Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated around 1.4 million deaths and 10% of the disease burden in children under 5 years of age is due to non-exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life. As per the WHO, exclusive breastfeeding is considered the best nourishment for children in first six months. However, majority of the mothers fail to practice exclusive breastfeeding due to inadequate or lack of knowledge which poses a challenge. Thus, this study intends to assess knowledge, attitude and practices among breastfeeding mothers in Trongsa.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was used. Data was collected from 205 breast feeding mothers in Trongsa District using the pre-tested structured questionnaire.
Results: Majority (98%) of the mothers had an adequate knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding starting from early initiation, the feeding of colostrum and providing complementary feeding. Health staff and the national television were the main source of information for the mothers on exclusive breastfeeding. However, in terms of practice, 20% of them did not exclusively breastfeed and had given additional feeds along with breast milk with the assumption of insufficient mother's milk. Similarly, 13.2% of them had squeezed and thrown away the colostrum.
Conclusions: Despite mothers having good knowledge on exclusive breastfeeding, it was not practiced and followed. This study's findings indicate a gap between the knowledge and the actual practice of exclusive breastfeeding among breastfeeding mothers in Trongsa.


The relatively small equity of mortgage banks that has been created in Poland for the past twelwe years does not allow refinancing of housing real estate credits with the use of mortgage bonds. Nonetheless, there is more and more imminent threat of liquidity problems amongst the universal banks that have granted mortgage loans for financing housing real estate. Thus, it is expected to see the emergence of a system of issuing bonds to improve financial standing of those banks. The process of development of mortgage banking raising funds on capital markets through the issue of bonds has been already commenced in Poland. The paper presents the essence and the legal groundwork for that process, as well as the volume and structure of bonds issue on the background of refinancing mortgage loans with bonds in the selected countries of the European Union. The paper includes a discussion of security principles, and presents the main issuers of bonds. Due to the attractiveness of that financial instrument the discussion includes a presentation of the bond market in Poland, and its main investors. In conclusion, the author presents prerequisites to encouraging and accelerating that type of financing which will also increase credibility of that security on the financial market.


This study addresses an IOS (interorganizational system) adoption literature gap by proposing an integrative model of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) adoption and incorporating the effect of perceived radicalness of technology in IOS adoption decisions. Three technological factors (perceived benefit, perceived costs and compatibility), four interorganizational pressure factors (competitive pressure, industry/regulatory pressure, net supply-chain exercised power and favorable transactional climate), three organizational readiness factors (top management support, financial readiness, IS infrastructure/capabilities) and three external environmental factors (standards stability, perceived consumer readiness and perceived stakeholder privacy) have been proposed as predictors of RFID adoption intent while perceived technology radicalness has been suggested as a potential moderator of the proposed relationships. The model was developed using existing IOS theories and constructs consistently found significant in IOS adoption studies. The model is supported using semi-structured interview data and news-report data. Testable hypotheses, methodology outline, and findings-implications discussion are presented.


Image compression, as one of the key-enabling technologies in multimedia communications, has been paid much attention in the past decades, where the two key techniques discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and set-partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) have great influence on its final performance. Due to the proprieties of fast computation, low memory requirement, DWT has been adopted as a new technical standard for still image compression. But it did not make much use of the region information. Although several improved methods have been proposed that adopt direction-adaptive wavelet for using the geometric and spatial information, they still did not consider the texture information. Furthermore, the traditional SPIHT algorithm has the drawbacks of long bits output and time consuming. In this paper, we first propose a new technique named interpolation-based direction-adaptive lifting DWT. It can adaptively choose the best lifting direction and use the Lagrange interpolation technique to make prediction according to its local characteristics. This method makes good use of the image texture features. Then a modified SPIHT coding algorithm is presented. It improves the scanning process and can effectively reduce the coding bits length and running time. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can yield better results than traditional techniques.


The quick response (QR) system that can cope with demand volatility by shortening lead time has been well studied in the literature. Much of the existing literature assumes implicitly or explicitly that the manufacturers under QR can always meet the demand because the production capacity is always sufficient. However, when the order comes with a short lead time under QR, availability of the manufacturer's production capacity is not guaranteed. This motivates us to explore QR in supply chains with stochastic production capacity. Specifically, we study QR in a two‐echelon supply chain with Bayesian demand information updating. We consider the situation where the manufacturer's production capacity under QR is uncertain. We first explore how stochastic production capacity affects supply chain decisions and QR implementation. We then incorporate the manufacturer's ability to expand capacity into the model. We explore how the manufacturer determines the optimal capacity expansion decision, and the value of such an ability to the supply chain and its agents. Finally, we extend the model to the two‐stage two‐ordering case and derive the optimal ordering policy by dynamic programming. We compare the single‐ordering and two‐ordering cases to generate additional managerial insights about how ordering flexibility affects QR when production capacity is stochastic. We also explore the transparent supply chain and find that our main results still hold.


The kinetics of degradation and surface color changes of beta-carotene encapsulated in a polymeric matrix (PVP-40) and its relationship with physical changes (manifested as structural collapse) of the matrix were studied during storage of samples at several water activities at constant temperature. The degradation rate constants obtained decreased with an increase in the relative humidity (RH) of the storage atmosphere. Beta-carotene losses were observed mainly at RHs below the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the corresponding systems, and the lower degradation constant rates were observed under conditions where the matrices were fully plasticized (i.e., rubbery) and collapsed (RH, 64 and 75%). An inverse correlation was observed between collapse and degradation rate constants. The results presented here indicated that the molecular mobility of the matrix is not rate limiting for the degradation of beta-carotene. Factors such as microstructure and porosity of the polymeric matrix may be more important as modifiers of kinetic reactions. Surface color was not a sensitive indicator of beta-carotene retention, because it was mostly affected by the degree of matrix hydration and collapse phenomena.


This paper presents a cross-country comparative study of corporate governance forma-tion in four transition countries that differ significantly in the reform design, implementation, and outcome. The analysis showed that corporate governance formation in these countries is characterized by both similarities and differences. Similarities originate first of all from the common features of the historical background of these countries, the features of centrally planned economy; from the similarities of the principles of the reform programs; and from similarities of certain basic, objective regularities of the post-Communist transition. Such common features include, e.g., highly insiderized initial ownership patterns, high role of man-agers, high ownership concentration, dual trends of ownership structures' evolution towards concentration and outsiderization, and many others. The differences originate, among others, from the specific features of the countries' historical, cultural, and institutional heritage, the soundness of the reform design and implementation, the main characteristics of the enter-prise sector, the quality of the legal base and enforcement mechanisms. Countries that had more favorable "background" (traditions of private entrepreneurship, capacities of the elites) and during the transition period managed to create good legal background for private sector and appropriate institutions are more likely to enjoy formation of more efficient corporate governance mechanisms and patterns.


Ethanolic extract of spores of Lycopodium clavatum L., reportedly has profound effect against liver disorders, but lacks adequate experimental validation. To test this claim, healthy inbred Swiss albino mice, Mus musculus, were divided into different groups: Gr.I mice were fed normal diet (negative control); Gr.II - fed normal diet plus ethanol; Gr.III - fed two carcinogens of liver, [0.06% p-dimethyl aminoazobenzene (initiator) and 0.05% phenobarbital (promoter)] known to induce hepatotoxicity and genotoxicity; Gr.IV- mice fed ethanol plus both the carcinogens, and Gr.V- fed carcinogens plus spore extract of Lycopodium clavatum . They were sacrificed at day 90 and 120 for histological studies of liver, assay of cytotoxicity markers and assessment of genotoxicity using endpoints such as chromosome aberrations, micronuclei, mitotic index in bone marrow cells and sperm head anomaly. Additionally, western blot for p53 protein expression and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity in liver was compared among different groups of treated and control mice to evaluate its therapeutic potentials. Compared to Gr.III and IV, less number of mice developed tumors in Gr.V along with significant reduction in hepatotoxicity and genotoxicity, thereby validating its potential use against liver ailments as a herbal remedy. Keywords : p-dimethyl aminoazobenzene, phenobarbital, plant extract, amelioration.


This paper presents a new method based on spatial controlling in quantum well intermixing in InP/InGaAsP structures using ICP technology.The degree of bandgap energy shift in the same wafer can be controlled flexibly using masks with different duty ratios.With an optimal condition including ICP-RIE etching depth, SiO2 deposition,and RTA process,five different degrees of blue-shift with maximum of 75 nm were obtained in the same sample.The result shows that our method is an effective way to fabricate monolithic integration devices, especially in multi-bandgap structures.


The use of the monoanionic Schiff base ligand (E)-4-(2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)-2,3-dimethyl-1-phenyl-1,2-dihydropyrazol-5-one in transition (Co, Ni and Cu) coordination chemistry yields mono-, tetra- and pentanuclear coordination clusters (CCs) with different structural motifs. An organic transformation occurs in the ligand in the Cu compound for which theoretical studies are presented. Solution studies, topological issues and magnetic studies are discussed. The present results demonstrate the richness of the coordination chemistry of this monoprotic organic ligand, which promotes the formation of high-nuclearity CCs.


