In collaboration with Brian Chase, CHT, OTR/L of NW Sports Physical Therapy in Tacoma, WA, our research group addressed his question of whether instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) is effective for clients and if so, are certain brands such as Graston Technique (GT) or Astym more effective. Through our careful review of the literature, summarized in a critically appraised topic format, we found that the majority of studies (case reports and experimental studies) found that IASTM treatments improved scores on outcome measures including return to occupation, range of motion, pain, and grip and pinch strength over baseline measurements. However, randomized controlled trials that compared IASTM to other treatments including ultrasound, active movement, acupuncture, and massage therapy generally showed that IASTM is not significantly more effective than other forms of therapy. The existing evidence for IASTM is insufficient to justify and support the use of IASTM in most hand therapy scenarios. To remedy this problem we initiated a translation of knowledge and created a research needs assessment (RNA) highlighting the current gaps in the literature. Through sharing this needs assessment we hope that hand therapy practitioners will be compelled to publish findings that they feel could help fill the research needs that we have outlined. We reached out to the Facebook pages of Hand Therapy and the American Society for Hand Therapists (ASHT) to share our RNA with the intention of receiving critiques and feedback. We then forwarded our RNA to the Research Department of the ASHT and are awaiting further response. Our RNA has also reached the ears of the Graston Technique which resulted in an informative conference call with the Graston Technique's Director of Strategic Planning, Mike Ploski PT, ATC, OCS, our group members; Kaitlin, Sarah, Yoseph, and Evan, and our research chair, George Tomlin. Based on our research and our identification of gaps in


Building Integrated and Building Attached Photovoltaic (BIPV, BAPV) systems may suffer from lower performance than predicted as a result of unwanted partial shading. New system architectures have been proposed to optimize performance. The common approach of these new architectures is to track the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of every solar module individually. A simulation model is developed to quantify the benefits and drawbacks of different PV system architectures. The model includes a shading evaluation of the installation with means of 3D modeling, irradiance calculations, PV cell modelling and finally an empirical power conversion model. The energy yield of three leading architectures is confirmed (string inverter, power optimizer, micro inverter) for clear and partial shading conditions by means of an outdoor field test. Results show that there is a clear benefit for MLPE systems at higher irradiance when partial shading is present. The analysis method can be used by PV installers and system designer to determine which is the optimal system architecture for maximum energy yield especially when partial shading is present.


This paper deals with the analysis of toxic effects of cadmium and copper on the growth of spring barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivated in hydroponics. The seedlings of barley were treated with four different concentrations of cadmium and copper, ranging from 0.1 to 10 mg L -1 . The aim of the study was to assess toxic effects of cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) on the growth of spring barley, and to determine metal accumulation in above-ground and underground parts of the plant. The impact of Cu and Cd on photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a , b ), the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), and the essential micronutrients (Mn, Fe) were examined. Metal treatment reduced the growth of roots (by 60%), shoots (Cd – 48 %, Cu – 57%) and dry weight (Cd – 47 %, Cu – 52%) of barley. Exposure to metals altered the content of photosynthetic pigments and caused lipid peroxidation. Regression analysis revealed that there was significant negative relationship between MDA content and biomass of barley treated with Cu (r=-0.99, p=0.01). The examined heavy metals were accumulated mainly in the roots and bioconcentration of Cu there was higher than that of Cd, indicating that roots tended to accumulate higher amounts of Cu than Cd. Though translocation of Cd from roots to above-ground tissues was higher, higher levels of Cd were observed in leaves. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.64.2.1951


We investigate a class of spatially compact inhomogeneous spacetimes. Motivated by Thurston's geometrization conjecture, we give a formulation for constructing spatially compact composite spacetimes as solutions for the Einstein equations. Such composite spacetimes are built from the spatially compact locally homogeneous vacuum spacetimes which have two commuting local Killing vector fields and are homeomorphic to torus bundles over the circle by gluing them through a timelike hypersurface admitting a homogeneous spatial torus spanned by the commuting local Killing vector fields. We also assume that the matter which will arise from the gluing is compressed on the boundary, i.e. we take the thin-shell approximation. By solving the junction conditions, we can see dynamical behaviour of the connected (composite) spacetime. The Teichmüller deformation of the torus can also be obtained. We apply our formalism to a concrete model. The relation to the torus sum of 3-manifolds and the difficulty of this problem are also discussed.


