Abstract Objective To measure the prevalence of cooking dinner at home in the USA and test whether home dinner preparation habits are associated with socio-economic status, race/ethnicity, country of birth and family structure. Design Cross-sectional analysis. The primary outcome, self-reported frequency of cooking dinner at home, was divided into three categories: 0–1 dinners cooked per week ('never'), 2–5 ('sometimes') and 6–7 ('always'). We used bivariable and multivariable regression analyses to test for associations between frequency of cooking dinner at home and factors of interest. Setting The 2007–2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Subjects The sample consisted of 10 149 participants. Results Americans reported cooking an average of five dinners per week; 8 % never, 43 % sometimes and 49 % always cooked dinner at home. Lower household wealth and educational attainment were associated with a higher likelihood of either always or never cooking dinner at home, whereas wealthier, more educated households were more likely to sometimes cook dinner at home (P < 0·05). Black households cooked the fewest dinners at home (mean = 4·4, 95 % CI 4·2, 4·6). Households with foreign-born reference persons cooked more dinners at home (mean = 5·8, 95 % CI 5·7, 6·0) than households with US-born reference persons (mean = 4·9, 95 % CI 4·7, 5·1). Households with dependants cooked more dinners at home (mean = 5·2, 95 % CI 5·1, 5·4) than households without dependants (mean = 4·6, 95 % CI 4·3, 5·0). Conclusions Home dinner preparation habits varied substantially with socio-economic status and race/ethnicity, associations that likely will have implications for designing and appropriately tailoring interventions to improve home food preparation practices and promote healthy eating.


The surface hardness has an important effect on the wear resistance of different materials. The present study aims to improve the surface hardness of carbon steel through the application of laser surface melting with suitable conditions. The laser beam power and travelling speed are the main factors that affect the properties of the treated zone. In this study, three different conditions of laser beam power (1800, 1500 and 1200 W) at fixed travelling speed of 1000 mm min-1 were chosen to study the effect of laser beam power. The resulted laser treated specimens were investigated in macro and microscopically scale using optical and scanning electron microscope. Hardness measurements were also carried out through the thickness of the laser treated zones. The laser treated areas with all used powers results in melted and solidified zone on the surface of the steel. The laser power of 1800 W results in the deepest value of the laser treated zone (about 1.7 mm). Moreover, by increasing the laser power, the width of the treated zone was slightly increases. At areas near the free surface, large martensite plates were observed in higher laser power (1800 W), while longer acicular martensite was observed in lower laser power (1200 W). For laser power of 1800 W, the bainite structures in ferrite grains were more pronounced in larger areas and in closer areas to the free surface. On the other hand, the lower laser power shows higher hardness on the free surface than that of higher power. The sizes of Heat Affect Zone (HAZ) areas were increased by increasing the laser beam power. In all conditions, the heat affected zone areas were composed of partially decomposed pearlite in ferrite grains.


Good quality carp seed supply in relation to number, time, price and location is a crucial factor for the success of the fish cultivation. To ensure the availability of fish seed under these requirements, this study was technically directed to increase the fertility rate, the hatchability rte and the survival of larvae and post larvae. This study was aimed to find good substrates for spawning and egg hatching of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio L. Were used at Sugar Palm Fiber and Hydrilla sp. as substrates for the egg attachment. For this, males and females of 1:1 weight ratio were put into the spawning pond. Eggs attached to both susbtrate types were counted. Water quality parameters, such as temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH, were also recorded. Results showed that common carps had higher preference to Hydrilla sp. to attach their eggs than to Sugar Palm Fiber (kakaban). Egg hatching is also higher in Hydrilla sp than in Sugar Palm Fiber (kakaban), even though the degree of conception, however were not significantly different.


Abstract The belief that monsters had a human genealogy originating at a point of transgressive sexual behaviour is something attested to in early medieval texts that either circulated or were written in Anglo-Saxon England. The Hiberno-Latin Reference Bible, a widely known text of the period, and the Old English poem Genesis A both suggest that the sexual deviancy of the progenitors of monsters is perceivable as reiterated stigmata on the monstrous bodies of their progeny. It is within this context of theological exegesis and poetic imagination that the Anglo-Saxon drawings of monsters in The Wonders of the East were produced. What one sees in the depiction of monsters therein is a performance of sexual monstrosity that links monsters to their human forbears; but also, by means of the illustrated interaction of monster and human, the monster is brought perilously close to the here-and-now of the Anglo-Saxon reader-viewer's imagined world.


Experiments were performed to study the change in sludge characteristics and sludge granulation during the start-up of a thermophilic methanol-fed upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor. The laboratory scale reactor, was inoculated with thermophilic granular sludge and operated at 55 degrees C over 130 days at organic loading rates (OLR) varying from 2.7 to 47 gCOD.L(-1).d(-1). Physical characterisation was performed for both the seed and the cultivated sludge. Results demonstrated that a good quality, well settleable granular sludge was cultivated and retained in the reactor, allowing an OLR of 47 gCOD.L.d(-1) with 93% of methanol removal, where 79% was converted into methane. Using a community analysis of the cultivated consortia, high numbers of rod-shaped hydrogenotrophic methanogens were enumerated. Biomass washout coincided with a high specific gas load, but was not detrimental to the system in the conditions tested.


ashes out of hope fiction by soviet yiddish writers is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can download it instantly. Our books collection spans in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the ashes out of hope fiction by soviet yiddish writers is universally compatible with any devices to read.


Approximate policy evaluation with linear function approximation is a commonly arising problem in reinforcement learning, usually solved using temporal difference (TD) algorithms. In this paper we introduce a new variant of linear TD learning, called incremental least-squares TD learning, or iLSTD. This method is more data efficient than conventional TD algorithms such as TD(0) and is more computationally efficient than non-incremental least-squares TD methods such as LSTD (Bradtke & Barto 1996; Boyan 1999). In particular, we show that the per-time-step complexities of iLSTD and TD(0) are O(n), where n is the number of features, whereas that of LSTD is O(n2). This difference can be decisive in modern applications of reinforcement learning where the use of a large number features has proven to be an effective solution strategy. We present empirical comparisons, using the test problem introduced by Boyan (1999), in which iLSTD converges faster than TD(0) and almost as fast as LSTD.


This paper investigates whether certain investors either prefer or dislike holding firms that exploit more of the available regulatory wiggle room and if such a strategy pays off. Exploited wiggle room (WR) is captured by relatively aggressive tax planning, financial reporting, and earnings management practices. I find that long-term, low-turnover investors hold firms with 3% higher exploited WR than those held by short-term, high- turnover investors. After experiencing misconduct that breaches their trust, investors significantly reduce the exploited WR of their holdings. Overall, investors seem to have heterogeneous preferences for WR exploitation and a liking for cautious firms that cannot be explained by a prot maximization motive alone.


TV newspapers called PRESENT are multimedia information broadcasting services which provide information programs consisting of text, still pictures, video, and sound. PRESENT is an important application of ISDB and provides interactive programs with easy operation. This paper first describes the basic functions of the multimedia information broadcasting services, interactive program presentation, multimedia structuring, and indexing. Second, systems for realizing interactive presentation in the broadcasting services are discussed and the stored reception system is found to be appropriate for the PRESENT system. Multimedia structuring methods are also discussed and the layout structure, the logical structure, and the hyper-link structure for PRESENT are optimized. It is shown that the automatic indexing method plays an important role in providing effective information access for users. Finally, these services are tested using the experimental PRESENT system which is designed to use satellite broadcast data channels.


Abstract : The research supported by Grant N00014-1-96-0014 concentrated on formulating the drag coefficient and transfer coefficient for heat in the coastal zone using primarily 10 m data collected from an offshore instrumented mast during the Riso Air Sea Experiment (RASEX). This mast was located 2 km off of the Danish coast in 4 m of water. In "Fetch Limited Drag Coefficients" (Chapter 2) existing formulations of the surface roughness length and drag coefficient are evaluated. New formulations are recommended which better include the influence of wave state and fetch. In "Heat Flux in the Coastal Zone" (Chapter 3). the transfer coefficient for heat is found to be sensitive to the shallow depth of the internal boundary layer in offshore flow. As a result, existing parameterizations overestimate the heat flux by a factor of two. A new relationship is proposed for both the thermal roughness length and the transfer coefficient. Preliminary work has been completed on evaluation of the universal profile functions (nondimensional wind shear and temperature gradient functions) briefly summarized in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 presents work from several miscellaneous studies.


This dissertation consists of three essays on health economics and family economics.

Chapter 1 studies the impact of school on childhood obesity in Australia. Consistent with the global obesity epidemic, Australia's rate of childhood obesity has shown an alarming upward trend. While a trend of this magnitude can only be explained by the environment, the exact mechanism remains unclear. I compare early school entrants to late entrants, and finds large differences. This chapter reveals that the school environment is responsible for the phenomenon, and that the environment contributes mostly by exposing children to sugar sweetened beverages, rather than by causing a lack of physical exercise.

Chapter 2 investigates the impact of gender-neutral and marriage-neutral custody laws on domestic violence and homicide in the United States. Using the difference in timing of custody law changes across different states, I find that a custody regime which is neutral in both gender and marriage leads to significant decline in domestic violence for women, and homicide for both men and women.