Research objective: to analyze the distribution of alleles and genotypes frequencies and to assess the predictive significance of the polymorphism of the TNF-α, CTLA-4, CYP2E1, CYP2C9 *2, CYP2C9 *3, CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 genes of cytochrome P450 in Uzbek patients with chronic hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis. Material and methods. The study included the analysis of a core group, consisting of 107 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CVHC) and the control of 81 conditionally healthy individuals. All surveyed patients were of Uzbek nationality, with a verified diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis. DNA extraction from lymphocyte nuclei was carried out according to the Sambrook J. et al method. SNP-genotyping of gene polymorphisms was carried out by standard PCR on soft thermal cyclers "Corbett Research" (Australia) and "Applied Biosystems" (USA). Results. The research showed that the predictive efficacy of each of the genetic polymorphisms in the core group was relatively low (AUC value was from 0.51 to 0.57). Besides, the revealed features of the prevalence of allele frequencies and the genotypes distribution of the studied cytochrome P450 isoenzymes were a significant factor in determination of the CVHC pathogenesis and the disease course. The results indicated a link between the expression of CYP2E1, CYP2C9, CYP1A2 and disease progression. Conclusion. According to the marker incidence, CTLA-4 -49A/G gene polymorphism has a good predictive efficiency in relation to the development and course of CVHC.


Evidence has shown that the allocation of talented people affects the long-term growth. It has been found that a large population of engineers tends to foster innovation and growth more rapidly than population of lawyers and other activities with access to the public rent. Yet little is known about what determines the allocation of talents. This paper uses a sample of 69 developing countries to address this question. It shows that the oil rent tends to orient talents towards productive activities in well-governed countries, and towards rentseeking activities in poorly governed countries. These results are robust to different specifications, datasets on governance quality and estimation methods. The paper sheds light on the sources and mechanisms of the resource curse through its effect on human resources and rent-seeking activities.


OBJECTIVE
This study aims to investigate the expression levels of serum and urinary vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and epidermal growth factor-like domain 7 (EGFL7) in proliferating infantile hemangioma patients under propranolol treatment.

METHODS
Propranolol (0.5-2 mg x kg(-1)) was orally administered to 30 infants every day for 4-8 months. The Achauer method was used to measure the tumor radius and thus evaluate the clinical curative effects of the treatment. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the serum and urinary concentrations of VEGF-A and EGFL7 at 0, 4, and 12 weeks after the treatment.

RESULTS
The treatment response was excellent in 2 patients, good in 11, moderate in 14, and poor in 3. Serum VEGF-A (335.692 pg x mL(-1) ± 136.146 pg x mL(-1)) was high before the treatment and then significantly decreased after 4 weeks (264.853 pg x mL(-1) ± 122.120 pg x mL(-1)) and 12 weeks (211.345 pg x mL(-1) ± 104.035 pg x mL(-1)) of treatment (P < 0.05). Urinary VEGF-A (76.234 pg x mL(-1) ± 24.169 pg x mL(-1)) was high before the treatment and then significantly decreased after four weeks (56.454 pg x mL(-1) ± l6.111 pg x mL(-1)) and twelve weeks (34.728 pg x mL(-1)) ± 12.656 pg x mL(-1)) of treatment (P < 0.05). Serum and urinary EGFL7 also decreased after the treatment, showing a positive relationship with VEGF-A.

CONCLUSION
Propranolol can be safely and effectively used to treat proliferating infantile hemangiomas. This treatment can reduce the peripheral serum and urinary concentrations of VEGF-A and EGFL7 in affected children.


Several different approaches to renormalization are studied. The Callan-Symanzik equation is derived and we study its beta functions. An effective potential for the Coleman-Weinberg model is studied to find that the beta function is positive and that spontaneous symmetry breaking will occur if we expand around the classical field. Lastly we renormalize a non-abelian gaugetheory to find that the beta function in QCD is negative.


We introduce a new domain for finding precise numerical invariants of programs by abstract interpretation. This domain, which consists of level sets of non-linear functions, generalizes the domain of linear "templates" introduced by Manna, Sankaranarayanan, and Sipma. In the case of quadratic templates, we use Shor's semi-definite relaxation to derive computable yet precise abstractions of semantic functionals, and we show that the abstract fixpoint equation can be solved accurately by coupling policy iteration and semi-definite programming. We demonstrate the interest of our approach on a series of examples (filters, integration schemes) including a degenerate one (symplectic scheme).


Abstract The Oregon State TRIGA Reactor (OSTR) was converted from highly enriched uranium (HEU) Fuel Life Improvement Program (FLIP) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel in October 2008. This effort was driven by the U.S. Department of Energy's Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor program. The new LEU fuel is 30/20 U-Zr1.6H (30% uranium in the fuel matrix, 19.75 wt% enriched) in contrast to the FLIP fuel having U-Zr1.6H (8.5% uranium in the fuel matrix, 70 wt% enriched). This new fuel composition provides the best match in performance of the available mixture ratios when compared to the previous FLIP fuel. To support conversion, a complete assessment and reevaluation of the OSTR Safety Analysis Report was performed. This evaluation included steady-state thermal-hydraulic and neutronics characterizations of the HEU and LEU cores as well as a transient behavior (pulse) analysis of both core types. This paper presents a summary of the methods used and results produced during the pulse analysis identifying power, temperature, and reactivity during pulsed operation for the FLIP and new LEU fuel. This analysis was performed using RELAP5-3D version 2.4.2 and point reactor kinetics simulation software; these two methods are found to agree very well. We discuss the differences between the two fuels and the impact of pulse behavior on the safety limits for the converted reactor.


A novel computational methodology based on statistical learning multiobjective optimization is developed to optimize large-scale achromatic 3D metalenses in the visible regime. The optimized lens has a numerical aperture of 0.56 and an average focusing efficiency of 45%. The metasurface is a nanostructured interface with a subwavelength thickness which manipulates light through spatially arranged meta-atoms. These meta-atoms ensure adequate control of the light attributes by altering the phase, amplitude and polarization of the incoming wavefront [1-2]. Due to the versatility of the metasurface concept, peculiar and outstanding applications have been demonstrated recently [3-4]. Yet, the precise engineering of the subwavelength meta-atoms, in particular for extremely challenging applications, is therefore crucial for improving the performance. As a result, numerous inverse design methodologies have recently been adopted to further broaden the potential of a metasurface design, in particular for single-objective based devices [5]. Nevertheless, the next decade is expected to witness a notable increase in the field of multifunctional metasurfaces owing to the increasing demand in the design of flat optical devices with a diverse variety of functionalities. This makes it a mandatory step for the next metasurface generation to leverage robust inverse design techniques, which are capable of optimizing metasurfaces with multiple functionalities. However, this is not an easily manageable task, since the optimization of multifunctional metasurfaces requires a solution to an optimization problem with different conflicting objectives and potentially entails a large parameter space.


Love‐ and Rayleigh‐wave microseisms with a dominant period of about 20 s have been clearly detected in Japan. Because their arrival direction was almost the same in any part of the Japanese islands, they are expected to have propagated as plane waves from a very distant source. We estimated the source area of the microseisms by multiple array analysis of data from the Hi‐net, high‐sensitivity accelerometers in Japan and the broadband seismic array at Grafenberg, Germany. The source was distributed to be in the North Atlantic and migrated from north of the British Isles to the Norwegian Sea in a period of one day. This migration coincided with the propagation of ocean swells. Our results indicate that ocean swells in the North Atlantic can be a major source of seismic noise with a period of 20 s in Japan. Our analysis also suggests that the source areas of the Love and Rayleigh waves were different. It is hoped that such observations will be helpful in understanding the excitation mechanisms of microseisms.


In order to mitigate and meet CO2 emission regulations, long-term CO2 storage in hydrocarbon reservoirs is one of the most attractive large-scale options. To ensure save anthropogenic storage, it is important to maintain the sealing integrity of potential storage complexes. It is therefore particularly important to preserve the sealing integrity of any (pre-)existing faults present in these complexes, as these might start to leak due to fault re-activation upon any physical or chemical perturbation resulting from CO2 injection or exposure. In addition, reactivation of such faults might also lead to induced seismicity. Potential storage complexes may consist of quartz-rich sandstones capped by clay-rich seals. Therefore, in order to gain a better insight in the seismic risk and the risk of leakage due to geological CO2 storage, a quantitative understanding of the coupling between the chemical-mechanical effects of CO2 injection and exposure on the frictional strength and stability as well as the transport properties of faults intersecting quartz-rich sandstones and/or clay-rich caprocks is needed. In this study, the coupled chemical-mechanical effects of long-term CO2-fluid-rock interactions on the frictional and transport properties of simulated fault gouges composed of sandstone reservoir rock and carbonate-bearing clay-rich caprocks are tested. In order to do that, friction experiments are conducted at conditions similar to those of potential CO2 storage reservoirs at a depth of ~2-4 km depth. The experimental results show that simulated fault gouges derived from natural sandstones with small amounts of reactive minerals are hardly affected by long-term CO2-exposure and as a result, the frictional behaviour and transport properties of these gouges will not be affected significantly. On the other hand, the presence of >40% of carbonates in a sandstone fault gouge, e.g. occurring naturally or via precipitation due to CO2 leakage along the fault, may result in a small increase in the frictional strength and transport properties. However, this carbonate increase may also make the fault gouge become more prone to (micro)seismicity when at an in-situ temperature >100°C. When testing systematically the effect of CO2 exposure or leakage by gradually increasing the calcite concentration in simulated quartz-calcite, clay-calcite and clay-quartz-calcite mixtures a similar increase in frictional strength with increasing calcite content is observed. Moreover, these mixtures also start to become more prone to (micro)seismicity for calcite concentrations >90% in clay(-quartz)-calcite mixtures and ~50% in quartz-calcite mixtures and at in-situ temperatures of 150°C. More complex CO2-fluid-rock interactions in clay-quartz-calcite mixtures are predicted when using geochemical modelling. Friction results for multiple CO2 exposure scenarios show that the frictional strength increases with respect to the unexposed composition, while the gouges exhibited stable (aseismic) behaviour at in-situ temperature of 100°C. At a temperature of 150°C, however, the compositions may become prone to unstable (seismogenic) behaviour. Shear experiments testing the leakage potential of a simulated, naturally derived clay-quartz-calcite fault gouge composition show that the potential for CO2 leakage along a fault is higher than across a fault, but that the leakage potential decreases with increasing shear displacement of the fault (maturity) and increasing effective normal stress (depth).


