Elevated levels of prostaglandins (PG) have been detected in the skin following UV radiation (UVR). PGs play an important role in mediating both the acute and the chronic consequences of UVR exposure. UVR-mediated induction of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) contributes to increased PG synthesis. In theory, reduced catabolism might also contribute to increased PG levels. 15-Hydroxyprostaglandin deyhdrogenase (15-PGDH), a tumor suppressor gene, plays a major role in PG catabolism. In this study, we investigated whether UVR exposure suppressed 15-PGDH while inducing COX-2 in keratinocytes and in human skin. UVR exposure caused dose-dependent induction of COX-2, suppression of 15-PGDH, and increased prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production in HaCaT cells. Exposure to UVR suppressed the transcription of 15-PGDH, resulting in reduced 15-PGDH mRNA, protein, and enzyme activities. UVR exposure induced Slug, a repressive transcription factor that bound to the 15-PGDH promoter. Silencing Slug blocked UVR-mediated downregulation of 15-PGDH. The effects of UVR were also evaluated in the EpiDerm skin model, a three-dimensional model of human epidermis. Here too, COX-2 levels were induced and 15-PGDH levels suppressed following UVR exposure. Next, the effects of UVR were evaluated in human subjects. UVR treatment induced COX-2 while suppressing 15-PGDH mRNA in the skin of 9 of 10 subjects. Collectively, these data suggest that reduced expression of 15-PGDH contributes to the elevated levels of PGs found in the skin following UVR exposure. Possibly, agents that prevent UVR-mediated downregulation of 15-PGDH will affect the acute or the long-term consequences of UVR exposure, including nonmelanoma skin cancer. Cancer Prev Res; 3(9); 1104–11. ©2010 AACR.


Tinnitus can be a very troubling complaint but its impact may vary between individuals, both in the perceived severity and the aspects of life affected. The International Tinnitus Inventory (ITI) is an eight-item questionnaire based on the commonest patient reported complaints attributed to tinnitus. It is modelled on the International Outcomes Inventory – Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) to be brief, have a clear and simple response format and be comparable across languages. The psychometric properties of the English and French versions have been examined in this paper. Preliminary results show that the ITI is a robust questionnaire. It is unifactorial, has a good response rate and high internal consistency and it is easy to interpret. Responses from the inventory relate to hearing level but not to other demographic factors. The ITI is a simple and patient friendly measure which can be a helpful tool to highlight the predominant tinnitus-related complaint(s) of the individual, thus providing useful information not only about the tinnitus but also to help plan and assess a rehabilitation programme.


Supplemental oxygen, frequently used in premature infants, has been implicated in the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). While the mechanisms of oxygen-induced lung injury are not known, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are most likely involved in the process. Here, we tested the hypothesis that upregulation of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A isoforms in lung and liver may lead to protection against hyperoxic lung injury. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with the CYP1A inducer beta-naphthoflavone (beta-NF) (80 mg/kg/day), once daily for 4 days, followed by exposure to hyperoxic environment (O2 > 95%) or room air (normoxia) for 60 h. Pleural effusions were measured as estimates of lung injury. Activities of hepatic and pulmonary CYP1A1 were determined by measurement of ethoxyresorufin O-deethylation (EROD) activity. Northern hybridization and Western blot analysis of lung and liver were performed to assess mRNA and protein levels, respectively. Our results showed that beta-NF-treated animals, which displayed the highest pulmonary and hepatic induction in EROD activity (10-fold and 8-fold increase over corn oil (CO) controls, respectively), offered the most protective effect against hyperoxic lung injury, p < 0.05. Northern and Western blot analysis correlated well with enzyme activities. Our results showed an inverse correlation between pulmonary and hepatic CYP1A expression and the extent of lung injury, which supports the hypothesis that CYP1A enzyme plays a protective role against oxygen-mediated tissue damage.


● Context.—Although the cytologic features of leukemia/ lymphoma in cerebrospinal fluid specimens are well known, the correlation of these features with the ability of cytologists to identify this tumor have not been well studied. Objective.—To identify the morphologic features of leukemia/lymphoma in cerebrospinal fluid that are associated with good performance and poor performance in an educational interlaboratory comparison program; and to identify the morphologic features associated with how well a slide performs with regard to its reference diagnosis. Design.—The performance of 147 cases of leukemia/ lymphoma in the College of American Pathologists Interlaboratory Comparison Program in Non-gynecologic Cytology was analyzed. The cytologic features of a subset of 31 cases composed of relatively equal numbers of Romanowsky-stained and Papanicolaou-stained specimens were further evaluated, and those that performed poorly (n 12) were compared with those that performed extremely well (n 19). Results.—For all cases of leukemia/lymphoma in the program, the rate of misclassification as benign for cases with Papanicolaou stain was significantly higher than for those with Romanowsky stain (9.5% vs 2.6%, P .001). Compared with cases that performed well, slides that performed poorly were more likely to have less than 200 abnormal cells (42% vs 5%, P .02). The size of the tumor cells and preservation were not significant. Conclusion.—Cases of specimens of leukemia/lymphoma in cerebrospinal fluid are more likely to be misdiagnosed as benign if they are Papanicolaou-stained or have 200 abnormal cells. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006;130:1762–1765)


The Finance Commission of India stated that FY 2020-21 was full of uncertainties and the pandemic led to the creation of an uncertain economic environment of the SME sector in India. However, the implications of COVID-19 have been relatively more devastating for small and medium-sized business enterprises in India. The literature review based on the analysis of the secondary journals showed that the filing of GST returns led to a constraint of working capital faced by business owners of SMEs. Moreover, it was also inferred that the denial of credit on input taxes on GST resulted in a further deterioration of business for SMEs, which were a part of the food sector. However, results from secondary research signified that the financial situation of rural SMEs has become volatile due to job losses, weak financial quarterly income, salary cuts and lower volume of sales. A majority of 61% of business owners of SMEs in India decided to lower their respective scale of business operations during the pandemic. The feasible recommendation will be to exempt the business owners from paying penalties. Also, GST charges would be levied after the deduction of ITC charges. It can be concluded that the optimal way for managing the way entrepreneurs of SMEs manage business operations is to file GST returns in a quarterly manner, rather than per month. Besides, additional recommendations such as computing ITC and GST charges via the auto-generated system and re-setting the rate of interest subvention were proposed by the researcher.


In order to reallocate farmland to efficient farmers, improvement in Farmland Rental Transactions (FRT) cooperating with public investment, Paddy-field Consolidation (PC) projects, is one of the most important policy issues in Asian monsoon regions as well as in Japan. Unfortunately, there are few empirical studies on FRT due to a lack of flexible data under regulated markets. This study aims to analyze FRT and to evaluate the effect of PC projects by modeling both supply and demand sides of farmland renting with micro-data from a discrete choice type questionnaire. Empirical results show that (i) effects of PC project appear as a remarkable increase in the rental rate and a moderate increase in the rental agreement level, (ii) there is an economic inefficiency in the Japanese rental market, but such an inefficiency can be reduced by PC project implementation, and (iii) regional differences in project effects are caused by differences in agricultural and social situations.


The investigation of integrated frequency comb sources characterized by equidistant spectral modes was initially driven by considerations toward classical applications, seeking a more practical and miniaturized way to generate stable broadband sources of light. Recently, in the context of scaling the complexity of optical quantum circuits, these on-chip approaches have provided a new framework to address the challenges associated with non-classical state generation and manipulation. For example, multi-photon and high-dimensional states were to date either inaccessible, lacked scalability, or were difficult to manipulate, requiring elaborate approaches. The emerging field of quantum frequency combs studying spectral multimode sources based on the judicious excitation of (typically) third-order nonlinear optical micro-cavities has begun to address these issues. Several quantum sources based on this concept have already been demonstrated, among them are combs of correlated photons, cross-polarized photon pairs, entangled photon pairs, multi-photon states, and high-dimensional entangled states. While sources have achieved increasing complexity, so have coherent state processing operations, demonstrated in a practical manner using standard telecommunications components. Here, we review our recent work in the development of this framework, with a focus on multi-photon and high-dimensional states. The integrated frequency comb platform thus demonstrates significant potential for the development of meaningful quantum optical technologies.


