In this survey paper, the authors analyze the general structure of robotic systems for computer-assisted surgery, present a classification of such systems based on the degree of "intelligence" of the tools, and discuss some examples of different classes of devices. Computer-assisted surgery accelerated progress is related, on the one hand, to the improvement of medical imaging techniques and, on the other hand, to the evolution of surgical instrumentation. The integration of these two factors has determined an extraordinary progress that is not just a "linear" temporal development, but it is a "discontinuity" as regards traditional surgical procedures. Specifically, the authors consider the following classes of robotic-derived surgical devices/systems: a) handheld tools augmenting the capabilities of the surgeon; b) teleoperated surgical tools; and c) autonomous surgical robots. The paper will focus essentially on the analysis of systems and components of robots and tools designed for minimally invasive surgery. Although different classification methods exist on the basis of the clinical needs and/or on the design approach, the devices which will be illustrated in this paper are classified on the basis of their scale, degrees of freedom, autonomy, embedded intelligence, and features of the interface between the surgeon and the patient.


Abstract The paper analyzes the ways in which Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963) and Steven Spielberg's Duel (1971) draw on and challenge selected road movie conventions by adhering to the genre's traditional reliance on cultural critique revolving around the themes of rebellion, transgression and roguery. In particular, the films seem to confront the classic road movie format through their adoption of nomadic narrative structure and engagement in a mockery of subversion where the focus on social critique is intertwined with a deep sense of alienation and existential loss "laden with psychological confusion and wayward angst" (Laderman 83). Following this trend, Spielberg's film simultaneously depoliticizes the genre and maintains the tension between rebellion and tradition where the former shifts away from the conflict with conformist society to masculine anxiety, represented by middle class, bourgeois and capitalist values, the protagonist's loss of innocence in the film's finale, and the act of roguery itself. Meanwhile, Anger's poetic take on the outlaw biker culture, burgeoning homosexuality, myth and ritual, and violence and death culture approaches the question of roguery by undermining the image of a dominant hypermasculinity with an ironic commentary on sacrilegious and sadomasochistic practices and initiation rites in the gay community. Moreover, both Duel's demonization of the truck, seen as "an indictment of machines" or the mechanization of life (Spielberg qtd. in Crawley 26), and Scorpio Rising's (homo)eroticization of a motorcycle posit elements of social critique, disobedience and nonconformity within a cynical and existential framework, hence merging the road movie's traditional discourse with auteurism and modernism.


We consider the problem of adaptive home heating in the smart grid, assuming that real-time electricity prices are being exposed to end-users with the goal of realizing demand-side management. To lower the burden on the end-users, our goal is the design of a smart thermostat that automatically heats the home, optimally trading off the user's comfort and cost. This is a challenging problem due to two sources of uncertainty: future weather conditions and future electricity prices. Our main technical contribution is a general technique that uses predictive distributions obtained from Gaussian Process (GP) regressions to compute the state transition probabilities of an MDP, such that the solution to the resulting MDP constitutes a sequentially optimal policy. We apply this general approach to the home-heating problem, where we use the predictive distributions of the GPs for the day-ahead external temperatures and electricity prices. The solution to the home-heating MDP constitutes an optimal heating policy that maximizes the user's utility given the probability information gathered by the Gaussian process model. Via simulations we show that our MDP-based approach outperforms various benchmarks, especially for cost-sensitive users.


ABSTRACT
 The bone tissue of femur, rib, and gastralia from three different individuals of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian Batrachotomus kupferzellensis from southern Germany is studied. The femoral bone tissue comprises laminar fibrolamellar bone tissue throughout and is stratified by three annual growth cycles, indicating that the individual died early in its fourth year of life, at which time it had reached 87% of maximum known femur length. Thus, compared with most other Pseudosuchia (e.g., phytosaurs, aetosaurs, and most crocodylomorphs, including marine taxa), Batrachotomus achieved its large body size in a very short time by fast, although interrupted, growth and not by protracted longevity. Such fast growth as well as the organization of the tissue is similar to the condition observed in ornithodirans. The pseudosuchians Effigia and Postosuchus also show fibrolamellar tissue, but vascular density is lower when compared with Batrachotomus and dominated by a longitudinal organization of primary osteons. The rib and gastralium of Batrachotomus both show an inner spongious organization surrounded by a ring of compact, avascular, highly organized parallel-fibered and/or lamellar bone largely covered by short fibers. Maximal growth cycle count in the proximal rib sample suggests an age of at least 11 years for this individual with a reduction of growth rate after the sixth cycle.


The coating of PbO2 [1309-60-0] on Ti was carried out after activation of the Ti in boiling HCl 20% and after predeposition with an intermediate protective Au layer. The stability measurements of this electrode showed that the rate of decompn. of PbO2 in H2SO4 >8M increases. The polarization curves showed that a Au layer between the Ti and the PbO2 diminishes the ohmic resistance of the electrode. [on SciFinder (R)]


Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA), containing cancer-specific DNAs derived from tumor cells, plays an important role in real-time monitoring of disease progression. Due to the abnormal growth of cancer and the promotion of cancer cell apoptosis by chemotherapy, the higher cfDNA concentration than healthy individuals is closely correlated with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Also, the mutation detection in tumor cell-derived cfDNA can be used to predict tumor progression. Human blood contains many blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets), proteins, extracellular vesicles, and so on. These blood components act as the inhibitors when the cfDNA is analyzed using polymerase chain reaction. So, analysis of cfDNA using whole blood directly may affect the sensitivity of the analysis or result in false-negative. The conventional methods of cfDNA isolation, such as silica absorption and polymer-mediated enrichment, are labor-intensive and time-consuming processes that can also lead to the loss of cfDNA in cumbersome procedures. Here, we designed an integrated microfluidic chip capable of on-chip cfDNA extracting to reduce sample loss and processing time. Our proposed device minimizes the number of experimental steps from 5 to 1, the total processing time from 42 to 19 min, and the required volume of washing reagents from 2 to 0.4 ml for cfDNA enrichment compared to the conventional method.


High performance edge-emitting microlasers with deeply etched distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) were fabricated on an AlGaAs-GaAs laser structure with a single GaInAs quantum dot (QD) active layer. Mirror reflectivities well above 90% were achieved by third-order narrow air-gap Bragg reflectors with /spl lambda//4 air-gaps. DBR lasers with 160-/spl mu/m-long cavities and cleaved mirrors on one side show differential efficiencies of 0.87 W/A and output powers of more than 50 mW at 980-nm emission wavelength in continuous wave (CW) operation at room temperature. With deeply etched DBRs on both sides of the cavity CW operating microlasers with cavity lengths down to 16 /spl mu/m could be realized with a minimum threshold current of 1.2 mA for a 30-/spl mu/m cavity length. All lasers are emitting at the QD ground state at room temperature. Twenty-/spl mu/m-long devices show CW threshold currents of about 3 mA, output powers above 1 mW, and single mode emission with >25 dB sidemode suppression ratios. First, high-frequency measurements mere performed proving that these QD microlasers are well suited for large-scale integrated high-speed optical data processing with modulation frequencies well above 10 GHz.


This paper claims that in its current use the term 'network' represents no more than a suggestive image of organizing in an age of spectacular context-crossing electronic transactivity. Compared to the strong social embeddedness of formal organizations and markets and their institutional and legal ties, networks emerge as nearly devoid of institutional anchoring and social implications. And yet, current developments drive the organization of economic activity away from the logic of the efficient utilization of resources that characterized the industrial age towards the making, remaking and rapid mediation of decisions concerning what is to be produced and how it is to be disposed of. Matters of communication and networking across established boundaries tend to assume a primacy over technical, intraorganizational decisions of resource optimization, thereby making context-crossing electronic transactivity a crucial modality of organizing. However, the solidification and the institutional embeddedness of these interaction forms go far beyond the social and legal regulation of electronic transactivity and involve the confrontation with the institutional order associated with markets and organizations. In this process, central aspects of contemporary life like those of stable or full employment, equality, individual sovereignty and others need be renegotiated.


Ad hoc networks are gaining presence with the proliferation of cheap wireless devices and the need to keep them connected. Individual applications and larger missions. such as those of tactical sensor networks. require secure data transmission among wireless devices. Security remains a major challenge for such networks. Current protocols employ encryption and authentication techniques for secure message exchange. but given the limitations and innately insecure nature of ad-hoc networks. such mechanisms may not suffice. A security breach can. for example, be a network-level denial-of-service (DoS) attack, passive eavesdropping, or physical layer jamming to degrade communication channels. In a multihop network, an intruder node can degrade communication quality by simply dropping packets that arc meant to be relayed (forwarded). The network could then misinterpret the cause of packet loss as congestion instead of malicious activity. In this paper, we suggest that traffic transmission patterns be selected to facilitate verification by a receiver. Such traffic patterns are used in concert with suboptimal MAC that preserves the statistical regularity from hop to hop. This general technique for intrusion detection is therefore suitable for networks that are not bandwidth limited but have strict security requirements, e.g., certain kinds of tactical sensor networks.