Chapter 3 studies teen childbearing and establishes its quantitative relationship with maturation of adolescents. Teen childbearing is a particular social concern because unlike most other risky behaviors like smoking and binge drinking, it is a lifelong responsibility that cannot be reversed. Nevertheless, this irreversibility also makes it difficult to identify whether the involved individuals regret their childbearing decision or not. The answer to this question matters to adolescent policies since only if teen childbearing leads to maturation and regret, the society is in a position to intervene the autonomy of adolescents. This chapter applies the methodology devised in Mak (2015) to measure maturation using the simultaneous changes in many reversible risky behaviors. We find that teen childbearing is associated with 18% more probability of being mature conditional on being immature in the previous period for females; the corresponding figure for males are much smaller in magnitude. Together with some other supporting evidence, this result indicates that teen childbearing is a very negative shock to the involved females, yet the involved males tend to leave the burden to their partners.


Introduction and purpose: Self-consistency is an important aspect of adaptation in all stages of life particularly in aging. Furthermore, self-consistency is associated with mental health and life satisfaction and its reduction can lead to several psychological problems. On the other hand, exercise is able to improve flexibility, cognitive function, psychological adjustment and performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of a regular exercise program on self-consistency and life satisfaction. Materials and Methods:In this experimental study, 48 elderly from elderly day care centers were selected using convenience sampling and then randomly divided into control (n = 24) and case (n = 24) groups. The current study was conducted by Solomon design. The cases performed regular physical exercise for four weeks composes of 16 sessions and every single session takes for 15 to 25 minutes. However, the control group followed the routine program that was offered by the day care centers. Data was collected by two questionnaires including demographic characteristics and Rosenberg and Diener scale. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential (Two-way ANOVA) statistics. Findings: The results of this study showed that mean score of self-consistency as well as life satisfaction were higher in cases rather than controls. The results of Two-Way ANOVA after adjustment for the effect of pre-test in cases and controls showed that there is a significant difference in the mean score of self-consistency (p0.001) and life satisfaction (p0.05) among elderly with the regular exercise program. Conclusion: Regular exercise has significant effects on elderly's self-consistency and life satisfaction. Therefore, regular exercise programs in elderly care centers can serve as a way to increase quality of life and promote health of elderly. It is recommend to integrate regular exercise programs into other elderly health care interventions.


It is not yet understood whether the implementation of traceability systems can contribute towards restoring consumer confidence in food quality and safety, one of the goals of the European Food Law. To date, little is known about how consumers perceive the role and potential impact of traceability within the supply chain. This paper aims to provide insight into how traceability information can offer guarantees of food quality and safety, and contribute towards increased consumer confidence. Data, collected in four EU countries, examines salient cognitions and attitudes that underpin consumer beliefs about product traceability that will influence their decision making. It will link traceability- related food attributes to perceived benefits (in terms of quality and safety) and important consumer values. Furthermore, variations between different consumer s are examined to illustrate how the concepts of food safety and food quality may have different meanings and consequences in the various European countries. Understanding which benefits consumer s associate with traceability will assist in providing consumers with traceability information in line with their requirement s.


This paper presents a novel (Extended/Unscented) Kalman Filter by augmenting the event handling procedure of Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solvers with the predictor-corrector scheme of Extended/Unscented discrete Kalman Filter (EKF/UKF) introducing a variable step size Kalman Filter. This innovation allows a new quality of precision while operating Kalman Filters. The original Kalman Filter is based on a time-discrete predictor-corrector scheme considering fixed step size. The main new idea is to introduce and control step size handling not introduced before. Step size control of EKF/UKF will increase the performance when applied to switching/stiff systems. The step size is controlled based on the current performance (EKF/UKF innovation) and is adapted during the estimation procedure based on an event handling algorithm. The proposed event handling algorithm consists of two parts: relaxing sample time and restricting sample time (ST). Relaxing procedure is used to avoid high computational time when no rapid change exists in system dynamics. Restricting procedure is considered to improve the estimation performance by decreasing the EKF/UKF step size in the case of fast dynamical behavior (switching/stiff behavior). Effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified considering the well-known Van der Pol oscillator as a common example of stiff systems.


The present work is part of the Project for Scientific Research and Technological Development "Accessibility for All in Tourism", focusing on modal interfaces designed according to the concepts of "Universal Design" and "Age Sensitive Design". In this project 851 surveys were carried out on elderly tourists who travelled in the Algarve (Portugal) through the international Airport of Faro, in 2018, with a view to understanding their use of means of transport in their daily life. It characterizes the senior tourist in the Algarve according to: gender, age, disabilities that affect mobility and the need to use technical aids to move. It analyses and compares the means of transportation used by elderly tourists with and without disabilities. Findings demonstrate that elderly people with disabilities walk less on foot daily and several times a week and the majority of the respondents with disabilities claim to never using the bus, train and tram/metro. Respondents concede to having specific limitations in the use of some public transport. Older people with disabilities behave differently than other older people with regard to the choice and frequency of a particular means of transport.


With the continuously increasing number of cores, on-chip communication has gained a significant role in taking advantage of the multicore chips. Therefore, designing efficient routing algorithms is highly desirable to increase the performance of the Networks-on-Chip (NoC). In comparison with deterministic routing methods, adaptive routing offers better performance by evenly distributing the traffic over the network. Adaptive routing strategies try to avoid congested or malfunctioning areas by dynamically sending the packets through alternative paths based on the network's congestion condition. The routing algorithm proposed in this paper is mainly based on Hamiltonian path-based strategies for multicast traffic. This method reaches a high degree of adaptiveness by exploiting the eligible minimal paths between the source and the destination. Imposing some restrictions in choosing the potential paths ensures a deadlock- and livelock-free algorithm without using virtual channels. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm performs significantly better in terms of latency and power consumption compared to the other adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms. This efficiency is achieved by alleviating congestion across the network.


The tuneable properties of surface-active ionic liquids (SAIL) and Pluronics are dramatically magnified by combining them in aqueous solutions. The thermo-controlled character of both, essential in the extraction of valuable compounds, can be fine-tuned by properly selecting the Pluronic and SAIL nature. However, further understanding of the nanoscale interactions directing the aggregation in these complex mixtures is needed to effectively design and control these systems. In this work, a simple and transferable coarse-grained model for molecular dynamics simulations, based on the MARTINI force field, is presented to study the impact of SAILs in Pluronics aggregation in aqueous solutions. The diverse amphiphilic characteristics and micelle morphologies were exemplified by selecting four archetypical non-ionic Pluronics; two normal, L-31 and L-35 and, two reverse, 10R5 and 31R1. The impact of the alkyl-chain length and the headgroup nature were evaluated with the imidazolium [C10mim]Cl, [C14mim]Cl and phosphonium-based [P4,4,4,14]Cl SAILs. Cloud point temperature (CPT) measurements at different Pluronic concentrations with 0.3 %wt of SAIL in aqueous solution emphasised the distinct impact of SAIL nature on the thermo-response behaviour. The main effect of SAIL addition to non-ionic Pluronics aqueous solutions is the formation of Pluronic/SAIL hybrid micelles, where the presence of SAIL molecules introduces a charged character to the micelle surface. Thus, additional energy is necessary to induce micelle aggregation, leading to the observed increase in the experimental CPT curves. The SAIL showed a relatively weak impact in Pluronic micelles with relatively high PPG hydrophobic content, whereas this effect was more evident when the Pluronic hydrophobic/hydrophilic strength is balanced. A detailed analysis of the Pluronic/SAIL micelle density profiles showed that the phosphonium head groups were positioned inside the micelle core, whereas smaller imidazolium head groups were placed much closer to the hydrophilic PEG corona, leading to a distinct effect on the cloud point temperature for those two classes of SAIL. Herein, the phosphonium-based SAIL induces a lower repulsion between neighbouring micelles than the imidazolium-based SAILs, resulting in a less pronounced increase of the CPT. The model presented in here offers, for the first time, an intuitive and powerful tool to unravel the complex thermo-response behaviour of Pluronic and SAIL mixtures and support the design of tailor-made thermal controlled solvents.


OBJECTIVE
To determine effects of breed and oral vitamin E supplementation during late gestation on serum vitamin E and IgG concentrations in beef cows that calved in late winter and late summer and in neonatal calves.

ANIMALS
73 Angus and 43 Hereford primiparous and multiparous cows and their calves.

PROCEDURE
Cows in groups that were homogeneous regarding breed and age distribution were randomly allotted to groups that were orally supplemented (n = 59) or not supplemented (57) with vitamin E beginning 30 days prior to onset of 65-day calving seasons. Supplemental vitamin E was provided in a vitamin-mineral mix offered free-choice until parturition.

RESULTS
Cows that calved in late winter and were supplemented orally with vitamin E had higher serum vitamin E concentrations at calving and after calving than did unsupplemented cows; differences between groups before calving were not significant. Calves from supplemented multiparous cows had higher vitamin E concentrations than did calves from unsupplemented cows. Winter-born calves from supplemented Hereford cows had heavier 205-day adjusted weaning weights than did winter-born calves from unsupplemented Hereford cows. Supplementation did not affect vitamin E or IgG concentrations in the herd that calved in late summer and did not affect calf growth.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Oral vitamin E supplementation during late gestation may be economically beneficial in certain cow-calf operations in which late-gestation cows are consuming stored forages.


