc- tuations in abundance in the refuge and exterior. However, these changes were relatively small and perhaps temporary, suggesting that (1) ants are not the main cause of the refuge and that (2) we did not reduce the refuge density enough to determine whether the system would go unstable in the absence of the refuge population. Parasitism, host mutilation, and predation rates on scale showed no temporal density dependence, either direct or delayed, though detection of such patterns is difficult. Possible alternative stabilizing mechanisms include size-dependent interactions between red scale and Aphytis.


ABSTRACT As the world is witnessing the epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019, emerging genetics and clinical pieces of evidence suggest a similar immunopathology to those of severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome. Staying at home to prevent the spread of the virus and consequently being largely inactive is associated with unintended consequences. These can actually enhance the infection risk and exacerbate poor health conditions including impaired immune function. Physical activity is a feasible way of improving health, particularly physical and mental health in a time of social isolation. However, people with certain health conditions in these circumstances may need a special physical activity programme in addition to any exercise they may already be performing via online programmes. This review aims to provide practical guidelines during the COVID-19 quarantine period. We suggest performing aerobic, resistance training, respiratory muscle training and yoga in the healthy, and in those with upper respiratory tract illness, patients with lower respiratory tract illness should be restricted to respiratory muscle training and yoga. In addition, vitamins D and C, omega-3 fatty acids, and regular consumption of fruit and vegetables might be considered as nutritional aids to support the immune system in those affected by COVID-19.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) nucleocapsid protein 7 (NCp7), a zinc finger protein, plays critical roles in viral replication and maturation and is an attractive target for drug development. However, the development of drug‐like molecules that inhibit NCp7 has been a significant challenge. In this study, a series of novel 2‐mercaptobenzamide prodrugs were investigated for anti‐HIV activity in the context of NCp7 inactivation. The molecules were synthesized from the corresponding thiosalicylic acids, and they are all crystalline solids and stable at room temperature. Derivatives with a range of amide side chains and aromatic substituents were synthesized and screened for anti‐HIV activity. Wide ranges of antiviral activity were observed, with IC50 values ranging from 1 to 100 μm depending on subtle changes to the substituents on the aromatic ring and side chain. Results from these structure–activity relationships were fit to a probable mode of intracellular activation and interaction with NCp7 to explain variations in antiviral activity. Our strategy to make a series of mercaptobenzamide prodrugs represents a general new direction to make libraries that can be screened for anti‐HIV activity.


An experimental investigation on structural lightweight concrete was conducted using oil palm shell (OPS) as coarse aggregate, which is a type of solid waste discarded in large quantities in palm oil mills. The compressive strength and the pull-out bond strength were determined in this study for up to 28 days under three curing conditions. These include two currently practiced site curing conditions and one laboratory full water curing. The full water curing condition was considered as controlled curing. The obtained 28-day air-dry density, compressive strength and pull-out strength were in the range of 1930-1995 kg/m3, 25-28 MPa and 5.4-9.4 MPa respectively which satisfied the requirements for structural lightweight concrete. The developed compressive strength and pull-out strength under both site curing conditions were relatively lower than full water curing condition but still were higher than minimum requirement as per standard. Journal of Civil Engineering Research and Practice Vol. 3(1) 2006: 9-19


Electro-pneumatic servo valve is an electro-mechanical device which converts electric signals into a proper pneumatic flow rate or pressure. In order to improve the overall performance of pneumatic servo systems, electro-pneumatic servo valves are required, which have fast dynamic characteristics, no air leakage at a null point, and can be fabricated at a low-cost. The first objective of this research is to design and to fabricate a new electro-pneumatic servo valve which satisfies the above-mentioned requirements. In order to design the mechanism of the servo valve optimally, the flow inside the valve depending upon the position of spool was analyzed variously, and on the basis of such analysis results, the valve mechanism, which was formed by combination of the spool and the sleeve, was designed and manufactured. And a tester for conducting an overall performance test was designed and manufactured, and as a result of conducting the flow rate test, the pressure test and the frequency test on the developed pneumatic servo valve.


RATIONALE
Cyclosporin A (CsA) is known to preserve cardiac contractile function during endotoxemia, but the mechanism is unclear. Increased nitric oxide (NO) production and altered mitochondrial function are implicated as mechanisms contributing to sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction, and CsA has the capacity to reduce NO production and inhibit mitochondrial dysfunction relating to the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT).

OBJECTIVES
We hypothesized that CsA would protect against endotoxin-mediated cardiac contractile dysfunction by attenuating NO production and preserving mitochondrial function.