The accurate determination of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in wine remains a critical analytical task for food safety and in wine trade. The traditional recommended titration method has been criticized for its weak selectivity, poor precision and long procedure. In this study, an accurate, high-throughput, interference-free method for the absolute determination of SO2 in wine based on a triple quadrupole ICP-MS instrument (ICP-QQQ) is developed. This novel ICP-QQQ is operated in the MS/MS mode to provide an interference-free measurement. Tested with four different S-containing inorganic ions and organic molecules, the result indicates that the behaviour of S in the plasma is unanimous regardless of the discrepancy between the S-containing compounds, which means the signal intensity of S is merely decided by the concentration of S. The developed method exhibits good linearity (R > 0.999) over the concentration range of 0.025–100 mg L−1, with a limit of quantification of 10 μg L−1 for 32S16O42− in wine. The recoveries ranged from 95–105% for the spiked wine samples. The method was successfully applied for the determination of total SO2 in red wine samples. The concentrations determined using the developed method are in excellent agreement with those obtained using the recommended titration method. This study demonstrates a new approach for the quantification of total SO2 in wine with great convenience and high accuracy.


The analysis of whole-genome or exome sequencing data from trios and pedigrees has being successfully applied to the identification of disease-causing mutations. However, most methods used to identify and genotype genetic variants from next-generation sequencing data ignore the relationships between samples, resulting in significant Mendelian errors, false positives and negatives. Here we present a Bayesian network framework that jointly analyses data from all members of a pedigree simultaneously using Mendelian segregation priors, yet providing the ability to detect de novo mutations in offspring, and is scalable to large pedigrees. We evaluated our method by simulations and analysis of WGS data from a 17 individual, 3-generation CEPH pedigree sequenced to 50X average depth. Compared to singleton calling, our family caller produced more high quality variants and eliminated spurious calls as judged by common quality metrics such as Ti/Tv, Het/Hom ratios, and dbSNP/SNP array data concordance. We developed a ground truth dataset to further evaluate our calls by identifying recombination cross-overs in the pedigree and testing variants for consistency with the inferred phasing, and we show that our method significantly outperforms singleton and population variant calling in pedigrees. We identify all previously validated de novo mutations in NA12878, concurrent with a 7X precision improvement. Our results show that our method is scalable to large genomics and human disease studies and allows cost optimization by rational sequencing capacity distribution.


BACKGROUND
Breast cancer is now the most significant health issue in women, threatening diverse aspects of human health, including mental health and cognitive function. This research aimed to validate the Persian version of Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in Iranian women with breast cancer.

METHODS
We gathered data on 229 women with breast cancer in Tehran through convenience sampling. They completed a demographic questionnaire, the Persian version of MAAS, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and DASS-21. SPSS-22 analyzed the Pearson correlation between the Persian version of MAAS, general self-efficacy, and DASS-21. Also, LISREL 8.8 was used to analyze the internal structure of the MAAS.

RESULTS
Findings from the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the model with one factor fits well with the data (sbχ2=4.29 (P=0.36); SRMR=0.058; CFI=1.0; NFI=0.91; IFI=0.95; RFI=0.97; GFI=0.90; RMSEA=0.069). Significant negative correlations were found between MAAS and DASS-21 scores for anxiety (r=-0.51), depression (r=-0.48) and stress (r=-0.49), indicating an acceptable divergent validity. There was also a positive relationship between MAAS and general self-efficacy (r=0.37; P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
The Persian version of MAAS seems to be a valid scale for evaluating the extent of mindfulness of Iranian women with breast cancer.


We introduce a class of integrable dynamical systems of interacting classical matrix-valued fields propagating on a discrete space-time lattice, realized as many-body circuits built from elementary symplectic two-body maps. The models provide an efficient integrable Trotterization of non-relativistic $\sigma$-models with complex Grassmannian manifolds as target spaces, including, as special cases, the higher-rank analogues of the Landau-Lifshitz field theory on complex projective spaces. As an application, we study transport of Noether charges in canonical local equilibrium states. We find a clear signature of superdiffusive behavior in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class, irrespectively of the chosen underlying global unitary symmetry group and the quotient structure of the compact phase space, providing a strong indication of superuniversal physics.


The study was conducted to evaluate an appropriate inclusion level of white-flowered semi-leafless green spring peas in diets for laying hens. Egg production and egg quality variables (specific weight, Haugh unit, shell strenght) were determined with 576 hens in a 52-week feeding experiment, which comprised of three feeding phases. The hens were offered one of the four cereal and soybean meal (SBM) based experimental diets. Peas were tested in proportions of 0, 100, 200 or 300 g kg-1 in the diet. Pea inclusion had no effects on production performance, feed consumption or feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the hens during the entire trial. The pea inclusion impaired FCR during the second feeding phase (p < 0.05) and increased birds' live weight in a linear manner during the second and the third feeding phases (p < 0.05). Pea inclusion had no effects on egg quality. It can be concluded that at least 300 g kg-1 of the studied peas can be used in the diets of laying hens without negative effects on production performance or egg quality.


alcoholism has vastly changed, and that there is a marked improvement in this respect in the conduct of life in these classes. It is also forgotten that the lower classes have entered upon an ordeal of changed circumstances, marked by their concentration in great towns, the easier command of money, and intoxicants of all kinds. Dr. Yellowlees long ago showed that a period of high wages was accompqnied inevitably by an increase in alcoholism, while low wages had an opposite effect. The vast experiment which is now in progress, entailing low wages and an increase of price of whisks, has resulted in a great diminution of drinking, and the superintendent of police in Perth lately informed me of his deliberate opinion that want of money is rendering the working class more sober. Whether this educational experiment will result in a permanent continuance of sobriety remains to be sern. Infallibly the incompetent will remain with us; but there is reason to expect that the same influenoes which weighed with the educated classes will find expression generally and b2neficially in the wage-earning community.-I am, etc.,


We examine the gauge generating nature of the translational subgroup of Wigner's little group for the case of massless tensor gauge theories and show that the gauge transformations generated by the translational group is only a subset of the complete set of gauge transformations. We also show that, just like the case of topologically massive gauge theories, translational groups act as generators of gauge transformations in gauge theories obtained by extending massive gauge noninvariant theories by a Stuckelberg mechanism. The representations of the translational groups that generate gauge transformations in such Stuckelberg extended theories can be obtained by the method of dimensional descent. We illustrate these with the examples of Stuckelberg extended first class versions of Proca, Einstein-Pauli-Fierz and massive KalbRamond theories in 3+1 dimensions. A detailed analysis of the partial gauge generation in massive and massless 2nd rank symmetric gauge theories is provided. The gauge transformations generated by translational group in 2-form gauge theories are shown to explicitly manifest the reducibility of gauge transformations in these theories. PACS No.(s) 11.15.-q, 11.10.Kk, 04.20.Cv


The manganese(III) porphyrin MnTnHex-2-PyP5+ (MnTnHex) is a potent superoxide dismutase mimic and modulator of redox-based transcriptional activity that has been studied in the context of different human disease models, including cancer. Nevertheless, for lung cancer, hardly any information is available. Thus, the present work aims to fill this gap and reports the effects of MnTnHex in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells, more specifically, A549 and H1975 cells, in vitro. Both cell lines were initially characterized in terms of innate levels of catalase, glutathione peroxidase 1, and peroxiredoxins 1 and 2. To assess the effect of MnTnHex in NSCLC, alone or in combination with cisplatin, endpoints related to the cell viability, cell cycle distribution, cell motility, and characterization of the volatile carbonyl compounds (VCCs) generated in the extracellular medium (i.e., exometabolome) were addressed. The results show that MnTnHex as a single drug markedly reduced the viability of both NSCLC cell lines, with some IC50 values reaching sub-micromolar levels. This redox-active drug also altered the cell cycle distribution, induced cell death, and increased the cytotoxicity pattern of cisplatin. MnTnHex also reduced collective cell migration. Finally, the metabolomics study revealed an increase in the levels of a few VCCs associated with oxidative stress in MnTnHex-treated cells. Altogether these results suggest the therapeutic potential of MnTnHex to be further explored, either alone or in combination therapy with cisplatin, in NSCLC.


[Purpose] This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the push-up plus while using a balance ball, a sling, and a sling with a pulley in a creeping position on an unstable floor. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were divided into three groups of 15 members each who performed the different three type methods of push-up plus (with scapulae protruding) in a random order while in a creeping posture. The muscle activity of each group in the push-up plus posture was measured using electromyography, and the measurement values were compared among the groups using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). [Results] The intergroup comparison revealed that the activation of the pectoralis major muscle of the balance ball exercise group was significantly decreased. In this comparison, the activity ratio for the pectoralis major muscles of the balance ball exercise group significantly decreased, and the activity ratio of their serratus anterior muscles significantly increased. From the post analysis, the differences in the activity ratios of the pectoralis major and serratus anterior muscles for the balance ball exercise group were significant when compared with those of the other groups. [Conclusion] Among the three different exercise methods in unstable situations presented in this study, the push-up plus exercise in a creeping posture using the balance ball can be recommended for the selective strengthening of the serratus anterior muscle.