Cultural landscape as part of our heritage presents conservation challenges despite the current use. The role played by the community in the management of sites needed to be taken as a matter of urgency. The study also suggests measures for proper conservation to ensure the sustainability of Mama Ngina Drive Public Park for future generations. This study was carried out at Mama Ngina Drive Public Park, which is located on the southern part of Mombasa Island. The respondents targeted were local visitors grouped in sex such as males and females aged 18 years and above. 100 respondents were purposely selected from among visitors coming from Mombasa Island and neighborhoods. A structured questionnaire was designed for the above respondents. Interviews were held with the key informants to shed light to some issues. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the respondents. Mama Ngina Drive Public Park was purposively selected. The study concluded that natural forces and human actions are generally the agents that can destroy a site and its values. These sources of deterioration act continuously on the site and they range from minor to major activities such as erosion, land grabbing, car washing, driving lessons, visitors littering and natural forces such as vegetation and soil erosion caused by humans. The study also concluded that the current legal provision to protect the heritage seems to be inadequate. The study recommends ways through which the community, site conservation, site presentation, safety, and site management can be overwhelmed.


Although Saudi Arabia has made great progress on almost all fronts, water has always been, and still is, a serious problem. Settlement in the central area of the country is concentrated in the wadis, of which Wadi Hanifah is a good example. The Wadi descends through the central slope of the Tuwaig mountain, where Jurassic units predominate, and ends in the Al - Kharj Plain, where Cretaceous deposits outcrop. Climate is influenced to a limited extent by the relatively high altitude of the Tuwaig mountain, especially where rain fall is concerned, and an annual average of 100 mm is recorded. The rate of evaporation, however, is very high, because of the cloudless sky and high temperatures. Run-off occurs only after torrential rain, when the Wadi collects flood water from its many tributaries. Seven dams have been built in recent years in an attempt to increase underground recharge, The volume, quality and locations of underground water are determined almost entirely by climatic regime and geological characteristics. Fractions and cavities in the Jubaila limestone around Riyadh, and the alluvium deposits in the Wadi's channel used to be the main water sources. Water in these aquifers used to be at an easy reach at a depth of about 10 m beneath the surface. Urban expansion of Riyadh City, however, required a continual increase in water extraction, and the introduction of modern, equipment in agriculture also increased water consumption. This led to the lowering of the alluvium aquifer on the one hand, and the contamination of the Jubaila limestone aquifer on the other The tapping, of the Minjur aquifer in 1956 at a depth of more than 1,000 m temporarily solved the problem, but as the discharge increased sharply water level fell to a considerable depth, and in the meantime the alluvium aquifer continued dropping, so that in some areas water has been almost completely depleted. It is obvious that the lack of control over water use, and the shortage of adequate Investigation and experience, combined with the many different authorities in charge of water, produced a careless attitude to this valuable resource in both urban life and agriculture.


Type 5 metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR5) activate protein kinase C (PKC) via coupling to Gαq/11 protein signaling. We have previously demonstrated that the epsilon isoform of PKC (PKCɛ) is a critical downstream target of mGluR5 in regulating behavioral and biochemical responses to alcohol. Recent evidence suggests that PKC‐mediated phosphorylation of mGluR5 can lead to receptor desensitization and internalization. We therefore sought to examine the specific involvement of PKCɛ in the regulation of mGluR5 surface expression in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key regulator of alcohol‐associated behaviors. Coronal brain sections from male Wistar rats were analyzed for either colocalization of mGluR5 and PKCɛ via immunohistochemistry or changes in mGluR5 surface expression and PKCɛ phosphorylation following local application of PKCɛ translocation activator or inhibitor peptides and/or an orthosteric mGluR5 agonist. We observed colocalization of mGluR5 and PKCɛ in the NAc. We also showed that intra‐NAc infusion of the PKCɛ translocation inhibitor ɛV1–2 increased mGluR5 surface expression under baseline conditions. Stimulation of mGluR5 with an orthosteric agonist DHPG, dose dependently increased ERK1/2 and PKCɛ phosphorylation as well as mGluR5 internalization in acute NAc slices. Finally, we observed that activation of PKCɛ translocation with Tat‐ΨɛRACK peptide mediates agonist‐independent mGluR5 internalization, whereas PKCɛ translocation inhibitor ɛV1–2 prevents agonist‐dependent internalization of mGluR5 in NAc slice preparations. These findings suggest that the subcellular localization of mGluR5 in the NAc is regulated by PKCɛ under basal and stimulation conditions, which may influence the role of mGluR5–PKCɛ signaling in alcohol‐related behaviors. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Objectives To summarise and synthesise published qualitative studies to characterise factors that shape patient and caregiver experiences of chronic heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Design Meta-review of qualitative systematic reviews and metasyntheses. Papers analysed using content analysis. Data sources CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Scopus and Web of Science were searched from January 2000 to April 2015. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Systematic reviews and qualitative metasyntheses where the participants were patients, caregivers and which described experiences of care for CHF, COPD and CKD in primary and secondary care who were aged ≥18 years. Results Searches identified 5420 articles, 53 of which met inclusion criteria. Reviews showed that patients' and caregivers' help seeking and decision-making were shaped by their degree of structural advantage (socioeconomic status, spatial location, health service quality); their degree of interactional advantage (cognitive advantage, affective state and interaction quality) and their degree of structural resilience (adaptation to adversity, competence in managing care and caregiver response to demands). Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first synthesis of qualitative systematic reviews in the field. An important outcome of this overview is an emphasis on what patients and caregivers value and on attributes of healthcare systems, relationships and practices that affect the distressing effects and consequences of pathophysiological deterioration in CHF, COPD and CKD. Interventions that seek to empower individual patients may have limited effectiveness for those who are most affected by the combined weight of structural, relational and practical disadvantage identified in this overview. We identify potential targets for interventions that could address these disadvantages. Systematic review registration number PROSPERO CRD42014014547.


A better understanding of the complex behavior of masonry structures is necessary to embrace the more appropriate concept of ultimate strength design. Owing to the prohibitive cost of full-scale testing of masonry systems, a more economical method utilizing direct modeling techniques is proposed. It is the objective of this study to evaluate the use of direct modeling of ungrouted and grouted block masonry under shear and in-plane tension. A total of 62 quarter-scale model shear and tension specimens were tested, and the results were compared with similar prototype test results. The study includes the effect of mortar strength, grout strength, and load orientation on the assemblage mode of failure and ultimate strength. Correlations between model and prototype results are performed. Excellent correlations were obtained for mode of failure and the overall effects of different parameters. It is concluded that direct modeling is feasible and is capable of predicting the behavior of masonry. Deviations from prototype strength results were observed that are attributed to size effect of aggregate, imperfections in unit geometry, and higher strength values of model blocks.


The progressive increase of medical negligence law suits requires an updated analysis of the current situation of medical liability in Chile. The application of a new criminal procedure will avoid criminal prosecution of doctors, transferring to the civil courts the pecuniary sanctions for malpractice. Medical negligence and damage inflicted by doctors that require compensation are explained. The most likely evolution of medical liability is proposed, through an increase in civil liability insurance and the necessary standardization of rules applicable to professional liability.