Background: Contraception is an important intervention to reduce burden of unwanted pregnancy and promote healthy living among women. Objectives: To find out the postpartum contraceptive usage and identify the different variables which affect the postpartum contraception among the rural females of Bareilly district. Methods: The cross sectional study was carried out in randomly selected villages of Bhojipura Block of Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh. All women who had delivered within last one year were interviewed by house to house survey to collect data regarding socio-demographic characteristics and contraceptive use by structured questionnaire. A total of 123 women participated in the study. Chi- square test was used to analyze data. Results: Only 13.8% mothers adopted postpartum contraception. Lack of knowledge (32.5%) and young infant being breastfed (28.5%) were the common reasons of not using any contraceptive method. Contraceptive use was higher amongst females aged less than 30 years and those belonging to middle socioeconomic class and nuclear families. The significant influence of the women' educational status on utilization of family planning methods was observed (p<0.05). Conclusions: Low percent of postpartum contraceptive use indicates the need for improving awareness among the study population.


This study reports on theapplication of Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) (Elliott 2002) to a 39 session TA-based psychotherapy intervention with a 19 year old white male student in the UK who was suffering from emetophobia. The author, who was also the researcher, provides literature reviews on emetophobia clinical characteristics,contrasts it with other phobias, and reviews prior research including TA-based approaches to phobias generally. HSCED Methodology is briefly described; quantitative outcome measures are obtained and analysed using GAD-7 (Spritzer et al 2006)and SPQ (Elliott et al 1999), and qualitative measures via a rich case record, session recordings/transcripts, and a 4-month follow-up interview.  Bohart at al's (2011) 56 criteria for evidence adjudication were used alongside HSCED criteria. There was strong evidence of significant client changes, and that these changes were the result of the therapy.


In an attempt to provide a better understanding of the design and use of effective management control systems (MCS) in a developing country, this research study adopts a contingency theory approach to investigate the role of management accounting information (MAI) in facilitating MCS in large manufacturing companies. Drawing the relevant literature on contingency theory, a framework is developed and forms the basis for investigating the possible influence of several contingent variables, including centralisation, formalisation, environmental uncertainty, manufacturing complexity and competitive strategy, on the effectiveness of MCS as well as the potential mediating effect of the usefulness of MAI on these relationships.

Based on the findings of a questionnaire-based survey of 54 large manufacturing companies from different industrial sectors in Libya, this study identifies the role of MAI in facilitating MCS in these companies in terms of the four dimensions of scope, timeliness, aggregation and integration. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools are used to analyse the collected data, including independent t-test, correlation, simple and multiple regression. The study also utilises the Preacher and Hayes's (2004) macro through the SPSS package to investigate mediation regression effects in the MAI/MCS relationship. The results of the descriptive analysis show that more bureaucratic MCS types - characterised as formal, tight, and impersonal controls - have been adopted in large manufacturing companies in Libya to motivate, control and direct different activities. In terms of competitive strategy, no pure cost leaders or differentiators were found; rather the responding companies consider various aspects of cost leadership and product differentiation priorities when shaping their competitive strategy. Apart from manufacturing process complexity, all other contingent variables studied were found to have a significant positive influence on MCS effectiveness in these manufacturing companies.

Although each of the four MAI dimensions (i.e. scope, timeliness, aggregation, and integration) explored in this study was perceived useful in relation to planning and problem solving activities, it is the aggregated information that was perceived the most important, available, and, thus, useful information. Very importantly this study found that MAI usefulness accounts for a full (i.e. complete) mediation effect only on the relationship between centralisation and MCS effectiveness, while it accounts for a partial mediating role on the relationship between MCS effectiveness and the other three contingent variables of formalisation, environmental uncertainty, and competitive strategy. On the other hand, the usefulness of MAI transmitted the influence of manufacturing process complexity on MCS effectiveness indicating an indirect effect instead of a mediated relationship. The latter is a significant distinction not usually made in previous studies that examined interaction factors.

Thus, this study contributes to the knowledge in this important area by distinguishing between mediation and indirect effects, in particular, and between full and partial mediation effects, in general. Finally, the main limitations of this study are outlined and opportunities for future research are suggested, particularly in relation to considering the moderating effect of a fourth variable on the mediation relationship (i.e. moderated mediation) in the interplay between MAI and management control system design and use.


We study the decision to choose bank debt rather than public securities in a firm's marginal financing choice. Using a sample of 500 firms over the 1980 to 1993 time period, we find that firms are relatively more likely to choose bank loans when variables that measure asymmetric information problems are elevated. The sensitivity of the likelihood of choosing bank debt to information problems is greater for firms with no public debt outstanding. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that banks help alleviate asymmetric information problems and that firms weigh these information benefits against a wide range of contracting costs when choosing bank financing. Copyright The American Finance Association 2002.


30 The Hearing Journal October 2018 M ounting evidence suggests connections between hearing loss and cognitive impairment may exist–even though making sense of a connection between these faculties is not intuitive. It's been documented, for example, that cochlear implant (CI) users exhibited relatively poor executive functioning in areas including working memory (J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2014 Oct;19(4):456), and older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss had worse verbal comprehension than older adults with normal hearing (J Am Acad Audiol. 2006 Jul-Aug;17(7):487). Perhaps one of the most striking reports is the increased prevalence of dementia following hearing loss in older adults (Arch Neurol. 2011 Feb;68(2):214). In this prospective, large-scale study, Lin and colleagues found that the incidence ratio of dementia was 1.89, 3.0, and 4.94 for mild, moderate, and severe hearing loss, respectively, after a 12year follow-up of older adults. Although evidence of direct influence of hearing loss on cognitive impairment remains elusive (i.e., hearing loss can increase the likelihood of dementia by reducing social interaction as well as increasing stress and depression), it has been theorized that too much listening effort can drain neural resources that could be otherwise allocated to cognitive processes (Ear Hear. 2016 Jul-Aug;37 Suppl 1:5S). Such a notion draws support from behavioral studies involving normal-hearing individuals who demonstrated reduced memory capacity when listeners were faced with degraded speech signals (Mem Cognit. 2014 May; 42(4): 622). Although hearing loss is more prevalent in older adults, there is a growing concern of hearing loss in young adults due to increased everyday exposure to noise at dangerous levels. According to surveys, over 90 percent of college students use personal music devices, and nearly half of these students listen to music at volumes exceeding safety standards for occupational noise exposure (Ear Hear. 2008 Oct;29(5):791; Am J Public Health. 2010 Jun;100(6):1095). The pervasive use of personal music devices and lack of guidance in volume control place approximately 1.1 billion adolescents and young adults at risk of hearing loss (WHO, 2015). Nevertheless, little research attention has been devoted to investigating the impact of hearing loss on cognitive functioning in this younger population. Our recent study, however, demonstrated that even subtle, albeit clinically normal, hearing loss can alter brain activity during speech perception (eNeuro. 2018 Jun 8;5(3). pii: ENEURO.0263). In this study, we examined 35 young healthy adults between 18 to 41 years old and monitored their brain activity in response to sentences with varying syntactic complexity. Whereas the classic language network in the left frontotemporal cortices exhibited greater activity as a function of sentence difficulty, activity in the right anterior prefrontal cortex also emerged, showing negative correlation with hearing acuity. The finding was somewhat surprising in that the right frontal activity is commonly seen in older adults during language tasks—an effect attributed to aging-related brain plasticity (Front Aging Neurosci. 2016 May 23;8:110). The right frontal area, however, was not correlated with age difference among young adults; even after controlling for age, the right frontal activity still showed a robust association with hearing acuity. Obviously, the current correlational findings cannot solely establish causal relation between hearing loss and cognitive impairment. Longitudinal follow-up research is warranted to further characterize whether the early brain plasticity would imply depletion of neural resources down the line, ultimately leading to dementia (Arch Neurol. 2011). In light of emerging evidence highlighting connections between hearing and cognition, one cannot stress enough the importance of early prevention of hearing loss before it takes a toll on an individual's well-being, placing medical burdens on society. Medical practitioners and educators should alert parents and adolescents by disseminating critical messages and conveying our research findings and those of others: Youngsters, it's time to protect your ears! Impact of Subtle Hearing Loss on the Cognition of Young Adults


The use of elastic materials in implemented as a resistance method for exercise in both rehabilitation and performance contexts. Despite the increasing popularity of this material, there is paucity of research on muscular responses that occur as a result of using it as a resistance method for exercise. The specific muscular activation patterns that occur throughout the range of motion (ROM) of an exercise can have a crucial impact on strength adaptations and their identification is imperative to the applicability of elastic training in different exercise settings. This project, therefore, aimed to provide an understanding of muscular responses elicited by elastic resistance during exercise.

The project consisted of five studies, of which four analytical and one intervention. The first study compared the patterns in muscular activation produced in response to exercising with elastic and weight resistance. Electromyographic responses of the agonist, antagonist and synergist muscles portrayed opposing muscular activation patterns with either method and higher activation of auxiliary muscles with elastic resistance. It was proposed that, due to the opposing activation patterns, the two methods may result in differing architectural adaptations of the skeletal muscles involved, indicating that they could be effectively used as complementary resistance methods. The higher engagement of auxiliary muscles further indicates that elastic resistance may be more effective at improving proprioception and joint stability than weight resistance.

The second study analysed the effect of movement velocity on muscular activation patterns with elastic and weight resistance. Peak muscular activation increased at higher velocities with both methods. However, the previously observed activation patterns (Study 1) became more pronounced at higher velocities, where peak activation occurred at earlier stages of movement with weight resistance, but remained at final stages of movement with elastic resistance. These results further indicate that architectural adaptations of the muscles involved may differ substantially with the long term implementation of either method, and that the combined use of elastic and weight resistance may prove beneficial in high speed resistance training in order to maximise muscle overload throughout the ROM.