Exact solutions are obtained for the reflected and transmitted fields resulting when an arbitrary electromagnetic field is incident on a plane interface separating two uniaxial media. The orientation of the optical axis of each medium is arbitrary. The solutions are in the form of two triple integrals, one of which is a superposition of ordinary plane waves and the other a superposition of extraordinary plane waves. In the special case in which the incident wave is a single plane wave, the reflected and transmitted fields each reduce to a superposition of a single ordinary and a single extraordinary plane wave. The general results include, for that case, the reflection and transmission coefficients and the relations connecting the wave-propagation vectors and the Poynting vectors of the reflected and transmitted plane waves with the corresponding vectors of the incident plane wave. The expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients are complicated in general but simplify greatly in the special cases in which the incident plane wave produces only a single reflected plane wave and a single transmitted plane wave. The conditions required of the two media and the incident plane wave for these special cases to result are presented. Also, the general results are specialized to the simple case in which the optical axis of each medium is normal to the interface. Finally, asymptotic approximations for each monochromatic spectral component of the exact solutions are derived which are valid at distances from the interface large compared to the wavelength of the radiation.


Chronic kidney disease represents a global problem together with other so-called 'lifestyle-related diseases'. Unlike the healthy population, for the patients with impaired kidney function, it is of course prudent to recommend a restriction of high-potassium foods. Thus, it is suggested to limit the consumption of vegetables, because they generally contain high concentrations of potassium. At the same time, a lower consumption of vegetables reduces the intake of healthy compounds such as vitamins, fibers, and antioxidants, which also reduces the vegetables' potential benefit in chronic kidney disease patients. Microgreens are an emerging class of specialty crop that represent a nutritious and refined food. In this study, for the first time, some chicory (local variety 'Molfetta' and cultivar 'Italico a costa rossa') and lettuce (cultivar 'Bionda da taglio') genotypes were grown using a hydroponic system with different potassium (K) levels (0, 29.1, 58.4, and 117 mg L−1) in order to produce microgreens with a low potassium content. The crop performances, cations content, proximate composition, and antioxidant activity were analyzed. Independent of the genotype, the K content in the microgreens was successfully reduced using a nutrient solution (NS), without K or with 29.1 mg K L−1, which supplied between 103 and 129 mg of K 100 g−1 FW (about 7.7–8.6% of the K daily intake that was recommended for the patients that were affected by chronic kidney disease). Whereas, 100 g of microgreens that were grown by using an NS with 58.4 or 117 mg K L−1 supply between 225 and 250 mg of K (about 15.8–16.5% of the K daily intake recommended for patients affected by chronic kidney disease). No differences were observed in terms of the shoot height, dry matter, proximate composition, and visual quality. A slightly lower yield was observed using an NS with a K concentration <58.4 mg L−1. These results suggest that by using an NS without K or with low K concentrations, it is possible to obtain a useful reduction of K in microgreens, without negatively affecting the quality. Unlike conventional vegetables, the microgreens that were produced in the present study could reduce the potassium intake in patients with impaired kidney function who were accustomed to eating vegetable-based dishes.


This study was designed to examine the effect of customer perceived green wash fear on certain critical antecedents that develop green purchase intentions among customers. The major antecedents such as customer perceived eco-literacy, perceived individual benefits, perceived customer effectiveness and perceived customer social responsibility were identified from prior empirical evidence. The skepticism in the minds of the customer about green claims was demonstrated by verifying the moderating role of perceived green wash fear on development of green purchase behaviour. The constructs in this study were conceptualized as reflective or formative based on theoretical considerations. A cross-sectional study was conducted in which perceptions of 188 retail customers from Cochin area in Kerala state of India were collected using a structured questionnaire. Variance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyze the linkage among variables of importance. The study found that, other than perceived customer effectiveness, all other variables significantly developed green purchase intentions. The perceived green wash fear was found to be significantly moderating all significant antecedents in the theoretical framework. The study concluded that for sustainable development, green-wash practices should be curbed effectively and customers should be properly and correctly informed about green properties of the products.


Large amounts of low grade waste heat from industrial processes are not utilized, due to lack of heat integration equipment. Industrial processes tend to have specifications at high temperature lifts, that not are suited to be operated by conventional technology from residential heat pumps. Standard vapor compression heat pumps have undesirable high pressure ratios that are inefficient at high temperature lifts. Compression-absorption heat pumps use zeotropic working fluid mixtures that are suitable for temperatures between 10 and + 160◦C at system pressures below 20 bar, which make them applicable for delivering heat to high temperature processes.The advantages of the compression-absorption heat pumps, also known as the hybrid heat pump are the use of non-ozone depleting working fluid mixtures, reduced irreversibilities due to heat transfer with temperature glides, high temperature lifts, low pressure ratios and flexible capacity control. Two separate simulation models were developed comprising a two-stage CAHP system and an absorber model. The two-stage CAHP system used waste heat water at 50◦C as heat source and sink temperatures, with the objective of achieve maximum supply temperature at four different compressor discharge temperature limitations. The absorber model compared five different compact heat exchangers heating air in a cross-flow, where the main goal was to minimize the absorber height and the fan work. The two-stage process investigated the benefits of the desuperheater, where the supply temperatures with and without the desuperheater where nearly the same. Maximum supply temperatures were obtained at 171.8◦C with a COP of 2.08, when the maximum discharge temperature was set to 250◦C. A correction factor was used for the intermediate pressure as K · √ PLP · PHP . The optimum K-factor increased at elevating absorber pressure from 1.16 to 1.35 at absorber pressure from 17 to 47.5 bar. Simulations from the absorber model yielded much larger mass flow rate for the air than for the mixture. The heat exchange between the air and the mixture was sensitive to the absorber height and the air mass flow rate, which resulted in large pressure drops and fan work. Finned flat tube heat exchangers gave the best results with respect to the absorber height and fan work. There is suggested to conduct further work with other heat sink and source temperatures and also optimize the temperature lift in the two stage model. Finned flat tube heat exchangers could be further investigated in an absorber model with other dimensions and more accurate approaches for thermal resistance and fin efficiency.


To the Editor:— The contribution of Drs. Langfitt and Elliott ( 200 :382, 1967) emphasizes the clinical significance of low back and leg pain in cervical spinal cord compression. In this region of the spine, true disk prolapse, namely the "soft" sequestrated disk, is quite uncommon, and usually a spondylotic bar is the offending agent. Comparable peripheral symptoms are also prominent, and often misleading, when there is medullary involvement by posterior displacement of thoracic intervertebral disk tissue, which is also a relatively infrequent but important cause of spinal cord compression. Inasmuch as the pain patterns associated with thoracic disk prolapse received limited emphasis from Love and Schorn, 1 it is appropriate to call attention to the diagnostic importance of low back and leg pain in disease involving vertebral disk prolapse. The pain patterns in 18 surgically treated patients with spinal cord compression due to prolapse of a thoracic intervertebral disk have


Abstract. This article aims at expanding the predominant narrative of a Quantitative Revolution in German-speaking geography, to develop a more complex and multifaceted perspective on this chapter of the discipline's history. For this purpose, I take a closer look at the institute of geography in Erlangen. Eugen Wirth, the long-term chair holder in Erlangen, argued that here, in contrast to the majority of other institutes, the implementation of quantitative methods started in 1932, when Walter Christaller submitted his thesis: Central Places in Southern Germany . According to Wirth a dissertation supervised by him in 1969 was a further step towards the use of quantitative methods. I argue that Wirth made a significant contribution to the debate on quantitative theoretical geography in Germany with his textbook Theoretical Geography published in 1979, although the book was subsequently criticised and strongly rejected by Bartels and others as a conservative embrace . By examining this local negotiation process, I develop one of many narratives, that stand opposed to a unified account with which the general assembly of geographers in 1969 and Bartels' Geographie des Menschen uniquely motivated the abandonment of the concept of Landerkunde .


Consider a bank that uses an AI system to decide which loan applications to approve. We want to ensure that the system is fair, that is, it does not discriminate against applicants based on a predefined list of sensitive attributes, such as gender and ethnicity. We expect there to be a regulator whose job it is to certify the bank's system as fair or unfair. We consider issues that the regulator will have to confront when making such a decision, including the precise definition of fairness, dealing with proxy variables, and dealing with what we call allowed variables, that is, variables such as salary on which the decision is allowed to depend, despite being correlated with sensitive variables. We show (among other things) that the problem of deciding fairness as we have defined it is co-NP-complete, but then argue that, despite that, in practice the problem should be manageable.


In the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the ocean model is computationally expensive for highresolution grids and is often the least scalable component for high-resolution production experiments. The major bottleneck is that the barotropic solver scales poorly at high core counts. We design a new barotropic solver to accelerate the high-resolution ocean simulation. The novel solver adopts a Chebyshev-type iterative method to reduce the global communication cost in conjunction with an effective block preconditioner to further reduce the iterations. The algorithm and its computational complexity are theoretically analyzed and compared with other existing methods. We confirm the significant reduction of the global communication time with a competitive convergence rate using a series of idealized tests. Numerical experiments using the CESM 0.1 global ocean model show that the proposed approach results in a factor of 1.7 speed-up over the original method with no loss of accuracy, achieving 10.5 simulated years per wall-clock day on 16 875 cores.


We address performance fairness for speaker verification using the adversarial reweighting (ARW) method. ARW is reformulated for speaker verification with metric learning, and shown to improve results across different subgroups of gender and nationality, without requiring annotation of subgroups in the training data. An adversarial network learns a weight for each training sample in the batch so that the main learner is forced to focus on poorly performing instances. Using a min-max optimization algorithm, this method improves overall speaker verification fairness. We present three different ARWformulations: accumulated pairwise similarity, pseudo-labeling, and pairwise weighting, and measure their performance in terms of equal error rate (EER) on the VoxCeleb corpus. Results show that the pairwise weighting method can achieve 1.08% overall EER, 1.25% for male and 0.67% for female speakers, with relative EER reductions of 7.7%, 10.1% and 3.0%, respectively. For nationality subgroups, the proposed algorithm showed 1.04% EER for US speakers, 0.76% for UK speakers, and 1.22% for all others. The absolute EER gap between gender groups was reduced from 0.70% to 0.58%, while the standard deviation over nationality groups decreased from 0.21 to 0.19.