Flexible risers is a vital part of a floating production system (FPS). In order to predict the riser life time, many procedure may be applied. In this thesis it is assumed that the pipe could be represented with help of performing two sets of global anlayis. Where in the first set it is assumed that the bending stiffness of the pipe is similar to the stick region of the flexible pipe and in the second part the bending stiffness it is assumed a bending stiffness similar to the slip regime of the flexible pipe. The dynamic analysis for these two sets is performed in SIMLA, which is mainly a special purpose tool for pipe laying, but robust enough for to perform most of pipeline engineering problems. The analysis is set to be from a semi submersible in typical North Sea loading conditions. The nodal displacement time series obtained from these analysis is then stored into blocks with constant amplitude loading for the upper part of the riser configuration. The results obtained from the global analysis is then used as inputs for a local analysis performed in BFLEX2010, which is a special purpose FEM software for stress analysis of flexible pipes. The local analysis is mostly focused on the fatigue of the flexible riser and it is performed an investigation from the effect of introducing different gaps between the pipe and the bend stiffener. The data obtained from these analysis, results in more distributed stress concentration within the bends stiffener region, especially for the largest sea states. There is also performed analysis where it is assumed no contact interference with the bend stiffener and the pipe, where it results in a much larger stress concentration at the hang of region, and a more even stress distribution along the riser.


Background RA is the most common chronic inflammatory arthropathy. About 30% of patients are treated with BT. The optimisation of BT doses in patients in clinical remission of the disease is a strategy used in clinical practice. The best method for assessing structural damage in daily clinical practice is the SENS method (simplified form of the Van der Heijde method). The main endpoint was evaluate the evolution of the structural damage of the disease in a cohort of patients with RA in follow-up in Rheumatology Unit, of Valme University Hospital, receiving optimised doses of BT, according to the BT dose optimisation protocol elaborated in our unity. Materials and methods Observational, descriptive, longitudinal and retrospective study in a cohort of 32 patients diagnosed with RA (ACR 1987), who are treated at reduced doses of TB. A description of the baseline characteristics was made. The evolution of structural damage was measured using the SENS method on hand radiographs. The evaluation was done at different moments of the evolution: before the reduction, at the end of the reduction and in the current visit of collection of results. Result 62.5% are women, mean age at diagnosis of 42.6 years. The duration of RA at the start of BT was 98.63 months and the biological treatment time at the beginning of the optimisation was 160.66 months The 75% of the sample was FR positive and 56.7% ACPA positive. The 59.4% were with etanercept. The mean of SENS score in hands before the optimisation was 8.78. The mean of SENS score in patients who continued optimised at time of analysis was 10.67. There were no statistically significant differences. Conclusions All the patients in our study were in clinical remission of the disease at the beginning of the dose reduction of TB. The results of our study suggest that optimised doses of BT in patients in clinical remission maintains the patient without significant progression of structural damage.


The present article reports the first investigation on the reproducibility of three land-surface hydrological variables (soil moisture, river discharge, and terrestrial water storage) in Japanese 25-year Reanalysis (JRA-25) by a system consisting of the Land Data Analysis (LDA) of JRA-25 and the modified version of a global river-flow model. JRA-25 well reproduces the seasonal cycles of observed soil moisture, river discharge, and terrestrial water storage. Detailed examinations revealed that the high reproducibility of the seasonal cycle of soil moisture originates from that of precipitation, that the low amplitude reproducibility for river discharge results from insufficient representation of the land-surface hydrology and insufficient reproducibility of the annual mean precipitation in JRA-25, and that the low amplitude reproducibility of terrestrial water storage predominantly results from insufficient representation of the land-surface hydrological model. An additional comparison in the reproducibility of soil moisture between JRA-25 and operational LDA reveals that the better reproducibility of soil moisture in JRA-25 does not always result from reasonable physical processes. The JRA-25 dataset should be used cautiously for studies in hydrology and meteorology, since the reproducibility varies with basins or areas.


Remote sensing data is used primarily for classification of various features within a scene, thereby to create a thematic map. The classified images provide possibility to distinguish between different types of surface features based on their spectral responses or 'spectral signatures'. However, a classification process is not fully completed if its accuracy is not determined. One of the most common classification accuracy assessment methods is preparation of error matrixes. Error matrixes compare the ground truth data with the corresponding classification result. How the selected numbers of samples effect the accuracy? In this study, it is aimed to investigate this consideration. Selection of 200, 150, 100, 50 sample points is analyzed in terms of overall accuracy and kappa statistics. In addition to considering different number of sample points for accuracy assessment, the classification performance of MSS and Pan-sharpened data is also evaluated. The study is applied to a test region at Cankaya district of Ankara. The multispectral QuickBird with 2.4 m and pan image with 0.64 m resolutions are used for the assessment. It is seen that the accuracy changed depend on the sample size selection.


The roles of women in sustainable development cannot be overemphasized. Women undertake a wide range of activities relating to trading of business, food production, processing, marketing and farming. Due to the significant roles that women play in economy, women participation in entrepreneurship business has also helped to increase her family's meager income, thereby contributing to sustainable livelihood and enhancing the social well-being. However, the participation of women differs from one state to another because of their specific functions, characteristics and constraints, for that reason, this research provided better knowledge on women participation in entrepreneurship business in Nigeria, by reviewing and analyzing current literatures relating to women as agent of national development. In this study the review of literature which were sourced from Science Direct, Emerald and Journal Stores embraces concepts and perspectives related to reasons for women's participation in business activities. The study identified systemic gender biases which exist in the form of customs, beliefs and attitudes and women's economic and domestic workloads as issues and constraints related to women participation in entrepreneurship business in Nigeria. This study therefore recommended that full participation of women should be encouraged to achieve improved entrepreneurial business development and, hence, economic emancipation of women, which will eventually translate to better living conditions for Nigerians. Finally, women should be considered in planning and policy making, especially regarding empowerment.


The results of this paper show that the crop output increased at the rate of 2.6 percent per annum, dominated by the share of TFP growth. Wide variation exists among cropping systems as well as within the system both in TFP growth and output growth. The mungbean zone emerged as a leader in TFP growth with 3.6 percent per annum, followed by barani (3.2 percent), cotton (1.9 percent), mixed (1.1 percent), and rice (1.0 percent) zones. Rice, mixed, and cotton zones show a negative trend in efficiency, and the respective causes appear to be the dominant factor of land degradation sourced by the existence of nutrient-exhaustive cropping pattern, increasing problem of waterlogging and salinity, and the use of brackish underground water, plus the prevalence of curl leaf virus disease in the cotton zone during the 1990s. The other reasons could be the low literacy rate among the farmers in most of the districts of the latter two cropping systems. Besides, the majority of them are also characterised as having very low status in development ranking. The data also show that the area under rice and sugarcane, a highly water-intensive crop, had increased in most of the districts of mixed and cotton zones, during the 1990s instrumented by high instability in cotton output growth as compared to rice and sugarcane. The sources of instability include high volatility in prices, vulnerability of the crop to disease and insect attack, consistently rising production cost, incapacity of the farming communities to deal with the dynamism of technology in cotton production, and increasing waterlogging and salinity problem.


Despite knowledge of racial bias for drug-related criminal justice involvement and its collateral consequences, we know less about differences between Black and White drug offenders. We compare 243 Black and White non-violent drug offenders in New Haven, Connecticut, for demographic characteristics, substance use, and reentry services accessed. Blacks were significantly more likely to have sales and possession charges; significantly more likely to prefer marijuana, a less addictive drug; and significantly less likely to report having severe drug problems. For both races, drug treatment was the most common service accessed through supervision. These comparisons suggest different reasons for committing drug-related crimes and, thus, different reentry programming needs. Although drug treatment is critical for all who need it, for racial justice, we must also intervene to address other needs of offenders, such as poverty alleviation and employment opportunities.


ABSTRACT Many of the challenges that affect children living in poverty are directly related to the neighborhoods in which they live. Places that inhibit healthy living and those that expose children to environmental pollution tend to more heavily affect children in poverty. This environmental injustice is a natural concern of the fields of urban planning, geography, and children's health. Yet many decisions that affect opportunities for healthy living are made without a full understanding of how neighborhood context influences such opportunities. In this brief, we paint inequalities in child health outcomes as a spatial problem, review some of the geospatial tools used by urban planners and geographers, discuss common reasons for misclassification or misrepresentation of spatially explicit problems, and propose more suitable methods for measuring opportunities and exposures germane to the field of child poverty. Throughout, we emphasize the need for evidence-driven, spatially grounded responses to child poverty issues with a spatial dimension.


