Emotional development starts at an early age. This development is significant that it facilitates the children who are in preschool and assist their interaction with others. Indeed, emotional development expedites the overall development of children both in social and intellectual ways. This article aims at conceptualizing developmental mechanisms that promote healthy emotions in children. In a nutshell, views of this article indicate that fostering emotional health in children by using the knowledge about wellness that can shape your healthy life. Key words: Encourage, Good, Physical, Mental, Silhouette, Feelings, Frame of mind, Youngster, Kid.


The influence of utilizing waste concrete aggregates on the flexural behavior of external reinforced concrete beams has been studied. Seven mixtures were prepared for this investigation where the concrete mixtures had different waste concrete percentages and admixtures. Also, seven beams were modeled by Ansys program and the properties of the seven mixtures have been used in the models to study their effects. It was found that using waste concrete aggregates has decreased the load bearing capacity and concrete ductility. It was found that the beam bearing capacity was decreased by 10.7% when using only waste concrete. Using admixtures have enhanced the concrete properties where the load capacity of beams has been increased by 39% when using silica fume and superplasticizer and the load capacity has increased by 44.6% when multi-admixtures have been used. Besides, it was found that using additives has enhanced the beam ductility significantly.


The timely provision of geomagnetic observations as part of the ESA Swarm mission means analysis and modelling can be conducted rapidly and kept up-to-date in a manner not possible before. Observations from each of the three satellites in the Swarm constellation at 1Hz are available
within 4 days and hourly mean ground observatory network
measurements (AUX_OBS_2) are updated every 3 months by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This makes it possible to study very recent changes of the magnetic field. In particular here we investigate variations known as geomagnetic jerks.
Given that jerks represent (currently) unpredictable changes in the internal geomagnetic field, we ask what impact they might have on the accuracy of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field Model (IGRF). The 12th generation of the IGRF was last updated using observations up to mid-2014 and provides a snapshot of the geomagnetic field at 2015 as well as a prediction of variations until 2020.


Downregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus occurs early in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Since BDNF plays a critical role in neuronal survival and dendrite growth, BDNF upregulation may contribute to rescue dendrite atrophy and cell loss in AD. Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been demonstrated to regulate neuronal function both in vitro and in vivo. In the present study, we found that LLLT rescued neurons loss and dendritic atrophy via upregulation of BDNF in both Aβ-treated hippocampal neurons and cultured APP/PS1 mouse hippocampal neurons. Photoactivation of transcription factor CRE-binding protein (CREB) increased both BDNF mRNA and protein expression, since knockdown CREB blocked the effects of LLLT. Furthermore, CREB-regulated transcription was in an ERK-dependent manner. Inhibition of ERK attenuated the DNA-binding efficiency of CREB to BDNF promoter. In addition, dendrite growth was improved after LLLT, characterized by upregulation of Rac1 activity and PSD-95 expression, and the increase in length, branching, and spine density of dendrites in hippocampal neurons. Together, these studies suggest that upregulation of BDNF with LLLT by activation of ERK/CREB pathway can ameliorate Aβ-induced neurons loss and dendritic atrophy, thus identifying a novel pathway by which LLLT protects against Aβ-induced neurotoxicity. Our research may provide a feasible therapeutic approach to control the progression of AD.


Power consumption is an increasingly important constraint for complex ICs. Accurate and efficient power estimations are required at any level of abstraction to steer the design process. PPP is a Web-based integrated environment for synthesis and simulation of low-power CMOS circuits. We describe the simulation engine of PPP and we propose a new paradigm for tool integration. The simulation engine of PPP is a gate-level simulator that achieves accuracy comparable with electrical simulation, while keeping performance competitive with traditional gate-level techniques. This is done by using advanced symbolic models of the basic library cells, that exploit the understanding of the main phenomena involved in power consumption. In order to maintain full compatibility with gate-level design tools, we use VERILOG-XL as simulation platform. The accuracy obtained on benchmark circuits is always within 6% from SPICE also for single-gate/single-pattern power analysis, thus providing the local information needed to optimize the design. Interface and tool integration issues have been addressed using a Web-based approach. The graphical interface of PPP is a dynamically generated tree of interactive HTML pages that allow the user to access and execute the tool through the Internet by using his/her own Web-browser. No software installation is required and all the details of data transfer and tool communication are hidden to the user.


Abstract Most extant research into product recommendations focuses on how advice from recommendation agents (RAs), consumers, or experts facilitates an initial (or single-stage) screening of available products and provides relevant product recommendations. The literature has largely overlooked the possibility and effects of the second stage of product advice using a recommendation improvement (RI) functionality, during which users can refine and improve the accuracy of the first-stage product recommendations. Thus, our understanding of how users make product choices is incomplete. To rectify this, we propose a two-stage model of generating product advice, and we use it to test what we propose as the complementarity principle. This principle posits that the first-stage recommendations (personalized or nonpersonalized) influence the impact of different types of second-stage RI functionality, which augment the first stage by facilitating either alternative-based or attribute-based processing. Results show that the complementary synergies between the two stages result in higher perceived decision quality, but at the expense of higher perceived decision effort. We contribute to the literature by helping researchers better understand users' adoption of the second-stage RI functionality in conjunction with first-stage recommendations. In addition, e-commerce designers are advised to provide different and complementary types of recommendation sources and RI functionalities to facilitate online consumers' decision making.


In the third novel of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, breakfast creates a sense of hope and adaptability in the most dire of dystopias. In this postpandemic world where civilization is all but destroyed, the human survivors, who form a makeshift community with the Crakers, initially cling to reverse-utopian breakfasts: nostalgic replications of past meals that offer solace but have no long-term future because the material circumstances of their existence have ceased. Eventually recognizing that storytelling and food are powerful, interrelated tools for humanity's future reproduction, this tenuous community survives precisely because they imagine and reimagine themselves and their modes of consumption. In this way, MaddAddam offers a humble sense of hope through ever-changing breakfast foods that serve as both the physical means and symbol of humanity's imaginative reconstitution into the future.


An understanding of crop response to planting date is essential when evaluating a potential new crop. A field study was designed to determine the optimum range of planting dates for dryland grain amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus L. and A. hypochondriacus L. x A. hybridus L.) in the Northern Great Plains. Four grain amaranth cultivars, diverse for plant height and branching, were evaluated over four consecutive years from 1989 to 1992 at Prosper (46°58' N, 97°4' W, elevation 220 m) in North Dakota. Soil types at the test site are a complex of Perella (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Endoaquolls) and Beardon (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, frigid Aeric Calciaquolls). Four or five planting dates were selected, ranging from I May to 1 July at approximately 15-d intervals. Year-to-year differences in weather influenced the response of amaranth to planting date for grain yield, days to anthesis, harvest index, plant height, final plant population, and lodging. Plants sown in mid-June produced the greatest grain yield in 1989 and 1990, when near- or above-average temperatures occurred throughout most of the growing season. Seedling survival was greater with later planting dates in all years except 1989, when excellent stands were achieved with all planting dates. Greatest yields in 1992, an unusually cool year, were produced with May planting dates; in that year, most plants sown in mid-June did not mature before first frost. Material planted on 1 July failed to mature in both 1991 and 1992. In years with near- or above-average temperatures, the mid-June planting date was best for maximizing both stand establishment and grain yield. Given the uncertainty in predicting weather conditions, planting in early June in the Northern Great Plains should achieve good stands and produce high grain yields, while minimizing the risk of yield loss associated with cool conditions.


Summary writing is an important skill for university students to possess as they have to use it in their studies and future employment. Yet, many students struggle in mastering this skill, especially when it is taught solely through a second language (L2). This article reports on a study that sought to develop this skill among first-year African students through the use of both their first language (L1) and L2 as informed by translanguaging theory. Working in groups, students were guided on how to summarise texts in L1 and L2 by moving from one language to another. Their produced work was then analysed using a marking rubric as a tool developed to assess the quality of their summaries in both languages. The research tool was a summary writing rubric. The findings indicated that the majority of participants have satisfactory levels of competency in L2 as opposed to the summaries produced in their L1. It is recommended that biliteracy skills should be developed as part of students' training in South African higher education. Keywords: African languages; biliteracy; translanguaging; summary writing; scaffolding; multilingualism


Hearing-impaired listeners are known to have difficulties not only with understanding speech in noise but also with judging source distance and movement, and these deficits are related to perceived handicap. It is possible that the perception of spatially dynamic sounds can be improved with hearing aids (HAs), but so far this has not been investigated. In a previous study, older hearing-impaired listeners showed poorer detectability for virtual left-right (angular) and near-far (radial) source movements due to lateral interfering sounds and reverberation, respectively. In the current study, potential ways of improving these deficits with HAs were explored. Using stimuli very similar to before, detailed acoustic analyses were carried out to examine the influence of different HA algorithms for suppressing noise and reverberation on the acoustic cues previously shown to be associated with source movement detectability. For an algorithm that combined unilateral directional microphones with binaural coherence-based noise reduction and for a bilateral beamformer with binaural cue preservation, movement-induced changes in spectral coloration, signal-to-noise ratio, and direct-to-reverberant energy ratio were greater compared with no HA processing. To evaluate these two algorithms perceptually, aided measurements of angular and radial source movement detectability were performed with 20 older hearing-impaired listeners. The analyses showed that, in the presence of concurrent interfering sounds and reverberation, the bilateral beamformer could restore source movement detectability in both spatial dimensions, whereas the other algorithm only improved detectability in the near-far dimension. Together, these results provide a basis for improving the detectability of spatially dynamic sounds with HAs.