Initial focal mechanism determinations for the 29 November 1975 Kalapana, Hawaii, earthquake indicated discrepancy between the mechanism determined from teleseismic data by Ando and the mechanism determined using data from the local U.S. Geological Survey network surrounding the epicenter region. The resolution of this difference is crucial to correctly understand this earthquake, as well as to understand the tectonics of the south flank of Kilauea volcano. When a model with a low-velocity layer at the base of the crust is used for projection back to the focal sphere for the local network mechanisms, the discrepancy vanishes. To further investigate this result, focal mechanisms were determined using several contrasting models for a set of well-recorded earthquakes. A large number of these earthquakes have mechanisms identical to the main shock when the low-velocity layer model is used. Dispersion of P and T axes is also minimized by use of this model. A low-angle slip direction, favored for the main shock and typical of most other solutions, exhibits remarkable stability normal to the east rift zone of Kilauea. Our results suggest a tectonic model, similar in nature to that proposed by Ando, in which the south flank of Kilauea consists of a mobile block of crust which is relatively free to move laterally on a low-strength zone at about 10 km depth. Forceful injection of magma along the rift zones provides the loading stress which is released by catastrophic failure in the weak, horizontal layer in a cycle of perhaps 100 yr.


This paper was developed in order to collect resources for future research that aims to design and evaluate an appropriate forecasting system, which is able to contribute to the sustainability of the fast fashion model. It describes in a systematic way how the tasks of forecasting demand and placing orders are currently performed in the fast fashion model. It was also needed to ground this description on theoretical concepts of forecast and management. The study reviews some of the available advanced computing techniques used for forecasting clothing demand and analyzes the implications of better forecasting techniques in the FF model. We expose why there is a need for better forecasting in the fast fashion model and the promising techniques that can be tested to improve managerial operations in the fast fashion model.


This study aims to determine the effect of advertising creativity and product attributes against AC Brand Xdi buying interest kotamadyaJakarta West. The study was descriptive. Data obtained by distributing questionnaires using cluster sampling methodwith a total sample of 100 respondents. Data were tested using the test of validity, reliability, and the classical assumption, and analyzed by multiple linear regression using the software SPSS17.Hasil show that in partial advertising creativity affect the buying interest but the variable product attributes do not affect the buying interest. Variables simultaneously advertising creativity and product attributes affect the buyinginterest. Variables advertising creativity gives greater influence on the buying interest, compared to the variable product attributes. The influence of the independent variables and product attributes advertising creativity for 66.0% of the dependent variable buying interest, while the remaining 34.0% influenced by other factors.


In this paper the new Italian seismic code issued in January 2008 is presented, with particular reference to the ample section devoted to constructions built with isolation and energy dissipation systems. Such attention is justified by the undisputed effectiveness of this design approach and by its increasing diffusion in the professional community. The code is based on Eurocode 8 [1], though resulting more synthetic and easier to use. During the last years of evolution, the code has significantly contributed to the development of new concepts in seismic isolation, such as the hybrid biaxial isolating/dissipating device here presented, obtained from parallel coupling of two different types of device: one mechanical, which realizes the necessary dissipation, and one elastomeric, which has the scope, beyond that of sustaining the vertical load, of reducing the deck residual displacement at the end of the seismic action. An application is shown of a seismically retrofitted highway bridge, in order to show the effectiveness of this device, both during, in terms of isolation, and at the end of the seismic event, in terms of residual displacements. For the sake of comparison, the same bridge is analyzed with different types of isolation techniques.


In this study, the crystallization behaviors of the poly (ethylene terephthalate) oligomer/bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PETO/BAPC) blends were investigated under high pressure, and the recovered PETO/BAPC samples were characterized using XRD, DSC, SEM and AFM. The results showed that high-quality extended-chain single crystals with large c-axis thickness were formed in the multi-phase system within a relative short time, and the inner defects of the disclosed crystals could be removed by a self-healing process through high-temperature and high-pressure annealing. Morphologies of extended-chain crystals with different characteristics were also revealed with SEM and AFM. Wedge-shaped and bent extended-chain morphologies suggested that sliding diffusion and transesterification occurred simultaneously in the system, and the crystallization of the large crystals was a self-assembling process induced by chemical reactions at high pressure. This process provides a new route to grow large polymer extended-chain crystals and suggests self-assembly under high pressure is a promising method to create materials with new structures and properties.


Tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are associated with the aggregation of modified microtubule associated protein tau. This pathological state of tau is often referred to as "hyperphosphorylated". Due to limitations in technology, an accurate quantitative description of this state is lacking. Here, a mass spectrometry-based assay, FLEXITau, is presented to measure phosphorylation stoichiometry and provide an unbiased quantitative view of the tau post-translational modification (PTM) landscape. The power of this assay is demonstrated by measuring the state of hyperphosphorylation from tau in a cellular model for AD pathology, mapping, and calculating site occupancies for over 20 phosphorylations. We further employ FLEXITau to define the tau PTM landscape present in AD post-mortem brain. As shown in this study, the application of this assay provides mechanistic understanding of tau pathology that could lead to novel therapeutics, and we envision its further use in prognostic and diagnostic approaches for tauopathies.


Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) is conducted because there is a perceived earthquake threat: active seismic sources in the region may produce a moderate-to-large earthquake. The analysis considers a multitude of earthquake occurrences and ground motions, and produces an integrated description of seismic hazard representing all events. For design, analysis, retrofit, or other seismic risk decisions a single "design earthquake" is often desired wherein the earthquake threat is characterized by a single magnitude, distance, and perhaps other parameters. This allows additional characteristics of the ground shaking to be modeled, such as duration, nonstationarity of motion, and critical pulses. This study describes a method wherein a design earthquake can be obtained that accurately represents the uniform hazard spectrum from a PSHA. There are two key steps in the derivation. First, the contribution to hazard by magnitude M, distance R, and ɛ must be maintained separately for each attenuation equation used in the analysis. Here, ɛ is the number of standard deviations that the target ground motion is above or below the median predicted motion for that equation. Second, the hazard for two natural frequencies (herein taken to be 10 and 1 Hz) must be examined by seismic source to see if one source dominates the hazard at both frequencies. This allows us to determine whether it is reasonable to represent the hazard with a single design earthquake, and if so to select the most-likely combination of M, R, and ɛ (herein called the "beta earthquake") to accurately replicate the uniform hazard spectrum. This closes the loop between the original perception of the earthquake threat, the consideration of all possible seismic events that might contribute to that threat, and the representation of the threat with a single (or few) set of parameters for design or analysis.


It is well documented that contemporary debates about political legitimacy in Algeria are often structured through the juxtaposition of conflicting narratives of the past, and in particular, the War of Independence (1954–62) and its aftermath. Alternative versions of what happened to female combatants (mujahidat) after the war are a case in point: in the glorified official discourse, the revolution liberated women though the emancipation of the Algerian people; in feminist oppositional narratives, female combatants were betrayed by a patriarchal post-colonial regime composed of men of dubious wartime credentials. How these discourses are received and reinterpreted by young Algerians today has received little academic attention. This article presents new empirical research: a case study carried out in 2007 of 95 trainee teachers in History, Arabic Literature, Philosophy, French and English at the Ecole normale supérieure in Bouzaréah, Algiers. It explores what image students have of the mujahidat and how this image is formed through the filters of school textbooks, family stories, films, books and current affairs. As recipients of narratives constructed at different times and with different aims, it is argued that students have fused the local, national and transnational frames of reference available to them, creating new readings of the past which sidestep easy categorisation into 'official' and 'oppositional' versions. The article thus highlights the importance of not only paying close attention to how the past is read through the present, but also to how the past is read through a series of more recent, post-independence pasts.


A 73 to 83 GHz injection-locked oscillator (IJLO) is realized in TSMC 65-nm CMOS technology. By using the frequency-sweeping method, a 10 GHz total locking range is achieved with −35 dBm injection power. The power consumption is 9 mW from a 1-V supply. Additional 4 mW and 6 mW are consumed for the input and output buffers respectively for the measurement purpose. The measured sensitivity of the IJLO is −60 dBm. The output power measured at the 50-Ohm load is higher than −10 dBm, and the simulated total settling time of the IJLO is less than 10 µs. The effective core area of the chip is 0.055 mm2.