Creating effective communication with customers is the most important aspect in services marketing.To date we still have poor understanding of the role of effective communication with customers in attracting and maintaining prospective and present customers. This research article evaluates the effectiveness of advertising and personal selling practices of Ethiopian Service Sector in communicating with its customers with the aim of finding solutions to improve the existing communication and customer satisfaction. After reviewing related literature, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to 500 customers, out of which 30 percent from the telecommunications and 10 percent each from the remaining seven service industries viz. banking and insurance, education, travel, tourism and hotel industry, and hospital industry used to gather the data about the effectiveness of advertising and personal selling activities. The participants were selected randomly once the service type is determined by stratified sampling. The data collected was analyzed based on predetermined rating factors and expected results of performance with the help of SPSS software package. In conclusion, the findings of the analysis showed that Ethiopian Service Sector's advertising and personal selling indicated moderately effective in providing information, creating awareness, and changing attitude and ineffective in building company image and enforcing brand loyalty. The research also identified lack of integration between advertising and personal selling.

 Key words: Advertising, Personal Selling, Elements of Marketing Communication, Marketing Communication

 Mix, Ethiopia.


The effects of adding essential oils (EO) at different levels (125, 250, 500 mg/l) on rumen fermentation and biohydrogenation were examined in a rumen batch culture study. Treatments were: control without EO (CON), control with anise oil (ANO), cedar wood oil (CWO), cinnamon oil (CNO), eucalyptus oil (EUO), and tea tree oil (TEO). Essential oils, each dissolved in 1 ml of ethanol, were added to the culture flask containing 40 ml of buffer solution, 2 ml of reduction solution, 10 ml of rumen fluid, 25 mg of soybean oil, and 0.5 g of the diet. After 24 h of incubation in a water batch at 39 °C, three samples were collected from each flask and analyzed for ammonia-N, volatile fatty acids (VFA), and fatty acids (FA). Expect for CNO, the proportions of acetate, propionate, and acetate to propionate ratios were not affected (P > 0.05) by EO addition. Addition of CWO, CNO, and TEO reduced total VFA concentrations ( P < 0.05) regardless of dose level. The ammonia-N concentration was greater in cultures incu - bated with EO regardless of dose level. Compared with the CON, the concentrations of C18:0 and trans C18:1 were reduced (P < 0.05) with EO addition regardless of dose level. Compared with the CON, the concentration of linoleic acid was greater ( P < 0.05) when EO were added at 500 mg/l. EO tested in this study had no effects on VFA profile but significantly reduced the formation of biohydrogenation products (C18:0 and trans C18:1).


The dissimilatory sulphite reductase (desulfoviridin) from the sulphate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris (Hildenborough) displays distinct optical and redox characteristics relative to the haem subunit of Escherichia coli assimilatory sulphite reductase. For high-spin pentaco-ordinate desulfoviridin there is minimal change in the absorbance of the oxidized chromophores both after reduction or after addition of exogenous ligands. A ligand-metal charge-transfer band approximately 702 nm is observed in both the oxidized and one-electron-reduced enzyme. E.p.r. spectroscopy has been used to define the relative reduction potentials for sirohaem and [Fe4S4] centres (delta E0 = Es0-Ec0) as a function of sirohaem axial co-ordination. Typically delta E0 lies in a range from -10 to -50 mV. These results show a correlation with the sigma-donor or pi-acceptor properties of the ligand and stand in sharp contrast with estimates for the E. coli enzyme. The electronic properties of the coupled [Fe4S4]-sirohaem redox centre common to both nitrite- and sulphite-reducing enzymes are apparently strongly dependent on the environment generated by protein side chains.


Vertebrate nervous systems can generate a remarkable diversity of behaviors. However, our understanding of how behaviors may have evolved in the chordate lineage is limited by the lack of neuroethological studies leveraging our closest invertebrate relatives. Here, we combine high-throughput video acquisition with pharmacological perturbations of bioamine signaling to systematically reveal the global structure of the motor behavioral repertoire in the Ciona intestinalis larvae. Most of Ciona's postural variance can be captured by 6 basic shapes, which we term "eigencionas." Motif analysis of postural time series revealed numerous stereotyped behavioral maneuvers including "startle-like" and "beat-and-glide." Employing computational modeling of swimming dynamics and spatiotemporal embedding of postural features revealed that behavioral differences are generated at the levels of motor modules and the transitions between, which may in part be modulated by bioamines. Finally, we show that flexible motor module usage gives rise to diverse behaviors in response to different light stimuli.


Sodium iron ethylenediaminetetracetic acid (NaFeEDTA) has been recommended for food fortification programmes to improve iron status but its performance in commercial products has not been evaluated. The effect of EDTA on iron absorption from fortified cornflakes, given as part of a typical Western breakfast, was determined in a double-blind randomised study with 20 non-anaemic female volunteers, using experimentally prepared iron compounds, enriched with 58Fe, and faecal monitoring. Five meals were compared: hydrogen reduced iron, hydrogen reduced iron plus Na2EDTA (molar ratio EDTA:Fe 1:2), hydrogen reduced iron plus NaFe(III)EDTA at two different molar ratios (EDTA:total Fe 1:3 and 1:2), and hydrogen reduced iron plus 15 mg ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid:Fe 1.3:1). The iron and EDTA compounds were accurately weighed into gelatine capsules and taken with unfortified cornflakes, semi-skimmed milk and tea on two consecutive days; the iron dose per meal was 3.75 mg. Iron absorption from all five test meals was measured in each volunteer with a minimum wash-out period of 2 weeks between tests. Geometric mean iron absorption (%) from the 5 tests was 14.1, 17.6, 20.6, 24.4 and 17.5 respectively (equivalent to 0.5-0.9 mg absorbed iron). There was a significantly higher iron absorption from the mixture of reduced iron and NaFe(III)EDTA (EDTA:Fe 1:2) than from reduced iron alone (p = 0.014). It is not known whether the higher absorption was from reduced iron or NaFeEDTA or both. Absorption was not increased significantly with NaFe(III)EDTA (EDTA:Fe 1:3), Na2EDTA (EDTA:Fe 1:2) or ascorbic acid (15 mg).


UNLABELLED
In patients affected by MMC both neurological and systemic dysfunctions may cause obesity and malnutrition. The aim of this study is a nutritional survey, with anthropometric assessment and dietary evaluation, of patients affected by MMC.

CLINICAL MATERIALS AND METHODS
Anthropometric assessment, dietary evaluation, and a comprehensive assessment of motor impairment degree (MID) were performed in 100 patients (54 males, 46 females) affected by MMC aged from 6 to 228 months (median 91 months).

RESULTS
Fifty-five/100 children and adolescents with MMC were classified as normal or wellnourished and 5 at risk of malnutrition or malnourished, while another 40/100 patients were classified as marked overweight (weight-for-height or BMI above the 95th percentile). Deficit in height-for-age was observed in 34/100 patients; 12 of these patients presented with obesity. Dietary assessment evidenced that the majority of wellnourished patients (48/55) were consuming less than 80% or between 80% to 100% of recommended daily allowances (RDA) of energy. Overweight patients had an energy intake lower than their own RDA: 5 below 80%, 25 between 80% to 100%, and only 10 over 100% of RDA of energy for age and sex. No statistical correlation was found between nutritional status and MID, while there was a statistically significant difference between nutritional status and dietary intake (p = 0.005).

DISCUSSION
Overweight is the most frequent nutritional disease in patients affected by MMC. Since in our experience on correlation with MID was found, we can speculate that childhood and adolescent obesity in patients with MMC occurs as a result of complex interactive factors, not strictly related to energy intake and MID. Nutritional surveillance and specific treatment programs for overweight MMC patients are essential to enhance their quality of life.


Fat talk (women speaking negatively about the size and shape of their bodies) is a phenomenon that both reflects and creates body dissatisfaction. Our study investigated the content, frequency, and impact of fat talk among college women. Participants (168 female students at a Midwestern U.S. university) completed online surveys containing fat talk-specific questions and measures of body dissatisfaction and thin-ideal internalization. Most participants reported engaging in fat talk with one third reporting frequent or very frequent fat talk. Evidence indicated a strong third-person effect wherein participants thought they engaged in fat talk less than other college women. Self-reported frequency of fat talk was associated with greater body dissatisfaction and internalization of the thin-ideal but not body mass index (BMI). Despite the association between fat talk and body dissatisfaction, over half of the participants reported that they believe fat talk makes them feel better about their bodies. The most common response to fat talk was denial that the friend was fat, most typically leading to a back-and-forth conversation where each of two healthy weight peers denies the other is fat while claiming to be fat themselves. Results are discussed in terms of the ways in which fat talk may act as an injunctive norm, reinforcing women's body-related distress.