Many remote sensing applications such as weather forecasting and automatic target recognition (ATR) require high-resolution images. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has become an important imaging technology for these remote sensing tasks through its all-weather, day and night imaging capability. However the effectiveness of SAR imaging for a specific decision making task depends on the quality of certain features in the formed imagery. For example, in order to be able to successively use a SAR image in an ATR system, the SAR image should exhibit features of the objects in the scene that are relevant for ATR. Recently, advanced SAR image formation techniques have been developed to produce feature-enhanced SAR images. In this thesis, we focus on one such technique, in particular a non-quadratic regularization-based approach which aims to produce so-called "point-enhanced SAR images". The idea behind this approach is to emphasize appropriate features by means of regularizing the solution. The stability of the solution is ensured through a scalar parameter, called the regularization parameter, balancing the contribution of the data and the a priori constraints on the formed image. Automatic selection of the regularization parameter is an important issue since SAR images are ideally aimed to be used in fully automated systems. However this issue has not been addressed in previous work. To address the parameter selection problem in this image formation algorithm, we propose the use of Stein's unbiased risk estimation, generalized cross-validation, and L-curve techniques which have been mostly used in quadratic regularization methods previously. We have adapted these methods to the SAR imaging framework, and have developed a number of numerical tools to enable their usage. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the applied methods through experiments based on both synthetic as well as electromagnetically simulated realistic data.


The campaign for the 'People's Charter', a democratic movement which thrived in the decade after 1838, was probably the most important mass movement in British history. Chartism captivated contemporaries and has had a magnetic attraction for historians, generating over 100 books and articles in the last decade alone. Some of the best contributions to that literature have come from Malcolm Chase, whose superb new book provides the first modern account of Chartism in its entirety. Sweeping across the whole of the British Isles and covering the entire duration of the movement, Chase has written a work of genuine importance and interest.


In two experiments, we investigated whether adults use holistic processing even for faces that are grossly distorted because their eyes have been moved asymmetrically to violate the common layout of a face (distorting its first-order relations). To this end we used a compelling demonstration that faces are processed as wholes, the composite-face effect. Specifically, adults judged the similarity of sequentially presented top halves of normal (original condition) and distorted faces with one eye (one-eye condition) or two eyes (two-eyes condition) shifted up by an abnormal amount. Trials were either blocked by type of distortion (experiment 1) or intermixed within the experiment (experiment 2). In both experiments, participants demonstrated a composite-face effect of the same magnitude in the three conditions, a pattern suggesting that they processed holistically even faces whose first-order relations were violated.


The methanolic extract of the rhizome of Tulbaghia violacea (RTV) was tested for toxicity in albino Wistar rats. A single oral administration of a 5 g/kg dosage of RTV extract did not produce mortality or significant behavioral changes during 14 days of observation. In the sub-chronic study, the extract administered daily for a period of 28 days showed no mortality or morbidity and the relative weights of organs were not affected by the treatment. However, significant weight gain in both treated and control group was observed. Indicators of liver damage such as alanine amino transferase (ALT) and aspartate amino transferase (AST), as well as total serum protein and albumin showed no significant alteration in the extract treated animals when compared with the controls at all doses used. The extracts caused a significant (p<0.05) decrease in the activity of gamma glutamy transferase (ƔGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) when compared with the control. However, the extract did not have any significant effect on markers of kidney function or hematological parameters in the rats, except in the female rats where a significant increase (p<0.05) in lymphocytes counts at 500 mg/kg was observed. Histopathological examination of the liver revealed no detectable inflammation. These results suggest that the rhizomes of T. violacea may be potentially safe for consumption. Keywords: Tulbaghia violacea , rhizomes, acute toxicity, subchronic toxicity


C(4) plants established a mechanism for the concentration of CO(2) in the vicinity of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in order to saturate the enzyme with substrate and substantially to reduce the alternative fixation of O(2) that results in energy losses. Transfer of the C(4) mechanism to C(3) plants has been repeatedly tested, but none of the approaches so far resulted in transgenic plants with enhanced photosynthesis or growth. Instead, often deleterious effects were observed. A true C(4) cycle requires the co-ordinated activity of multiple enzymes in different cell types and in response to diverse environmental and metabolic stimuli. This review summarizes our current knowledge about the most appropriate regulatory elements and coding sequences for the establishment of C(4) protein activities in C(3) plants. In addition, technological breakthroughs for the efficient transfer of the numerous genes probably required to transform a C(3) plant into a C(4) plant will be discussed.


Chirality is a fundamental characteristic of nature. Expanded porphyrinoids and their analogues offer an attractive platform for delving into the intricacies of chirality. Expanded porphyrioids comprise pyrrolic macrocycles and related heterocyclic systems. As a class, expanded porphyrioids are widely recognized for their flexible structural features, nontrivial coordination capabilities, and intriguing optical and electronic properties. With limited exceptions, their inherent conformational flexibility coupled with a low racemization barrier allows for the facile interchange between enantiomers. As a result, achieving the effective chiral resolution of individual enantiomers and the subsequent exploration of their chiroptical properties represents a significant challenge. This review summarizes strategies used to realize the chiral resolution of expanded porphyrinoids and the understanding of intrinsic chiroptical properties that has emerged from these separation efforts. It is our hope that this review will serve not only to codify our current understanding of chiral expanded porphyrinoids, but also inspire advances in the generalized area of chiral functional materials.


Introduction: We would like to report a series of nicorandil induced non-healing wounds seen over the past year.Nicorandil is a nicotinamide ester, and derivative of synthetic nicotine. It functions as a potassium channel activator. Uniquely Nicorandil has a nitrate group in its structure, adding venodiliatation to its effects. Thus causing increased blood flow in the coronary arteries and decreasing preload, the effects combining to form a highly effective anti anginal. The association of nicorandil use and oral/anal ulceration is now fairly well recognised. Less well known are nicorandil's association with para-stomal ulceration, and indeed its association with ulceration of the GI tract from mouth to anus. More recently there have been increasing reports of nicorandil-induced ulceration in parts of the body distant to the GI tract. We report a series of cases seen in our wound healing clinics, consisting of, patients, with lesions ranging from post surgical wounds to leg ulceration. All these ulcers had a common clinical appearance: there was no visual evidence of healing, all lesions were extremely painful, and all healed rapidly following withdrawal of nicorandil. Objectives: The aim of this work was bring to a wider audience our experiences of nicorandil's association with non healing wounds. Methods: Patients included in the study were those who have presented to the Wound Healing Outpatient Clinics' of the Wound healing research unit at Cardiff university over the last 18 months. All patients were taking Nicorandil, and had typical non healing painful wounds, which have resolved or moved rapidly towards resolution following exclusion of Nicorandil from their treatment. Results: The mechanism and incidence of the non-healing associated with Nicorandil is currently unknown, and may or may not be associated with the properties of arterial and venous dilatation. It had previously been assumed that the nicorandil itself caused the ulceration being seen in the GI tract. We would hypothesise that the effects of nicorandil (either directly or via metabolites) is not in causing Ulceration/Wounds, but in preventing the normal healing mechanisms of healing in a pre-existing wound. Thus explaining why initially non-healing GI tract ulcers were observed (as this is a common site of injury/ ulceration), but since then non-healing wounds, in other sites, and even post surgically have been observed. Conclusion: As the use of nicorandil increases these painful, debilitating, costly, and yet easily treatable wounds will become more common and a high index of suspicion is needed in any patient taking nicorandil, with any non healing wound.