ABSTRACTIndoor bioaerosols have recently received considerable interest because of their impact on health. In this study, concentrations of bioaerosols in relation to airborne particulate matter in various indoor environments were investigated. The comparative performance of two common biosamplers, including the single-stage Andersen impactor and the all-glass impinger (AGI) for bioaerosol sampling, was also evaluated. The average levels of airborne bacteria and fungi sampled by Andersen were 516 and 176 colony forming units (CFU) m–3 and by AGI were 163 and 151 CFU m–3, respectively. The highest bacterial levels were measured in residence apartments. The most predominant bacteria were belonged to Staphylococcus sp. and Arthrobacter sp. The Andersen impactor appeared to yield fungal concentrations that were comparable to the results obtained using the AGI biosampler. Meanwhile, Andersen impactor counts for bacteria were significantly higher than those obtained by AGI. Particle count data generated by the optical particle counter indicated that 95% of airborne particles were < 1 µm in diameter. Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between particle counts of PM1 and concentrations of culturable airborne bacteria measured with the both bioaerosol samplers.
Based on these results, the Andersen impactor performed much better than the AGI for sampling airborne bioaerosols in low-contaminated indoor environments. Accurate measurement of microbial concentrations in indoor environments should be performed by bioaerosol monitoring; however, combining particle counting with bioaerosol sampling could provide prompt information about rapid variations of air quality.


Today, epidemiology is a scientific discipline at an important stage of development and maturity. Epidemiology's prestige has grown, and its contributions to understanding health and preventing diseases are perceived in other fields of science and in non-scientific communities. A major aim of epidemiology is to study the causes ("determinants") of diseases and other health events at a population level. To study causes, epidemiology interacts with knowledge coming from social, environmental, clinical, molecular or genetic research, among many other sources. The outcomes that epidemiological research addresses very often have implications for health policies as well as for policies affecting different spheres (eg, occupational, environmental, educational, transportation, food), and for the day-to-day life of populations and individuals.

Journals remain an essential vehicle for epidemiologists to deliver the results of their research to other epidemiologists, other scientists, professionals and the general public. Furthermore, in our complex, globalised and fragmented societies, scientific journals are an extremely important public space for discussing—with the utmost rigour and freedom—the validity, meaning and implications of research findings. JECH is among the most influential and prestigious epidemiological scientific journals worldwide. A good measure of this influence is its bibliographic impact factor and the total number of citations that published articles receive each year. But there are other reasons to be well ranked: first, its openness to perceive new trends in epidemiology and public health at a very early stage; and second, its origins and purpose: it was created and …


Methanol is a byproduct of cell wall modification, released through the action of pectin methylesterases (PMEs), which demethylesterify cell wall pectins. Plant PMEs play not only a role in developmental processes but also in responses to herbivory and infection by fungal or bacterial pathogens. Molecular mechanisms that explain how methanol affects plant defenses are poorly understood. Here we show that exogenously supplied methanol alone has weak effects on defense signaling in three dicot species, however, it profoundly alters signaling responses to danger- and microbe-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs, MAMPs) such as the alarm hormone systemin, the bacterial flagellum-derived flg22 peptide, and the fungal cell wall-derived oligosaccharide chitosan. In the presence of methanol the kinetics and amplitudes of DAMP/MAMP-induced MAP kinase (MAPK) activity and oxidative burst are altered in tobacco and tomato suspension-cultured cells, in Arabidopsis seedlings and tomato leaf tissue. As a possible consequence of altered DAMP/MAMP signaling, methanol suppressed the expression of the defense genes PR-1 and PI-1 in tomato. In cell cultures of the grass tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea, Poaceae, Monocots), methanol alone activates MAPKs and increases chitosan-induced MAPK activity, and in the darnel grass Lolium temulentum (Poaceae), it alters wound-induced MAPK signaling. We propose that methanol can be recognized by plants as a sign of the damaged self. In dicots, methanol functions as a DAMP-like alarm signal with little elicitor activity on its own, whereas it appears to function as an elicitor-active DAMP in monocot grasses. Ethanol had been implicated in plant stress responses, although the source of ethanol in plants is not well established. We found that it has a similar effect as methanol on responses to MAMPs and DAMPs.


The frontal cortex (FrC) and cingulate cortex (CgC) are critical sites for normal cognitive function, as well as cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Thus, modulation of synaptic transmission within these cortical areas may, in part, account for the therapeutic actions of antipsychotic drugs such as haloperidol and clozapine. FosB and DeltaFosB are immediate-early gene (IEG) products sensitive to changes in response to chronic neuroleptic drug administration. We quantitatively examine whether there are light microscopic regional and/or laminar variations in FosB or DeltaFosB in the FrC or CgC of normal adult rats, or animals receiving 6 months administration of either drinking water clozapine, or depot haloperidol. Only animals receiving chronic haloperidol developed vacuous chewing movements, the equivalent of tardive dyskinesia in humans. In control animals, the deep and superficial layers of the FrC showed a higher area density of FosB, but not DeltaFosB immunoreactive cells than the medial layers of FrC or any of the CgC layers. In animals receiving clozapine, but not haloperidol there was increase in the area density of FosB immunoreactive neurons in all FrC layers, but the major increase occurs in medial layers. These findings suggest that FosB expression identifies those FrC neurons that are most active during normal waking behaviors and are further activated following chronic administration of atypical neuroleptics without motor side effects. The results also indicate that the actions of clozapine are attributed in large part to modulation of the output of frontal cortical pyramidal neurons residing in the medial layers.


The efficiency of emotion recognition by verbal and facial samples was tested in 81 persons (25 healthy subjects and 56 patients with focal pathology of premotor and temporal areas of brain hemispheres). The involvement of some cortical structures in the recognition of the basic emotional states (joy, anger, grief, and fear) and the neutral state was compared. It was shown that the damage to both right and left hemispheres impaired the recognition of emotional states by not only facial but also verbal samples. Damage to the right premotor area and to the left temporal area impaired the efficiency of the emotion recognition by both kinds of samples to the highest degree.


Nowadays, patients suffering from this disease are mostly elderly people, especially women. Antituberculous chemotherapy is used as therapy of choice. The rate of recurrence is very low. Only in rare cases surgery becomes necessary to remove glands containing caseous (necrotic) tissue. Those operations are difficult due to many crossing vessels and nervs (facial-, Hypoglossal- and Abducens nerv) and should only be performed experienced surgeons.


The mitigation of human–rattlesnake conflicts often involves euthanizing or translocating the offending rattlesnake. Although translocation is generally considered more humane, especially by the general public, it may negatively impact the translocated individual and may not be effective if that individual returns to areas where the probability of human conflict is high. We used radiotelemetry to experimentally study the effects of short- (SDT) and long-distance translocation (LDT; beyond the typical home range or activity range) on adult Red Diamond Rattlesnakes (Crotalus ruber) near a residential development in Southern California. Though the results were mixed, some analyses suggested that higher numbers of SDTs were associated with larger activity areas and increased movement. For snakes undergoing LDT, the activity areas and mean daily movement distances were 1.8–4.6 times larger than those of non-LDT snakes in the year of translocation, but were similar in the following year. Cox regression models revealed that, for both LDT and non-LDT snakes, every 1 m increase in the distance moved resulted in a 1.2% decreased risk of moving back into a human-modified area and a 1.6% decreased risk of returning to the original site of conflict. We failed to detect an effect of either LDT or SDT on body mass change or survival. Our findings suggest that LDT of nuisance snakes may be a viable option for at least some rattlesnake populations or species, especially those in which individuals do not require communal overwintering sites.


This contribution reports on the quantification of the parameters of the motility assays for actomyosin system using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). In particular, we report on the difference in the observed resonance frequency and dissipation of a quartz crystal when actin filaments are stationary as opposed to when they are motile. The changes in QCM measurements were studied for various polymer-coated surfaces functionalized with heavy meromyosin (HMM). The results of the QCM experiments show that the HMM-induced sliding velocity of actin filaments is modulated by a combination of the viscoelastic properties of the polymer layer including the HMM motors.


OBJECTIVE
Service members deployed to war are at risk for moral injury, but the potential sources of moral injury are poorly understood. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the types of events that veterans perceive as morally injurious and to use those events to develop a categorization scheme for combat-related morally injurious events.

METHOD
Six focus groups with US war veterans were conducted.

RESULTS
Analysis based on Grounded Theory yielded two categories (and eight subcategories) of events that putatively cause moral injury. The two categories were defined by the focal attribution of responsibility for the event: Personal Responsibility (veteran's reported distress is related to his own behavior) versus Responsibility of Others (veteran's distress is related to actions taken by others). Examples of each type of morally injurious event are provided.

CONCLUSIONS
Implications for the further development of the moral injury construct and treatment are discussed.


Fungi are organisms of significant importance not only for the crucial roles they undertake in nature but also for many human activities that are strictly dependent on them. Indeed, fungi possess fundamental positions in ecosystems functioning including nutrient cycles and wood decomposition. As concerns human-related activities, edible and non-edible mushrooms are also involved and/or exploited in forestry, pharmaceutical industry and food production; hence, nowadays they represent a major economic source worldwide. In order to maintain and improve their strategic importance, several conservation strategies, such as habitat preservation, are needed. This article reports several contributions inherent to the relationships between wood-decaying fungi, edible and non-edible mushrooms and their potential exploitation as non-timber forest products and genetic resources.


The effect of carbon risk on the debt capital market has become increasingly prominent under carbon constraints. We use a panel regression model to examine the relationship between carbon risk and the cost of debt financing and the moderating effect of positive media attention on this relationship. Using a sample of 191 Chinese A‐share listed firms operating in high‐carbon industries covering the period 2011–15, we conduct an empirical study and find that the relationship between carbon risk and the cost of debt financing in China is a U‐shaped one. Thus, carbon risk exerts an "interval effect" on the cost of debt financing, which mainly exists in private firms rather than state‐owned firms. This relationship can be mitigated by positive media attention. Compared with private firms that receive low positive media attention, private firms with high positive media attention are more sensitive and less tolerant to environmental regulations. Our findings provide firms with practical advice on carbon risk management, particularly on improving carbon transparency and mitigating the cost of debt financing.