The third study analysed the effects of combining half elastic and half weight resistance on muscular activation patterns. The combined condition portrayed a plateau in muscular activation for most of the concentric phase, as opposed to the peaks exhibited by the two methods on their own, and both the elastic and combined condition exhibited a greater engagement of secondary muscles than weight resistance, indicating that combining the two resistances does effectively maximise muscle overload throughout the concentric phase, offering the added benefit of engaging auxiliary muscles more than weight resistance alone.

The fourth study analysed the effect of multiple repetitions with either resistance method on electromyographic indicators of fatigue. Results indicated that elastic and weight resistances induce fatigue of the agonist muscle at similar rates, while synergist and antagonist muscles may fatigue at higher rates under elastic resistance.

The final study examined isokinetic and isometric strength adaptations at specific joint angles in response to eight weeks of bicep curl training with elastic resistance, weight resistance or a combination of the two. The opposing patterns in muscular activation elicited by the two methods, observed through the analytical studies, were reflected in angle-specific strength adaptations in the intervention study, where elastic training demonstrated a tendency to produce greater strength gains at stretched muscle lengths and the combination of the two resistances offered mixed responses. The findings indicate an effect of muscular activation pattern on angle specific strength adaptations, emphasizing the importance of understanding the specificity of muscular adaptations for the effective implementation of different resistance methods.

In conclusion, elastic and weight resistance produce opposing muscular activation patterns that are enhanced at high movement velocities and effectively complement each other when combined. The activation patterns were reflected in angle-specific strength adaptations through training, suggesting that they may produce different effects on changes in muscle architecture. Finally, auxiliary muscles were more active with elastic resistance, regardless of movement velocity or whether it was combined with weight resistance, indicating that the implementation of elastic resistance is more effective in improving proprioception and joint stability.


Occupational styrene exposure caused an increased frequency of abnormal electroencephalograms which correlated to degree of exposure. No dose-response relationship could be shown concerning a slowing of nerve conduction velocities in workers exposed to styrene. Experimental exposure of rats to 300 ppm of styrene caused a transient increase in the nerve conduction velocity in 6 weeks, but in a comparison to control rats no difference was found in measurements performed on rats exposed for 8 and 11 weeks.


It is notable that technological changes are essential for financial innovation when reflecting on economic growth. Directions of the relationships at the nexus of financial innovation and economic growth are still hazy, especially in developing countries. This study therefore focusses on analyzing the relationship between financial innovation and economic growth in Thailand, based on quarterly data from 2010 – 2020, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Granger causality test. The cointegration result was in the same direction and financial innovation was found to be the cause of change in economic growth in Thailand. Hence, by increasing the efficiency of financial intermediaries, financial innovation is the driving force for long-term growth in the Thai economy. Accordingly, policymakers should encourage the development of financial innovation as well as promote access to financial services for sustainable growth of the Thai economy.


Cables are used as critical structure components for suspended and cable-stayed bridges. It has been recently increased the need for inspection methods to assess the conditions of the cables due to owners concern about the operability and safety of such aging structures. An alternative technique is being developed in this paper. The magnetostrictive guided wave technology is used to test broken wires. The suitability of this method is studied through application tests on experimental setups, lab-made cables with simulated broken wires and field test. Test Results indicate that this technique can detect two broken wires away exceeding two meters and propagating over one hundred meters. It is a promising method for nondestructive testing of bridge cables.


Lineage-specific transcription factors play crucial roles in the development of hematopoietic cells. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that Ras activation was involved in thrombopoietin-induced megakaryocytic differentiation. In this study, constitutive Ras activation by H-ras(G12V) evoked megakaryocytic maturation of erythroleukemia cell lines F-36P and K562, but not of myeloid cell line 32D cl3 that lacks GATA-1. However, the introduction of GATA-1 led to reprogramming of 32D cl3 toward erythrocytic/megakaryocytic lineage and enabled it to undergo megakaryocytic differentiation in response to H-ras(G12V). In contrast, the overexpression of PU.1 and c-Myb changed the phenotype of K562 from erythroid to myeloid/monocytic lineage and rendered K562 to differentiate into granulocytes and macrophages in response to H-ras(G12V), respectively. In GATA-1-transfected 32D cl3, the endogenous expression of PU.1 and c-Myb was easily detectable, but their activities were reduced severely. Endogenous GATA-1 activities were markedly suppressed in PU.1-transfected and c-myb-transfected K562. As for the mechanisms of these reciprocal inhibitions, GATA-1 and PU.1 were found to associate through their DNA-binding domains and to inhibit the respective DNA-binding activities of each other. In addition, c-Myb bound to GATA-1 and inhibited its DNA-binding activities. Mutant GATA-1 and PU.1 that retained their own transcriptional activities but could not inhibit the reciprocal partner were less effective in changing the lineage phenotype of 32D cl3 and K562. These results suggested that GATA-1 activities may be crucial for Ras-mediated megakaryocytic differentiation and that its activities may be regulated by the direct interaction with other lineage-specific transcription factors such as PU.1 and c-Myb.


Fluorophlogopite ceramics, which possesses very good machinability, high electrical resistance and high dielectric strength, is very difficult to be sintered to fully dense state. It is usually made through glass-ceramics processing. In this paper the effects of particle size distribution and sintering agents on sintering of fluorophlogopite ceramics are investigated. The study concludes that dense fluorophlogopite ceramics can be produced through ceramic processing, including careful synthesis of fluorophlogopite powder as raw material, grinding with attrition mill, and pressureless sintering with the help of plumbum contained boron silicate glass as sintering agent in the temperature range of 1100 to 1200°C.


The number of species in the genus Polylepis has changed, according to the systematic treatments, from 33 to 28; however, until now there is not a clear species delimitation. It has been complicated to define evolutionary origins and understand speciation. This complexity may be the result of different processes acting independently or interacting: recent radiation, poliploidy, hibridization and the human intervention in its distribution, depending of the species group. In this article, we revised the taxonomic status of the genus Polylepis . Twenty-eight species are proposed, with the inclusion of two new species for Peru and one species ( P. tomentella ) with three subespecies. In addition, gaps of knowledge are analyzed and strategies of research are proposed to improve species delimitation. Incorporating a taxonomic structure could generate new insights to conservation, restoration and management projects; taxonomists and conservationist need to work together to define conservation units to avoid ambiguities and define new strategies. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.22.214.171.124.527


There is a continuing argument about the benefits of biochar on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, crop growth, yield, and fertility of soil. There is also limited research on the effects of biochar on AM colonization, cucumber yield, and soil fertility improvement. Therefore, this investigation aimed to determine the impact of poultry litter biochar (PLB) on colonization of roots by indigenous AM fungi in agricultural soil and their contribution to cucumber yield, nutrition, and soil fertility improvement. A field trial was conducted to assess the effect of PLB combined with compound poultry manure (CPM) and nitrophos (NP) fertilizer to investigate the response of treatments on nutrient-deficient sandy soils. Plant growth responses to biochar showed better plant growth and yield of cucumber. Application of biochar with and without CPM and NP reduced the negative impact of nutrient deficiency stress on cucumber growth. AM fungal colonization, soil fertility, and cucumber yield were improved with the combined application of biochar, CPM, and NP fertilizer. Post-harvest, soil C, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, Cu, Fe, and Mn increased with application of biochar applied with CPM and NP. Biochar application with CPM and NP also increased the percent root colonization of cucumber. Use of biochar with CPM and NP has the potential to improve plant growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and soil fertility. Further studies in various agro-ecological conditions would help utilize this technology in sustainable crop production.


Optical Metrology is a rapidly expanding field i'n both its scientific foundations and technological developments, being of major concern to measurements, quality control, non-destructive tes ting and in fundamental research. In order to define the state-of-the-art, and to evaluate pre sent accomplishments, whilst giving an appraisal of how each of the particular topics will evolve the Optical Metrology-anAdvancedStudy Institute was organized with a concourse of the world's acknowledged experts. Thus, the Institute provided a forum for tutorial reviews blended with topics of current research in the form of a progressive and comprehensive presentation of recent promising developments, lea ding techniques and instrumentation in incoherent and coherent optics for Metrology, Sensing and Control in Science, Industry and Biomedici ne. Optical Metrology is a very broad field which is highly inter disciplinary in its applications, and in its scientific and technolo gical background. It is related to such diverse disciplines as physi cal and chemical sciences, engineering, electronics, computer scien ces, biological sciences and theoretical sciences, such as statistics. Although there was an emphasis on photomechanics and industri al applications, a marked diversity was reflected in the different background and interests of the participants. The vitality and viabi lity of the discipline was enhanced not only by the encouraging number of young scientists and industrialists participating and authoring, but also by the remarkably promising prospects found in x the practical applications supported by advanced electronic hybridi zation."


This scoping study focuses on the policy issues inherent in the claims made by some Smart Grid proponents that the demand response potential of mass market customers which is enabled by widespread implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) through the Smart Grid could be the "silver bullet" for mitigating variable generation integration issues. In terms of approach, we will: identify key issues associated with integrating large amounts of variable generation into the bulk power system; identify demand response opportunities made more readily available to mass market customers through widespread deployment of AMI systems and how they can affect the bulk power system; assess the extent to which these mass market Demand Response (DR) opportunities can mitigate Variable Generation (VG) integration issues in the near-term and what electricity market structures and regulatory practices could be changed to further expand the ability for DR to mitigate VG integration issues over the long term; and provide a qualitative comparison of DR and other approaches to mitigate VG integration issues.