Decreasing time interval between onset of symptom and emergency admission is key in the treatment of stroke and it is depending on patients and their family knowledge about stroke symptoms and how and where must take patients. Studies suggest that long-term training is needed to achieve the desired results. Previous studies have shown that knowledge of stroke among patients and society is weak. To increase public awareness of stroke, broader public education is needed.


OBJECTIVE
Population data suggest that alcohol consumption may influence the risk of diabetes in a biphasic manner, but this has not been tested by any controlled interventions. The object of this study was to determine whether reducing alcohol intake in moderate-to-heavy drinkers (40-110 g/day) results in improvement in insulin sensitivity.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
A 4-week run-in period where subjects maintained their usual drinking pattern was followed by randomization to a two-way cross-over intervention study. In each of two 4-week treatment interventions, subjects either substituted their usual alcohol intake with a 0.9% alcohol beer or maintained their usual alcohol intake. At the end of each 4-week period, insulin sensitivity as determined by the low-dose insulin glucose infusion test and the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) score, and biomarkers of alcohol consumption (gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase [gamma-GT] and HDL cholesterol) were measured.

RESULTS
A total of 16 healthy men aged 51.0 +/- 2.7 (mean +/- SEM) years with a BMI of 26.4 +/- 0.61 kg/m(2) completed the study. There was a large reduction in alcohol intake (72.4 +/- 5.0 vs. 7.9 +/- 1.6 g/day, P < 0.001) and significant reductions in gamma-GT (geometric mean 24.4 units/l [95% CI 19.7-30.2] vs. 18.6 units/l [15.5-22.2], P < 0.01) and HDL cholesterol (1.36 +/- 0.07 vs. 1.13 +/- 0.07 mmol/l, P < 0.001). There was no effect of alcohol on insulin sensitivity index (ISI), fasting insulin, glucose, or HOMA score.

CONCLUSIONS
A substantial reduction in alcohol intake from 7.2 to 0.8 standard drinks per day in healthy men did not change insulin sensitivity as measured by ISI or HOMA score.


Inbreeding can affect fitness-related traits at different life history stages and may interact with environmental variation to induce even larger effects. We used genetic parentage assignment based on 22 microsatellite loci to determine a 25 year long pedigree for a newly established island population of moose with 20–40 reproducing individuals annually. We used the pedigree to calculate individual inbreeding coefficients and examined for effects of individual inbreeding (f) and heterozygosity on fitness-related traits. We found negative effects of f on birth date, calf body mass and twinning rate. The relationship between f and calf body mass and twinning rate were found to be separate but weaker after accounting for birth date. We found no support for an inbreeding effect on the age-specific lifetime reproductive success of females. The influence of f on birth date was related to climatic conditions during the spring prior to birth, indicating that calves with a low f were born earlier after a cold spring than calves with high f. In years with a warm spring, calf f did not affect birth date. The results suggest that severe inbreeding in moose has both indirect effects on fitness through delayed birth and lower juvenile body mass, as well as separate direct effects, as there still was a significant relationship between f and twinning rate after accounting for birth date and body mass as calf. Consequently, severe inbreeding as found in the study population may have consequences for population growth and extinction risk.


Article history: Received August 16, 2013 Received in revised format 12 September 2013 Accepted 1 November 2013 Available online November 1 2013 During the past few years, there have been increasing interests on doing banking transactions using online services through internet. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to study the role of personal and social characteristics on acceptance of e-banking adoption. The proposed study designs two questionnaires and distributes them among 384 randomly selected people who use online banking in province of Alborz, Iran. The proposed study examines the effects of five factors including Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness on e-banking adoption. Using regression techniques, the study has confirmed that Neuroticism and Agreeableness have negative and meaningful impact on e-banking adoption while Conscientiousness has positive and meaningful relationship with e-banking adoption. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


This paper presents a mixed reality (MR) system with tangible interface as well as visual fusion in an MR space. The sense of touch is given by physical objects on which computer generated imagery is accurately registered and superimposed. The proposed approach is especially useful in industrial design where digital mockups and physical mockups are thoroughly utilized.


Abstract. Public health and global health practitioners need to develop global health diplomacy (GHD) skills to efficiently work within complex global health scenarios, such as the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Problem-based learning was used as a framework to create a scenario-based activity designed to develop GHD-related skills. The application and effectiveness of this scenario-based activity to develop GHD-related skills were assessed. A mixed-methods approach involving a self-administered survey and one focus group discussion was used. The survey collected baseline participant characteristics as well as understanding and improvements in GHD-related skills using a 5-point Likert scale. The focus group was audio-recorded and thematically analyzed using both inductive and deductive codes. Data integration was achieved by connecting and weaving. Method and investigator triangulation techniques were used. Participants self-reported significantly better postscenario-based activity responses when asked about their understanding of diplomacy, negotiation, communication, and how to address public health emergencies (P < 0.01, Wilcoxon signed rank test). Most participants either agreed or strongly agreed that their GHD-related skills improved with participation in the scenario-based activity (diplomacy = 55.6%; negotiation = 66.5%; communication = 72.2%; addressing public health emergencies = 72.1%). Overall, qualitative data were consistent with results obtained using quantitative methods. The scenario-based activity was effective for improving the self-reported understanding of GHD-related skills. The scenario-based activity was also effective for developing the selected GHD-related skills (as self-reported). This scenario-based activity is likely to reduce cognitive load and avoid participant overload, thereby facilitating learning. Further research is required to elucidate its long-term impact on skills development.


Canada is a large country, approaching a billion hectares in size. With over 400 million hectares (Mha) of forested land that contribute $32.6 billion (Can$37 billion) to the trade balance, Canada is determined to be a good steward of this renewable resource. Ensuring effective resource management requires current and reliable forest information. In support of national and international reporting requirements, the Canadian Forest Service (http://www.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca), in partnershipwith the Canadian Space Agency (http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/ index.html), is using space-based technologies to monitor the country's forests through an initiative called Earth Observation for Sustainable Development of forests (EOSD) (http://eosd.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca). EOSD is an important data source in the new plot-based National Forest Inventory (NFI) (http://nfi.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca) and the National Forest Carbon Accounting Framework (http://carbon.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca). TheNational Forest Information System (NFIS) (http://nfis.org) will be used to integrate and synthesize applicable data and products. In this communication we summarize the EOSD Land Cover program and provide interested readers links to websites for additional detail. The initiative's overall goal is a land covermap of Canada's forested ecozones based on Landsat satellite data.1 A goal for 2006 is to complete a land cover map representing circa 2000 forested area conditions. Using single scenes of Landsat data to produce land cover information is not uncommon. However, combining several, or even hundreds, of scenes to develop a large-area land cover map is relatively uncommon. To encompass Canada's forested ecozones, approximately 800Mha must be mapped, requiring over 475 images. The EOSD classification scheme applied to the Landsat data merges the numerous spectral clusters found with a K-means hyperclustering algorithm into a smaller number of meaningful groupings labeled to conform with a closed 21-class legend. The EOSD legend was developed to fit with NFI's hierarchical classification. Additional information on the methods and legend are available online (http://eosd.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/cover/ legend e.html). EOSD land cover products—based on the National Topographic System (NTS) map sheet framework of the National Topographic Database—are available for download on a 1:250,000 NTS map sheet basis. Each map sheet represents an area of approximately 14,850km2. The products are available in a Paletted GeoTiff format, with a disabled tiff world file, and Federal Geographic Data Committee-compliant metadata. Final products are resampled to a 25m spatial resolution. As a single tile may be composed of a number of images, ESRI shape files provide source image information and actual mosaic lines. To date, approximately 225 of the 610 NTS sheets that cover Canada's forested ecozones are complete and availablefor download. While under final developments, data may be accessed through the NFISwebsite, and via the SAFORAHportal (System of Agents for Forest Observation Research with Automation Hierarchies) accessible from the Land Cover Implementation area of the EOSD website (http://eosd.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/cover/ index e.html). A protocol for addressing the accuracy of the national EOSD product based upon a stratified random sample has been proposed and is being tested.3 By mapping the forested areas of Canada, EOSD will contribute toward meeting its national and international reporting requirements related to climate change and sustainable forest management. This task will require the support and concerted effort of many partners to complete. Cooperation and communication both within and between various levels of government provides an opportunity to share resources and work towards common objectives. Products


Anthropogenic activities in coastal regions are endangering marine ecosystems. Coastal waters classified as case-II waters are especially complex due to the presence of different constituents. Recent advances in remote sensing technology have enabled to capture the spatiotemporal variability of the constituents in coastal waters. The present study evaluates the potential of remote sensing using machine learning techniques, for improving water quality estimation over the coastal waters of Hong Kong. Concentrations of suspended solids (SS), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and turbidity were estimated with several machine learning techniques including Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Random Forest (RF), Cubist regression (CB), and Support Vector Regression (SVR). Landsat (5,7,8) reflectance data were compared with in situ reflectance data to evaluate the performance of machine learning models. The highest accuracies of the water quality indicators were achieved by ANN for both, in situ reflectance data (89%-Chl-a, 93%-SS, and 82%-turbidity) and satellite data (91%-Chl-a, 92%-SS, and 85%-turbidity. The water quality parameters retrieved by the ANN model was further compared to those retrieved by "standard Case-2 Regional/Coast Colour" (C2RCC) processing chain model C2RCC-Nets. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) for estimating SS and Chl-a were 3.3 mg/L and 2.7 µg/L, respectively, using ANN, whereas RMSEs were 12.7 mg/L and 12.9 µg/L for suspended particulate matter (SPM) and Chl-a concentrations, respectively, when C2RCC was applied on Landsat-8 data. Relative variable importance was also conducted to investigate the consistency between in situ reflectance data and satellite data, and results show that both datasets are similar. The red band (wavelength ≈ 0.665 µm) and the product of red and green band (wavelength ≈ 0.560 µm) were influential inputs in both reflectance data sets for estimating SS and turbidity, and the ratio between red and blue band (wavelength ≈ 0.490 µm) as well as the ratio between infrared (wavelength ≈ 0.865 µm) and blue band and green band proved to be more useful for the estimation of Chl-a concentration, due to their sensitivity to high turbidity in the coastal waters. The results indicate that the NN based machine learning approaches perform better and, thus, can be used for improved water quality monitoring with satellite data in optically complex coastal waters.