Online learning has been recognised as an effective pedagogical method and tool, and is broadly integrated into various types of teaching and learning strategies in higher education. In practice, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in higher education has become an integral strategy for quality education. The field of design education however has not been researched extensively in regard to online learning, delivery and evaluation. This paper discusses design education from an online learning perspective. It proposes an integrated framework with three key components for online learning via VLE including an interactive delivery structure, communication channels, and learning evaluation. Additionally, the paper describes and evaluates how VLE sites for two design units were built based on an integrated framework and student learning experiences. The results indicate that online design education should be integrated with various educational values and functional features in a systematic manner, and requires designing learning evaluation protocols as part of learning activities and communicative forms within online-based learning sites.


The hepatitis B virus (HBV) polymerase (pol) gene completely overlaps with the envelope (S) gene. Nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) resistance mutations in the pol gene of HBV, either from selection of primary or secondary resistance mutations, typically result in changes in the overlapping hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Recent studies have conferred a new acronym to these HBV pol/S gene overlap mutants; ADAPVEMs, for antiviral drug-associated potential vaccine-escape mutants. The present report aimed to assess the determined multiple HBV vaccine-escape mutants in a Turkish patient with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), undergoing NAs treatment. The liver biopsy of HBsAg positive, HBeAg negative 53-year old female patient with CHB, revealed a score as histological activity index; 9 and fibrosis; 2 according to Ishak classification. NA treatment backgrounds consisted of 24 months lamivudine, followed by 18 months entacavir and lastly 3 months tenofovir monotherapies. Since HBV DNA load was determined as 7.030.000 IU/ml at the 4th month of tenofovir therapy, entecavir was added as current treatment regimen, and tenofovir + entecavir therapy decreased the HBV DNA load (400 IU/ml). Sequence analysis was performed for HBV pol/S gene and overlapping pol/S gene amino acid substitutions, primary/compensatory NA resistance mutations and antiviral drug-associated potential vaccine-escape mutations (ADAPVEM) were analysed. The patient isolate was identified as genotype D/subgenotype D1 of HBV. Primary drug resistance mutations (rtV173L + rtL180M + rtM204V) to lamivudine and telbivudine and a compensatory mutation (rtQ215H) to lamivudine and adefovir were described in the HBV pol gene sequence. However, multiple HBV vaccine-escape mutations (sS143T + sD144E + sG145R + sE164D + sI195M) have been determined on the HBV overlapping pol/S gene region. Lamivudine and telbivudine which are the frequently preferred drugs for the treatment of CHB in Turkey, have the potential to lead to ADAPVEMs. Thus ADAPVEMs should be monitored in infected and NA treated CHB patients and their public health risks should be assessed.


Compressed sensing is a technique for recovering an unknown sparse signal from a number of random linear measurements. The number of measurements required for perfect recovery plays a key role and it exhibits a phase transition. If the number of measurements exceeds certain level related with the sparsity of the signal, exact recovery is obtained with high probability. If the number of measurements is below this level, exact recovery occurs with very small probability. In this work we are able to reduce this threshold by incorporating statistical information about the data we wish to recover. Our algorithm works by minimizing a suitably weighted 11-norm, where the weights are chosen so that the expected statistical dimension of the descent cones of a weighted cross-polytope is minimized. We also provide Monte Carlo algorithms for computing intrinsic volumes of these descent cones and estimating the failure probability of our methods


Abstract. In the Ocean, the seasonal cycle is the mode that couples climate forcing to ecosystem response in production, diversity and carbon export. A better characterisation of the ecosystem's seasonal cycle therefore addresses an important gap in our ability to estimate the sensitivity of the biological pump to climate change. In this study, the regional characteristics of the seasonal cycle of phytoplankton biomass in the Southern Ocean are examined in terms of the timing of the bloom initiation, its amplitude, regional scale variability and the importance of the climatological seasonal cycle in explaining the overall variance. The seasonal cycle was consequently defined into four broad zonal regions; the subtropical zone (STZ), the transition zone (TZ), the Antarctic circumpolar zone (ACZ) and the marginal ice zone (MIZ). Defining the Southern Ocean according to the characteristics of its seasonal cycle provides a more dynamic understanding of ocean productivity based on underlying physical drivers rather than climatological biomass. The response of the biology to the underlying physics of the different seasonal zones resulted in an additional classification of four regions based on the extent of inter-annual seasonal phase locking and the magnitude of the integrated seasonal biomass. This regionalisation contributes towards an improved understanding of the regional differences in the sensitivity of the Southern Oceans ecosystem to climate forcing, potentially allowing more robust predictions of the effects of long term climate trends.


Muscles of myositis patients examined with MRI demonstrate heterogeneous pathology ranging from unaffected muscle groups to severe inflammation, fat infiltration, and eventually, more serious fat replacement. The purpose of this investigation was to characterize myositic thigh muscles using diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) and to examine fluid motion at various disease stages. We chose to characterize total fluid motion within the muscle using the model proposed by Le Bihan et al (6,7) in which the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), diffusion in the extra‐ and intracellular muscle compartments (D), perfusion in capillaries (pseudodiffusion) (D*), and volume fraction of capillary perfusion (f) are determined. Unaffected patient muscles have DWI coefficients equivalent to those of normal muscles. Inflamed muscles show elevated ADC and D values compared to normal muscles (P < 0.0005), and fat‐infiltrated muscles have lower values than control muscles (P < 0.001). Inflamed muscles have lower f values than unaffected muscles (P < 0.009), suggesting decreased fractional volume of capillary perfusion. DWI provides quantitative data on molecular fluid motion in diseased muscles and affords the potential for longitudinal monitoring of myositic patients. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Distance learning began as a means of catering to students who needed to learn in isolated, individual learning environments but, more recently, has been evolving to offer an interactive and collaborative learning environment supported by Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). However, research has found that not all online discussions are productive for learning and that simply making discussions boards accessible to students does not achieve the interactive and collaborative experience for which they are promoted. One of the first requirements needed for successful online discussions is student participation. This study sought to identify what encourages student participation in online discussions. Motivation and social presence were investigated in this study because they have been identified as two concepts that assist in the encouragement of student participation. Motivation assists participation because it is the process whereby goal-directed activity is both instigated and sustained, and social presence because it has been found to increase interaction. This study sought information regarding what motivated or demotivated student participation in online discussions and what Social Presence behaviours students found most important for maintaining their desire to participate in online discussions. It also investigated relationships among, and changes in, student state motivation, student sense of social presence and student perceived sources of motivation and demotivation across the course of a semester. Finally, students' opinion about their motivation, sense of social presence and reasons for participation were investigated through open-ended questions. A Sequential Exploratory design was used to first obtain breadth of data (quantitative) through online surveys (n equals 60 participants). This included a test/retest design. Depth of the data (qualitative) was then explored through interviews that were based on the results of the quantitative data analysis (n equals 14 participants). The main findings of this study were that students' sense of social presence changed significantly across the course of the semester and this change was a decrease in sense of social presence for 50 percent of the students. Context and Social factors were mentioned more frequently as both motivators and demotivators for participation than Structure/format factors. Correlations revealed a significant relationship between state motivation and social presence. Finally, open-ended questions generated a number of major themes that help to promote participation. All of these findings have implications for teachers and designers of online courses. They show that many factors influence student participation and that some of these factors may change over the course of a semester. Teachers and designers should use this information when designing and implementing courses to not only initiate student participation, but also to maintain participation throughout the course.


A new garbage collection algorithm for distributed object systems, called DMOS (Distributed. Mature Object Space), is presented. It is derived from two previous algorithms, MOS (Mature Object Space), sometimes called the train algorithm, and PMOS (Persistent Mature Object Space). The contribution of DMOS is that it provides the following unique combination of properties for a distributed collector: safety, completeness, non-disruptiveness, incrementality, and scalability. Furthermore, the DMOS collector is non-blocking and does not use global tracing.


In this paper, several innovative steps used in fabricating surface micromachined capacitive ultrasonic immersion transducers are reported. The investigation is focused on major steps in the device fabrication processes necessary to optimize transducer performance. Such steps include membrane formation, vacuum sealing, and electrode metallization. Three transducer membrane structures are evaluated: a nitride membrane with an oxide sacrificial layer; a polysilicon membrane with an oxide sacrificial layer; and a nitride membrane with a polysilicon sacrificial layer. Three vacuum sealing mechanisms are compared, each of which requires a different degree of lithographic sophistication, uses a particular sealing mechanism, and results in a sealed cavity. Submicrometer via sealing requires sophisticated lithography but is amenable to LPCVD nitride, LTO, and other sealing procedures. Standard g-line lithography results in vies which seal only with high sticking coefficient species, such as LTO. A novel etch channel structure, which results in lateral sealing and requires neither sophisticated lithography nor a particular sealing material, is demonstrated. Finally, the impact of electrode metallization on the impedance, bandwidth, and efficiency of the transducers is discussed. The experiments in the paper are guided by theoretical analysis and computer simulations when applicable. The new process results in optimized devices which have a broad-band 50-/spl Omega/ real part impedance in the megahertz range. A transducer dynamic range in excess of 100 dB is achieved around 4.5 MHz. An untuned transducer exhibits more than 100% bandwidth when connected to electronics with 50-/spl Omega/ input impedance. In addition, beam pattern measurement shows the immersion devices behave like uniform piston transducers and are readily suitable for array applications. The fabrication techniques and results herein reported indicate that surface micromachined ultrasonic immersion transducers are an attractive alternative to piezoelectric transducers in immersion applications.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the use of the Voluntary Step Execution Test to identify fallers.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional retrospective.