`Background:` Women appear to experience worse outcomes after stroke than men but the causes of these differences have not been conclusively determined. There is also some evidence that women receive evidence-based stroke care less often than men but how this influences outcomes after stroke is unclear. There is a need for high-quality studies to explore these sex differences to inform interventions to address these differences.
`Aims:` My aims were to 1) quantify the sex differences in management and outcomes of stroke; and 2) to identify factors that contribute to the worse outcomes in women.
`Methods:` Two different data sources were used in the thesis. The first was individual participant data (IPD) on long-term outcomes after stroke from 13 population-based stroke incidence studies conducted in Europe, Australasia, South America, and the Caribbean between 1987 and 2014, forming the INternational STroke oUtCome sTtudy (INSTRUCT). Data on sociodemographics, stroke-related factors, pre-stroke health, stroke management, and post-stroke factors were obtained. Study outcomes were: (1) severity of acute stroke, (2) long-term all-cause mortality, (3) functional outcomes and participation restriction, and (4) HRQoL up to 5 years after stroke. I performed IPD meta-analyses of the sex differences in these outcomes (at 1 and 5 years after stroke) and contributing factors, forming the first four studies of the thesis.
The second dataset included first-ever strokes admitted to 39 hospitals between 2010 and 2014 in the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR) - a national stroke registry. The AuSCR incorporates standardised methods of data collection for important processes of stroke care in Australia and patient outcomes. Study factors included sociodemographics, stroke-related factors, evidence-based processes received in hospital (i.e. stroke unit care, thrombolysis, secondary prevention medications), and self-reported 3-month indicators (e.g. living arrangements). Study outcomes were (1) all-cause mortality, (2) causes of death (COD) up to 1 year after stroke, and (3) HRQoL at 3-6 months follow-up. The causes of the sex differences in stroke care and outcomes were investigated using the AuSCR, forming the other three studies as part of the thesis.
\(Results:\) In the meta-analyses of 16,957 strokes included in the INSTRUCT, women were about 35% more likely to be deceased and 32% more likely to have a poor functional outcome by 1 year after stroke compared to men. Women also had greater participation restriction and poorer HRQoL than men.
The sex differences in stroke outcomes were mostly explained by women's greater age, greater pre-stroke functional limitations and more severe strokes than men. The presence of atrial fibrillation (AF) also accounted for the greater mortality in women and post-stroke depression contributed to the sex differences in HRQoL. There was limited evidence that stroke management, socioeconomic status, cardiovascular risk factors, or other comorbidities were responsible for the worse outcomes in women compared to men. Similar results were observed in 5-year analyses. Further examination of stroke severity at the acute stage showed that pre-stroke factors only partly explained why women presented with more severe strokes compared to men.
In the analyses of the AuSCR on 14,118 strokes, women had a 40% greater all-cause mortality at 1 year following stroke. The COD differed between sexes with women having more deaths attributed to stroke or other cardiovascular diseases (CVD; e.g. AF and heart failure) than men. Women's lower aspirin administration within 48 hours of admission, advanced age and stroke severity explained the greater all- and specific-cause mortality. About 60% of the participants (n=6852) had HRQoL assessments at 3-6 months. Women had worse HRQoL than men, with the difference mostly explained by age, stroke severity, and 3-month place of residence (aged care). However, older women had poorer HRQoL than older men, independent of the measured covariates including evidence-based care and other factors.
\(Conclusions:\) Women faced poorer outcomes after stroke than men. Worse outcomes in women were mostly because of pre-stroke factors including age but also stroke severity, pre-stroke functional limitations and, to a lesser extent, AF. Of all aspects of management examined, only lower aspirin administration in women contributed to their greater mortality. The findings highlight the importance of better management of vascular risk factors and comorbidity in the elderly, with more women prevalent in that age group than men. The findings suggest opportunities for interventions to reduce sex differences in stroke outcome may include better access to evidence-based care for cardiovascular and general health, and opportunities for post-stroke rehabilitation, especially targeting those with less capacity to recover (i.e. pre-stroke functional limitation, more severe strokes and mood disorders). Further research on the potential biological origin of sex differences in stroke severity may also be warranted.


We present variance reduction methods for Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate European and Asian options in the context of multiscale stochastic volatility models. European option price approximations, obtained from singular and regular perturbation analysis [Fouque J P, Papanicolaou G, Sircar R and Solna K 2003 Multiscale stochastic volatility asymptotics, SIAM J. Multiscale Modeling and Simulation 2], are used in importance sampling techniques, and their efficiencies are compared. Then we investigate the problem of pricing arithmetic average Asian options (AAOs) by Monte Carlo simulations. A two-step strategy is proposed to reduce the variance where geometric average Asian options (GAOs) are used as control variates. Due to the lack of analytical formulas for GAOs under stochastic volatility models, it is then necessary to consider efficient Monte Carlo methods to estimate the unbiased means of GAOs. The second step consists in deriving formulas for approximate prices based on perturbation techniques, and in computing GAOs by using importance sampling. Numerical results illustrate the efficiency of our method.


Seeds of 25 grape varieties were isolated and the extractability of total nitrogen, amino acids, proteins and phenols from the seeds was investigated. Whole or ground seeds of five selected varieties — Chardonnay, Riesling, Koshu, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Muscat Bailey A — were extracted at 15°C, 20°C, and 25°C for several hours to 10 days using water, aqueous ethanol, and wine-like model solutions. Fresh whole seeds and an extracting solution were mixed at a ratio similar to the ratio of seed weight to juice weight in each grape variety and free amino acids, proteins and peptides were determined. The protein extracted was a small part of that present and this is attributed at least partly to the high tannin (protein precipitant) present in the seed extracts. The total nitrogen and free amino acids, as well as phenols, extracted from seeds increased with increasing ethanol concentration in the range of 0 to 40%, while proteins decreased. As the temperature increased, total nitrogen was extracted more, but free amino acids and proteins varied with the variety. On the fifth day the average contents of total nitrogen, free amino acids, and proteins extracted for the five varieties were 0.29, 0.35, and 0.41 mg/g of fresh seeds into a model solution containing 5% ethanol, and 0.80, 1.43, and 0.84 mg/g into 40% ethanol (both at pH 3.0), respectively. The proteins extracted were rich in acidic amino acids, and their amino acid compositions varied appreciably with the ethanol concentration. The possible significance of these results regarding wine composition, stability, and flavor is discussed.


The place of a volume such as this in the library of practicing pediatricians is, alas, probably about that of the Summa or the Babylonian Talmud on the shelves of a dealer in recap tires. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the exacting techniques of comparative biochemistry and methods elsewhere designated "elegant" have made available information only suggested by Hecht, Granit, and Wald 20-25 years ago. The fields of neuro-ophthalmology and neurophysiology are perhaps benefited more by the strange marriage of electron microscopy and old-fashioned three-dimensional reconstruction more than most other fields in the burgeoning green land of mid-20th century biology. The physiology of vision has remained the miscegenetic offspring of physics and neurology, and, to this writer, among the most enjoyable sections in this volume are those dealing with retinal synaptology, the philosophy of retinal duality, and a "new" approach to rod and cone function. As is customary in


This magazine is published twice a year by the Vegan Organic Network, and is distributed to its supporters. Growing Green International covers a variety of topics, such as gardening tips, growing and preserving vegetables, articles about farm visits, environmental and social issues, upcoming events, and updates from farmers and gardeners from around the world. 40 pages of delightful information! The magazine can be ordered by joining the Vegan Organic Network. The complete set of back (...)


BACKGROUND
We aimed to investigate whether early-life hygiene-related factors influenced the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in a Scandinavian population and test the association's consistency across cohorts.

METHODS
This study followed 117 493 participants in the All Babies in Southeast Sweden study and the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study. IBD diagnoses were defined by national registers. Comprehensive data on hygiene-related exposures, such as having pets, rural living, daycare attendance, and siblings, were retrieved from questionnaires administered from pregnancy until child's age of 36 months. A multivariable Cox regression model yielded adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) for IBD accounting for socioeconomic status and perinatal factors. Cohort-specific estimates were pooled using a random-effects model.

RESULTS
In over 2 024 299 person-years of follow-up 451 participants developed IBD. In pooled estimates children attending daycare up to 36 months of life vs not attending daycare were less likely to develop Crohn's disease (aHR, 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.37- 0.98). Children having 1 or more siblings had a modestly increased risk of IBD (aHR, 1.17; 95% CI, 0.96-1.42; aHR for each sibling, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.01-1.24). The other hygiene factors were not significantly linked to later IBD. In the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study cohort, bed sharing was associated with an increased risk of IBD, most notably for ulcerative colitis (aHR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.01-2.78).

CONCLUSIONS
In this birth cohort study from 2 high-income Scandinavian countries, some early-life hygiene-related exposures were associated with IBD risk. The generalizability of these results to countries of other socioeconomic level is unknown.


A computer-based decision support system called a Production Economical Reporting and Control System (PERCS) has been developed to help people work in food processing industries: decisions making, choosing between alternatives, solving problems and planning for the future. The system was divided into five parts: (a) the data management, (b) the model management system, (c) the knowledge engine, (d) the user interface, and (e) the user(s). This system was capable to report on the following functions: First, materials traceability which includes: sources, quantities, dates, names, prices, packages types and numbers, etc. Second was for machines and product lines report. Third, part was concerning about labor reports which includes: jobs, productivity, shift number, breakdown causes. Fourth, storing status, and the final part was for the quality report which includes: quantities, types, dates,. etc. Onion dehydration industry was taken as a case study to apply the computer-based system for helping in technical management for this factory.