Familial British dementia, a rare autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, shares features with Alzheimer's disease, including amyloid plaque deposits, neurofibrillary tangles, neuronal loss,progressive dementia, but clinically presents with additional physical defects [1,2]. A mutation in the termination codon of the BRI gene produces a BRI precursor protein 11 amino acids longer than the wild-type protein [3,4]. Mutant and wild-type precursor proteins both may undergo furin cleavage between residues 243 and 244, producing a peptide of 34 amino acids in the case of ABri and 23 amino acids long in the case of the wild type peptide. The ABri 4kDa peptide is the main component of the amyloid deposits found in familial British dementia brains. A decamer duplication in the 3- region of the BRI gene originates the peptide Adan that is associated with dementia in Familial Danish dementia (FDD), similar to BDD clinically, but with additional hearing and eyesight loss [5]. The resulting reading frame is extended to 277 amino acid residues, and cleavage by furin releases a peptide of 34 residues, which is identical to Abri and WT in its N-terminal 22-residues, but contains a distinct C-terminal 10 residues composed of mainly hydrophobic residues. Here we demonstrate that C-terminal extensions of Abri and Adan are required to elongate initially-formed dimers to neurotoxic soluble oligomers and fibrils. In contrast, the shorter wild-type peptide does not aggregate under the same conditions and is not toxic. Conformational analyses indicate triple-beta-sheet structures. Soluble nonfibrillar oligomers of oxidised ABri and reduced Adan were observed in solution (pH7.4) of peptides prior to the appearance of mature fibrils.


Eyewitness memory is not perfect. However, recent research suggests that eyewitnesses remember more about a witnessed event if they close their eyes during the interview. The experiments reported in this thesis investigated applied and theoretical aspects of the eye-closure effect. Experiments 1-2 examined whether the effect extended to recall of violent events. Eye-closure was found to be as beneficial for recall of physiologically arousing violent events as it was for non-violent events, extending the generalisibility of the effect. Experiment 3 examined recall after a delay and repeated recall attempts, and found no benefits of eye-closure during immediate free recall, but substantial benefits in both free and cued recall after one week. Experiments 4-5 examined the theoretical underpinnings of the eye-closure effect. No evidence was found for an "ear-closure" effect on a written recall test. Nevertheless, meaningless visual and auditory distractions during an oral interview impaired recall performance, particularly for information presented in the same modality as the distraction. These impairments could be overcome by eye-closure or, to a lesser extent, by looking at a blank screen. The data were fitted to the newly proposed Cognitive Resources framework, to estimate the relative importance of general and modality-specific processes. Experiment 6 enhanced the ecological validity of the research. A forensically relevant event was staged on the street, after which witnesses were interviewed either in a quiet interview room or on a busy street. Eye-closure had substantial benefits in free recall and helped witnesses to provide detailed correct answers about visual aspects of the event. It was most effective for witnesses interviewed inside, suggesting that mental context reinstatement might play a role in the eye-closure effect. Taken together, the findings suggest that the eye-closure instruction could provide a simple alternative to the Cognitive Interview, particularly when police resources are limited.


A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology) in the faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2013.


The small G-protein NRAS is mutated in 22% of human melanomas, whereas the related proteins KRAS and HRAS are mutated in only 2% and 1% of melanomas, respectively. We have developed a mouse model of mel-anoma in which Cre recombinase/LoxP technology is used to drive inducible expression of G12V KRAS in the melanocytic lineage. The mice develop skin hyperpigmentation, nevi, and tumors that bear many of the cardinal histopathology features and molecular characteristics of human melanoma. These tumors invade and destroy the underlying muscles and cells derived from them can grow as subcutaneous tumors and colonize the lungs of nude mice. These data establish that oncogenic KRAS can be a founder event in melanomagenesis.


ABSTRACT Recent high-severity fires in pine-oak forests of the southwestern United States are creating shrubfields that may persist for decades to centuries. Shrubfields embedded in conifer forests that pre-date documentary records are potential evidence of older high-severity fire patches, and may therefore provide insights into the occurrence and extent of past high-severity fires and vegetation type conversion dynamics. In this paper we test whether dendroecological evidence can be used to reconstruct a high-severity, type-changing fire of known date in a ponderosa pine-dominated (Pinus ponderosa var scopulorum Engelm.) forest. Dendroecological evidence included (1) Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii, Nutt.) regeneration dates, (2) fire scars, (3) death dates, and (4) tree-ring growth changes. We reconstructed the historical fire regime and fire-climate relationship to evaluate whether the recent high-severity fire was driven by climate or fuel build-up related to a fire regime disruption. The dendroecological evidence correctly dated the year (1993) and season (spring) of the documented fire, and synchronous oak re-sprouts provided a means to estimate the minimum high-severity patch size. The historical fire regime at the site (1625–1871) consisted of frequent, low-severity fires occurring in dry years preceded by wet years. Fires stopped in 1871, coincident with increased regional livestock grazing. The 1993 fire occurred under relatively cool and wet conditions, but followed a 122-year fire-free interval (four times the maximum historical interval). Multiple lines of evidence suggest that increased fuel loads from fire exclusion, combined with high winds, were primary drivers of the high-severity fire. The dendroecological approach we outline can be applied to reconstruct high-severity fire across a range of conifer-shrubland ecosystems.


Background: Mandibular invasion has been a long-debated criterion for predicting prognosis in oral cancers. Though the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) marks cortical erosion in oral lesions as T4 disease, it is often challenged that mere superficial bony erosion should not be used to demark T4 disease. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the association of pattern of mandibular erosion in preoperative Multi-Detector CT (MDCT) of oral cancers with the presence of recurrent loco-regional malignant disease. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was done in the Department of Radio-Diagnosis of a tertiary center in Western India. MDCT Neck findings in 56 consecutive postoperative patients clinically suspected for recurrent oral carcinoma over a period of 1 year were assessed. Preoperative MDCT of all patients was evaluated for presence and pattern of mandibular involvement by primary malignancy. These patterns were compared with the presence of recurrent disease in the postoperative scan. Association between two findings was tested by Fisher's exact test. Results: Forty-eight patients showed features of recurrent malignancy on MDCT confirmed by biopsy; of which 10 patients had shown no bony invasion in the preoperative scan, 14 had shown cortical erosion and 24 showed medullary invasion. P value for association of recurrence and bony invasion pattern was found to be 0.6705 (insignificant) for cortical erosive lesions and 0.0469 (significant) for medullary infiltrative lesions. Conclusion: Only medullary infiltrative lesions of the mandible have a statistically significant association with recurrent disease and may be used as a prognostic factor. Cortical erosions are statistically insignificant in predicting recurrence similar to no bone invasions.


This paper presents various techniques investigated by the authors to bring discussion of societal impact into two advanced structural engineering courses taught at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo within the Architectural Engineering (ARCE) department during the 2020-21 academic year. The first was an undergraduate reinforced concrete design lecture/lab class where the instructor was able to convey the stories of the individuals and events that influence the ACI 318 code and ASTM standards used for concrete design. The second was a graduate nonlinear structural behavior lecture class that involves a weekly seminar by guest speakers who presented case studies with varying social impacts that students discussed in a post-seminar forum. One seminar from the graduate class was particularly applicable to the ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and so more information was requested from the project engineers enabling the authors to develop a learning module – presentation and class activities – for undergraduate engineering students that addressed technical design concepts and DEI simultaneously. This paper is intended to provide some ideas to other educators (university instructors or industry mentors) on how to bring the discussion of diversity or social impact into technical conversations on structural design and retrofit.


Date Presented 04/05/19
 The purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of a culturally tailored, community-based life management intervention to improve quality of life and mitigate stroke risk factors in 10 individuals after experiencing a stroke. The intervention was feasible in this sample with positive outcomes for participant retention and attendance; engagement in meaningful activities; stroke-related quality of life; reintegration to normal living; and healthy behavior changes.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Valerie Hill
 Additional Authors and Speakers: Valerie Miller
 Contributing Authors: Amytis Towfighi


Deterministic Wallet (DW) and Stealth Address (SA) mechanisms have been widely adopted in the cryptocurrency community, due to their virtues on functionality and privacy protection, which come from a key derivation mechanism that allows an arbitrary number of derived keys to be generated from a master key. However, these algorithms suffer a vulnerability that, when one derived key is compromised somehow, the damage is not limited to the leaked derived key only, but to the master key and in consequence all derived keys are compromised. In this article, we introduce and formalize a new signature variant, called Key-Insulated and Privacy-Preserving Signature Scheme with Publicly Derived Public Key (PDPKS), which fully captures and improves the functionality, security, and privacy requirements of DW and SA. We propose a PDPKS construction and prove its security and privacy in the random oracle model. Furthermore, we implement the construction with parameters for 128-bit security, and the results show that it is practically efficient for the setting of cryptocurrencies. With its solid guarantee on functionality, security and privacy, as well as its practical efficiency, our PDPKS construction provides a practical cryptographic tool that refines DW and SA, without security vulnerability.