Several general-purpose algorithms and techniques have been developed for image segmentation. Since there is no general solution to the image segmentation problem, these techniques often have to be combined with domain knowledge in order to effectively solve an image segmentation problem for a problem domain. This paper presents a comparative study of the basic image segmentation techniques i.e. Edge-Based, K-Means Clustering, Thresholding and Region-Based techniques, using a number of test images. The objects extracted after image enhancement and image segmentation as compared to the objects desired, whether the region boundaries are closed or disconnected and the Mean Weighted Distance measure of the segmented objects with respect to the original image form the criteria to perform the comparative study. Image segmentation is further used for object matching between two images. Correlation between the objects being matched in the two images is used as a measure of similarity between the two objects. The first principal component axis, determined by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), of the objects being matched are aligned with the x-axis to take into account the different orientation of an object in different images.


Control system design packages like MATLAB, MATRIXX, Control C, SIMNON, etc. have become essential ingredients of both undergraduate and graduate courses in the systems and controls area. The use of MATLAB and its companion toolboxes in teaching graduate and undergraduate courses have been reported by many educators in the past. This work describes our experience, at the Pennsylvania State University the University of Arkansas, with the use of SIMULINK and MATLAB in Nonlinear Systems Analysis and Stability course which is offered to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. This paper will emphasize on the use of SIMULINK for simulation of nonlinear systems and study of their behavior. We also present the MATLAB features that are found useful in this course. A discussion of how SIMULINK and MATLAB help in enhancing the students' understanding of the material and reducing the amount of time spent in performing computational homework assignments will follow. Examples illustrating the use of these packages will be included and the actual code will be posted at a site on the World Wide Web. Finally, the general positive student reaction to incorporating these software packages into this course will be reported.


Stochastic mechanistic epidemiological models largely contribute to better understand pathogen emergence and spread, and assess control strategies at various scales (from within-host to transnational scale). However, developing realistic models which involve multi-disciplinary knowledge integration faces three major challenges in predictive epidemiology: lack of readability once translated into simulation code, low reproducibility and reusability, and long development time compared to outbreak time scale. We introduce here EMULSION, an artificial intelligence-based software intended to address those issues and help modellers focus on model design rather than programming. EMULSION defines a domain-specific language to make all components of an epidemiological model (structure, processes, parameters…) explicit as a structured text file. This file is readable by scientists from other fields (epidemiologists, biologists, economists), who can contribute to validate or revise assumptions at any stage of model development. It is then automatically processed by EMULSION generic simulation engine, preventing any discrepancy between model description and implementation. The modelling language and simulation architecture both rely on the combination of advanced artificial intelligence methods (knowledge representation and multi-level agent-based simulation), allowing several modelling paradigms (from compartment- to individual-based models) at several scales (up to metapopulation). The flexibility of EMULSION and its capability to support iterative modelling are illustrated here through examples of progressive complexity, including late revisions of core model assumptions. EMULSION is also currently used to model the spread of several diseases in real pathosystems. EMULSION provides a command-line tool for checking models, producing model diagrams, running simulations, and plotting outputs. Written in Python 3, EMULSION runs on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. It is released under Apache-2.0 license. A comprehensive documentation with installation instructions, a tutorial and many examples are available from: https://sourcesup.renater.fr/www/emulsion-public.


Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid gland and both environmental and genetic factors contribute to disease aetiology. Cytokines, such as interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 10 (IL-10), are involved in the immune response and may be implicated in the autoimmune disease process. Associations have been reported between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of IL-10 and the Ile50Val polymorphism of the IL-4 receptor gene (IL-4R) gene and atopy and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The autoimmune diseases cluster within families and susceptibility genes may overlap between the different disorders. Therefore, we investigated 5 SNPs (-592C/A, -657G/A, -819C/T, -1349A/G, and -2013G/A) in the promoter region of the IL-10 and the Ile50Val polymorphism (A/G) in the IL-4R in a large UK population based case-control dataset with GD. No association was found between the polymorphisms studied and GD and no significant differences were found in genotype or allele frequencies between the patients and control subjects. We conclude these polymorphisms of IL-10 and IL-4R previously associated with other immune mediated diseases, do not confer susceptibility to GD in white Caucasians in the United Kingdom.


Background Our pediatric injury discharge surveillance data indicated that the highest incidence of burns, bicycle injuries and poisonings was within a 4 zipcode area of Birmingham. These data provided the foundation for a successful grant application to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the establishment of an Injury Free Coalition for Kids (IFCK) site at our hospital. Year one IFCK objectives included increasing child safety awareness and education (an intermediate to reducing injury) in the high incidence "intervention" areas identified. Methods An injury prevention fair was held in conjunction with the local health department in the intervention area. Along with providing educational material, bicycle helmets, a bike/pedestrian safety skills course, smoke detectors and appropriate child safety restraints, a survey was conducted of the families attending to assess their injury prevention awareness needs. Data were entered into Epistat. Results 150 families participated with 52% being residents of the intervention area. 95% of those surveyed had preschool age children. Bicycle Safety: 66% reported no bike helmet for their child (financial constraints as primary barrier). Of the 34% who had a bike helmet, 30% reported routine use. Poison Prevention: 64% knew the poison center existed but only 29% said they would call the poison center if their child was exposed to a poison (7% would go straight to the emergency department). Motor Vehicle Safety: 79% had car seats, and 55% reported appropriate use of booster seats. Fire Safety: 128 persons answered the fire safety questions: 86% had a fire exit plan, but only 62% of those practiced it with their children. 92% had smoke detectors. Other Information: 33.3% of families reported an injury to one of their children within the past year (25% prevalence of injury among children nationally). Of the injuries in the past year, 23% were bicycle related and 53% related to a fall. 10% reported that at some time in their child's life, they required a hospital admission for an injury. Over 50% reported a prior ED use at our institution. 98% reported their child's immunizations were up to date. 25% reported a chronic illness. Conclusion A significant number of children in the intervention area are injured each year (33% reported). Despite a large number of bike injuries, only a small percentage reported routine helmet use and a significant number reported not being able to afford a helmet. Families surveyed have smoke detectors and have thought about fire exit plans, but need to ensure that their smoke detectors work and that children know what to do in case of fire. The survey data have led to establishing a bike helmet bank, car seat services and promoting poison control center use at the area health department clinic.


Abstract This is the final in a series of articles tracing the history of Learning Difficulties Australia since the late 1960s, and covers the decade beginning in the mid‐1990s. This decade has seen increasing professionalisation of the association through adoption and implementation of a Strategic Plan, more rigorous administrative procedures, a strengthening of nation‐wide ties through interstate conferences and election of interstate Council members, and a change of name. The regular program of professional development has been maintained, as has the Consultants' Referral Service, with the introduction of a similar service in Queensland. Increased involvement of academic researchers in the association is reflected in greater pressure on specialist educators to employ research‐based methods in the teaching of early reading. The association has continued to lobby for greater support for students with learning difficulties.


Iron is essential for normal neurological function because of its role in oxidative metabolism and because it is a cofactor in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and myelin. In the past several years, there has been increased attention to the importance of oxidative stress in the central nervous system. Iron is the most important inducer of reactive oxygen species, therefore, the relation of iron to neurodegenerative processes is more appreciated today than it was a few years ago. Nevertheless, despite this increased attention and awareness, our knowledge of iron metabolism in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels is still limited. Iron is distributed in a heterogeneous fashion among the different regions and cells of the brain. This regional and cellular heterogeneity is preserved across many species. Brain iron concentrations are not static; they increase with age and in many diseases and decrease when iron is deficient in the diet. In infants and children, insufficient iron in the diet is associated with decreased brain iron and with changes in behavior and cognitive functioning. Abnormal iron accumulation in the diseased brain areas and, in some cases, alterations in iron-related proteins have been reported in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Friedreich's ataxia. There is strong evidence for iron-mediated oxidative damage as a primary contributor to cell death in these disorders. Demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, especially warrant study in relation to iron availability. Myelin synthesis and maintenance have a high iron requirement, thus, oligodendrocytes must have a relatively high and constant supply of iron. However, the high oxygen utilization, high density of lipids, and high iron content of white matter all combine to increase the risk of oxidative damage. We review here the current knowledge of the normal metabolism of iron in the brain and the suspected role of iron in neuropathology.


After genetic regions have been identified in genomewide association studies (GWAS), investigators often follow up with more targeted investigations of specific regions. These investigations typically are based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with dense coverage of a region. Methods are thus needed to test the hypothesis of any association in given genetic regions. Several approaches for combining P‐values obtained from testing individual SNP hypothesis tests are available. We recently proposed a sequential procedure for testing the global null hypothesis of no association in a region. When this global null hypothesis is rejected, this method provides a list of significant hypotheses and has weak control of the family‐wise error rate. In this paper, we devise a permutation‐based version of the test that accounts for correlations of tests based on SNPs in the same genetic region. Based on simulated data, the method has correct control of the type I error rate and higher or comparable power to other tests.


In a recent paper (Karabulut 2004 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 37 3103), the author presented a formalism to evaluate performance of a distributed basis to span a given function. The key concept in the formalism is the representation power r(k, d) which is an effective measure of the completeness. In this paper a numerical application of this formalism to estimate the magnitude of the error in a variational problem is presented. The analysis in this application also allows us to discuss what happens in the limit of infinitely dense basis functions. A sum rule that the r(k, d) satisfies is derived. The sum rule explains the strange peaks and dips observed in some r(k, d) versus k curves given in that publication.