Thomas Cooper Library's Popular Reading Collection offers books and films to enjoy. Most are located on the short shelves near the elevators--check them out! 'Streaming" films are available through Kanopy and Swank.


The presence of plant lignans in 14 different soy-based health supplements is reported here for the first time together with the analysis of the isoflavone content, for which these products are commercialized. Six plant lignans, i.e., secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol, syringaresinol, lariciresinol, isolariciresinol, and pinoresinol, have been identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and a positive correlation has been found between the levels of plant lignans and the levels of isoflavones in the different products. Additional quantification of plant lignans and isoflavones in soybeans has been carried out, and results are provided to allow the comparison of the average levels in soybeans and soy-based supplements.


SbOx thin films are deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using SbCl5 and Sb(NMe2)3 as antimony reactants and H2O and H2O2 as oxidizers at low temperatures. SbCl5 can react with both oxidizers, while no deposition is found to occur using Sb(NMe2)3 and H2O. For the first time, the reaction mechanism and dielectric properties of ALD‐SbOx thin films are systematically studied, which exhibit a high breakdown field of ≈4 MV cm−1 and high areal capacitance ranging from 150 to 200 nF cm−2, corresponding to a dielectric constant ranging from 10 to 13. The ZnO semiconductor layer is integrated into a SbOx dielectric layer, and thin film transistors (TFTs) are successfully fabricated. A TFT with a SbOx dielectric layer deposited at 200 °C from Sb(NMe2)3 and H2O2 presents excellent performance, such as a field effect mobility (µ) of 12.4 cm2 V−1 s−1, Ion/Ioff ratio of 4 × 108, subthreshold swing of 0.22 V dec−1, and a trapping state (Ntrap) of 1.1 × 1012 eV−1 cm−2. The amorphous structure and high areal capacitance of SbOx boosts the interface between the semiconductor and dielectric layer of TFT devices and provide a strong electric field for electrons to improve the device mobility.


The influence of plant traits on forest fire behaviour has evolutionary, ecological and management implications, but is poorly understood and frequently discounted. We use a process model to quantify that influence and provide validation in a diverse range of eucalypt forests burnt under varying conditions. Measured height of consumption was compared to heights predicted using a surface fuel fire behaviour model, then key aspects of our model were sequentially added to this with and without species-specific information. Our fully specified model had a mean absolute error 3.8 times smaller than the otherwise identical surface fuel model (p < 0.01), and correctly predicted the height of larger (≥1 m) flames 12 times more often (p < 0.001). We conclude that the primary endogenous drivers of fire severity are the species of plants present rather than the surface fuel load, and demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of the model for quantifying this.


Indica rice variety Ciherang is the most planted variety in Indonesia, but the micropropagation technique is restricted because it is known has low regeneration frequency and included as recalcitrant cultivar for tissue culture and tranformation activities. One of solution to resolve that problem is developing a technique of somatic embryogenesis in callus of ciherang rice cultivar. The aims of study were to determine medium composition for inducting embryogenic callus in Ciherang rice and to know the effectivity of rice regeneration using callus as explant. The methods were included induction of embryogenic callus in callus induction media (CIM) containing MS basal, Proline 600 mg/l, Casein Hidrolisat 300 mg/l, phytagel 2,5 g/l, BAP 0.25 mg/l, sukrosa 30 %, and 2,4-D in different concentration, from 2,4-D 0 mg/l as control (CIM 1), 2,4-D 2 mg/l (CIM 2), 2,4-D 3 mg/l (CIM 3), and 2,4-D 4 mg/l (CIM 4). It then be continued to regenerate the calli in RM 1 medium containing MS basal, NAA 0,2 mg/l, Kinetin 2 mg/l, Agarose 10 g/l, and sukrosa 30 %, pH 5,8 for six days in dark and RM2 medium containing MS basal , NAA 0,2 mg/l, Kinetin 2 mg/l, Agarose 8 g/l, sukrosa 30 %, pH 5,8 in light room. Results showed CIM 4 medium using 2,4-D 4 mg/l gave optimum result in calli induction with procentage 57,63% and CIM 3 using 2,4-D 3 mg/l gave optimum result in embryonic calli induction with procentage 53,63%. Result of embryonic calli gave regeneration frequency procentage is 9,6%. The total planlet obtained after five weeks old in regeneration medum were 11 planlets ready for aclimatization.


Africa adopted the Yellowstone model of 'in situ' conservation, and established systems of national parks, which excluded people from living within these 'fortress parks'. Despite the strict protection - often through paramilitary-style enforcement - national parks in Africa are faced with increasing threats from impoverished local communities whose dependence on natural resources is growing. Biodiversity conservation is widely failing because parks are becoming 'islands' of conservation; ecosystems are collapsing and there are inadequate policies and management systems in place to address these challenges.

Some countries including Tanzania have adopted community conservation (CC) approaches for the purpose of gaining the support of local communities. This study examines one of these CC approaches the outreach programme of the Community Conservation Service (CCS) of Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) in respect of its effectiveness in engaging local people with the conservation effort, and thereby assesses its role in securing a better future for the National Parks of Tanzania. It is important to note that the focus of this study is on the communities around the national parks in question and not on biodiversity conservation 'per se'.

The case studies selected for the research comprise two national parks in northern Tanzania, namely Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks. Eight villages around their boundaries (four villages for each park) were selected for investigation.

In order to access valid and reliable research data, several data collection techniques were used. Both primary and secondary data were collected. In the first instance, a critical literature review of secondary information was conducted in order for the researcher to understand the global context on concepts and issues relating to community conservation. Secondary data was collected from TANAPA documents relating to CCS activities. The primary data was collected through Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques including focus group discussions with stakeholders in the vicinity of National Parks where 44 groups (park staff, farmers, village officials, natural resources committees, pastoralists and women) each comprising 10-12 people were involved in the interactive interviews. In total, four hundred and eighty-four (484) respondents attended the focus group discussions. Other techniques included the use of Venn diagrams and field observations. Analysis and interpretation of focus group responses were made in the light of the author's 27 years experience within the National Parks system in Tanzania.

The results of the research presented in this thesis reveal that stakeholders generally thought that the CCS outreach programme has been successful in easing the tension between parks and people, but there are still many questions concerning its practicability. The study recommends that TANAPA ought to adopt a new approach to community conservation, to achieve much more active participation by the communities adjacent to the parks. However, since Tanzanian national parks are IUCN Category II protected areas, habitation and use of resources within them is not permitted through existing legislation. Therefore, TANAPA cannot adopt community conservation approaches such as the community-based conservation or community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) within the parks because these approaches implicitly devolve authority for natural resources to local communities.

While the national parks of Tanzania, and Africa as a whole, face greater threats and uncertainties than ever before, one thing is abundantly clear - and that is that the parks will never be viable while surrounded by hungry, poor and resentful communities. Tanzania has an obligation, in implementing this new approach, to help improve local communities' livelihoods and increase their collaboration in the protection of the natural resources on which they depend and which are the raison d'etre of the country's national parks.

This thesis recommends to TANAPA that it should incorporate profound changes in its legislation and CCS policies to accommodate the active participation of the adjacent communities through realistic 'benefit- sharing' rather than the current 'benefit-giving' approach.


In product packaging, the role of expanded polystyrene (EPS) is important for the protection of fragile goods, preventing them from shock and vibration. The EPS is also known as thermal insulator and lightweight but it is non-biodegradable. Increased demands in packaging lead to an increase in the volume and quantity of the waste in landfills. Some efforts have been made to recycle them to ease the problem. This study aims to recycle the EPS solid waste as fillers in epoxy matrix. Studies on the physical, mechanical and thermal conductivity of formed composites were conducted. The EPS waste was crushed and the EPS/Epoxy composite was prepared at ranges of composition from 20% to 80% (by Volume %) using compression moulding. It was found that the composite density decreased with an increase in filler loading from 1.136 to 0.468 g/cm3. The reduction was due to the lightweight of EPS since the combination of EPS and the Epoxy matrix resulted in air being incorporated in the composite. It also showed that the higher filler loading gave higher water absorption. More voids introduced in the composite with higher filler percentages encouraged the water absorption. For the mechanical properties, the tensile strength (15.52 to 1.30 MPa), strain (2.69 to 0.76 %) and Young's modulus (1201.22 to 307.31 MPa) was found to decrease upon increase in filler content. Similar trend was also obtained for flexural strength (33.61 to 4.06 MPa) and flexural modulus (1074.20 to 466.14 MPa). These results were explained from the SEM micrographs which showed that the wall of EPS cellular structures did not collapse during fabrication. The gas phase which encapsulated throughout the composite acted as voids. The micrographs also revealed good adhesion between the EPS and Epoxy matrix. Despite the good adhesion, the EPS/Epoxy composite strength did not improve due to the effect of the air which filled the foam cellular structures. The thermal conductivity (0.1333 to 0.056 W/mK) was also found to be reduced for all filler content with increase in the heat supplied. However, the influence was small compared to the significant reduction in the thermal conductivity upon increase in the filler content. As the EPS content increased, the quantity of air trapped in the cellular structure also increased, making it more difficult to transfer heat, thus lowering the thermal conductivity. From the study, the EPS waste can be recycled through EPS/Epoxy composites and could be used as heat insulation material for dwelling.