The first layer of atoms on an oxide catalyst provides the first sites for adsorption of reactants and the last sites before products or oxygen are desorbed. We employ a unique combination of morphological, structural, and chemical analyses of a model ceria catalyst with different surface terminations under an H2 environment to unequivocally establish the effect of the last layer of atoms on surface reduction. (111) and (100) terminated epitaxial islands of ceria are simultaneously studied in situ allowing for a direct investigation of the structure–reducibility relationship under identical conditions. Kinetic rate constants of Ce4+ to Ce3+ transformation and equilibrium concentrations are extracted for both surface terminations. Unlike the kinetic rate constants, which are practically the same for both types of islands, more pronounced oxygen release, and overall higher reducibility were observed for (100) islands compared to (111) ones. The findings are in agreement with coordination-limited oxygen vacancy formation energies calculated by density functional theory. The results point out the important aspect of surface terminations in redox processes, with particular impact on the catalytic reactions of a variety of catalysts.


It has been widely recognized that Information Technology (IT) and Computer- Assisted Instruction (CAI) are currently used in most schools in Thailand to support classroom teaching.   Whilst the secondary school students have access to information technology and are capable of using computers at a relatively high level, their teachers should possess both IT literacy and computer skills in addition to their general academic qualifications.  This study aims to assess IT literacy of secondary school teachers, to study their attitudes toward the use of IT in their school context, and to assess their basic computer competency. The researcher developed three instruments to collect data:  (1) structured interview for IT literacy of the subjects, (2) questionnaire on their attitudes toward IT and computer use, (3) and task-based assessment of computer skills generally required in their teaching. The researcher collected data from fifteen secondary school teachers in three demonstration schools in Bangkok. An analysis of obtained qualitative and quantitative data pointed to (1) the subjects' good to very good level of  IT literacy level, (2) their positive attitudes toward the use of IT in their school context, and (3) their good level of basic computer competency. As for pedagogic implications of the study, the research tools can be used by secondary schools for basic computer skill assessment or for teaching staff training as part of the school's professional development.


One of the most significant challenges confronting courts and legal scholars in the twenty-first century is the application of Fourth Amendment doctrine to new technology. The circuit split over the application of the private search doctrine to electronic devices exemplifies how courts struggle to apply old doctrines to new circumstances. Some courts take the position that the old doctrine should apply consistently in the new context. Other courts have changed the scope of the old doctrine in order to account for the change in circumstances. The Supreme Court took the latter position in Carpenter v. United States and held that the third-party doctrine does not apply to cell-site location information records. The Court's willingness to limit the scope of an established doctrine to preserve fundamental privacy interests suggests that Carpenter is just the beginning of a dramatic shift in Fourth Amendment law. This Note argues that the circuit split over the private search doctrine should be resolved by creating a narrow electronic private search doctrine based on the logic of Carpenter.


This study compared the sleep-cycle characteristics of 16 hyperkinetic boys with those of 12 normal boys. The results indicated no differences between the two groups, with one exception: a subset of the hyperkinetic children had markedly short REM latencies.


Outsourcing is a complex, controversial and pervasive practice that is increasingly becoming a matter of concern for educational researchers. This article contributes to this literature by examining outsourcing practices related to health, sport and physical education (HSPE). Specifically, it reports data on specialist health and physical education (HPE) teachers', principals' and external providers' reasons for participating in outsourcing arrangements. These data were obtained from a collective case study of six schools and the external providers that they outsourced HSPE to over a 12-month period, using semi-structured interviews and overt participant observations. The findings illustrate the ways in which the informants explained their outsourcing practices using a variety of educationally and organisationally oriented reasons. Educational value, human resources (e.g. expertise), physical resources (e.g. facilities) and symbolic resources (e.g. status) were reasons for outsourcing HSPE that were commonly cited by principals and specialist HPE teachers. Among external providers, educational value, income generation and promotion/advertising were frequently cited to explain their work with and for schools. These findings illustrate the ways in which outsourcing practices in HSPE articulate with, and are implicated in, broader educational privatisations. They also highlight the boundaries that outsourcing practices trouble or reinforce, such as those marking the purview of markets, membership of the HPE profession and the constitution of expertise.


This paper identifies the output gap using the theoretical definition of the gap within a Phillips curve in the spirit of the New Keynesian framework. Using Peruvian data for the period 1980:1-2005:4, the results indicate a very flat slope of the Phillips curve but the output gap is large and persistent. Furthermore, the output gap is not correlated with the stochastic trend which is similar to the assumption used in the unobserved components model. The forward-looking component is estimated at 39% indicating a key role of this component in the inflation for a emerging country like Peru which is an economy partially dollarized using an inflation targeting scheme. The model is extended to include information coming from the unemployment rate but the results are very similar indicating poor additional information in the unemployment rate to identify the output gap. In order to compare, other estimations of the output gap are performed. The results show strong differences and the closer measure is the one obtained using the unobserved component model and the simple quadratic trend.


The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between math anxiety, math attitudes, and self-efficacy. Participants were 372 university students who were enrolled in Sakarya University, in Turkey. In this study, the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, the Mathematics Attitudes Scale, and the Self-efficacy Scale were used. Using correlation analysis, math anxiety was found negatively related to positive attitudes and self-efficacy and positively to negative attitudes. On the other hand, positive attitudes were found positively associated with self-efficacy and negatively with negative attitudes. According to the path analysis results, positive attitudes were predicted positively and negative attitudes predicted negatively by self-efficacy. Also, self-efficacy and positive attitudes predicted math anxiety in a negative way and negative attitudes predicted math anxiety in a positive way. Results were discussed in the light of


Purpose Uveal malignant melanoma is the most common primary intraocular tumor in adults. The occurrence of bilateral uveal melanoma is an extremely rare event, but the observed frequency is nevertheless higher than what can be attributed to chance. Possible responsible factors may include a genetic predisposition. Patients and methods This retrospective study investigated the charts of patients examined from July 1988 to July 2001. For each patient, the clinical characteristics of the tumor (diameter, thickness, location), treatments, and results were noted, as were the eye involved, the presence of ocular melanocytosis, cutaneous melanoma, and second primary cancers. The information was then subjected to statistical analysis. Results Of 2 461 patients with unilateral primary uveal melanoma, five were identified as having bilateral uveal melanoma (0.2%). The expected number of cases would be less than one, hypothesizing an incidence of second melanoma identical to the incidence of a primary melanoma in the general population. The interval between the diagnosis of first and second primary uveal melanomas ranged from 0 to 6 years (median, 2 years). There was no clinical evidence of ocular melanocytosis in any of the five patients. The uveal melanoma was choroidal in three patients and affected the ciliary body or iris and choroid in two patients. Discussion The discrepancy between the estimated incidence (thought by Shammas to be one case every 18 years) and the observed incidence of bilateral primary uveal melanoma could be the result of many possible factors. An increased incidence of unilateral uveal melanoma could be a cause but in fact the incidence of uveal melanoma seems stable. Uveal melanoma may have been misdiagnosed in earlier years. The presence of a genetic predisposition to uveal melanoma is a possible explanation (suspected because of bilateral cases, familial cases and association with other primary malignancies). Ocular melanocytosis, which is described as more common in patients with bilateral uveal melanoma, was not seen in our series. Conclusion Bilateral primary uveal melanoma occurs more frequently than expected. Unidentified germline mutations may be involved in pathogenesis. These cases serve as a reminder of the of the importance of careful examination of the second eye.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the spatial distribution of pulmonary blood flow in three groups of piglets: partial liquid ventilation in normal piglets, partial liquid ventilation during acute lung injury, and conventional gas ventilation during acute lung injury.

DESIGN
Prospective randomized study.

SETTING
A university medical school laboratory approved for animal research.

SUBJECTS
Neonatal piglets.