Cereulide is the causative toxin of the emetic type of food-borne illness caused by Bacillus cereus. This toxin was previously shown to be associated with fulminant liver failure in a human case. Mice were injected i.p. with synthetic cereulide and the development of histopathological changes was examined. Hepatocytes showed mitochondrial swelling with loss of cristae, and dose-dependent increase of small fatty droplets. These microsteatotic hepatocytes were distributed mainly in the pericentral area. At higher cereulide doses, massive degeneration of hepatocytes occurred. The serum values of hepatic enzymes were highest on days 2-3 after the inoculation of cereulide, and rapidly decreased thereafter. General recovery from the pathological changes and regeneration of hepatocytes was observed after 4 weeks.


Sandboxes impose a security policy, isolating applications and their components from the rest of a system. While many sandboxing techniques exist, state of the art sandboxes generally perform their functions within the system that is being defended. As a result, when the sandbox fails or is bypassed, the security of the surrounding system can no longer be assured. We experiment with the idea of in-nimbo sandboxing, encapsulating untrusted computations away from the system we are trying to protect. The idea is to delegate computations that may be vulnerable or malicious to virtual machine instances in a cloud computing environment.
 This may not reduce the possibility of an in-situ sandbox compromise, but it could significantly reduce the consequences should that possibility be realized. To achieve this advantage, there are additional requirements, including: (1) A regulated channel between the local and cloud environments that supports interaction with the encapsulated application, (2) Performance design that acceptably minimizes latencies in excess of the in-situ baseline.
 To test the feasibility of the idea, we built an in-nimbo sandbox for Adobe Reader, an application that historically has been subject to significant attacks. We undertook a prototype deployment with PDF users in a large aerospace firm. In addition to thwarting several examples of existing PDF-based malware, we found that the added increment of latency, perhaps surprisingly, does not overly impair the user experience with respect to performance or usability.


It is important to extract ROI (Region of Interest) based on vision image processing in intelligent transportation system. A simple and novel approach is proposed to extract the RIO in transportation scene images. First, interest pixels function is designed to detect all the interest pixels from scene image; after that, these interest pixels are grouped to interest regions according some strategy; Last, the regions selected by region threshold are as the result extraction of RIO. The experiment result is presented in the last part of the paper and the proposed approach is feasible and valid.


The social change model of leadership (SCM) is a widely used leadership model in higher education. StrengthsQuest is conceptually similar to the individual values of the SCM in its aim to identify and grow individual talents. This model is based on the idea that individuals perform at higher levels when they build upon their identified talents (Clifton & Harter, 2003). Prior studies have not examined the relationship of hope or one's belief in their identified StrengthsQuest talents to the individual values of the SCM. This study examines that relationship using the adult-trait hope and strengths self-efficacy scales. The relationship between these constructs along and other predictors of social change capacity were explored using canonical correlation analysis. Strengths self-efficacy, hope, and student engagement were statistically significant (73% of the variability among the individual values of the SCM). Gender, race, and community service were not statistically significant in this study.


The role of financial crises in boosting populism has been well documented. Yet the specific mechanisms through which this occurs remain elusive. This paper studies how populist candidacies were fueled by a public financial scandal, triggered by market volatility and financial deregulation. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we exploit the leak of a list of French municipalities which contracted "toxic" loans prior to the crisis as a source of identification. During the subsequent municipal elections, we show that i) populist parties were the main political parties experiencing an increase in vote share, while the incumbent's political party was electorally punished, ii) both far-right and far-left populist candidacies were more likely in municipalities affected by the scandal, leading to a rise in electoral competition, iii) for the populist far-right, these results were stronger in economically fragile municipalities and in cities with a higher growth of the immigrant population. Importantly, the findings are not driven by the economic aftermath of the scandal and suggest that public finance mismanagement disclosure contributes by itself to the rise of populism during financial crises.


Abstract Background Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a significant risk factor for developmental disability, although its health consequences across the lifespan are poorly understood. Here, we hypothesized that latent brain and systemic consequences of PAE influence resiliency to adult‐onset neurological disease, specifically, cerebrovascular ischemic stroke. Methods Pregnant Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed episodically to ethanol during the fetal neurogenic period. Adult (5 months) male and female PAE and control offspring were subjected to endothelin‐1‐induced unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion. In the acute injury phase outcomes including stroke volume and neurological, endocrine, and gut permeability markers were assessed. Because the effects of stroke in human populations evolve over months to years, we also assessed hippocampal‐ and amygdala‐dependent memory function and social interaction preference up to 6 months following a stroke, in middle‐aged offspring. Results Prenatal alcohol exposure did not alter infarct volume, but significantly increased neurological deficits in both sexes, and impaired interhemispheric sensorimotor integration in PAE females. The IGF‐1/IGFBP3 ratio, a measure of bioavailable IGF‐1, was significantly reduced, while circulating levels of bacterial lipopolysaccharide, an inflammagen, were significantly increased in PAE males. In PAE females, the circulating IGF‐1/IGFBP3 ratio was significantly increased and estradiol‐17b levels were significantly reduced. The intestinal fatty acid binding protein, a surrogate marker of gut permeability was also significantly increased in PAE females. Longer‐term deficits in hippocampal‐associated memory and social interactions were observed in PAE males, while deficits in amygdala‐dependent memory were observed in PAE females. Conclusions PAE contributes to adverse effects on brain health and decreased resiliency in response to a common adult‐onset neurovascular disease, cerebrovascular ischemic stroke.


Summary: A new simple procedure for the production of protoplasts of Penicillium cyclopium with high regeneration rates and efficient transport activity is described, involving the use of a preparation of Novozym 234 with very low protease activity. The combination of a heat pretreatment at 55 °C for 15 min with the use of the protease inhibitor aprotinin resulted in a 97% reduction of Novozym 234 protease activity with respect to untreated controls. Polysaccharide-hydrolysing activity was inhibited much less, to 60% of the untreated Novozym 234 level. Protoplasts could be successfully produced with the new low-protease Novozym 234 preparation, showing a threefold increase in regeneration capacity compared to control protoplasts obtained with the original preparation. The rates of 3-O-methylglucose uptake and the capacity to accumulate this sugar analogue were also higher in protoplasts obtained by the new method.


This paper is concerned with the measurement and theory of long-period phosphorescence in solids. The delayed emission is, in such cases, due to the time electrons spend in traps or metastable states before returning to the luminescence centres. The theory shows how the observed decay laws are related to the trap distributions found in Paper I. In alkaline earth phosphors there are equal numbers of traps at all depths over the range considered, and the expression developed shows that the intensity of phosphorescence should be inversely proportional to time. For zinc sulphide phosphors an exponential trap distribution has been found, and this leads to a simple inverse power law for the theoretical decay curve. Measurements of decay on these phosphors utilizing an electron multiplier have confirmed the theory, and put on a quantitative basis the connexion between thermoluminescence and long-period decay. At the same time the work provides the first satisfactory and detailed explanation of longperiod decays. The extent -to which retrapping of electrons modifies the picture given is discussed.


Private equity fund of funds (FoF) investments are now contributing more than 10% of the capital to private equity, i.e., venture capital and buyout. However, their risk profile is not well understood due to the opaque and illiquid market, and limited access to performance figures. FoFs need to understand their own risk profile, if they are to convince potential investors of their lower risk. Research on direct investments shows significant variability of returns with a significant probability of a total loss and extreme profits while research on funds shows that they are less risky because they invest in up to 20 direct investments. This article examines the risk profile of fund of funds. It illustrates that FoFs significantly reduce risk due to diversification. A framework that constructs the risk profile of FoFs using fund performance data is presented. Results show that the risk associated with a FoF investment is significantly smaller than that for a fund investment


Purpose To reconstructdose distributions using EPIDimages acquired during treatment. Method and Materials This study used a Varian aS500 EPIDimager located at SDD = 150 cm and operated in integration mode. The absolute dose of non‐uniformity corrected EPIDimages was cross‐calibrated with ion chamber measurements in the slab phantom for experiments. A method based on Monte Carlo simulation was developed to estimate dose spread within the imager and scatter radiation from the phantom/patient to EPID. The scatter calculation accounts for imager composition, treatment fluence, patient anatomy and air gap using convolution/superposition algorithm. The primary radiation reaching EPID was extracted by removing the scatter part from the measurement. The fluence without patient was then obtained by correcting for the patient attenuation estimated from the CT images. The dose distribution was calculated by convolution of the reconstructed fluence with the dose deposition kernel from Monte Carlo simulation. For verification we compared our reconstructed results with TPS (Varian Eclipse™) calculation and EDR2 film measurements for different IMRT beams and gantry angles. A polyethylene slab phantom (25×25×15 cm3) was used for measurements with SSD = 93.7 cm and film insert depth of 5.30 cm. Comparison using profiles, isodoses as well as the gamma evaluation (criteria: 3%/3 mm) was presented. Results Our results indicate that the isodose curves of reconstructeddose overlap well with film measurement. The agreement is better than that between TPS calculation and film measurement. The 2D gamma evaluation between EPIDreconstructeddoses and film measurements shows a maximum γ of 1.70, a mean of 0.42 and 97.6% points with γ< 1. Close comparisons of their profiles reconfirm the results. Conclusion We reconstructed the dose distributions using EPIDimages acquired during treatment and it was verified with filmdose measurements. The proposed method provides a reliable tool for IMRT verification.


For $r \ge 2$, let $X$ be the number of $r$-armed stars $K_{1,r}$ in the binomial random graph $G_{n,p}$.  We study the upper tail ${\mathbb P}(X \ge (1+\epsilon){\mathbb E} X)$, and establish exponential bounds which are best possible up to constant factors in the exponent (for the special case of stars $K_{1,r}$ this solves a problem of Janson and Ruciński, and confirms a conjecture by DeMarco and Kahn).  In contrast to the widely accepted standard for the upper tail problem, we do not restrict our attention to constant $\epsilon$, but also allow for $\epsilon \ge n^{-\alpha}$ deviations.