With the increasing concern about job stress, there is a growing body of literature addressing psychosocial job stress and its adverse effects on health in Japan. This paper reviews research findings over the past 15 years concerning the assessment of job stress, the relationship of job stress to mental and physical health, and the effects of worksite stress reduction activities in Japan. Although studies were conducted in the past using ad-hoc job stress questionnaires, well-established job stressor scales have since been translated into Japanese, their psychometric properties tested and these scales extensively used in recent epidemiologic studies. While the impact of overtime and quantitative job overload on mental health seems moderate, job control, skill use and worksite support, as well as qualitative job demands, had greater effects on psychological distress and drinking problems in cross-sectional and prospective studies. These job stressors also indicated a strong association with psychiatric disorders, including major depression, even with a prospective study design. Long working hours were associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. There is evidence that the job demands-control model, as well as the use of new technology at work, is associated with higher levels of blood pressure and serum lipids among Japanese working populations. Fibrinolytic activity, blood glucose levels, immune functions and medical consultation rates were also affected by job stressors. It is further suggested that Japanese workers tend to suppress expression of positive feelings, which results in apparently higher psychological distress and lower job satisfaction among Japanese workers compared with workers in the U.S. Future epidemiologic studies in Japan should focus more on a prospective study design, theoretical models of job stress, job stress among women, and cultural difference and well-designed intervention studies of various types of worksite stress reduction.


FIG. 1. Haloarchaeal organisms entrapped in salt crystals obtained from solar salterns of Goa, India.
  Solar salt was obtained by evaporation of sea water in open pans. Orange-red colored salt revealed the occurrence of haloarchaeal organisms entrapped in the halite crystal (0.5 cm x 0.7 cm).
The crystals were photographed using a Canon camera (Powershot A580, 4X zoom: 35(W) – 140 (T) mm).
FIG. 2.
The scanning electron micrograph is of Haloferax, a haloarchaeal isolate. This isolate (ATCC BAA 644) was recovered from solar salterns of Ribandar, Goa, India and exhibits a cup-shaped or involuted morphology, characteristic of the genus Haloferax (1, 3).
Introduction
Haloarchaea are microorganisms that grow at salinities between 20 and 30% NaCl concentration (2, 4). Salt pans, also known as solar salterns, are manmade large open pans where evaporation of sea water leads to formation of brine and then salt. This salt is then collected as heaps on the borders of the pans. Some of these salt pans show a characteristic orange-red coloration. Closer examination of the salt at the base of the heap revealed large crystals with orange-red centers
as seen in Fig. 1.
Methods

The natural solar salt crystals (Fig. 1) were collected from solar salterns of Ribandar, Goa, India, during the salt harvesting season from February to March.
These solar salt crystals were incubated in 25%
NaCl tryptone–yeast extract (NTYE)
broth on a rotary shaker at 150 rpm for 10 days at 30°C.  One milliliter of this enriched broth was spread on a 25% NTYE agar plate and incubated at 30
°
C for 10 days. On the eighth day of incubation tiny, round, orange-red colonies were seen; these colonies were capable of growth
exclusively on medium containing 20 to 25% NaCl
. An isolated colony was picked and streaked onto a slant and then identified as Haloferax based on chemotaxonomic analysis.

For electron microscopy (Fig. 2), a culture pellet of the isolate was dispersed in NaCl synthetic medium to an absorbance of 0.8 at 600 nm. 100 ml of suspension was mounted onto stubs and square cover slips, fixed with 2.0% glutaraldehyde fixative (prepared in
NaCl synthetic medium
), and left
overnight
at room temperature. The stubs and coverslips were then exposed for 10 minutes to an increasing gradient of acetone-water at concentrations of 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100% acetone for 30 minutes, air dried, and placed onto a sputter coater (SPI Module specimen holder). The position of the stage was set in such a way that the stub was approximately 50 mm from the bottom of the sputter head. After sputtering the specimen with a 10 to 15 nm film of gold, the stub was placed in the sample chamber of the electron microscope (JEOL-5800 LV SEM) and observed.

The image clearly depicts microbial ecology. Organisms living in extreme conditions are known as extremophiles and dominant among them are the archaea. This visual can be used to demonstrate extremophilic microorganisms in their natural habitat thriving in saturating salt conditions. It can also be used for the comparative study of the two domains Archaea and Bacteria.
References
1.
Mojica,
F. J. M., F. Charbonnier, G. Juez, F. Rodriguez Valera, and P. Forterre. 1994. Effects of salt and temperature on plasmid topology in the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii. J. Bacteriol. 176
:4966
–
4973.
2.
Oren, A
. 1994. The ecology of extremely halophilic archaea. FEMS Microbiol. Rev.
13
:415–439.
3.
Rainey,
F. A., and
A.
Oren (ed.).
2006. Extremophiles.  Academic Press, St. Louis, MO.
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Written by renowned author and 3D artist, Kelly L. Murdock, Autodesk Maya 2017 Basics Guide is designed to give new users a solid understanding of the fundamental skills needed to create beautiful 3D models and stunning animations with Autodesk Maya. Using clear and easy to follow instructions this book will guide you through learning all the major features of Maya. The text is complemented by video instruction. Each chapter has a corresponding video tutorial that introduces you to the topics and allows you to watch and learn how functions are performed in a way that a text alone cannot do. Autodesk Maya 2017 Basics Guide makes no assumptions about your previous experience with Autodesk Maya. It begins by helping you get comfortable with the user interface and navigating scenes before moving into modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, rendering and more. Additionally, more advanced features such as character rigging, skinning, animating with dynamics and MEL scripting are also introduced. Each chapter begins by examining the concept behind each task, the goal and the necessary features that are involved. Then you go in-depth with the objective of your task as you study examples and learn the steps necessary to complete it. Working your way through the comprehensive, step-by-step lessons, you'll develop the confidence you need to create incredible renderings and animations using Autodesk Maya.


The medical profession and therapists continue to believe that total aphasia is untreable. A case report is used to demonstrate the diagnostic features of aphasia and describe the course of the impairment from the complete loss of speech, via the learning of highly automated expressions to the aquisition of single words which the patient uses independently in the different contexts. This development involves all language functions equally. The therapy is based on conventional methods, deblocking stategies, speech therapeutic talks - principal item of the treatment - and dialogue exercises carried out under normal conditions. The problems relating to deblocking methods are discussed. A description is made of the methods which have been developed from a combined audiovisual, tactile and writing motoric speech activation programme. The article presents the linguistic signs of the syndrome in an advanced stage and demonstrates the development of the thinking structure and the psychic problems with the help of the tree drawings.


In Video-on-Demand (VoD) services, the playback continuity is one of the most crucial factors for end-user to judge service quality. It is even more significant than the actual video image quality since new generation VoD users commonly have heterogeneous requirements on service according to their context. Moreover, managing dynamic situations in VoD service is always a challenge, especially in the unpredictable user preferences and network conditions. In this paper, i) Autonomous Decentralized VoD System (ADVODS) has been proposed to satisfy different service quality demands of users and, ii) the Autonomous Node Allocation Technology (ANAT) is proposed for assuring service continuity. With the help of autonomous nodes and mobile agents, ANAT can applies different backup policies to users with different Service Level Agreements (SLA), and dynamically update the backup schema to adapt the changing situations such as various service time or congestion events. Drawing on the evaluation results this paper shows that proposed system architecture has a better performance on streaming service provision and continuity.


Domain adaptation is essential to enable wide usage of deep learning based networks trained using large labeled datasets. Adversarial learning based techniques have shown their utility towards solving this problem using a discriminator that ensures source and target distributions are close. However, here we suggest that rather than using a point estimate, it would be useful if a distribution based discriminator could be used to bridge this gap. This could be achieved using multiple classifiers or using traditional ensemble methods. In contrast, we suggest that a Monte Carlo dropout based ensemble discriminator could suffice to obtain the distribution based discriminator. Specifically, we propose a curriculum based dropout discriminator that gradually increases the variance of the sample based distribution and the corresponding reverse gradients are used to align the source and target feature representations. The detailed results and thorough ablation analysis show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art results.


Differences in susceptibility to infection of most mononuclear phagocytes with HIV-1 are not known. We investigated the relative susceptibility of autologous freshly isolated blood monocytes (MN), MN cultured in vitro to allow differentiation (CM), and alveolar macrophages (AM) from healthy subjects to productive infection with HIV-1. Cells were infected with the macrophage tropic strain HIV-1JR-FL and p24 gag antigen levels measured in supernatants by ELISA. Freshly isolated MN had negligible levels of p24 in supernatants. In contrast AM had peak p24 levels of 4145 +/- 1456 pg/ml, mean +/- SE, and CM 9216 +/- 3118. As a measure of entry and extent of reverse transcription, levels of viral DNA in infected mononuclear phagocytes were analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The data using primers that amplify all transcripts including incompletely formed reverse transcripts indicated that differences in entry of the virus may contribute to differences in virus production observed with MN, AM, and CM. Other primer pairs that detect intermediate and full-length double-stranded DNA showed that the ability to complete reverse transcription was similar among these mononuclear phagocytes. Since the lung is a major site of opportunistic infection and noninfectious complications in HIV-1-infected individuals, this increase in productive infection with HIV-1 in AM compared with MN could contribute to the immunopathogenesis of the lung disorders seen in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.