Aldehydes are soft electrophiles which are able to interact with proteins, enzymes and DNA through various mechanisms. They are able to stimulate a range of environmental toxicity and adverse health effects. Chemical category formation and the use of read-across to fill data gaps are seen as crucial methods for risk assessment of industrial chemicals under the REACH legislation. Such methods are especially important if the goal of reducing the number of experimental animals used in toxicological testing is going to be met. One of the crucial steps in the development of a chemical category is the definition of the applicability domain of the category in terms of the types of chemicals that should be included in the category. It has been suggested that the use of reactive mechanistic domains can aid in this process for several endpoints including mutagenicity and acute aquatic toxicity. The aim of this study was to classify chemicals into several reactive categories for mutagenicity and acute aquatic toxicity. In addition, mechanistic categories for both endpoints have been compared. A discussion of the requirement for the mechanistic differences between the two endpoints has also been done.


Abstract. Dense stereo matching is one of the fundamental and active areas of photogrammetry. The increasing image resolution of digital cameras as well as the growing interest in unconventional imaging, e.g. unmanned aerial imagery, has exposed stereo image pairs to serious occlusion, noise and matching ambiguity. This has also resulted in an increase in the range of disparity values that should be considered for matching. Therefore, conventional methods of dense matching need to be revised to achieve higher levels of efficiency and accuracy. In this paper, we present an algorithm that uses the concepts of intrinsic curves to propose sparse disparity hypotheses for each pixel. Then, the hypotheses are propagated to adjoining pixels by label-set enlargement based on the proximity in the space of intrinsic curves. The same concepts are applied to model occlusions explicitly via a regularization term in the energy function. Finally, a global optimization stage is performed using belief-propagation to assign one of the disparity hypotheses to each pixel. By searching only through a small fraction of the whole disparity search space and handling occlusions and ambiguities, the proposed framework could achieve high levels of accuracy and efficiency.


Although many studies have suggested that introducing the distance learning method, including Web-based learning, to a practice class is effective, studies applying the distance learning method to subjects who are practicing cooking are rare. The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of the distance learning method, the degree of computer use, and the use of distance learning by college students with cuisine-related majors to practice cooking. The results showed that most students used the distance learning method, and that the method was positively perceived, as it was a great aid in learning. Most of the cooking information was obtained through the internet, and the most effective learning media for practicing cooking was "e-learning" using a computer. The most effective learning method for those who were practicing cooking was a "face-to-face learning method", because face-to-face type of teaching and learning was most universally recognized. Most of the students surveyed responded that using the distance learning method was a positive experience, indicating that cyber lectures could be applied at more universities for subjects practicing cooking.


Introduction: To examine whether very low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D {25(OH)D} upon admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) are associated with worse outcomes. Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study of critically ill patients treated in a multidisciplinary ICU. Two hundred twenty seven initially non-septic, critically ill patients, in whom 25-hydroxyvitamin D was measured at ICU admission. An additional group of 192 healthy subjects was also used. Patients were categorized according to their vitamin D levels at admission; the two patient groups were those with severely low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (<7 ng/mL, N = 101) and those with vitamin D levels ≥7 ng/mL, N = 126. Results: ICU admission 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels of critically ill patients were much lower than those of healthy subjects (P < 0.0001). The median time to sepsis for the two patient groups did not differ, nor did the length of ICU stay (days). Both groups exhibited similar hospital mortality rates. However, among the fraction of patients who eventually became septic (N = 145), the odds ratio (OR) for developing respiratory infections in patients with admission vitamin levels < 7 ng/mL compared with patients with admission vitamin D levels ≥7 ng/mL was 5.25 {95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–18.32, P = 0.009}. Conclusions: Initially non-septic critically ill patients appear to have very low ICU admission 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. Among critically ill patients, severely low vitamin D levels (<7 ng/mL) at ICU admission do not predict sepsis development, increased risk of in-hospital mortality, or longer stay in the ICU. However, these severely low admission vitamin D levels in patients who will eventually develop sepsis are associated with development of respiratory tract infections.


The effect of interlamellar spacing on monotonic behavior of C70 pearlitic steel was investigated. Tensile tests under X-ray diffraction coupled with self-consistent model have been used to identify the role of interlamellar spacing on the ferrite plasticity parameters and residual stresses. It has been established that yielding of pearlite is controlled by ferrite critical shear stresses ( τc 0α) which is higher for the smaller interlamellar spacing. Moreover, the residual stress level in ferrite is higher for the largest interlamellar spacing under the same imposed total strain. Lattice strains, measured by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, show an elastic and plastic anisotropy of ferrite crystallites and high stresses in cementite which confirm the self-consistent model calculation. Keywords: Pearlitic steel, X-ray diffraction, Synchrotron radiation, Self-consistent model, Critical shear stress, Lattice strains.


A diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is typically unexpected and can be difficult for patients to grasp. Not only is MDS a complicated disease to understand, which can contribute to stress and anxiety, but it also has an uncertain prognosis, which can be emotionally paralyzing. Not surprisingly, emotional distress and the symptom burden of MDS, including extreme fatigue due to cytopenias, negatively impact a patient's quality of life (QOL). Studies have shown that patient-centered care—including greater physician understanding of the disease burden their patients experience, discussing and establishing agreed-on treatment goals, and including patients in the decision-making process about their care—may help improve patient QOL. To better understand patient and caregiver experiences with MDS and how the disease impacts QOL, a small survey was conducted of patients with MDS or leukemia and their caregivers on an online health network. Among the 30 respondents who completed the survey, four had MDS and one was a caregiver for a patient with MDS. Here we focus on the five MDS respondents and contextualize the findings with personal experiences from a patient and physician perspective. The patient perspective was provided by John Soper, PhD, DABCC, who was diagnosed with MDS in 2019. Dr Soper is a retired board-certified clinical chemist and a member of the MDS Foundation. The physician perspective was provided by Dr Ruben Mesa, Executive Director of the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson. The survey responses and the accompanying patient and physician perspectives highlight the importance of open communication between patients and their healthcare provider to better serve those with MDS and improve their QOL.


A single-chip CMOS PHS cellphone, integrated in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology, implements all handset functions including radio, voice, audio, MODEM, TDMA controller, CPU, and digital interfaces. Both the receiver and transmitter are based on a direct conversion architecture. The RF transceiver achieves -106 dBm receive sensitivity and +4 dBm EVM-compliant transmit power. The local oscillator, based on a sigma-delta fractional-N synthesizer, has a phase noise of -118 dBc/Hz at 600kHz offset and settling time of 15 mus. The current consumption for the receiver, transmitter and synthesizer are 32 mA, 29 mA, and 25 mA, respectively, from a 3.0 V supply


High quality and reliability are paramount for automotive and other high grade commercial applications. The implementation of scan testing including stuck-at, transition, IDDQ, bridging and cell-aware patterns have all been targeted at reducing the number of defective parts being shipped. These techniques are not always sufficient to achieve sub defective parts per million (DPPM) quality levels. This paper presents a recurring failure mechanism that was encountered on an automotive device and the subsequent efforts to expand upon existing testing methodologies to effectively screen the defective devices using a delta IDDQ method with specific logic inputs and outputs. In effect, this new testing becomes a cell-aware delta IDDQ targeting one specific input condition that was implemented in production with limited test time overhead.


This paper presents a comparison of four models of rolling contact used for online contact force evaluation in rail vehicle dynamics. Until now only a few wheel–rail contact models have been used for online simulation in multibody software (MBS). Many more models exist and their behaviour has been studied offline, but a comparative study of the mutual influence between the calculation of the creep forces and the simulated vehicle dynamics seems to be missing. Such a comparison would help researchers with the assessment of accuracy and calculation time. The contact methods investigated in this paper are FASTSIM, Linder, Kik–Piotrowski and Stripes. They are compared through a coupling between an MBS for the vehicle simulation and Matlab for the contact models. This way the influence of the creep force calculation on the vehicle simulation is investigated. More specifically this study focuses on the influence of the contact model on the simulation of the hunting motion and on the curving behaviour.


The existence of interest and interest based institution in a market economy is in fact a market failure which remains unrecognized even by such Nobel Laureates who have been awarded Nobel Prizes on their research on capital and financial markets. Just as the market of cigarettes is a failure of market to turn away the smokers from their killers, similar it is the failure of interest based financial market to turn away the finance seekers from their killers (providers of finance on interest). This market failure needs to be recognized and the solution for this failure should be found not by intervening in the market but should be found in human behavior. As putting filters on the cigarettes does not stop smokers from being killed and something is needed to change in the consumer behavior to make them turn away from their killer, similarly, correction is needed in the interest based lending and borrowing to turn them away from their killer, the interest based financial institution.


A survey was conducted to determine the incidence of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), Broad bean wilt virus-1 (BBWV), Pea leafroll virus (PLRV), Pea enation mosaic virus (PEMV), Pea seed borne mosaic virus (PSbMV), Potato virus x(PVX), Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) on pea (Pisum sativum) in Iran. A Total of 1276 random and 684 symptomatic pea samples were collected during the spring and summer of 2002-2004 in Tehran province of Iran, where pea is grown, and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using specific polyclonal antibodies. Serological diagnoses were confirmed by electron microscopy and host range studies. Incidence of viruses in decreasing order was PVX (69%), ToMV (59%), PSbMV (36.6%), BBWV-1 (26.1%), BYMV (20.3%), AMV (17.77%), TSWV (12.6%), PEMV (10.9%), PLRV (6.78%). In this survey, natural occurrence of AMV, BBWV-1, PSbMV, TSWV, PVX and ToMV was reported for the first time on the pea in Iran.