Substantial amounts of the transition metals Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni can be substituted for Li in single crystalline Li2(Li1–xTx)N. Isothermal and temperature-dependent magnetization measurements reveal local magnetic moments with magnitudes significantly exceeding the spin-only value. The additional contributions stem from unquenched orbital moments that lead to rare-earth-like behavior of the magnetic properties. Accordingly, extremely large magnetic anisotropies have been found. Most notably, the magnetic anisotropy alternates as easy plane→easy axis→easy plane→easy axis when progressing from T = Mn → Fe → Co → Ni. This behavior can be understood based on a perturbation approach in an analytical, single-ion model. As a result, the calculated magnetic anisotropies show surprisingly good agreement with the experiment and capture the basic features observed for the different transition metals.


Ribosomal DNA sequences are currently available for 32 morphologically recognized species of Dactylogyrus parasitizing Nearctic cypriniforms, but only 16 of them are assigned to nominal species. Herein, morphological data on 28 of the 32 species are provided, together with comments on their phylogenetic relationships in the context of the morphology of taxonomically important structures. Seven new species of Dactylogyrus are described from five species of leuciscids and one species of catostomids, as follows: D. aduncus n. sp. from Campostoma spadiceum, D. cloutmani n. sp. from Luxilus chrysocephalus isolepis, D. cornifrons n. sp. from Cyprinella venusta, D. fimbratus n. sp. from Rhinichthys cataractae, D. mcallisteri n. sp. from Semotilus atromaculatus, and D. chieni n. sp. and D. haneki n. sp. from Hypentelium nigricans. Four previously described species of Dactylogyrus, D. atromaculatus from S. atromaculatus, D. eos from C. neogaeus, D. parvicirrus from Notemigonus crysoleucas and D. perlus from L. c. isolepis, are redescribed and/or figured. As for the remaining 17 species, only the male copulatory organs (MCOs) taken from the respective hologenophores are illustrated. On the basis of phylogenetic analyses, two main clades of Nearctic Dactylogyrus were recognized and supported by the different morphology of the MCO. The first one included 22 strictly Nearctic species sharing the same MCO type with Dactylogyrus spp. parasitizing cyprinids likely of Asian origin. The second clade encompassed Dactylogyrus spp. with diverse MCO morphology and was placed in the sister position to Dactylogyrus spp. parasitizing European leuciscids and North-West African cyprinids.


Motivation Single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies enable the study of transcriptional heterogeneity at the resolution of individual cells and have an increasing impact on biomedical research. Specifically, high-throughput approaches that employ micro-fluidics in combination with unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) are capable of assaying many thousands of cells per experiment and are rapidly becoming commonplace. However, it is known that these methods sometimes wrongly consider two or more cells as single cells, and that a number of so-called doublets is present in the output of such experiments. Treating doublets as single cells in downstream analyses can severely bias a study's conclusions, and therefore computational strategies for the identification of doublets are needed. Here we present single cell doublet scoring (scds), a software tool for the in silico identification of doublets in scRNA-seq data. Results With scds, we propose two new and complementary approaches for doublet identification: Co-expression based doublet scoring (cxds) and binary classification based doublet scoring (bcds). The co-expression based approach, cxds, utilizes binarized (absence/presence) gene expression data and employs a binomial model for the co-expression of pairs of genes and yields interpretable doublet annotations. bcds, on the other hand, uses a binary classification approach to discriminate artificial doublets from the original data. We apply our methods and existing doublet identification approaches to four data sets with experimental doublet annotations and find that our methods perform at least as well as the state of the art, but at comparably little computational cost. We also find appreciable differences between methods and across data sets, that no approach dominates all others, and we believe there is room for improvement in computational doublet identification as more data with experimental annotations becomes available. In the meanwhile, scds presents a scalable, competitive approach that allows for doublet annotations in thousands of cells in a matter of seconds. Availability and Implementation scds is implemented as an R package and freely available at https://github.com/kostkalab/scds. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com


Background and Purpose: Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder which impacts a person's ability to successfully function in the community. When it interacts with structural and situational stress like poverty, homelessness and unemployment, it can lead to negative experiences and makes a person vulnerable to abuse or even develop resilience or retaining a meaningful life within the limitation of the disorder. The study aims to understand how individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia define and evaluate their experience of living in the community; personal and environmental strengths, impact of illness on their personal and social life, the challenges and barriers they meet in their day to day life and how they overcome those challenges. Methods: The study focuses on lived experiences and deriving meaning from those experiences from a service user perspective. Therefore, Hermeneutic phenomenological approach will be used. In-depth interviews will be conducted over the course of four months to elicit client's narratives of their experiences. The interviews are transcribed, read and coded to cluster thematic aspects in each case by using ATLAS.ti.v.7. Data will be collected till saturation point is reached and participants are from various age-group, socio-economic status, ethnicity and educational background, living in the Community. Implication: Participants' stories would narrate sources of strength, process of normalization, describing instances of discrimination, social and structural factors which they encounter affecting their help-seeking behaviour and how these factors act as facilitator and barriers in their day to day life. Findings would suggest the need for advocacy services which are discussed through recommendations and suggestions.


Real-world scene recognition has been one of the most challenging research topics in computer vision, due to the tremendous intraclass variability and the wide range of scene categories. In this paper, we successfully apply an evolutionary methodology to automatically synthesize domain-adaptive holistic descriptors for the task of scene recognition, instead of using hand-tuned descriptors. We address this as an optimization problem by using multi-objective genetic programming (MOGP). Specifically, a set of primitive operators and filters are first randomly assembled in theMOGP framework as tree-based combinations, which are then evaluated by two objective fitness criteria i.e., the classification error and the tree complexity. Finally, the best-so-far solution selected by MOGP is regarded as the (near-)optimal feature descriptor for scene recognition. We have evaluated our approach on three realistic scene datasets: MIT urban and nature, SUN and UIUC Sport. Experimental results consistently show that our MOGP-generated descriptors achieve significantly higher recognition accuracies compared with state-of-the-art hand-crafted and machine-learned features.


At a very high temperature, the quark matter is a hot and dense matter under the colour deconfinement condition, and quarks can coalescent diquarks. Energy density of this system is figured out. A way to calculate baryon ratios produced from quark gluon plasma with diquarks in relativistic heavy ion collisions is presented.


In the activation market, the Transmission System Operator selects and activates balancing energy bids to cover the system imbalance. Growing use of intermittent energy sources increases uncertainty in system operation and new EU regulations, including a so-called Activation Optimization Function and new Standard Products for manual frequency restoration reserves (mFRR), will change the activation process significantly. However, commonly used price-based bid selection approaches are incapable of taking intertemporal constraints and uncertainty into account in the activation process. This paper presents a new optimization formulation, built on stochastic unit commitment principles, using imbalance forecast scenarios to propose bid activation schedules minimizing expected activation costs. Unlike earlier approaches, intertemporal characteristics of the proposed mFRR product are modeled in detail. The optimization procedure is implemented in a rolling horizon simulation and demonstrated using Norwegian imbalance and market data. Compared to a corresponding deterministic approach, the stochastic strategy significantly reduces activation costs.


Tardigrade studies in Poland have been carried out for more than a century and to date, 102 species have been reported from this central European country. This constitutes nearly 9% of all known species within the phylum. Although previous studies have been thorough, a number of taxa now known to belong to species complexes have been treated in only a very general way. One such complex is the Macrobiotus hufelandi group, which has a worldwide distribution. To date, only three hufelandi group species have been recorded from Poland: M. hufelandi hufelandi C.A.S. Schultze, 1834; M. macrocalix Bertolani & Rebecchi, 1993; and M. polonicus Pilato, Kaczmarek, Michalczyk & Lisi, 2003. Here we first report M. vladimiri Bertolani, Biserov, Rebecchi & Cesari, 2011 from Poland. Moreover, we provide new morphometric data for the type series of the species.


Testosterone deficiency (TD) is a public health concern, a predictor of metabolic syndrome, and is associated with an increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Testosterone deficiency in men is treated by a variety of methods including injectable testosterone compounds, patches, gels, pellets, and oral preparations. The use of testosterone alone has been linked to various adverse effects including, infertility, testicular atrophy, erythropoiesis, and gynecomastia. To determine the effectiveness of therapy using the Daily Subcutaneous Testosterone (DST) method in combination with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and an aromatase inhibitor (anastrozole), a retrospective analysis was conducted of men diagnosed and treated for TD. Changes in testosterone, estradiol, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), pregnenolone, and hemoglobin were determined. There was a significant increase in total testosterone, free serum testosterone, and direct free testosterone in the testosterone treated patients. There was a significant increase in total and free testosterone levels with the DST method combined with hCG and anastrozole, suggesting that DST therapy is a viable option to restore testosterone levels in men.


False advertising law has largely escaped constitutional scrutiny because courts consider false or misleading commercial speech outside the protection of the First Amendment. Even moderate First Amendment protection for truthful commercial speech, however, requires some constitutional policing of the line between truth and falsity. Current enforcement of false advertising law, whether administrative, as with the FDA's regulation of drug-related speech, or judicial, as with Lanham Act suits brought by private parties, is ill-equipped to deal with First Amendment doctrine's very different concerns, rules, and presumptions. This essay explores some of the ways in which the First Amendment and trademark law - a type of false advertising law - differ in approach. Unlike most treatments of the subject through a First Amendment lens, this one does not begin with the presumption that the standard First Amendment approach is superior.