This study concerns filtration of sub-micron aerosol using dual nanofiber and microfiber layers. The first part compares the filtration performance of nanofiber (300 nm diameter fibers) and microfiber (1.8 μm diameter fibers) filters. Test aerosol is sodium chloride (NaCl) particulates ranging from 41 to 514 nm generated from atomization. Experimental results show that the fractional efficiency and quality factor of nanofiber filter is higher than microfiber filter, but microfiber filter has lower rate of increase in pressure drop under continuous loading. The second part aims to utilize the dust holding capacity of microfiber filter to relieve the rapid clogging and skin formation of nanofiber filter. In this work, three types of filters formed by stacking of microfiber and nanofiber layers are tested to investigate the loading characteristics of inhomogeneous dual-layer fibrous filter under the challenge of sub-micron NaCl aerosol. Experimental results show that the filter with microfiber layer upstream of nanofiber layer has a lower increase rate in pressure drop than the filter with constituent layers in reversed arrangement. The semi-empirical model of polydisperse aerosol loading, as modified from the version of monodisperse aerosol, predicts deposition profile across filter depth that explains the pressure drop results. Serving two purposes, the dual-layer filter with microfiber (upstream) and nanofiber (downstream) is able to utilize the strength of nanofibers in clean stage filtration and microfibers in loaded stage filtration. Moreover, a lower pressure drop increase implies that the filter does not require frequent cleaning by backpulses of compressed air, which might destroy the fragile nanofibers.


IMPORTANCE
Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates are lower among Latinos and people living in poverty. Fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) is one recommended screening modality that may overcome cost and access barriers. However, the ability of FOBT to reduce CRC mortality depends on high rates of adherence to annual screening.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether a multifaceted intervention increases adherence to annual FOBT compared with usual care.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Patient-level randomized controlled trial conducted in a network of community health centers. Included were 450 patients who had previously completed a home FOBT from March 2011 through February 2012 and had a negative test result: 72% of participants were women; 87% were Latino; 83% stated that Spanish was their preferred language; and 77% were uninsured.

INTERVENTIONS
Usual care at participating health centers included computerized reminders, standing orders for medical assistants to give patients home fecal immunochemical tests (FIT), and clinician feedback on CRC screening rates. The intervention group also received (1) a mailed reminder letter, a free FIT with low-literacy instructions, and a postage-paid return envelope; (2) an automated telephone and text message reminding them that they were due for screening and that a FIT was being mailed to them; (3) an automated telephone and text reminder 2 weeks later for those who did not return the FIT; and (4) personal telephone outreach by a CRC screening navigator after 3 months.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Completion of FOBT within 6 months of the date the patient was due for annual screening.

RESULTS
Intervention patients were much more likely than those in usual care to complete FOBT (82.2% vs 37.3%; P < .001). Of the 185 intervention patients completing screening, 10.2% completed prior to their due date (intervention was not given), 39.6% within 2 weeks (after initial intervention), 24.0% within 2 to 13 weeks (after automated call/text reminder), and 8.4% between 13 and 26 weeks (after personal call).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
This intervention greatly increased adherence to annual CRC screening; most screenings were achieved without personal calls. It is possible to improve annual CRC screening for vulnerable populations with relatively low-cost strategies that are facilitated by health information technologies.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01453894.


The last decade has witnessed an increasing global awareness of human impact on the planet's climate and its likely consequences. However, strategic and structural complexities hinder further compliance and participation in efforts to establish a global agreement for climate change mitigation. This induces economists and environmentalists to further investigate the two-way relationship between trade and climate change, that is, climate-related consequences of liberalized trade and possible benefits of using trade policy for climate change mitigation.


Highly ordered mesoporous TiO2 was synthesized by a hydrolysis condensation process using block copolymer P123 as the template and tetrabutyl orthotitanate (TBOT) as titanium precursor.The influences of the synthesis parameters including the volume of solvent, the ratio of the template to TBOT and reaction pH on the structure were investigated. The structure properties of the products were characterized with low-angle XRD, FT-IR, N2 adsorption-desorption analysis. The results showed that the amount of solvent played a decisive role for the formation of ordered pore structure. The proper hydrolysis pH is in neutral and acidic range. The template can be removed totally by Soxhlet extraction with ethanol and the mesoporous structure can be retained perfectly by this template removal method. The product has the BET surface area of 266.5m2/g and a narrow pore distribution with a peak at 4.34 nm.


Polymeric derivatives of the biocompatible poly(vinylpyrrolidone) bearing discrete amounts of aromatic amines have been synthesized. The interaction of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin with a series of these copolymers (P10, P25, P50, P75, and P100, the numbers referring the molar percentage of incorporation of aromatic amines in the copolymers) has been analyzed regarding shifts of the absorption bands and shift of the transition pH between the di-anionic and the tetra-anionic forms of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin. The interaction between the dye and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) has also been studied as a control. The incorporated aromatic amines increase the hydrophobic properties of the resulting polymers and provide specific interactions with the tetra-anionic form of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin. Thus, P10 was soluble in water, P25 was dispersible in the form of polydisperse nanoparticles, and P50, P75, and P100 are insoluble in water. However, low polydisperse nanoparticles of mean size of 175 nm were formed by pouring 1 volume of a solution of P25 in DMSO into 9 volumes of water. These nanoparticles are permeable to 5,10,15,20tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin. Both P10 and P25 nanoparticles produce strong binding to 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin, stabilize the tetra-anionic form of the dye in a wide range of pH, and prevent the undesirable self-aggregation both in the form of Hand J-aggregates. It was shown that the affinity of the 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-porphyrin for P10 is stronger than for chitosan, which gives insights concerning the possible stability of the complex in biological systems. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Abstract- Programmable system on Chip are emerging as a powerful solution due to their ease of use and ability to replace large number of discrete ADC / DAC advantage. Simply replacing a large number of discrete components provides a significant power advantage. Here we will give an overview as how to implement an application based on PSOC by using PSOC Developer Kit which provides a common development platform where we can prototype and evaluate different solutions using PSOC architectures. Applications of PSOC are numerous in number and it takes lot of time to arrive at the conclusion especially for the start-ups. We have given the detailed view of the process and point to point description of the work, practices taken by us to achieve the application. To enhance our basic approach towards the main goal we have started with implementing basic projects i.e. LCD Interfacing Project, Controlling Blinking LEDs and many more projects using the family processors i.e. CY8C28, CY8C38, CY8C55. After all the small projects we have actually focused in detail about achieving the applications. We will read about the "ADC data buffering using DMA" on PSOC. Our application is how to configure direct memory access (DMA) to buffer the analog to digital converter.  Also {DMA} design and implementation of scientific calculator through Matrix laboratory. Keyboard : PSoC-5 board, USB cable, LCD, MATLAB


Objectives This study explored the effects of gender-affirming treatment, which includes inhibition of endogenous sex hormones and replacement with cross-sex hormones, on muscle function, size and composition in 11 transwomen (TW) and 12 transmen (TM). Methods Isokinetic knee extensor and flexor muscle strength was assessed at baseline (T00), 4 weeks after gonadal suppression of endogenous hormones but before hormone replacement (T0), and 3 (T3) and 11 (T12) months after hormone replacement. In addition, at T00 and T12, we assessed lower-limb muscle volume using MRI, and cross-sectional area (CSA) and radiological density using CT. Results Thigh muscle volume increased (15%) in TM, which was paralleled by increased quadriceps CSA (15%) and radiological density (6%). In TW, the corresponding parameters decreased by −5% (muscle volume) and −4% (CSA), while density remained unaltered. The TM increased strength over the assessment period, while the TW generally maintained or slightly increased in strength. Baseline muscle volume correlated highly with strength (R>0.75), yet the relative change in muscle volume and strength correlated only moderately (R=0.65 in TW and R=0.32 in TM). The absolute levels of muscle volume and knee extension strength after the intervention still favored the TW. Conclusion Cross-sex hormone treatment markedly affects muscle strength, size and composition in transgender individuals. Despite the robust increases in muscle mass and strength in TM, the TW were still stronger and had more muscle mass following 12 months of treatment. These findings add new knowledge that could be relevant when evaluating transwomen's eligibility to compete in the women's category of athletic competitions.


Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are frequently symptomatic despite being on medications currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for PTSD. There is evidence to support the notion that prazosin is effective for PTSD nightmares. However, PTSD-related nightmares often do not resolve completely on a low dose of prazosin. The capacity of prazosin to treat daytime symptoms of PTSD which are distressing to patients has not been well studied. Clinicians are reluctant to increase the dose of prazosin due to side effect concerns. To date, the highest reported dose of prazosin used for PTSD is 16 mg daily. We illustrate two case reports using high-dose (up to 30 and 45 mg) prazosin for PTSD with comorbid treatment-resistant mood disorders. We report that high-dose prazosin was safe, tolerable and effective for PTSD in adults. To our knowledge, this is the first case series to highlight the importance of using high-dose prazosin for the treatment of PTSD. In patients with partial response to currently available medications for PTSD, greater utilization of high-dose prazosin for the management of PTSD may lead to better outcomes.


Skill acquisition as a means of youth empowerment has caught government's attention in Nigeria for over two decades. This is so because it is believed that exposing youth in skill acquisition programmes will reduce youth unemployment and enhance their self sustenance. In view of this therefore, this paper examines different skill acquisition programmes established by past and present administrations in the country to ensure youth empowerment. It also discusses different youth empowerment strategies that could imbibe in the youths the spirit of self-reliance and self-dependence. The study also made recommendations such as the establishment of skill acquisition centers in every nook and cranny of the country to make the programme accessible to the youths, the recruitment of competent and experienced craftsmen and women as instructors to make these programmes more viable and the streamline of the skill acquisition programmes to make them effective for the benefits of the unemployed youths in the country among others.