Many environmental chemicals caused rat hyperactivity, a key feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These were confirmed by many epidemiological studies, showing the correlation in their exposure levels in patients with ADHD. The nanomaterials have been difficult to be evaluated health risk because of its physicochemical nature. In this study, we examined the possibility that silver nanoparticle might be ADHD related chemical. Oral exposure of rat pups to silver nanoparticles (3mg/kg) with 1% bovine serum albumin as a carrier protein at 5 days old increased 1.3~1.4 fold spontaneous motor activity while without carrier proteins, it failed to do so. Thus, dispersion of silver nanoparticle solution by carrier proteins was necessary to examine the toxicological action of silver nanoparticles in the animal experiment.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is, to reflect on how the UK's Trade Union Congress, in the 150 year of its formation, has been responding to the significant changes in the labour market, working practices and union decline. The paper considers TUC initiatives to recruit and organise new groups of workers as it struggles to adapt to the new world of work many workers are experiencing. Although the paper reviews progress in this regard it also considers current and future challenges all of which are becoming increasingly urgent as the current cohort of union membership is aging and presents a demographic time bomb unless new strategies and tactics are adopted to bring in new groups of workers –particularly younger workers. Design/methodology/approach – This is a review paper so it mainly draws on writings (both academic and practitioner) on trade union strategy and tactics in relations to organising approaches and in particularly the TUC's initiatives from the period of 'New Unionism' onwards. Findings – We note that while unions have managed to retain a presence in workplaces and industries where they membership and recognition, there has, despite a 'turn to organising' been less success than was perhaps hoped for when new organising initiatives were introduced in 1998. In order to expand the bases of organisation into new workplaces and in new constituencies there needs to be a move away from the 'institutional sclerosis' that has prevented unions adapting to the changing nature of employment and the labour market restructuring. The paper concludes that in order to effect transformative change requires leaders to develop strategic capacity and innovation among staff and the wider union membership. This may require unions to rethink the way that they operate and be open to doing thing radically different. Originality/value – The paper's value is that it provides a comprehensive overview of the TUC's role in attempting to inject an organising culture with the UK union movement by drawing out some of the key debates on this topic from both scholarly and practitioner writings over the last few decades.


Increasingly, crimes and fraud are digital in nature, occurring at breakneck speed and encompassing large volumes of data. To combat this unlawful activity, knowledge about the use of machine learning technology and software is critical. Machine Learning Forensics for Law Enforcement, Security, and Intelligence integrates an assortment of deductive and instructive tools, techniques, and technologies to arm professionals with the tools they need to be prepared and stay ahead of the game. Step-by-step instructions The book is a practical guide on how to conduct forensic investigations using self-organizing clustering map (SOM) neural networks, text extraction, and rule generating software to "interrogate the evidence." This powerful data is indispensable for fraud detection, cybersecurity, competitive counterintelligence, and corporate and litigation investigations. The book also provides step-by-step instructions on how to construct adaptive criminal and fraud detection systems for organizations. Prediction is the key Internet activity, email, and wireless communications can be captured, modeled, and deployed in order to anticipate potential cyber attacks and other types of crimes. The successful prediction of human reactions and server actions by quantifying their behaviors is invaluable for pre-empting criminal activity. This volume assists chief information officers, law enforcement personnel, legal and IT professionals, investigators, and competitive intelligence analysts in the strategic planning needed to recognize the patterns of criminal activities in order to predict when and where crimes and intrusions are likely to take place.


Evidence of growth retardation was recorded in cases of severe atopic dermatitis before the advent of corticosteroid therapy and can therefore be attributed to the disease. The present study is an attempt to confirm the validity of such claims in Indian scenario. A total of 100 children with atopic dermatitis and 100 age and sex matched controls were evaluated for growth status and compared at the department of pediatric dermatology, Institute of c0 hild h0 ealth. Significant proportion of children with atopic dermatitis showed growth retardation with respect to their weight and height as compared to the controls. Statistically significant association was observed to exist between growth retardation with both the surface area of involvement of the disease and the severity of atopic dermatitis while no such association was found to exist with either sex or personal history of atopy .Our study shows that growth retardation occurs more frequently in patients with atopic dermatitis as compared to nonatopic children from the same population. This shows that there may be an association between growth and the disease process. In our study we also found that the growth retardation occurring in cases of atopic dermatitis is associated with the severity of the disease as well as the surface area of involvement.


Recent works have discussed the extent to which emergent languages can exhibit properties of natural languages particularly learning compositionality. In this paper, we investigate the learning biases that affect the efficacy and compositionality in multi-agent communication in addition to the communicative bandwidth. Our foremost contribution is to explore how the capacity of a neural network impacts its ability to learn a compositional language. We additionally introduce a set of evaluation metrics with which we analyze the learned languages. Our hypothesis is that there should be a specific range of model capacity and channel bandwidth that induces compositional structure in the resulting language and consequently encourages systematic generalization. While we empirically see evidence for the bottom of this range, we curiously do not find evidence for the top part of the range and believe that this is an open question for the community.


Cotton-wool opacities of the retina occur in a number of diseases. They correspond microscpically to agglomerates of cytoid bodies in the nerve fiber layer of the retina. However, no description of such lesions in Hodgkin's disease has been yet reported in the literature. In a case of uveitis associated with Hodgkin's disease, Kamellin (1944) observed in the macular regions large grayish spots and at the periphery of the retina numerous small white spots "comparable to miliary tubercules." Nothing in the author's description seems to be similar to cottonwool opacities. Report of a Case The patient is a 31-year-old woman without previous significant disease. In January, 1951, she presented disseminated adenopathies. In December, 1951, a blood examination disclosed a hypochromic anemia. The patient complained of asthenia, and during the following months she had febrile episodes. She was admitted to the University medical department (Prof. P. Govaerts) on May 16, 1952, with


It is well known that medical linear accelerators generate activation products when operated above certain electron (photon) energies. The aim of the present work is to assess the activation behavior of a medium-energy radiotherapy linear accelerator by applying in situ gamma-ray spectrometry and dose measurements, and to estimate the additional dose to radiotherapy staff on the basis of these results. Spectral analysis was performed parallel to dose rate measurements in the isocenter of the linear accelerator, immediately after the termination of irradiation. The following radioisotopes were detected by spectral analysis: 28Al, 62Cu, 56Mn, 64Cu, 187W, and 57Ni. The short-lived isotopes such as 28Al and 62Cu are the most important factors of the clinical routine, while the contribution to the radiation dose of medium-lived isotopes such as 56Mn, 57Ni, 64Cu, and 187W increases during the working day. Measured dose rates at the isocenter ranged from 2.2 µSv/h to 10 µSv/h in various measuring points of interest for the members of the radiotherapy staff. Within the period of 10 minutes, the dose rate decreased to values of 0.8 µSv/h. According to actual workloads in radiotherapy departments, a realistic exposure scenario was set, resulting in a maximal additional annual whole body dose to the radiotherapy staff of about 3.5 mSv.


The effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on neural cells is important when tumours are adjacent to or within the nervous system. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate PDT treatments using the photosensitiser meta-(tetrahydroxyphenyl) chlorin (m-THPC) on cells of the peripheral nervous system. There is evidence that, during clinical PDT-treatment of tumour sites near important nerve structures, peripheral neural cells respond differently to m-THPC-mediated PDT than do tumour cells. In this study, the response to PDT-treatment of rat dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurones co-cultured with satellite cells were compared with separately cultured human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7) in innovative in vitro culture systems. Epi-fluorescence microscopy confirmed that m-THPC was incorporated into all cell types, excluding photosensitiser uptake as a reason for differences in the response to m-THPC-mediated PDT in vitro. Sensitivity of cells exposed to m-THPC- mediated PDT (0-10 ~g/ml m-THPC with 1 J/cm2white light) was determined in a 1 mm thin bespoke 3-dimensional (3D) collagen hydrogel culture system. Cell death was quantified using propidium iodide (PI) exclusion and DRG neurones were identified in co-culture using immunocytochemistry for β-tubulin. MCF-7 cells, DRG satellite cells and astrocytes (of the central nervous system) were significantly more sensitive to m-THPC-mediated PDT treatments than were DRG neurones. Importantly, the dose of interest, 4 f.lg/ml m-THPC-mediated PDT, caused no significant DRG neurone death in comparison with untreated controls, but was sufficient to elicit substantial cell death in the other cell types The cell death protocol was validated using a second photosensitiser, hypericin (0-3~g/ml with 1 J/cm2 white light), which caused substantial DRG neurone death equivalent to other cell types studied. Following m-THPC-mediated PDT treatments, ORG neurones displayed a loss of their neurites. An assessment of the ability of these cells to regenerate neurites after m-THPC-mediated PDT treatments was performed and neurite extension was found to be equivalent to that in untreated controls, demonstrating that the treated ORG neurones were viable and retained their neurite projecting function. Inhibiting specific cell antioxidant pathways gave an insight into the mechanism by which neurones survived m-THPC-mediated PDT. The results suggested that ORG neurones were protected from the phototoxic effects of m-THPC-mediated PDT by superoxide dismutase-1 (500-1) and the glutathione synthase antioxidant pathways. DRG neurones used in this study survived m-THPC-mediated PDT under conditions sufficient to kill tumour cells and other nervous system cells. Identifying and understanding this phenomenon could provide the basis for developing PDT treatments that reduce nerve damage during cancer therapy. The question of whether m-THPC-mediated PDT has different effects on ORG neurone survival and/or function depending on which part of the cell is illuminated is of particular interest. Preliminary experiments are described in which 2D and 3D tissue engineered nerve cultures were developed and assessed for use in evaluating focally applied m-THPC-mediated PDT treatment to different parts of DRG neurones. These peripheral nerve culture systems have controllable cellular environments that make them attractive experimental tools for further investigations into the effect of PDT on peripheral nerves.