The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the major mistakes a technology-intensive firms' top management can commit when undertaking the strategic planning and business model design process. Methodologically, this is achieved through presenting a longitudinal single case study -- two waves of semi-structured interviews were performed in 2006 and 2008, respectively -- on a Mobile Technology Provider entering a new business area, the empirical analysis is complemented with a wide review of strategic planning and business model design literature. Taking a "failure analysis perspective", the study allows to identify a list of ten mistakes the company's top management made in the process: such flaws shall be avoided by entrepreneurs involved in the strategic planning and business model design activity for technology-intensive firms, so as to enable the launch of their products and to survive the harsh international competition and high rates of change in innovation-intensive industries.


Fabrics are three-dimensional and geometrically complex. They can be resolved into fabric elements, the simplest constituents of compound fabrics. The fabric elements can range from geometrically simple structures with families of planes or lines to complex structures with families of more or less regularly curved, congruent or incongruent surfaces or lines. The fabric elements are understood more easily if one projects derived families of parallel lines (axes) with well-defined geometric relations to the fabric itself into them. As fabric elements become more complex, these axes can degenerate into discrete lines or curves with a definite position. The purely geometrical character of Sander9s fold axis β is confirmed, and the stacking axis α is defined. These axes may coexist in certain fabric elements and together define a family of parallel planes, the axial plane. Individual members of the penetrative family of axial planes are singled out as axial surfaces, such as the axial hinge surface. Other discrete axial surfaces result from the coexistence of discrete axial lines or curves with a penetrative axis. One can extrapolate along axes, axial planes, and axial surfaces. They are, therefore, important for the geologist whose knowledge by observation is always restricted to the small accessible part of his object. Examples demonstrate application of geometry to specific geological problems, ranging from current bedding to refolded folds and the position of oil traps.


In recent years it seems that both regions and cities appear to have become more eager to present themselves as regions or cities in which new or mobile firms in certain industrial sectors (especially perhaps biotechnology) should locate. At the same time, in the UK at least, there has been devolution of the administration of regional policy, albeit with specific targets being set by the national government. Thus cities and regions have become, at least in part, more able to combine their publicity with financial support for the particular industrial sector they wish to foster. In this paper a model is developed which has the following properties. Cities allocate monies between two types of expenditure, (i) support for a nascent industry and (ii) support for social policies, with payoffs that differ for different cities. It is shown that, if firms in the nascent industry are attracted by relatively high levels of support, cities will generally spend more on industrial support than the national government would. This simple model is similar to those developed in the literature on Tax Competition. This feature allows a commentary to be made on both the policy implications and possible extensions of the model.


ABSTRACT Petrographic and small-scale sedimentary features of the mudstone-dominated Upper Devonian Sonyea Group of New York were examined in order to (1) improve our understanding of mudstone facies, (2) examine coeval mudstone facies within a broader depositional context, and (3) promote a simple methodology for the study of mudstones. Six mudstone facies are distinguished, each characterized by several component mudstone types or subfacies. Sedimentary conditions and environments are reconstructed from primary sedimentary structures and bioturbation characteristics. Mudstone facies are characterized by soils and flood deposits in the coastal-plain region, by rapid sediment deposition and frequent reworking in nearshore areas, by storm-dominated offshore transport on a wide, basin-margin platform, by turbidite slope deposits below storm wave base, and by bottom currents and slow settling in the distal, "deep"-basin black mudstones. The latter, although commonly thought of as deposits of a stratified anoxic basin, contain indications of benthic life, such as burrows, disrupted laminae, and clay/silt fecal pellets. These observations are incompatible with a stratified-basin model, and indicate the need to search for alternative models of black-shale accumulation.


The poor dissolution profile of insoluble drugs such as Paracetamol (PCM) has been unbearable in the pharmaceutical industry. However, drug-polymer formulations are known to remedy this challenge. This study investigates the molecular dynamic prediction of the solubility/miscibility of paracetamol-polyethylene glycol-polylactide (PCM-PEG-PLA) copolymer formulation. Polymer chain analysis of various mole fractions of PEG and PLA monomers indicates that an increase in the concentration of PLA and a subsequent decrease in the concentration of PEG increases the copolymer solubility. The results also show that copolymerization of PEG increased the chain flexibility of the copolymers and the miscibility of the drug-copolymer formulation by enhancing the solubility of the copolymers. The mobility of the drug was investigated under NVE, NPT, and NVT ensembles. The simulation yields a maximum diffusion coefficient of 1.44*10-10 m2/s for the NPT ensemble.


In the bronchial epithelium, smoking initiates a multistep process that first appears histologically as premalignant squamous metaplasia/dysplasia, a biological predecessor of squamous‐cell lung cancer. Reflecting chromosomal damage from a carcinogenic insult, micronuclei may reveal earlier events in the carcinogenic sequence. We prospectively evaluated and correlated micronucleus count, histology (index of metaplasia) and smoking exposure in 35 consecutive subjects (9 active smokers, 10 previous smokers and 16 never‐smokers) undergoing diagnostic bronchoscopy. Samples for micronuclei and histological evaluation were taken from the main carinal mucosa in each subject for site‐specific comparisons. The median and mean micronucleus counts per 1,000 cells were significantly higher in active smokers than in non‐smokers (subjects who had never smoked and previous smokers): median counts were 3.7 vs. 1.4, p = 0.03; mean counts were 4.7 vs. 1.9, p = 0.01. There was no significant difference, however, in micronucleus counts between subjects who had never smoked and previous smokers. Bronchial metaplasia and smoking history were not associated. Our findings suggest that micronuclei are a readily quantitated, early intermediate‐endpoint marker for detecting tobacco‐initiated tracheobronchial carcinogenesis.


Self-determination theory is one of the most established motivational theories both within second language learning and beyond. This theory has generated several mini-theories, namely: organismic integration theory, cognitive evaluation theory, basic psychological needs theory, goal contents theory, causality orientations theory, and relationships motivation theory. After providing an up-to-date account of these mini-theories, we present the results of a systematic review of empirical second language research into self-determination theory over a 30-year period ( k = 111). Our analysis of studies in this report pool showed that some mini-theories were well-represented while others were underrepresented or absent from the literature. We also examined this report pool to note trends in research design, operationalization, measurement, and application of self-determination theory constructs. Based on our results, we highlight directions for future research in relation to theory and practice.


Data transparency is essential in the modern supply chain to improve trust and boost collaboration among partners. In this context, Blockchain is a promising technology to provide full transparency across the entire supply chain. However, Blockchain was originally designed to provide full transparency and uncontrolled data access. This leads many market actors to avoid Blockchain as they fear for their confidentiality. In this paper, we highlight the requirements and challenges of supply chain transparency. We then investigate a set of supply chain projects that tackle data transparency issues by utilizing Blockchain in their core platform in different manners. Furthermore, we analyze the projects' techniques and the tools utilized to customize transparency. As a result of the projects' analyses, we identified that further enhancements are needed to set a balance between the data transparency and process opacity required by different partners, to ensure the confidentiality of their processes and to control access to sensitive data.


Due to an increase in the number of image achieves, Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has gained attention for research community of computer vision. The image visual contents are represented in a feature space in the form of numerical values that is considered as a feature vector of image. Images belonging to different classes may contain the common visuals and shapes that can result in the closeness of computed feature space of two different images belonging to separate classes. Due to this reason, feature extraction and image representation is selected with appropriate features as it directly affects the performance of image retrieval system. The commonly used visual features are image spatial layout, color, texture and shape. Image feature space is combined to achieve the discriminating ability that is not possible to achieve when the features are used separately. Due to this reason, in this paper, we aim to explore the  low-level feature combination that are based on color and shape features. We selected color moments and color histogram to represent color while shape is represented by using invariant moments. We selected this combination, as these features are reported intuitive, compact and robust for image representation. We evaluated the performance of our proposed research by using the Corel, Coil and Ground Truth (GT) image datasets. We evaluated the proposed low-level feature fusion by calculating the precision, recall and time required for feature extraction. The precision, recall and feature extraction values obtained from the proposed low-level feature fusion outperforms the existing research of CBIR.


A methodology for performance estimation of streaming media applications on different implementation platforms is presented. The methodology derives a complexity profile for an application as a platform-independent metric, and enables performance estimation on different platforms by correlating the complexity profile with platform-specific data. By example of an MPEG-4 advanced simple profile (ASP) video decoder, performance estimation results are presented for different platforms, including general-purpose processors and specialized architectures. As one particular benefit, the approach can be employed to assist in design decisions in the specification phase of new architectures.


Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world and the most challenging health problems of the twenty first century. This disease is common in Yazd and has a high prevalence in the province. Due to not available analytic study, the aim of this study was to determine the risk factors of type 2 diabetes among the adult Yazd population, Iran. Materials and Methods: This hospital base case-control study was conducted on the urban population of Yazd city, Iran from 2012 to 2013.A total of 400 subjects including 200 diabetes cases and 200 controls matched by sex and age (±2 years)were studied. Subjects were interviewed face-to-face by trained interviewers using pretested questionnaires. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and appropriate statistical tests such as chi- square, student t- test and multiple logistic regressions. Results: The logistic regression model showed that family history of diabetes in first-degree relatives (OR=9.37, P 4 kg (OR=63.89, P=0.001),were considered as associated risk factors for diabetes. Conclusion: The present study showed that family history of diabetes in first-degree relatives, family history of dyslipidemia, history of dyslipidemia, Waist-hip ratio, consumption of fruit, Consumption of vegetables, Type of oil consumption, History of child birth >4 kg and low HDL were positively associated with diabetes.