METHODS
Left ventricular function was measured continuously over 4 h in cats assigned as follows: control animals (n = 7); LPS alone (3 mg/kg, n = 8); and CsA (6 mg/kg, n = 7), a calcineurin inhibitor that blocks the MPT, or tacrolimus (FK506, 0.1 mg/kg, n = 7), a calcineurin inhibitor lacking MPT activity, followed in 30 min by LPS. Myocardial tissue was then analyzed for NO synthase-2 expression, tissue nitration, protein carbonylation, and mitochondrial morphology and function.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
LPS treatment resulted in impaired left ventricular contractility, altered mitochondrial morphology and function, and increased protein nitration. As hypothesized, CsA pretreatment normalized cardiac performance and mitochondrial respiration and reduced myocardial protein nitration. Unexpectedly, FK506 pretreatment had similar effects, normalizing both cardiac and mitochondrial parameters. However, CsA and FK506 pretreatments markedly increased protein carbonylation in the myocardium despite elevated manganese superoxide dismutase activity during endotoxemia.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicate that calcineurin is a critical regulator of mitochondrial respiration, tissue nitration, protein carbonylation, and contractile function in the heart during acute endotoxemia.


The ecological status of the Welala and Shesher Wetlands, on the eastern side of Lake Tana, were studied during pre-rainy, main-rainy, post-rainy and dry seasons from May 2009 to January 2010. Species composition, diversity and abundance of macrophytes, benthic macro-invertebrates and birds were assessed and physico-chemical parameters were measured. Phosphate and silicate concentrations, conductivity, TDS and turbidity varied significantly (p 0.05) between the two wetlands. The values for dissolved oxygen and pH ranged between 4.8 - 7.8 mg/l and 6.7 - 7.6, respectively. The values for nitrate and phosphate ranged between 0.2 3.1 mg/l and 0.2 - 3.3 mg/l, respectively. A total of 274 benthic macro-invertebrate individuals belonging to 5 families were collected, 32, 699 individual birds belonging to 62 species were enumerated and 13 species of macrophytes were identified. The two wetlands are shrinking at an alarming rate, mainly because of unsustainable farming practices and a huge irrigation project on Ribb River which is at presently under construction. Farming practices include draining and pumping of water for irrigation and expansion of farmland at the cost of the wetlands. The construction of a dam in Ribb River prevents overflow from Ribb River into the wetlands and disrupts the connection with Lake Tana which is vital for the survival of these two wetlands. We conclude that the Welala and Shesher Wetlands are valuable wetlands which need urgently protection.


So many energy saving strategies to realize the low energy house are proposed in these days. Even if the energy saving performances are similar between the strategies, the costs are in abroad ranges. Therefore, the application of the energy saving strategies should be based upon two considerations; one is energy saving performance and the other is the cost. In this study, the decision making method for application of the passive design technologies in the design stage of the low energy apartment house are suggested. By utilizing the result of this study, practitioners can make an effective design alternatives which solve the conflicted values; energy saving and cost.


This research examined how and under what conditions gender affects leadership effectiveness. Grounding the analysis in the Social Identity Theory of Leadership (SITL), a set of hypotheses was developed which predicted that the effect of leader gender on leadership effectiveness will be mediated by leadership group prototypicality. Stemming from the Expectancy Violations Theory and the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis, leadership group prototypicality was hypothesized to be a function of firstly the interaction between leader gender and leadership styles (directive versus participative), and secondly between leader gender, leadership styles (directive versus participative), and follower gender. Three studies were conducted to test this. Study 1 collected data from 151 participants who sat through a video manipulation. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that female leaders were considered more prototypical and thus more effective than male leaders when they engaged in directive leadership, and that this relationship was particularly pronounced with male followers. Regardless of follower gender, male leaders were not considered more prototypical than female leaders when they engaged in participative leadership, and the moderated mediation hypotheses were not supported. Study 2 attempted to replicate this finding by utilizing a written scenario manipulation. Data was collected from 170 participants although moderated mediation analyses did not reveal a significant effect of leader gender on leadership effectiveness through leadership group prototypicality. While the findings were in line with the Role Congruity theory, they were also in line with the SITL. Finally, Study 3 replicated the findings of the first experiment in a field setting. Data was collected from 126 employees in the services sector. As in Study 1, moderated mediation analyses showed that female leaders who engaged in directive leadership were more prototypical and ultimately more effective than male leaders who engaged in equivalent behaviour. Study 3 also did not find support for the moderated mediation hypotheses under participative leadership. In sum, the studies conducted provide internal and external validity to the proposed research model.


Kupffer cells carry on the cell surface a lectin-like receptor with specificity for D-galactose/D-glucose residues. After tryptic digestion of receptors, new lectin activity appears on the plasma membrane within 15 min. Protein biosynthesis de novo is not involved. This indicates the transfer of new lectin molecules stored within the cell to the cell surface. Kupffer cells can enter a physiological state where receptor recycling does not take place.