The Iraqi Disputed Territories, or Disputed Internal Boundaries, consist of 15 districts stretching across four northern governorates from the Syrian to Iranian borders. The oil-rich Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk lies at the heart of this dispute and reflects the country's ethnic and religious diversity. Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and Assyrians all claim ancient settlement patterns within the governorate. The symbolic importance of Kirkuk as a homeland to both Kurds and the Turkmen conflicts directly with its strategic importance to Baghdad. While the two linguistically distinct centers of governance vie for control, interethnic communal tensions are rising and questions of identity increasingly overshadow day-to-day life. The existing research on Kirkuk focuses heavily on governance outcomes and possible administrative solutions, but little has been written about the impact of heightened identity politics on the everyday lives of citizens. This paper explores the influence of these conflicts and contests on education in the city of Kirkuk.


The hospital in the United States as an institution, a community, an organizational form, and a social phenomenon shares many striking commonalities with the city. It has highly important technical functions which are accompanied, and at times overshadowed, by broader social purposes and roles. The hospital also has undergone a number of transformations over time and has experienced a distinct, if idealized, golden age fostered by key technological advances. It has been the site of significant political and social tensions and conflicts. And in recent years, it has begun to evidence a decline in social significance and standing, and a general deconcentration which further underscores the usefulness of the urban analogy. The application of an ecological perspective aids in framing this intriguing parallelism between these two great social institutions. This perspective emphasizes the interdependence and mutual causality which key contributory trends--such as technological and organizational developments, environmental change, and shifting population characteristics--have had on the forms and functions of both hospitals and cities. The urban ecologist Hicks has written: "The city is being redefined ... [t]he transforming city is a predictable response to changing demographic, economic and technological realities. While the image of the city's form is etched into our consciousness, it is the city's function that will always be its sine qua non; in time its form will adjust to the new roles that cities will come to society." In a like fashion, a similar ecological interpretation of the transformation of the hospital can and will be made. This article will propose that examining the modern hospital through the urbanization-deurbanization parallel can be an instructive way to explore and interpret its changing character and role in American society. It will suggest that the hospital evolved into a dominant central position--more in a functional than a territorial sense--in the health services sector with other service entities arrayed concentrically about it. However, powerful centrifugal forces in recent years have reversed this trend, and dispersion is becoming increasingly evident. These processes will be detailed and contrasted with those documented in urban decline and deconcentration of selected future trends from this perspective and some public policy implications in a ecological interpretation.


Based on first-principles calculations, we report the concept of topological electride materials in this paper. It is found that the intermetallic Ca3Pb compound is a zero-dimensional electride, where the excess electrons are well localized at the 1b (0.5,0.5,0.5) lattice voids. These localized electrons serve as anions in the positively charged crystalline framework. Besides the electride properties, intermetallic Ca3Pb is also a topological material containing various types of fermionic states. The topological and electride properties of Ca3Pb are robust upon lattice distortions, which are available for practical applications. The quantum phenomena/effects from the fermionic states (e.g. quantum magnetoresistance and momentum-space Klein tunneling effect in Dirac and Weyl materials) in topological electrides are expected to be more pronounced than in conventional topological materials, because of their loosely bound conducting electrons. The current work opens a new research perspective by combining the nature of topological and electride materials.


The effect of roentgen-contrast media on the hemolytic resistance of erythrocytes in conditions of a "hypotonic shock" and on the peroxidation of the erythrocytes lipids membranes was studied. It is shown that all the contrast media potentiate the erythrocytes hemolysis, but do not affect the rate of the lipids peroxidation. Preliminary introduction of pipolphen in a therapeutic dose in a erythrocytes suspension increases the resistance of membranes to the action of the roentgen-contrast media.


ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate the use of peripheral venous catheters based on microbiological analysis of devices (dressing and three-way stopcocks) and thus contribute to the prevention and infection control. Methods: this was a prospective study of microbiological analysis of 30 three-way stopcocks (external surfaces and lumens) and 30 dressing used in maintaining the peripheral venous catheters of hospitalized adult patients. Results: all external surfaces, 40% of lumens, and 86.7% of dressing presented bacterial growth. The main species isolated in the lumen were 50% coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, 14.3% Staphylococcus aureus, and 14.3% Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Fifty nine percent of multidrug-resistant bacteria were isolated of the three-way stopcocks, 42% of the lumens, and 44% of the dressing with a predominance of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus resistant to methicillin. Besides, 18% gram-negative bacteria with resistance to carbapenems were identified from multidrug-resistant bacteria on the external surfaces of the three-way stopcocks. Conclusion: it is important to emphasize the isolation of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and gram-negative bacteria resistant to methicillin and carbapenems in samples of devices, respectively, which reinforces the importance of nursing care in the maintenance of the biologically safe environment as well as prevention and infection control practices.


A dynamical crossover regime is revealed when exposing a classical two-dimensional–ordered Josephson junction (JJ) array to evanescent waves and tuning the incident microwave power. At the lowest possible temperature for these experiments, 1.1 K, and at the lowest power setting, , evanescent waves are transmitted without loss and the resonance exhibits a quality factor of . A second, smaller resonance, which evolves with increasing power from the main resonance, is also investigated. In contrast to the behavior of the main resonance, this second peak grows as the incident power is increased and does not maintain a fixed resonant frequency for temperatures less than the superconducting critical temperature of niobium. The tunability of both resonances is studied as a function of temperature and microwave power. Finally, we speculate that this dynamical crossover regime is evidence of a transition between two states of phase coherence where at low microwave power the JJ arrays are phase locked and at high microwave power the JJ arrays are unlocked.


This study compared three programs for reproductive management of the postpartum period for reproductive performance and net economic benefit within three dairy herds (n = 1624 cows). Cows on one program received PGF alpha injection at 25 to 32 d postpartum for reproductive therapy, and cows on a second program received additional PGF2 alpha at 39 to 46 d postpartum for synchronization of estrus. These programs were compared with a postpartum program of rectal palpation based on veterinary intervention. Survival analysis indicated that cows receiving PGF2 alpha for reproductive therapy and synchronization of estrus had an 11% higher rate of first AI and 10% higher rate of pregnancy than did cows receiving the rectal palpation. No differences existed between the cows receiving rectal palpation and those receiving the PGF2 alpha. Because overall conception rates and conception rates at first AI did not differ among programs, the improved reproductive performance of cows receiving PGF2 alpha for both therapy and synchronization may be attributed to greater synchronization of estrus, which resulted in improved estrus detection. A partial budget indicated that the PGF2 alpha programs were less expensive than the rectal palpation program. When PGF2 alpha was used for postpartum reproductive therapy and synchronization of estrus, reproductive performance and net economic benefit were increased compared with those of the other programs.


BACKGROUND
Monthly out-of-pocket costs (oopc) for Ontario patients with cancer have previously been reported, but little detail has been provided on differences based on tumour type.

METHODS
A questionnaire administered in cancer clinics in the province of Ontario, with a mix of urban and rural patients, was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a regression analysis of cross-sectional data. The dependent variable was oopc (Canadian dollars), analyzed separately for total oopc (excluding imputed travel costs), and for each of the individual cost categories.

RESULTS
Compared with colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer patients combined, breast cancer patients had statistically significantly higher total oopc ($393 vs. $149, p = 0.02), device costs ($142 vs. $12, p = 0.018), and family care costs ($38 vs. $3, p = 0.01). By contrast, they trended toward lower costs for travel ($225 vs. $426, p = 0.055) and had lower costs for parking ($32 vs. $53, p = 0.0198). Compared with non-breast cancer patients, patients with breast cancer reported a greater perceived financial burden (31% vs. 17% p = 0.0133).

INTERPRETATION
These findings highlight that financial burden for cancer patients can vary by tumour type, and that patients with breast cancer may require a different mix of supportive services than do patients with other common tumour types. Supportive care programs related to financial burden should consider the likelihood and nature of financial burden when counselling breast cancer patients.


We report on a participatory design workshop, which consisted of diverse activities in which participants explored the concept of "connectedness" in various ways. The aim of the workshop was to facilitate multiplicity as a generative strategy to be used in early phases of design. In this position paper, we focus on the machine-mediated performance session of the workshop, in which participants extensively used their bodies to explore ways to couple with technological tools, their partners and the space. The aim of the performance session was to facilitate multiplicity in couplings between body, technology and space. We analysed the activities according to a coding scheme involving Laban's effort categories. We explain how the various forms of connection between bodies and different technological tools were constructed in each activity. We discuss how connectivity of technology can be used to support multiplicity in design. Author


By attending to art and writing that interrogates US citizenship and state violence, this essay foregrounds the structural antagonism between democracy as an instituted form of rule, which depends on inegalitarian hierarchies, and democracy's egalitarian drive. It argues that the realization of democracy as a form of governance (consensus democracy) occurs by substituting the rule of a part for the whole, which violently forces democracy's constitutive figures to conform to and negotiate its organizing logics. Nari Ward's We the People (2011) allegorizes this inherent tension in democracy as one between synecdoche and metonymy. The article then theorizes a new form of democratic politics through an engagement with Jacques Rancière before turning to Ocean Vuong's "Notebook Fragments" (2016) and "Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds" (2016) as articulations of a democratic aesthetics constituted by figures—including metonymy, irony, and catachresis—that interrupt the substitutions of synecdoche. Vuong's poetry foregrounds the violence enacted by state fantasies and insists on the democratic equality disavowed by consensus democracy. Together, Ward and Vuong locate the political force of aesthetics not in reassuring visions of inclusion but in operations that disturb and resist any form of hierarchy.