SETTING
Two self-care, residential facilities.

PARTICIPANTS
a total of 100 healthy old volunteers (mean age = 78.4 +/- 5.7).

MEASUREMENTS
The study investigated the use of the Voluntary Step Execution Test to identify fallers under single and dual-task conditions. Berg Balance Test (BBS) and Timed Get Up and Go (TUG) were used to assess balance and gait function.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences found between fallers and non-fallers in BBS and TUG (50.5 +/- 4.6 versus 52.5 +/- 3.4 and 9.4 +/- 3.4 versus 7.98 +/- 2.3 respectively). There were no statistically significant differences between non-fallers and fallers across all step execution parameters under the single-task condition. However, adding cognitive load to the Voluntary Step Execution Test revealed statistically significant increases in duration of the preparatory phase, swing time and the time to foot-contact (P = 0.035;P = 0.033 and P = 0.037, respectively). Based on the coefficients of the logistic regression model participants with dual-task step execution times of > or =1,100 ms had five times the risk of falling than participants with execution times of <1,100 ms.

CONCLUSIONS
The study provides evidence that a simple, safe measure of step execution under dual-task conditions can identify elderly individuals at risk for falls.


Highly linear receiver RF front-end adopting MOSFET transconductance linearization by linearly superposing several common-source FET transistors in parallel (multiple gated transistor, or MGTR), combined with some additional circuit techniques are reported. In MGTR circuitry, linearity is improved by using transconductance linearization which can be achieved by canceling the negative peak value of g/sub m/'' of the main transistor with the positive one in the auxiliary transistor having a different size and gate drive combined in parallel. This enhancement, however, is limited by the distortion originated from the combined influence of g/sub m/' and harmonic feedback, which can greatly be reduced by the cascoding MGTR output for the amplifier and by the tuned load for the mixer. Experimental results designed using the above techniques show IIP/sub 3/ improvements at given power consumption by as much as 10 dB for CMOS low-noise amplifier at 900 MHz and 7 dB for Gilbert cell mixer at 2.4 GHz without sacrificing other features such as gain and noise figure.


Interviews with three leading community-engaged theatre makers in New Orleans underscore why practices of public storytelling became crucial to the work of artists in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Connecting their work to New Orleans' heritage of African American neighborhood-based cultural performance traditions, O'Neal, Bebelle, and Slie emphasize the importance of cross-racial and cross-generational collaboration for generating theatre practices that are part of a collective struggle for pluralistic, democratic social change.


Healthcare applications typically require big data management as well as intensive computation. This is especially true with recently developed next generation sequencing technology which increases interests in processing the huge amount of information in a timely fashion. In this paper, we focus on testing whether the healthcare applications can scale well on commercial big data platforms that implement MapReduce framework. We selected short read sequence alignment and assembly workloads in genome analysis workloads, and chose Bowtie, Blast and Contrail-bio which are publically available applications designed to run on the Hadoop MapReduce framework. To speed-up the processes we compressed the intermediate data using various compression schemes the compression schemes are compared. The test results are very promising and indicate that the wide range of genomic analysis workflows can be optimized on MapReduce frameworks with great computational efficiency and scalability.


This study examines the processes involved in developing a prototype of an EFL reading courseware for the 8th grade of junior high school, the students' and teacher's responses towards the courseware, and the effectiveness of the prototype.The participants of this study are one acceleration class of 8th grade students and an English teacher of a junior high school in Bandung. Thirty six students were involved in needs analysis stage and 10 students and 1 teacher were involved in evaluation stage. These participants were selected purposively. There are five main instruments used in this study, i.e. (1) questionnaire for needs analysis and courseware evaluation, (2) interview guidelines, (3) observational sheets, (4) learning materials in the form of the prototype courseware, and (5) tests, which include a pre-test and a post-test. Findings from the questionnaires, interviews, and observational sheets are analyzed descriptively. Meanwhile, scores from the pre-test and post-test are analyzed using the matched t-test.It is found that there are five steps in preparing the reading materials: (1) deciding the overall purpose, (2) selecting texts and tasks, (3) identifying linguistic elements, (4) sequencing and integrating texts and tasks, and (5) linking reading to other skills. Meanwhile, the production of the courseware includes three steps: (1) developing the operational model of the courseware, (2) developing the storyboard, and (3) translating the operational model and the storyboard into a machine language. It is also found that both the students and the teacher give positive responses. Finally, the pre-experimental study on courseware's effectiveness shows that the courseware appears to increase the students' reading comprehension.It can be concluded that effective courseware production requires systematic plans and steps that are theoretically sound and a solid teamwork of several experts so that the users will obtain meaningful learning experiences. Despite this high requirement, the development of reading courseware as supplementary materials for the textbooks is worthy since the reading courseware received positive responses from both the students and teacher and was preliminary proven effective in improving the students' reading skills. The positive responses and the courseware's effectiveness perhaps are due to the nature of multimedia which provides interactivity between the users and the computer, incorporates various modes of inputs, and accommodates the users' learning preferences. Further, although the focus of the courseware is reading, other language elements, such as speech, can also be incorporated to support the reading skill. This is in accordance with the nature of multimedia itself, which support learning through various modes of inputs.Further, it is recommended that further studies develop courseware for other language skills, try out the courseware to a larger number of participants by integrating it with the syllabus used in class, and measure the courseware's effectiveness through true experimental design so that the result can be generalized. It is also recommended that teachers use the courseware to promote self-directed learning so that students may learn to be responsible for their own learning.


Multitier networks that provide coverage to the same areas by several cells of different sizes are useful to accommodate high traffic density while keeping high quality of service. The author gives an overview of a number of contributions on this subject. Two main issues are considered: spectrum sharing between different layers with a focus on F/TDMA systems and teletraffic performance of multitier networks given different handover policies.


Among baboon species, Papio anubis is the most broadly distributed species, ranging through most of central sub-Saharan of Africa. Papio anubis live in troops but the size varies in different area. There are three troops of P. anubis in Trigni forest with 149 to 180 members in each troop. The objective was to assess the abundance of Anubis baboon (AB) and their conflict with humans with respect to the livelihood of local farmers in Trigni forest of Gida Ayana district, Western Ethiopia. Counting was conducted early morning at 6:00 to 7:00 am and late afternoon at 5:00 to 6:00 pm when the baboons were at the site of their sleeping. Six trained data collators were arranged during census of AB. These six data collators were divided into three sites (Harawa, Gendo, and Kotam cliffs). To increase accuracy and minimize error, counting was also done when the baboons left their sleeping site and went to foraging area, and in the afternoon when AB  return to their sleeping site. Population count was carried out three times during each dry and wet season. For the human-anubis baboon conflict (HABC) assessment, participatory techniques were used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods, using SPSS version 20. The dry and wet populations of AB were 484 and 511, respectively. The distance of farmland from forest edge and problems of HABC were directly correlated. Results showed that AB is physically strong enough to attack livestock. About 62.9% of the respondents indicated that they lost their livestock by AB during 2015/2016. Most of the respondents reported that they rely on dogs and children to protect AB from raiding crops and this require time and energy. The majority (78.5%) of the respondents strongly agree that habitat disturbance is the main cause of HABC in the study area. More than 93.1% of the livelihood of local farmers of Gute Gudina kebele, adjacent to the forest reserve was affected by conflict between humans and AB. AB spent most of their time along the road and entered the agricultural fields. They can also attack and injure humans especially females and babies if provoked. Therefore, leaving sufficient buffer zones between crop productions and forest that allow free movements of AB and avoid high guarding investments (easy for guarding) is recommended.

 Key words: Cliffs, human-wildlife conflict, Papio anubis, primate habitat.


Lamioideae comprise the second-largest subfamily in Lamiaceae. Although considerable progress has recently been made in Lamioideae phylogenetics, the subfamily remains one of the most poorly investigated subfamilies in Lamiaceae. Here we present a taxonomic update of the subfamily based on earlier published data as well as 71 new DNA extracts from relevant in- and outgroup taxa, and DNA sequence data from four chloroplast regions (matK, rps16, trnL intron and trnL-F spacer). The phylogenetic positions of 10 out of 13 previously unplaced small or monotypic Asian lamioid genera and 37 additional lamioid species have been identified, and the classification is updated accordingly. Results from parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic methods corroborate earlier results, but phylogenetic resolution as well as overall branch support are improved. All newly added genera are assigned to earlier established tribes or the new tribe Paraphlomideae Bendiksby, which includes Ajugoides, Matsumurella and Paraphlomis. Acanthoprasium is resurrected as a genus. Transfer of species is proposed to ac- commodate the monophyly of two genera (Lamium, Otostegia), whereas ten genera remain non-monophyletic (Ballota s.str., Lagopsis, Leonotis, Leonurus, Leucas, Microtoena, Phlomoides, Sideritis, Stachys, Thuspeinanta). Eriophyton and Stachyopsis have been included in Lamieae, Hypogomphia in Stachydeae, and Loxocalyx in Leonureae. Betonica, Colquhounia, Galeopsis, and Roylea remain unclassified at the tribal level. Lamium chinense and three East Asian Galeobdolon species are transferred to Matsumurella. Sulaimania and four Otostegia species are transferred to Moluccella. Alajja and three Lamium species are transferred to Eriophyton. In total, 14 new combinations are made, one at the rank of subgenus and 13 at the rank of species.