INTERVENTIONS
Regional pulmonary blood flow was studied in 21 piglets in the supine position randomized to three different groups: a normal group that received partial liquid ventilation (Normal-PLV) and two acute lung injury groups that received an oleic acid-induced lung injury: partial liquid ventilation during acute lung injury (OA-PLV) and conventional gas ventilation during acute lung injury (OA-Control). Acute lung injury was induced by infusing oleic acid (0.15 mL/kg iv) over 30 mins. Partial liquid ventilation was instituted with perflubron (LiquiVent, 30 mL/kg) after 30 mins in the Normal-PLV and OA-PLV groups.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Arterial and venous blood gases, hemodynamics, and pulmonary mechanics were measured every 15 mins throughout the hour-long study. Pulmonary blood flow was assessed by fluorescent microsphere technique at baseline and after 30, 45, and 60 mins. In the Normal-PLV piglets, pulmonary blood flow decreased from baseline (before injury or partial liquid ventilation) in the most dependent areas of the lung (F ratio = 3.227; p < .001). In the OA-PLV piglets, pulmonary blood flow was preserved over time throughout the lung (F ratio = 1.079; p = .38). In the OA-Control piglets, pulmonary blood flow decreased in the most dependent areas of the lung and increased from baseline in less dependent slices over time (F ratio = 2.48; p = .003).

CONCLUSIONS
The spatial distribution of regional pulmonary blood flow is preserved during partial liquid ventilation compared with gas ventilation in oleic acid-induced lung injury.


At the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun in 2010, all the industrialised countries committed to producing long-term national strategies to achieve low levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim was to meet the goal of reducing emissions by 80-95 per cent by 2050, in line with the two-degrees-goal. In February 2011, the European Commission presented a communication on a roadmap for the EU for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050. Sweden has actively supported the conclusions within the EU that countries should draw up their own roadmaps, but Sweden has not yet produced a national roadmap to 2050. This thesis examines why the Swedish government has not yet agreed on a low-carbon development strategy to 2050 in line with the agreement at the climate conference in Cancun 2010 and the directives from the European Commission. The purpose of this study is to examine why the investigation on a Swedish roadmap 2050 produced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, never reached the political decision agenda, in the Swedish parliament. The objective of the study is achieved by applying the Multiple Streams Model, a theory on policy processes and agenda setting, on the case of the Swedish roadmap 2050. The study concludes that (1) the level of political consensus is too low, especially in terms of the basic assumptions that underlie the roadmap; and (2) the document produced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency was too weak to become a bill.


: Mouse cytomegalovirus causes perilabyrinthitis in the cochlea following intracranial inoculation of the newborn mouse. In spite of infection of cranial nerve ganglion cells and Schwann cells the organ of Corti achieves normal adult morphology including efferent nerve endings. No involvement of neuroaxons is seen. In comparison human cytomegalovirus infection causes endolabyrinthitis without involving periotic connective tissues or nerves even in the presence of meningoencephalitis. The lack of epithelial infection and susceptibility of periotic connective tissues to mouse cytomegalovirus was confirmed by infection of fetal mouse otocysts in organ culture. The mouse model of cytomegalovirus ear infection shows greater similarities to other herpesvirus infections of the ear such as varicella-zoster than to human cytomegalovirus and thus remains extremely useful for the study of herpetic neuronal and ear infection.


The objective of this paper is optimization mixing parameters in terms of mixing process of polymer nanocomposites using Taguchi method. Considering the mixing parameters such as rotational speed, mixing temperature and mixing time were performed to reveal the electrical conductivity data. Taguchi method was used by electrical conductivity analyses based on three level factorial designs. Orthogonal arrays of Taguchi, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were utilized to find the optimal levels and the effect of mixing parameters on electrical conductivity. Confirmation analysis measurements with the optimal levels of mixing parameters were carried out in order to show the optimum electrical conductivity of Taguchi method. The result shows that Taguchi method is effective in solving the quality problem occurred on the mixing parameters of the polymer nanocomposites.


Background: Parkinson's disease may affect individual's quality of life, once it interferes in their functional capacity. Caregivers can also have their quality of life compromised due to the difficulty of dealing with complex manifestations of the disease, so it might be possible they assume the position of a hidden patient, suffering from the overload of the function, wich contribute for their illness. Method: Search in PubMed and Scielo databases, with a total of nine selected articles. Results and Discussion: Emotional, social, physical factors and personal characteristics might interfere in caregivers' quality of life. In addition, patients and family members may also have impaired quality of life. Thus, it is important for these professionals, subjects affected by Parkinson's disease and family members to participate in support groups is necessary in order to share feelings experienced in daily life. Conclusion: Therefore, it was possible to verify that caregivers also needs guidance and support to deal with the problems provided by caring for the others.


The paper examines why Western culture achieved a position of hegemony in global development in the 1800s and why non-Western cultures, particularly Arabic, Indian, and Chinese cultures, did not achieve the same despite earlier supremacy in various fields leading to a type of globalization that can be termed "southernization." I consider the question by assessing the political, cultural, and economic factors affecting globalization during different periods. My analysis utilizes Robert P. Clark's entropy theory, according to which cultures have flourished by extending their sphere of influence, whereupon disorder and loss of energy have been moved elsewhere. The theory helps to suggest how Western Europe was able to adopt enough technical innovations produced by southernization to respond to the population pressures of the 1400s, thereby rising to a leading position in the world in the 1800s.


Large caldera collapses represent catastrophic natural events, second only to large meteoritic impacts. In addition, some calderas are densely populated, making the risk extreme, even for moderate eruptions. Understanding caldera mechanisms, unrest and the danger of eruption is therefore a crucial challenge for Earth sciences. Several key features of caldera behaviour have yet to be fully understood. Through a combination of case studies and theoretical modelling, the following topics are addressed in this volume: the conditions required to produce and to release large volumes of magma erupted during caldera formation; how magmatic feeding systems evolve before and after a caldera has formed; the processes that limit the behaviour of precursors to eruptions; how pre-emptive precursors can be distinguished from those that drive unrest without an eruption; and given that post-collapse eruptions may occur across a wide area, the optimum procedures for designing hazard maps and mitigation strategies.


This paper provides a solution for reduction of inverter power rating in active power filter by installing passive power filter. As a result hybrid power filter is obtained. However, possible reduction of inverter power rating strongly depends on hybrid power filter topology. Therefore, three power filter devices are presented, analyzed and compared. These are: active power filter, hybrid power filter based on series connection of shunt passive and active filters and the proposed hybrid filter topology. Analysis of mentioned devices include theoretical considerations, simulations performed in Matlab Simulink software and experiments using laboratory setup prepared and configured for purposes of this study. Main focus of the research is on inverter voltage and current as it determines required semiconductor switches parameters what prejudges the cost of the inverter. As cost is the main barrier of wider active power filer application and universality, reduction of inverter power rating is crucial. The aim of the research isto find a possibly low cost solution for active current harmonics mitigation.


Objective: To investigate the relationship between six common cytogenetic abnormalities and bone marrow pathomorphology in multiple myeloma (MM). Methods: Bone marrow biopsy was performed on 151 newly-diagnosed MM patients. Meanwhile, myeloma cells were enriched by CD138 immunomagnetic beads, and then lq+, 13q-, 17p-, t(4;14), t (11;14), t (14;16) and other common genetic abnormalities were detected using interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The relationship between different genetic abnormalities and biopsy morphology was compared. Results: Of the 151 patients, 15 had extramedullary infiltration (9.9%). The rate of cytogenetic abnormalities was 76.2% (115/151), of which 1q+ accounted for 49.7% (75/151), 13q-39.1% (59/151), 17p-8.6% (13/151), t(4;14) 21.2% (32/151), t(11;14) 19.2% (29/151), and t(14;16) 2.0% (3/151). The proliferation patterns of MM plasma cells were nodular (48.3%, 73/151), interstitial (33.8%, 51/151) and diffuse (17.9%, 27/151). The morphology of plasma cells was mainly mature type (58.3%, 88/151), followed by juvenile type (20.5%, 31/151), intermediate type (15.9%, 24/151) and plasmacyte type (5.3%, 8/151). According to the mSMART risk stratification system, the proliferation pattern of myeloma cells in the high-risk group was mainly diffuse type, and the morphology was mainly immature and plasmacyte type. In the middle-risk group, mature type myeloma cells were mainly nodular proliferating. In the low-risk and negative group, mature type myeloma cells were mainly interstitial proliferating. There was no difference in the probability of different proliferation modes of intermediate type plasma cells in each group. Conclusions: The proliferation pattern and morphology of plasma cells in bone marrow biopsy combined with cytogenetic markers can more accurately predict the severity and prognosis of MM.