Background & Aims of the Study: Natural organic matters (NOMs) are a mixture of chemically complex polyelectrolytes produced mainly from the decomposition of plant and animal residues that are present in all surface and groundwater resources. This paper evaluates the aqueous NOMs adsorption efficiency on walnut shell modified with Zinc Oxide (ZnO). Materials & Methods: This study examined the feasibility of removing NOMs from aqueous solutions using walnut shell modified with ZnO. The effects of NOMs concentration, modified walnut shell with ZnO dosage, and pH on adsorption of NOMs by modified walnut shell with ZnO were evaluated. Results: The adsorption capacities of modified walnut shell with ZnO in the best conditions were 37.93 mg/g. The results also demonstrated that adsorption capacity of NOMs on modified walnut shell with ZnO was higher in lower pHs due to significantly high electrostatic attraction exists between the positively charged surface of the adsorbent and negatively charged NOMs. And finally adsorption capacity decreases as adsorbent dose increase. Conclusion: Walnut shell modified with ZnO can be proposed as a natural adsorbent in the removal of NOMs from aqueous solutions


We describe a case of a ventricular fibrillation (VF) storm related to a prominent and widely distributed J-wave. A 34-year-old man, without any family history of sudden cardiac death or structural heart disease, suffered from a VF storm unresponsive to repeated defibrillation attempts and drugs including amiodarone. After the VF disappeared, his electrocardiogram (ECG) exhibited prominent J-waves and ST-segment elevation in almost all the leads. The J-point elevation slowly decreased without any recurrence of VF within a few days, and finally the J-waves remained only in the inferolateral leads. In the electrophysiological study, we tried to record an epicardial electrogram from the coronary sinus on the lateral wall, but no definite delayed potentials were observed. After implanting an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, we performed pharmacologic stress tests (pilsicainide, protanol, mexan and atropine). The J-waves increased only during bradycardia after administering mexan. In the Holter ECG, transient ST-segment elevation was repetitively observed only while asleep. With the J-wave syndrome, it has been suggested that autonomictone plays a major role in the J-wave variability. In this case, prominent J-waves and ST-segment elevation were observed during bradycardia and sleep. This is a very rare case of J-wave syndrome with transient J-wave changes suggesting some relationship to the autonomic tone.


An anomalous artery directly connecting the common carotid artery and internal carotid artery was discovered on the right side in the cadaver of an 83-year-old Japanese female, and the facial artery, maxillary artery, and superficial temporal artery arose from the common carotid artery by a common trunk. The anomalous artery arose from the posterior aspect of the common carotid artery at the level of the origin of the superior thyroid artery, and joined the posterior aspect of the internal carotid artery. The anomalous artery was covered by the connective tissue surrounding the common carotid artery and the internal carotid artery. The anomalous anastomosis, especially the proximal portion, may have arisen from the second branchial arch artery during development.


Platinum(IV) complexes are usually inert and stable compounds which can be
photoactive pro-drugs to produce Pt(II) species with promising anti-cancer
activity. Studies of the photochemistry of Pt(IV) complexes by time-dependent
density functional theory (TDDFT) and spectroscopic methods show close
agreement. Broad exploration of cis/trans geometries, trans influences, the nature
of the OR− and (pseudo)halogen ligands, electron-withdrawing/donating/
delocalizing substituents on the N-ligands, and intramolecular H-bonds shows that
(1) the design of platinum(IV) complexes with intense bands shifted towards
longer wavelengths (~330 nm) can be achieved by introducing intramolecular Hbonds
involving the OH ligands and 2-hydroxyquinoline or by iodido ligands, (2)
mesomeric electron-withdrawing substituents on pyridine result in low-energy
absorption with significant intensity in the visible region, and (3) the distinct
makeup of the molecular orbitals in electronic transitions for cis/trans-{Pt(N3)2}
isomers result in different photoproducts. In general, the comparison of the
optimised geometries shows that Pt(IV) complexes with longer Pt−L bonds are
more likely to undergo photoreduction with longer-wavelength light. Complex
trans, trans, trans-[Pt(N3)2(OH)2(NH3)(4-nitropyridine)] was first synthesised.
The experimental UV-Vis spectrum in aqueous solution correlates well with the
intense band in the computed spectrum whereas the overlay in the low-energy
absorption region can be improved by a solvent model. This combined
computational and experimental study shows that TDDFT can be a design tool to
tune the coordination environment for optimizing photoactive Pt(IV) compounds
as anticancer agents without immediate need for synthesis. Additionally, molecular modeling is used to study DNA distortions induced by
binding metal-containing fragments derived from cisdiamminodichloroplatinum(
II) (cisplatin) and a new class of photoactive platinum
anticancer drugs. Ligand field molecular mechanics (LFMM) parameters for Pt–
guanine interactions are derived and validated against a range of experimental
structures from the Cambridge Structural Database, published quantum
mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) structures of model Pt-DNA systems
and additional DFT studies. LFMM gives a good description of the local Ptguanine
coordination at a fraction of the computational cost of QM/MM methods.
The force field is then used to develop protocols for ligand field molecular
dynamics (LFMD) simulations using experimentally characterised bifunctional
DNA adducts involving both an intra- and an interstrand crosslink of cisplatin as a
prelude to studying the interaction of trans-{Pt(py)2}2+ (P, py = pyridine), the
major photoproduct of the novel platinum(IV) complex trans,trans,trans-
[Pt(N3)2(OH)2(py)2] (17), with the DNA duplex dodecamer,
d(C1C2T3C4T5C6G7T8C9T10C11C12)• d(G13G14A15G16A17C18G19A20G21A22G23G24).
Based on the observed formation of a trans species when 17 is photoreduced in
the presence of 5'-guanosine monophosphate plus the major-groove binding mode
of the monofunctional complex cis-{Pt(NH3)2(py)}2+, P is proposed to coordinate
to G7 and G19. This P-DNA adduct has a widened minor groove at one end of the
platinated site and deepened minor groove at the opposite end, and exhibits a
global bend of ~67° and an unwinding of ~20°. Brabec et al. subsequently
demonstrated experimentally that such interstrand GG crosslinks can form as a
result of the photoactivation of 17 in the presence of DNA. Such cross-links offer possibilities for specific protein–DNA interactions and suggest possible
mechanisms to explain the high potency of this photoactivated complex.


Observations with RHESSI have enabled the detailed study of the structure of dense hard X-ray coronal sources in solar flares. The variation of source extent with electron energy has been discussed in the context of streaming of non-thermal particles in a one-dimensional cold target model and the results used to constrain both the physical extent of, and density within, the electron acceleration region. Here, we extend this investigation to a more physically realistic model of electron transport that takes into account the finite temperature of the ambient plasma, the initial pitch angle distribution of the accelerated electrons, and the effects of collisional pitch angle scattering. The finite temperature results in the thermal diffusion of electrons, which leads to the observationally inferred value of the acceleration region volume being an overestimate of its true value. The different directions of the electron trajectories, a consequence of both the non-zero injection pitch angle and scattering within the target, cause the projected propagation distance parallel to the guiding magnetic field to be reduced, so that a one-dimensional interpretation can overestimate the actual density by a factor of up to ∼6. The implications of these results for the determination of acceleration region properties (specific acceleration rate, filling factor, etc.) are discussed.


BACKGROUND
The time period following discharge from inpatient psychiatry and emergency department (ED) treatment is one of heightened risk for repeat suicide attempts for patients. Evidence reported in the literature shows that follow-up contacts might reduce suicide risk, although there has not been a comprehensive and critical review of the evidence to date.

AIMS
To evaluate evidence for the effectiveness of suicide prevention interventions that involve follow-up contacts with patients.

METHODS
Published empirical studies of follow-up interventions with suicidal behaviors (suicide, attempts, and ideation) as outcomes were searched. Study populations were inpatient psychiatric or ED patients being discharged to home. Contact modalities included phone, postal letter, postcards, in-person, and technology-based methods (e-mail and texting).

RESULTS
Eight original studies, two follow-up studies, and one secondary analysis study met inclusion criteria. Five studies showed a statistically significant reduction in suicidal behavior. Four studies showed mixed results with trends toward a preventative effect and two studies did not show a preventative effect.

CONCLUSIONS
Repeated follow-up contacts appear to reduce suicidal behavior. More research is needed, however, especially randomized controlled trials, to determine what specific factors might make follow-up contact modalities or methods more effective than others.