Objectives In 2007, Australia implemented an ongoing, school-based human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for school-aged girls, and a catch-up programme for 18–26-year-old women that ran until the end of 2009. The availability of what is widely known as the 'cervical cancer vaccine' means there is the potential for women to believe, incorrectly, that they no longer require regular cervical screening, and this risk needs to be addressed. The current study aimed to assess the effect of three mass media campaigns to promote cervical screening on the rate of cervical screening tests in the Australian state of Victoria, after HPV vaccine became available. Methods Seasonal time series assessed the effect of media campaigns broadcast in 2007, 2009 and 2010 on the rate of weekly cervical screening tests in Victorian women from 2006 to 2010, stratified by time since last screening test. Results The 2007 and 2009 media campaigns significantly increased the number of cervical screening tests per week. The 2007 campaign had a significant impact on lapsed screeners (>36 months since last test), overdue screeners (28–36 months since last test), and women never previously screened. The 2009 campaign significantly increased screening tests for overdue screeners, and the 2010 media campaign was associated with a significant increase in screening tests for lapsed screeners. Conclusions A well-researched and carefully pretested television advertising campaign with accurate, actionable messages can elicit appropriate screening behaviour among some of the appropriate groups even in a changed environment of complex, and potentially competing, messages.


The complex nature of new product development (NPD) activities within firms often requires high levels of integration between the Marketing function and the Research and Development (R&D) function. The nature of this cross-functional relationship has received considerable research attention with an emphasis on achieving successful departmental integration during NPD projects. This study examines the nature of cross-functional relationships (CFRs) from a micro-management perspective. That is from the perspective of the R&D Manager and the Marketing Manager, continues previous conceptual development by (Anon) that suggested that this working relationship is more complex than previously conceptualised by NPD researchers. By using data collected from 184 Australian NPD projects, this study provides empirical support for the proposition that interpersonal trust (affective and cognitive), interpersonal conflict (functional and dysfunctional) and interpersonal collaborative behaviour, do indeed have a strong association with new product project success.


This working paper examines tendencies in Greek foreign policy during the Eurozone crisis. Existing analyses of the impact of the crisis on Greek foreign policy have focused primarily on its fiscal/economic effects. Here I shift the focus to the question whether the Europeanisation of Greek foreign policy has been affected by the crisis. Given that the EU has been the main strategic anchor of Greek foreign policy since the late-1990s, and that the Eurozone crisis put into question the overall alignment of Greece with Europe, the question of foreign policy Europeanization under conditions of a major crisis of EU governance remains surprisingly understudied. Apart from the mainstream foreign policy Europeanization literature, I also draw on critical works that view Europeanization as a process that de-politicizes state-society relations in Europe and insulates policymakers from public scrutiny. In this framework, I conceptualize the Eurozone crisis as a factor of re-politicization, opening policymaking (incl. in foreign policy) to contestation by mobilized political communities. I apply this conceptualization to the study of Greece's Balkan and energy security policy between 2010 and 2015. The findings point to contradictory effects of the crisis on Greek foreign policy. Pro-EU governments in this period largely maintained the EU framework as their reference, but sought to project more forcefully national interests within it to demonstrate the usefulness of the EU for Greek goals and deflect public pressure. An anti-austerity coalition that came to power in early 2015 sought more forcefully to re-politicize some aspects of Greek foreign policy as part of its efforts to 'renegotiate' Greece's relationship with the Eurozone. At the same time however, the overall image of Europeanized Greek foreign policy remained largely unaltered under the Syriza-ANEL coalition, and continuity was even more emphatic after it signed a new bailout agreement with the EU in the summer of 2015. The overall image then is one of continuity that however emerged out of a period of contestation that revealed deep tensions in what had always been an imperfect and instrumental embedding of Greek foreign policy in the EU framework. A de-Europeanization and re-politicization effect in 2010-15 crisis gave place to a renewed foreign policy practice within the EU framework, one however that is even more transparently than during the pre-crisis era the outcome of instrumental and national interest calculations. Europe remains the most effective and most readily available tool of Greek foreign policy, albeit one burdened with even more contradictions than in the past.


Synopsis Reviewing the current status towards the exploitation of Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) in structural engineering the author considers the benefits and challenges for using performance based design with this newer construction material. This paper reports historical case studies in the context of explaining how processing technologies and design know-how have slowly been developing, and perhaps even leading to a level of maturity. By way of the review of FRP components and structures it is found that we do not yet possess the prescriptive rules that dominant the current execution of civil engineering works. One outcome from the review is to identify that such rules will be necessary to allow routine design of frame structures of universal (standard) FRP shapes. The author introduces the benefits and challenges towards the adoption of Performance Based Design (PBD) and finds that targeted research and development has/is using the PBD philosophy to produce bespoke FRP components and systems towards a growing number of applications in structural engineering.


We describe chamber tests of simulated electrodynamic tethers (EDTs) of different geometries operating in a dense, high-speed plasma. The geometries tested and described here were cylindrical and flat-ribbon. Several important conclusions that can be drawn from the tests are as follows: the currents collected by cylinder are close to what would be predicted via orbital-motion-limited (OML) current collection theory. The tape tether had comparable current levels to a theoretical equal area OML cylinder collector. However, I–V behavior clearly is different at nearest distances (tape width ∼ 16 λD )a s compared to furthest test distances (tape width ∼ 6 λD). The tape tether did better than a theoretical equal mass solid cylinder. A "knee" in the I–V curves can be seen in the tape data at a potential that is near the estimated energy of the incoming beam of ions, at least for the closest distances where Debye length is smallest. Below this knee the current increases rapidly as voltage is increased. Above the knee the current increases at a rate near that expected from OML current-collection models depending on the relative width. This likely is an example of high-speed plasma flow effect. Perpendicular tape orientation performed slightly better than parallel starting near the ion beam energy.


Message passing is a crucial feature of any object-oriented language implementation. Even more so in dynamically typed languages, where the absence of compile-time type information forces the implementation to perform run-time type checking at each message send. Traditional techniques for the implementation of message passing in those languages favor flexibility and space efficiency over speed. This paper explores an alternative called compact dispatch tables suited to environments with high requirements in time and space efficiency. Compact dispatch tables are one solution to achieve fast, and constant-time, message passing in dynamically typed languages and to bring them one step closer to the efficiency of statically typed languages.


A focus group study with 37 residents of Manhattan, Kansas, was conducted to examine consumers' risk perceptions of foodborne illnesses from eating beef. The four focus-group sessions were designed to determine (1) relative preferences for alternative combinations of public food safety measures (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points [HACCP], carcass pasteurization, irradiation) and private protection (home preparation of rare, medium, and well-done hamburgers); (2) how who is at risk (children vs. adults) influences preferences; (3) whether consumers would pay a premium for increased product safety arising from the adoption of three different innovations in processing plants; and (4) how to improve risk communication about foodborne illnesses and protection against them. Although participants seemed aware of many food safety practices, misinformation and misconceptions also were found. The majority of the participants preferred hamburgers that were well-done and steam pasteurized or medium and irradiated. For a 5-year-old child, the majority chose hamburgers that were well-done, and steam-pasteurized or well-done and irradiated. Concerning willingness to pay, the majority ofparticipants preferred steam-pasteurized ground beef to regular ground beef when the two were priced the same. Results indicated that new technologies available for food safety interventions prOVided marginal value to participants. Participants also expressed a need for more information.


Increased prevalence of Autism has generated higher enrollment in educational settings.┬a Teachers must incorporate specialized teaching strategies to address the unique educational and behavioral challenges facing children diagnosed with autism. This is accomplished by providing teachers with educational opportunities that promote such learning. In the academic world, experiential learning opportunities are used to provide a bridge between didactic coursework and on-the-job practice that fosters skill acquisition and critical thinking. Video self-monitoring (VSM) is one type of learning strategy used in experiential learning environments to develop learnerΓCOs critical thinking by building on direct experiences, performance feedback (PF), and reflection (R). This study investigates the impact an experiential teacher training framework, consisting of VSM, PF, and R with and without mentoring has on sustained and generalized teacher performance on two dependent variables ΓCo Learn Unit (LU); Rate of Effective Instruction (ROI). In this exploratory study 6 female teachers instructing 3-5 year-old autistic children participated in the study. Teacher performance on LU and ROI was evaluated after: Phase 1 ΓCo 2-hour workshop; Phase 2 ΓCo training: using the VSM. PF, R with and without mentoring; Phase 3 ΓCo follow-up: VSM. PF, R and mentoring are removed. Findings revealed that while VSM, PF, R appeared to enhance teacher performance and sustainability of procedural integrity, the greatest and most consistent improvement was observed among teachers who received mentoring as opposed those who did not. Practical applications of this experiential learning teacher/educator training framework for the advanced education of teachers and health science professionals working with this population are highlighted.┬a