We consider the inverse problem of retrieving aerosol extinction coefficients from Raman lidar measurements. In this problem the unknown and the data are related through the exponential of a linear operator, the unknown is non-negative and the data follow the Poisson distribution. Standard methods work on the log-transformed data and solve the resulting linear inverse problem, but neglect to take into account the noise statistics. In this study we show that proper modelling of the noise distribution can improve substantially the quality of the reconstructed extinction profiles. To achieve this goal, we consider the non-linear inverse problem with non-negativity constraint, and propose two iterative algorithms derived using the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions. We validate the algorithms with synthetic and experimental data. As expected, the proposed algorithms out-perform standard methods in terms of sensitivity to noise and reliability of the estimated profile.


It is well documented that an individual's ability to know who knows whom in their network has positive benefits in various facets of professional life. But people vary in their network acuity - that is, their ability to accurately assess who knows whom in their network. This poster seeks to understand what explains a person's network acuity? Is it shaped by the individual's position in the network or is it an individual trait? We address these questions using data collected from 6-DoS (6 Degrees of Separation), a Web-based platform we developed to set up, conduct and collect data on various small-world experiments within a predefined social network. First, individuals answer various personality-based questions. Individuals need to route messages through a finite number of pre-selected contacts. The intended target for these messages is a few degrees of separation away from the individual. Their goal is to send it to one of their direct contacts who can get it to the final target in the shortest number of steps. We measure every participant's network acuity measure by taking into account how the individual performance compared to the best possible performance and also takes into account how difficult it was to make the right choice. It averages this over all the messages relayed by the individual. We find that our measure of network acuity is not correlated to any centrality measures commonly used as a proxy for the location in a network. We do find that it is correlated to personality traits such as openness and conscientiousness. Therefore, we conclude that network acuity is a personality trait and not a function of a person's location in the network. Our results suggest that individuals with specific personality traits might be best suited to perform tasks at specific times during the life of a project.


Strengthening character education becomes important thing nowadays as stated in Presidential Decree No. 87 year 2017. Student's clean and healthy lifestyle reflects from their mind and character. To implement the character education, there are many factors involved in it. The purpose of this research is to identify the variable predictors of student's clean and healthy environment considering teacher role model variables as intervening variables. The analysis of this relationship pattern is based on an interactionist perspective arguing that student behavior does not occur in isolation, but as an impact of interaction results. School environment is faced daily by students. The intensity of this interaction can lead to healthy and hygienic behavior habits through teacher's role model. Regression analysis used to prove the perspective of interactionist is based on secondary data of Healthy School Competition period 2016 and 2017. This competition is a junior high school and high school/vocational school competitions representing the province to be included in the national competition. The data used in this study comes from an observation instrument filled by Healthy School Competition Officers at the National level, and students at schools designated as provincial representatives. Students who were selected as subjects were selected randomly. By using regression analysis, empirical tendency showed that school environment factor namely clean and healthy environment become predictor to the formation of student's clean and healthy behaviour.


To the best of our knowledge, we present the first hardware implementation of isogeny-based cryptography available in the literature. Particularly, we present the first implementation of the supersingular isogeny Diffie-Hellman (SIDH) key exchange, which features quantum-resistance. We optimize this design for speed by creating a high throughput multiplier unit, taking advantage of parallelization of arithmetic in  $\mathbb {F}_{p^{2}}$ , and minimizing pipeline stalls with optimal scheduling. Consequently, our results are also faster than software libraries running affine SIDH even on Intel Haswell processors. For our implementation at 85-bit quantum security and 128-bit classical security, we generate ephemeral public keys in 1.655 million cycles for Alice and 1.490 million cycles for Bob. We generate the shared secret in an additional 1.510 million cycles for Alice and 1.312 million cycles for Bob. On a Virtex-7, these results are approximately 1.5 times faster than known software implementations running the same 512-bit SIDH. Our results and observations show that the isogeny-based schemes can be implemented with high efficiency on reconfigurable hardware.


Cryptographic techniques have applications far beyond the obvious uses of encoding and decoding information. For Internet developers who need to know about capabilities, such as digital signatures, that depend on cryptographic techniques, theres no better overview than Applied Cryptography, the definitive book on the subject. Bruce Schneier covers general classes of cryptographic protocols and then specific techniques, detailing the inner workings of real-world cryptographic algorithms including the Data Encryption Standard and RSA public-key cryptosystems. The book includes source-code listings and extensive advice on the practical aspects of cryptography implementation, such as the importance of generating truly random numbers and of keeping keys secure.


An essential feature of intelligent sensory processing is the ability to focus on the part of the signal of interest against a background of distracting signals, and to be able to direct this focus at will. In this paper the problem of auditory scene segmentation is considered and a model of the early stages of the process is proposed. The behaviour of the model is shown to be in agreement with a number of well known psychophysical results. The principal contribution of this model lies in demonstrating how streaming might result from interactions between the tonotopic patterns of activity of input signals and traces of previous activity which feedback and influence the way in which subsequent signals are processed.


The University grants four degrees in medicine. Of these, the M.B. and Ch.B. must be taken together. The following outlines of the regulations for graduation are in accordance with the New Medical Ordinance, which came into operation on 1st October, 1911, modified as regards preliminary education and registration by the new regulations which came into force on 1st January, 1923:? Before registration as a medical student every candidate shall produce evidence that he or she has attained the age of seventeen years. Further, every applicant shall be required to have passed an approved examination in general education, and, in addition thereto, an examination in Elementary Physics and Elementary Chemistry, conducted or recognised by one of the Licencing Bodies. The minimum standard of general education required will be that of University Matriculation or Entrance Examination in Arts or Pure Science.


There is much interest in using less expensive raw materials as precursors for carbon fibre manufacture to increase the utilisation of strong, light-weight composite materials in the transportation sector. One such potential raw material is lignin. Most studies exploring melt spinning of lignin have used lignins from organosolv or hardwood kraft delignification processes. There has been little success reported in utilisation of the more commercially available softwood kraft lignins. In this study, lignins from different softwood kraft cooking processes were investigated with respect to their melt spinning performance and conversion to carbon fibres. The isolated lignins differed mainly in molecular weight, glass transition temperature, and softening temperature. All of the lignins produced from the laboratory cooks could be extruded without any plasticizer addition. However, the lignins contained volatiles that resulted in bubbles being formed along the length of the fibres. After vacuum drying, at elevated temperatures to remove volatiles, only the lignin originating from conventional kraft cooking was able to be melt extruded without plasticiser addition; this lignin had the lowest molecular weight amongst the samples. The stabilisation and carbonisation of these fibres gave carbon fibres with strengths comparable to those produced from lignins of other origins.


This article introduces a technique to employ Cone-beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) as a beneficial modality in imaging peripheral cystic lesions. Increasing application of CBCT in maxillofacial field is a result of its performance and lower cost together with low radiation dose and its accessibility in dental clinics, however, CBCT scan is less useful in soft tissue lesions because of its limited contrast resolution. The aim of this report was to introduce a technique to employ CBCT in imaging peripheral cysts and investigating their internal structure. We present a 61-year-old woman with swelling in left upper lip associated with a nasolabial cyst. CBCT images did not provide required data on extension and periphery of the lesion. The patient was undergone aspiration of cystic contents and then injection of contrast media into the cystic cavity. Another CBCT scan was captured, and the invisible cystic shape of the lesion was visualized. CBCT cystography demonstrated the periphery, exact size and location of the nasolabial cyst. Using this technique imposed far less radiation dose and costs to patient than a usual CT scan. CBCT cystography is recommended for visualizing peripheral cysts and determining their exact size and location.


Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is an organic conducting polymer that has been the focus of significant research over the last decade, in both energy and biological applications. Most commonly, PEDOT is doped by the artificial polymer polystyrene sulfonate due to the excellent electrical characteristics yielded by this pairing. The biopolymer dextran sulphate (DS) has been recently reported as a promising alternative to PEDOT:PSS for biological application, having electrical properties rivaling PEDOT:PSS, complimented by the potential bioactivity of the polysaccharide. In this work we compared chemical and electrochemical polymerisations of PEDOT:DS in terms of their impact on the electrical, morphological and biological properties of the resultant PEDOT:DS films. Post-growth cyclic voltammograms and UV-Vis analyses revealed comparable redox behaviour and absorbance profiles for the two synthesis approaches. Despite good intrinsic conductivity of particles, the addition of chemically produced PEDOT:DS did not markedly enhance the bulk conductivity of aqueous solutions due to the lack of interconnectivity between adjacent PEDOT:DS particles at achievable concentrations. Scanning electron microscopy revealed significantly greater roughness in films cast from chemically produced PEDOT:DS compared to electropolymerised samples, attributable to the formation of solution phase nanoparticles prior to casting. In cell studies with the L929 cell line, electrochemical polymerisation of PEDOT:DS afforded better integrity of resultant films for surface seeding, whilst chemically polymerised PEDOT:DS appeared to localised at the proliferating cells, suggesting possible applications in drug delivery.


In the liver of young mice after partial hepatectomy the hepatocytes which entered S-phase prior to the operation complete DNA synthesis in time and their major part is arrested in G2-phase. During the second half of lag-period (12-24 h after the operation) about half of these cells enters mitosis. Another half of the hepatocytes which were in S-phase during the operation does not proceed to mitosis. The structure of the nuclei of these latter suggests the regression of premitotic preparation: some nuclei return to the initial G0-structure of the normal heterosynthetic hepatocyte (endoreproduction cycle) and others preserve the premitotic structure characteristic of S-phase. A number of morphological features approaches this latter subpopulation to S-nuclei of tumour cells of the mouse hepatoma No. 46. A suggestion is put forward that this subpopulation has lost its capacity for heterosythesis due to operation liver trauma.


This study examines the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) from its inception in 1987 through 2006. The goals of this study are to create a history of FHIP, describe its grantees, analyze the types of grants awarded through the program, and analyze the outcomes of cases investigated by grant recipients, especially the comparison of the outcomes of cases referred by the grantees with those referred by others. It is useful to note the limitations of this study. It is primarily a process study of FHIP based on interviews with FHIP grantee organizations. Outcomes are reported based on cases that are referred to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The study does not include reviews of cases not referred to HUD and does not assess the efficiency of FHIP or effects of the program.


ABSTRACT The authors, with Swedish elementary school students (N = 201), 9–12 years old, examined the potential significance to self-perceived academic competence of students' cross-ethnic friendship ties and prosocial behavior to better understand education's minority achievement gap. A crossed-lagged panel model was tested to investigate potential relationships between these variables over time, while controlling for temporal associations. The results revealed that higher levels of prosocial behavior were related to more positive academic performance six months later. However, higher levels of cross-ethnic friendship did not. The findings further establish the predictive influence of prosocial behavior on academic competence, indicating that this over-time relation is applicable also in the North European context, with its increasingly diverse ethnicity.


We describe the formation and properties of H(2)GaN(3) (1), which is a very simple and stable molecular source for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of GaN heterostructures. Compound 1 and the perdeuterated analogue D(2)GaN(3) (2) are prepared by the LiGaH(4) and LiGaD(4) reduction of Br(2)GaN(3) (3), respectively. Compound 3 is obtained from the thermal decomposition of the crystalline adduct SiMe(3)N(3).GaBr(3) (4) via loss of SiMe(3)Br. A single-crystal X-ray structure of 4 reveals that the molecule is essentially a Lewis acid-base complex between SiMe(3)N(3) and GaBr(3) and crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pna2(1), with a = 14.907(5) Å, b = 7.759(3) Å, c = 10.789(5) Å, V = 1248(1) Å,(3) and Z = 4. The new azidobromogallane HBrGaN(3) (5) is also prepared by reaction of appropriate amounts of 3 and LiGaH(4). Both H(2)GaN(3) (1) and D(2)GaN(3) (2) are volatile species at room temperature and can be readily distilled at 40 degrees C (0.20 Torr) without decomposition. Normal-mode analysis and ab initio theoretical calculations suggest that the vapor phase IR spectra of 1 and 2 are consistent with a trimeric (H(2)GaN(3))(3) and (D(2)GaN(3))(3) molecular structure of C(3)(v)() symmetry. On the basis of the mass spectrum, 1 is a trimer in the vapor phase and decomposes readily at low temperatures by elimination of only H(2) and N(2) to yield pure and highly stoichiometric GaN thin films. Crucial advantages of this new and potentially practical CVD method are the significant vapor pressure of the precursor that permits rapid mass transport at 22 degrees C and the facile decomposition pathway that allows film growth at temperatures as low as 200 degrees C with considerable growth rates up to 800 Å/min.


Bronchiectasis is an acquired irreversible bronchopulmonary disease where bronchial walls in the lungs are permanently inflamed and dilated. This leads to a 'vicious cycle' between chronic bacterial infection and immune dysregulation. One of the bacterial infections patients with bronchiectasis experience is S. maltophilia, a Gram-negative gamma proteobacteria with intrinsic multidrug resistance and widely found in the environment. S. maltophilia is also a common infection in CF patients but has poorly been characterised in bronchiectasis. This study looks at its significance in bronchiectasis and tries to establish a comparison between environmental and clinical strains as well as to elucidate the question of its pathogenicity which is still controversial.


Recent research has revealed a striking tendency in young children to imitate even causally irrelevant actions, a phenomenon dubbed 'over-imitation'. To investigate whether children develop beyond this, we allowed both adults and children to witness either a child or adult model performing goal-relevant and goal-irrelevant actions to extract a reward from a transparent puzzle box. Surprisingly, copying of irrelevant actions increased with age, with the adults performing the task with less efficiency than the children. Participants of all ages were more likely to perform the irrelevant actions performed by an adult model, than by a child model. These results suggest that people may become more imitative as they mature, whilst selectively copying particular models with a high level of fidelity. We suggest that this combination of faithful copying and selectivity underwrites the powerful social learning necessary for the level of cultural transmission on which our species depends.


The main purpose of the present article is to present and trigger the discussion about the problems of regional development in the present times. An attempt for giving a definition of the specific features and trends in the regional development is made in this article. A comparative analysis of the present status of the regional development sciences is made. Also a methodological assessment of the regional development peculiarities was made as well as the inter-disciplinary relationships with other sciences have been outlined. The foundations of the regional studies have been highlighted and new possible tendencies for the development of this scientific field have been drawn. A mention of the different branches of the regional development studies has been made while a focus on the problems of the urban development and the surrounding environment was put. Also the problems of the separate territorial communities and the processes of regionalization were analyzed. Last, but not least the article aims at provoking a discussion on the regional development problems and completing the methodology of the regional studies.


Subsampled Randomized Hadamard Transform (SRHT), a popular random projection method that can efficiently project a d-dimensional data into r-dimensional space (r ≪ d) in O(dlog(d)) time, has been widely used to address the challenge of high-dimensionality in machine learning. SRHT works by rotating the input data matrix X ∈ ℝn × d by Randomized Walsh-Hadamard Transform followed with a subsequent uniform column sampling on the rotated matrix. Despite the advantages of SRHT, one limitation of SRHT is that it generates the new low-dimensional embedding without considering any specific properties of a given dataset. Therefore, this data-independent random projection method may result in inferior and unstable performance when used for a particular machine learning task, e.g., classification. To overcome this limitation, we analyze the effect of using SRHT for random projection in the context of linear SVM classification. Based on our analysis, we propose importance sampling and deterministic top-r sampling to produce effective low-dimensional embedding instead of uniform sampling SRHT. In addition, we also proposed a new supervised non-uniform sampling method. Our experimental results have demonstrated that our proposed methods can achieve higher classification accuracies than SRHT and other random projection methods on six real-life datasets.