Background: Past research suggests that knowledge supports- but strong illness expectations thwart- adoption of protective behaviors (e.g., handwashing). Strong illness expectations may place COVID-19 essential workers at risk. It is unclear, however, whether knowledge can moderate the negative effects of pessimistic illness expectations on protective behaviors. We test COVID-19 knowledge as a moderator of the effects of (1) pessimistic illness expectations and (2) essential worker status on adherence to protective behaviors. Methods: Participants (n = 350) completed measures of knowledge, illness expectations, and protective behaviors. We used chi-square tests to examine associations between variables and logistic regressions to test the moderation models predicting adherence (low, high) while controlling for demographics. Results: Knowledge, illness expectations, and adherence were significantly associated with each other (p < 0.05). Essential workers had stronger illness expectations and lower knowledge than did non-essential workers (p < 0.001). Logistic regressions showed a non-significant Worker Status × Knowledge interaction (p = 0.59) but a significant Knowledge × Illness Expectations interaction (p < 0.05) indicating that those with strong illness expectations and low knowledge were disproportionately at risk of failing to adhere to recommended behaviors. Conclusions: Knowledge promotes protective behaviors by buffering the negative effects of pessimistic illness expectations. Essential workers are more likely to have low levels of knowledge with strong illness expectations, suggesting that educational policies may be warranted.


Perdue Farms, the highly successful marketer of brand-name chicken, is considering the introduction of a chicken hot dog to the market. The decision is complicated by a variety of factors, including top management's concerns and conditions, potential ramifications of the hot dog for the company's high-quality image, the uncertainty of market response, uncertainties about how to position the new product, potential consumer objections to use of mechanically deboned meat, and the uncertainty of profitability at recommended levels of marketing costs.


We report a method for converting the colorimetric results of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) into length based on the coffee-ring effect, so that the quantitative detection of analytes can be carried out simply using a ruler. The influence of the shape and lamination of the paper strip on the test results is studied. As a demonstration, human IgG is quantitatively analyzed. It is found that the width of the colored stains correlates with the concentration of the analyte which can be measured for quantitative analysis. The method is promising for quantitative point-of-care detection of biomarkers under resource-limited settings.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


OBJECTIVE
To describe physicians' experiences in attempting to provide optimal care for families of children who suffer from sudden, acute life-threatening conditions (SALTC).

DESIGN
To generate descriptive data in this exploratory study, we used qualitative methods including focus groups and in-depth interviews. Transcripts of focus groups and interviews were analyzed for content using standard phenomenologic analysis methods, which resulted in a participant-generated conceptual model of optimal care for families of children with SALTC.

SETTING
The intensive care unit of an urban pediatric teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-two pediatric intensive care unit physicians, including residents, fellows, and attendings.

INTERVENTION
None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Each participating physician provided qualitative descriptions of experiences caring for families of children with SALTC.

RESULTS
Physicians identified 4 components of optimal care for families: (1) providing timely, accurate information about their child; (2) maintaining privacy for confidential discussions and personal grieving; (3) giving adequate emotional support; and (4) granting family members the right to hold and comfort their dying child. Physicians also described barriers to, and facilitators of this optimal care.

CONCLUSIONS
Descriptive information provided in this exploratory study offers a complex model of optimal family care. Issues that affect the quality of care to families include those related to the context of providing care in a large teaching hospital, as well as subtleties of communication between parents and staff. Physicians' beliefs about optimal care of families in the pediatric intensive care unit revealed implications for both practice and training in pediatrics.


The main aim of the article is a justification and attempt to prove the rightness of the thesis that personal features and teaching,
educational and pedagogical activity of Kazimierz Twardowski constitute the example of teaching attitude which may be set as a personal
model for modern team of academic teachers. The attitude of Kazimierz Twardowski proves that the work of a teacher treated as a life
mission is a kind of social service contributing to development of culture and science. For the work of an academic teacher should be based
on realizing of the values, ideals and attitudes socially desired, otherwise the society is threatened with not only stagnation or degradation
of science but also arising and developing of attitudes which are socially harmful.


A mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation at nucleotide 11778 has been reported as the genetic defect associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), but some pedigrees failed to reveal this mutation. The authors present the genetic analysis of a large Italian LHON family with three probands and 16 asymptomatic maternal relatives. The 11778 mtDNA mutation was present in this family and absent in 52 Italian healthy controls, confirming the association between this genetic defect and LHON. In addition, they found a variable proportion of mutated and wild-type mtDNA (heteroplasmy) in every maternally related family member, including the probands. Different patterns of heteroplasmy were present in the pedigree and lower levels of wild-type mtDNA seemed to correlate with the disease status. Moreover, the authors evaluated the mitotic segregation of mt genomes in blood, hair and urinary tract epithelia of the three patients and they found a similar level of heteroplasmy in these tissues.


There were studied external respiration and lung gaseous metabolism in inhabitants of European North in cases of mandible fracture. There were determined respiration disturbances of the obstruction type and changes of lung gaseous metabolism. In patients of the control group which received traditional medical and physical methods of treatment the external respiration indices were normalized to proper values to the moment of fragments union (in 34-38 days). Relation of CO2 excretion to O2 consumption at this term corresponded to mean value of human respiratory coefficient (0.83-0.87). In the group of patients with optimization of comprehensive treatment by ozone therapy use the function of external respiration and lung gaseous metabolism recovered earlier that positively told upon the terms of fragments union and recovery of capacity for work.


We present the optimal number of cooperating nodes in multi-hop virtual multiple-input single-output (vMISO) based cooperative wireless sensor networks as a result of an energy consumption optimization problem in a limiting case of very dense networks. The main advantage of vMISO considered in this work is the increase in transmission range due to diversity and power gain. We demonstrate that it is best to have two cooperating nodes, when vMISO is allowed to have multiple transmissions without power control.


The drafting of a new Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law was proposed to the American Law Institute (ALI) in 2012, and the project is now well under way. Because the ultimate adoption of any provisions by the membership of the ALI will take time, however, and is not a foregone conclusion, this Essay considers at this relatively early stage of the project whether the project has been well-conceived, and is on the right track. It critiques the most recent Discussion Draft of April 2015 on the Status of Treaties in United States Law, for its failure to propose a comprehensive work plan and for its divergence from the text of the Third Restatement regarding the status of international law in U.S. law. In particular, it faults the April Discussion Draft for its decision to separate Article II treaties from all other sources of international law in a distinction driven by academic commentary that appears artificial and unsupported by the case law. The Essay argues for a return to the unitary structure found in the Third Restatement, and suggests that future work on this proposed section should either include a comprehensive proposed work plan or be abandoned.


This report describes the growth pattern of healthy, low middle and low socioeconomic class Chilean infants during exclusive breast-feeding. Two-hundred forty-two infants who were on exclusive breast-feeding at day 30 postpartum entered the study. Of these, 59% were fully nursing at 6 months and grew at a normal rate without receiving either supplementary milk or nondairy food. Supplementary feedings were administered in 27% of cases because of suspected primary inadequate milk output and in 14% of cases for other reasons such as pregnancy, illness, maternal work, or self-prescription. Full nursing provided the highest rate of weight increase during the first 3 months of life and a greater weight gain for boys than for girls up to the age of 6 months. Gastrointestinal pathology, malnourishment, or hospitalization were rare events in this population. It is concluded that maternal milk alone, if produced in sufficient amounts, can maintain normal growth up to the 6th month of life. The study supports the choice of exclusive breast-feeding on demand plus child growth monitoring up to 6 months over routine prescription of supplements at earlier times particularly where supplement administration fails to meet individual requirements.


This paper investigates a novel procedure to calculate smooth interpolation curves of the rotation group SO3, which is commonly considered as the standard representation of rigid-body's orientations. The algorithm is a combination of rolling and wrapping with the pull back/push forward technique. One remarkable advantage of this approach is that interpolation curves are given in closed form, which brings convenience for implementations on real-time control systems. A numerical example along with some visualization results is presented as well


NOTCH signaling plays a key role in cell fate determination in both vertebrates and invertebrates. It is well known that Su(H)/RBP‐J is a major mediator of NOTCH signaling. In a previous study, it was shown that NOTCH signaling was involved in cranial neural crest formation in avian embryos. However, Su(H)/RBP‐J activity did not appear to be required in this process. In this study, the Deltex/Dtx gene was focussed on as a potential mediator of NOTCH signaling in neural crest formation. At the time of neural crest formation, quail Deltex2 was expressed throughout the ectoderm. Misexpression of a dominant‐negative form of Deltex in the ectoderm caused reduced expression of Slug, a neural crest marker. Dominant‐negative Deltex expression reduced the expression of Bmp4, a neural crest inducer, whereas co‐transfection of Bmp4 with dominant‐negative Deltex rescued Slug expression. In parallel, Hairy2 expression in the epidermis was regulated by a Su(H)‐dependent pathway. These results indicate that NOTCH signaling has dual functions mediated by either Su(H) or Deltex in the avian embryonic ectoderm.


We discuss the effect of second harmonic generation via the Čerenkov-like process in nonlinear bulk media and waveguides. We show that in both schemes the Čerenkov harmonic emission represents in fact a nonlinear Bragg diffraction process. It is therefore possible, for the first time, to describe the bulk and waveguide Čerenkov emission uniformly by considering the spatial modulation of the second-order nonlinear polarization. This is also experimentally illustrated by studying the Čerenkov second harmonic generation at the boundary of a nonlinear quadratic medium via the total internal reflection inside the nonlinear crystal.


Sleep is a naturally cyclical state of the mind and body. It plays an indispensable role in sustaining the good health of an individual. Inadequate and poor-quality sleep upsets the people of all ages leading to widespread impact on the body and mind. Insufficient sleep can be due either to medical conditions or mental health disorders or sleep disorders. Worldwide, 30%-35% of adults are suffering from insomnia, and about 10% of the population fits in diagnostic criteria for sleep disorders. From 8 countries across Asia and Africa, 17% people reported trouble with their sleep. People have poor knowledge and awareness about the sleep disorders. There is scarcity of trained healthcare professionals and workers in sleep medicine in South Asia; trained and experienced health professionals need to enhance the services of sleep medicine to meet the needs of their population. Creating awareness among the public about sleep and sleep disorders is one of the step towards Sleep Health. It is recommended to the policy makers of countries of South Asia to develop National Sleep Health Policy to address the issue of Sleep Health as lack of sleep or inadequate sleep both in quantity and quality will have impacts on health of the people and consequently economy of the country.