The Hebridean Province of NW Scotland provides insight into the interaction between tectonics and shallow-marine and tidal strait depositional environments in the Sea of the Hebrides and Inner Hebrides basins. The study tests the influence of syn-depositional block tilting on gross thickness, sand to mud ratio and the distribution of shallow-marine facies in the resulting succession. New Middle Jurassic palaeogeographical maps and stratigraphic correlations are presented that integrate both outcrop and well data and illustrate the evolution of the deltaic sedimentary system in a broad, semi-regional context. Results show that distance from the sediment entry point and the syn-rift tectonic geomorphology were the critical controls on gross thickness, sand to mud ratios and facies types. The impact of relative sea-level change is hard to detect in locations proximal to the Scottish hinterland, where sediment supply was large relative to accommodation (Ss > Ac), but becomes more influential in distal locations where eustasy and tectonic subsidence convolved to increase the influence of accommodation over sediment supply (Ac > Ss). Supplementary material: An outcrop to well log correlation exercise is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4397858


Diseases such as cancer, hepatitis and AIDS cause body fluid concentration and amount to become modified; their measurement can thus be useful as a diagnostic technique. Spectroscopy is one of the most widely used techniques for biological substance detection and quantification. The presence of unwanted signals is the main limiting factor for sensitivity and quality; this is called noise. Noise has different backgrounds which range from physical assumptions to environmental influence. Eliminating or reducing noise in spectroscopy has thus been studied for many years and the applicability of wavelet transform has been demonstrated in recent decades. This paper presents invariant wavelet transform for increasing signal to noise ratio in spectrophotometer signals and thus improve the quality of spectrophotometric analysis and biological substance quantification. The proposed technique was applied to artificially-generated signals and signals from two spectrometers, one having a continuum source and another with a laser radiation source. The results obtained with this technique were compared to those obtained from traditional filters: Gaussian, Wiener and orthogonal wavelets. This technique's main advantages are a substantial increase in signal to noise ratio and preservation of spectral peak location and width. These advantages increase biological substance detection and quantification quality and accuracy and allow automatic analysis of the spectrum. They can also lead to better understanding of experimental limitations and allow a quantitative study of the influence of changes in substance concentration in related diseases.


edited and translated by M. L. Lockshin. Providence: Brown University Press, 2001. 309 pp. $39.95. This is the third book in a series of Rashbam's (Rabbi Shemuel Ben Me'ir, 1080-1160) commentary to the Pentateuch. The first two are Pashbam's commentary to Genesis (Lewiston, 1989) and to Exodus (Atlanta, 1997). As is known, the Pashbam's commentary to the Pentateuch that appears in the popular editions (like in Miqra'ot Gedolot) is inaccurate and therefore insufficient. This was the reason that David Rozin chose to publish a new edition, based mainly on the Breslau manuscript with some complements (Breslau, 1882). Since then this edition has become the Pashbam's authorized edition. As we see, Lockshin's declared aim is to translate Rozin's edition into English: "This series helps English-speaking students of the Hebrew Bible to gain access to one of the great traditional Jewish commentators" (p. 1). Needless to say, the Pashbam, who was one of the most important figures in the Medieval Jewish Peshat school in France and, from historic perspective, one of the most distinguished Bible commentators in general, deserves this act. In fact, the author has done a lot more than an excellent, up-to-date translation to a good edition: in his notes one can find a rich and challenging material regarding the exegetical methods of Rashbam. Although this volume is shorter than its predecessors (perhaps because of the commentator's custom of explaining each phenomenon in its first occurrence in the text), yet the commentary in this volume provides important and interesting insights into Rashbam's method, e.g., in Rashbam's attitude to Halakha, his attitude to Rashi's commentary, his literary analysis of the Biblical text, etc. (see a list of issues and references in Lockshin's introduction, pp. 1-5). We shall take, for instance, the issue of Rashbam's attitude to the Halakha, which Lockshin deals with in the book. One of the problematic verses of this kind is Rashbam's exegesis to "lo talin pe'ulat sakir 'iteka 'ad boqer" (Lev. 19:13), in which he said that the verse refers to the laborer who works the night shift and must be given his wage "`ad boqer", in the morning, namely while finishing his shift. Thus, contrary to the opinion of most of the Talmudic Rabbis that considers it as referring to a day laborer who has to be given his wage no late than the next morning, namely twelve hours after finishing his shift (see Bavli, BM 110, b), Lockshin explains (p. 102, note 16) that "Rashbam feels that that is not the peshat, presumably because there is no hint in the text that employers are to be given a twelve-hour grace period to pay workers' wages"; therefore, he concludes: "this is an example of Rashbam offering an interpretation that is not only non-halakhic, but anti-halakhic, as he attributes to the verse a peshat meaning that is not reconcilable with halakhah. …


Background Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa still face significant challenges in maternal and child health where low numbers, uneven distribution, and training deficits of the health workforce impede quality care. Low-dose, high-frequency training (LDHF), an innovative approach to in-service training, focuses on competency, team-based repetitive learning and practice in the clinical setting. In Uganda, we conducted cost analyses of local organization LDHF training programs for Post-abortion care (PAC) and Pediatric HIV to assess cost drivers and cost efficiency and compare costs to traditional workshop based training. Methods We collected costs with bottom up, activity based costing in LDHF and workshop training programs. All costs reported from a programmatic perspective in US$2015 across a two year analytic time horizon. A survey of trained providers was conducted to understand costs and incentives of participation as well as experience and training preferences. Findings PAC training with the LDHF approach cost US$29 957 corresponding to US$936 per provider; the traditional training of the same content was delivered at a total US$10 551 corresponding to US$527 per provider. Pediatric HIV training with LDHF approach cost US$41 677 or US$631 per provider; traditional training of Pediatric HIV cost US$18 656 or US$888 per provider trained. In traditional training programs, costs to providers were nearly equal to incentives given. In LDHF training programs, financial incentives and costs to participate were not equal and varied by roles and programs; all district trainers' incentives outweighed their costs of participation, trainee incentives were higher than costs of participation in the PAC training, but in the Pediatric HIV program, trainee incentives were lower than the costs of participation. Conclusions Local training programs differ widely in applying LDHF principles to design and implementation thus leading to variation in costs and cost-efficiency. LDHF can be more cost-efficient than workshop based trainings if programs take advantage of the wider scope of trainees available for the facility-based trainings. Incentive differences between district trainers and trainees may influence participation and perception of training. The perspectives of providers participating in LDHF or traditional workshop training should be integrated when developing future programs for maximum uptake and participation for in-service training.


Piezo-based fiber scanning probes have emerged as low-cost and compact tools for various optical imag- ing modalities, allowing access to tissue sites that are hard to reach. These instruments exploit scanning of a fiber optic cable via a piezoelectric element, which is driven at the mechanical resonance of the extended fiber piece. However, the dynamics of the piezo-scanning structure is often neglected, resulting in an inefficient electromechanical conversion. This work presents a methodology, together with exper- imental evidence, to collectively optimize the geometries of the piezo-scanner and the extended fiber optic cable to achieve maximum displacement for a given drive voltage. Our findings suggest that match- ing the individual resonances of the fiber optics cable and the piezo-scanner alone, leads to optimum electromechanical conversion efficiency. Simulations, circuit model, and experimental results reveal more than x2 improvement in the achieved fiber displacement when piezo and fiber resonances are matched, as opposed to the unmatched (i.e., when piezo element length is varied approximately by ± 20% from its optimal value) case. Besides offering lower power consumption for the actuation of the piezo-element, our findings paves the way for safer (electric shock-free) minimally-invasive procedures using the piezo-based fiber scanning probes, which is crucial for patient safety.


Today, medical implants such as cardiac pacemakers, neurostimulators, hearing aids anddrug delivery systems are increasinglymore important and frequently used in the health caresystem. This type of devices have historically used inductive coupling as communicationmedium. Newdemands on accessibility and increased performance in technology drives newresearch toward using radio communications. The FCCMICS radio standard are specificallydevoted for implantable devices.Basically all published research on transmitters in this area are using frequency shift keying(FSK) modulation. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the viability of using phase shiftkeying (PSK) modulation in ultra low power transmitters and suggest suitable architectures.


Example programs play an important role in the teaching and learning of programming. Students as well as teachers rank examples as the most important resources for learning to program. Example programs work as role models and must therefore always be consistent with the principles and rules we are teaching.
 However, it is difficult to find or develop examples that are fully faithful to all principles and guidelines of the object-oriented paradigm and also follow general pedagogical principles and practices. Unless students are able to engage with good examples, they will not be able to tell desirable from undesirable properties in their own and others' programs.
 In this article we report on a study in which experienced educators evaluated the quality of object-oriented example programs for novices from popular Java textbooks. The evaluation was accomplished using an online checklist that elicited responses on the technical, object-oriented, and didactic quality of examples.
 In total 25 reviewers contributed 215 reviews to our dataset, based on 38 example programs from 13 common introductory programming textbooks. Results show that the evaluation instrument is reliable in terms of inter-rater agreement. Overall, example quality was not as good as one might expect from common textbooks, in particular regarding certain object-oriented properties.
 We conclude that educators should be careful when taking examples straight out of a textbook.