The simultaneous quantification of Finasteride and Tamsulosin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage forms, there is no documentary evidence available. At the outset, it was aimed to develop a rapid, sensitive, precise and accurate method for the pharmaceutical dosage forms. The objective of the study is as follows: Development of rapid, sensitive and accurate reverse phase RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of Finasteride & Tamsulosin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Development of rapid, sensitive and accurate High Performance Thin Layer Chromatographic method for simultaneous estimation of Finasteride & Tamsulosin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Development of UV Spectrophotometric method for simultaneous estimation of Finasteride & Tamsulosin hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage forms by Q-absorbance ratio method. This study was focused in the method development for the simultaneous quantification of the pharmaceutical dosage form of Finasteride and Tamsulosin Hydrochloride. It was successful in achieving three different analytical techniques, namely, 1) High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), 2) High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) and 3) Q-absorbance ratio method by UV Spectroscopy for the routine analysis for the combination dosage forms. The HPLC method, proved to have high selectivity, precision and accuracy. The drugs were eluted by C18, ODS column (Phenomenex), using Acetonitrile: Buffer (pH adjusted to 3.0 ± 0.2 with Orthophosphoric acid) in the ratio of 60:40 as mobile phase and UV detector at wavelength of 230nm. The retension time of Finasteride was 7.11 minutes and that of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride was 2.65 minutes. The HPTLC method developed for the formulation proved to be easiest and quick method of analysis. The method was developed using CAMAG HPTLC scanner and Linomat applicator, with a mobile phase combination of Toluene: Chloroform: Methanol: Triethylamine in the ratio of 7:2:1:2 at 230nm as scanning wavelength. The retardation factor of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride was 0.35 and that of Finasteride was 0.78. 77
Q-absorbance ratio method developed for the dosage form, proved to be easy and economical method for the rapid evaluation of drug components utilizing λmax of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride and Isoabsorptive point of both the drugs. The linearity data was subjected to linear regression analysis in order to confirm the linear relationship between concentration and response. All the three analytical techniques developed were subjected to method validation as specified in ICH guidelines. The analytical performance characteristics were established and the values were found to be within the specified limits as recommended. Quantitative estimation was subjected to statistical analysis. %RSD value obtained was below 2 indicates precision of the method. The low standard error value indicates accuracy of the method. Thus the methods developed were found to be simple, specific, precise, linear, accurate and were reliable & reproducible for simultaneous quantification of Finasteride and Tamsulosin Hydrochloride in pharmaceutical
dosage forms.


Markov Models are of outstanding importance in the performance and reliability evaluation of computer systems and communication networks. In this paper we aim at contributing to the field of Markovian Process Algebras (MPAs). An MPA model is (or may be) the composition of several concurrent sub-components (each of which describes an underlying Markov chain) which may interact with each other through synchronisation. On the one hand the existence of sub-components implies the possibility of the state space explosion problem, i.e. the size of the state space of the Markov chain underlying the composite component grows exponentially in the number of sub-components. On the other hand the interaction of sub-components in general negates the property of independence of their underlying Markov chains, and hence forbids a product-form solution for steady state probabilities. Our target quantities are single steady state probabilities of the Markov chain underlying the composite component. We consider composite components which possess only global synchronisations, i.e. every sub-component is involved in every synchronisation. For this class of MPA models the behaviour of the composite component between two successive synchronisations can be described by the joint process of several absorbing Markov chains. First, a new result on cumulative measures of absorbing joint Markov chains is presented. We compute the mean time to absorption and the mean time the joint Markov chain spends in a certain set before absorption. Our computations do not operate on the state space of the joint Markov chain, and hence the problem of state space explosion is avoided. The computational effort of our method rather depends on convergence properties of the joint Markov chain. Afterwards, this result is applied to compute steady state probabilities for a class of composite components specified as PEPA models which are popular ambassadors of MPAs. It is easily understood that these results carry over from PEPA to other MPA variants.


The TEXAS-V code tuned for TROI-13 was used for analyzing the parametric findings in TROI experiments. The calculations on the melt composition are relatively similar to the TROI experimental results. The water depth effect in TEXAS-V code seems to be consistent with TROI experiments in some degree. The water area effect of TEXAS-V calculations seems not to be harmonious to that in TROI experiments. This seems to indicate that TEXAS-V as 1-dimensional code or as the numerical steam explosion has a limitation on estimating area effect. Thus, TEXAS-V tuned for TROI-13 seems to have an ability to estimate the parametric effect of TROI experiments. The evaluated TEXAS-V was used for estimating the ex-vessel steam explosion load. The calculated explosion pressure and load were about 40 ㎫ and 75 ㎪.sec, which are not much threatening level for containment integrity.


ABSTRACT Several DNA regions containing genes involved in poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) biosynthesis and degradation and also in fatty acid degradation were identified from genomic sequence data and have been characterized in the serine cycle facultative methylotrophMethylobacterium extorquens AM1. Genes involved in PHB biosynthesis include those encoding β-ketothiolase (phaA), NADPH-linked acetoacetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) reductase (phaB), and PHB synthase (phaC).phaA and phaB are closely linked on the chromosome together with a third gene with identity to a regulator of PHB granule-associated protein, referred to as orf3. phaC was unlinked to phaA and phaB. Genes involved in PHB degradation include two unlinked genes predicted to encode intracellular PHB depolymerases (depA anddepB). These genes show a high level of identity with each other at both DNA and amino acid levels. In addition, a gene encoding β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (hbd) was identified. Insertion mutations were introduced into depA, depB, phaA, phaB, phaC, and hbd and also in a gene predicted to encode crotonase (croA), which is involved in fatty acid degradation, to investigate their role in PHB cycling. Mutants indepA, depB, hbd, and croA all produced normal levels of PHB, and the only growth phenotype observed was the inability of the hbd mutant to grow on β-hydroxybutyrate. However, the phaA, phaB, and phaC mutants all showed defects in PHB synthesis. Surprisingly, these mutants also showed defects in growth on C1 and C2 compounds and, for phaB, these defects were rescued by glyoxylate supplementation. These results suggest that β-hydroxybutyryl-CoA is an intermediate in the unknown pathway that converts acetyl-CoA to glyoxylate in methylotrophs and Streptomyces spp.


Elevated rates of risky behavior among Latino youth have been linked to features of acculturation such as discrepant rates of acculturation between parents and adolescents. This study examined how parent-adolescent mainstream and Mexican cultural gaps are differentially related to adolescent risky behavior through family conflict, parental monitoring, and parental involvement among Mexican immigrant families. Contrary to the acculturation gap–distress hypothesis, family conflict did not mediate the relationship between acculturation gaps and adolescent risky behavior. Whereas the mainstream cultural gap was associated with less risky adolescent behavior through increased parental monitoring and involvement, the opposite relationship emerged for the Mexican cultural gap. Findings are discussed in relation to the acculturation gap–distress model and the broader parent-child relationship context. Findings illuminate the practical, theoretical, and empirical importance of recognizing Mexican-heritage youth as embedded within an influential family milieu situated in a culturally plural context.


: Purpose: The aim of the article is to present the knowledge about the concept and organization of the national security system, to define the directions of its development and to present a model that would correspond to contemporary security conditions in its most important area, which is to ensure conditions of existence and national development free of any disturbances to oppose these disturbances and their consequences. Design/Methodology/Approach: In studies, to a different extent and depending on the approach, the research models used in social sciences were used, that is the model of empirical theory, which assumes that all knowledge comes from experience and is associated with the description of relationships between empirical events, the model of the axiomatized theory, based on making bold hypotheses, axioms and theorems, the model of informal (practical) theory based on common knowledge, and the model of eclectic theory, in which various ways of knowing are used: scientific knowledge, empirical laws, hypotheses and possibly common knowledge. The last of the above methods, as the integration of the first three, found the widest application in the course of research. Findings: The main hypothesis is that the organization of national security is dispersed both vertically and horizontally, and this situation causes difficulties in the efficient functioning of the state in times of peace, crisis and war. There are many safety-related systems at all levels of the state organization. Each of them has its own legal regulations, tasks and subordination. Practical Implications: The author's research is illustrative material in the field of formulating organizational assumptions in the field of national security and is an interpretation of knowledge that will be used in the practice of the activities of state organs. Originality/Value: The author's research concerns the organization of the state to ensure security in various states and circumstances of the state's functioning. It is a presentation of the model of the national security system, which, when viewed from the inside, is a set of integrated elements designed to carry out specific tasks, and when viewed from the outside, it is a whole, capable of ensuring security in the most complex circumstances..


complete regurgitation was relatively uncommon, but in view of the findings he agreed that any alcohol in the stomach would probably find its way into the mouth and therefore affect the breathalyser readings. A report was prepared and presented to the procurator fiscal. The result was that the drunken driving charge was dropped and the patient pleaded guilty to the dangerous driving charge. Medical morbidity is high in drunk drivers and even higher in the one third who are problem drinkers. Eighteen per cent of drunk drivers have consulted their general practitioner about gastritis or dyspeptic symptoms in the five years before arrest.2 Many of them will have acid regurgitation. The problem of regurgitated stomach contents producing mouth alcohol and interfering with breath testing results may be much larger than is generally recognised. PETER DUFFUS JAMES A DuNBAR