Correction for 'Controlled synthesis of pentachlorophenol-imprinted polymers on the surface of magnetic graphene oxide for highly selective adsorption' by Sheng-Dong Pan et al., J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, 2, 15345–15356.


Abstract Most carbon on Earth is bound within minerals, and increasing the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide into minerals may reduce the greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere. We document carbon disposal through the mineralization of mine tailings at Clinton Creek, Yukon Territory, and Cassiar, British Columbia. We confirm crystallographic binding of carbon in these tailings and quantify carbon dioxide uptake using quantitative phase analysis with the Rietveld method for X-ray powder diffraction data. Planar disorder in the structures of the kaolinite-serpentine group minerals makes Rietveld refinements of X-ray powder diffraction data for serpentinites problematic. Using structureless pattern fitting and with the addition of a known quantity of a well-crystallized material, the problem of structural disorder is overcome by considering the serpentine minerals as amorphous phases. We test the accuracy and precision of this refinement method using synthetic serpentine-rich mine tailings of known composition. Estimates of the abundance of hydrated magnesium carbonates in these tailings have a precision of approximately 5% relative for mineral species present in amounts greater than 10 wt%. Precise estimates of carbonate mineral content and crystallographically bound atmospheric CO2 are made for samples of serpentine-rich tailings from Clinton Creek and Cassiar. Results for mine tailings are also compared to mineralogically similar samples from a carbonate playa at Atlin, British Columbia. The potential for decomposition of metastable hydrated magnesium carbonate phases to geologically stable magnesite may represent long-term stability of the products of mineral sequestration in mine tailings.


A technique is described for embedding tissue culture cells that have been adsorbed or grown on Millipore filters. The acetone used during the embedding process rendered the filters transparent so that specific areas or cells could be chosen with the aid of the light microscope. Lymphoblastoid cells processed on the filters possessed well-defined plasma membranes and microvilli which were rarely present in cells from parallel cultures that were prepared by pelleting in the centrifuge. Fibroblast cells grown on filters retained their elongated appearance, in contrast to the rounded cells in pelleted preparations. Millipore filters were also used as a means of embedding virus pellets for sectioning. Preparations containing as few as 4 x 108 virus particles were suitable for study by the filter technique. Crude tissue-culture harvests of vaccinia virus and purified preparations of Rauscher murine leukemia and adeno-satellite viruses were successfully examined.


Great interests have been imparted on organically modified mesoporous silica materials due to their high surface areas, uniform pore sizes and integrated functionality. Besides the inherent character of inorganic and organic components, the interactions between them should also be recognised for the synthesis, including organic-group loading, mesostructure and particle morphology, condensation, as well as organic-group distribution. To obtain long range ordered hybrid materials, several factors, such as relative hydrolysis and condensation rates of the inorganic and organic sources, chemical character such as hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity and acid/base of organic ligand as well as the surfactant category, should be surveyed. A concept of 'combinatorial synthesis' is introduced here for the cases of combining two or more functional units in a typical synthesis into a single one. The silica precursors in the preparation of periodic mesoporous organosilanes (PMOs) are the aggregation of inorganic and organic silicates. The assembly will lead to a unique distribution and high concentration of functional groups. Both the confinement within the mesopores and the pore surface nature will affect the accessibility to the active sites, and therefore, the adsorption and relative applications. These characters win them ample host-guest chemistry. They can seek the opportunities in the fields of catalysis, separation, electronic devices, biomedicines, nanomaterial fabrication, etc.


This thesis concerns processes of power relations in and about the science classroom. It draws on action research involving science and mathematics teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school (for students between 16 and 19 years). For the analysis, feminist post-structuralism, gender, and discourse theories (e.g. Butler and Foucault) are combined with critical action research methodology (e.g. Carr and Kemmis) and discourse analysis (e.g. Wetherell and Hall). The aim of the study is to make visible processes of inequality and to investigate how these are constructed in 'talk' or discourse about teaching and learning. The study grew out of teachers' actions/small-scale projects in their own classrooms and so the study also investigates if and how action research can contribute to making visible, challenging and changing unequal practices and discourses of dominance. The first part of the thesis deals with this process and the analysis suggests that post-structural critiques of language and discourse are helpful in enabling actions to challenge inequities in the science classroom that currently exist. Five different articles constitute the second part of the thesis, two of which explore and survey research literature and argue for a need for more studies which investigate critically how science is shaped by specific social, cultural and historical contexts. Additionally, it is argued that it is important to focus not only on measuring differences among students but also on investigating how difference is constructed and how inequities can be challenged. The experiences and bodily feelings of what 'race' can do to gender (and vice versa) in a specific situation are recounted and examined in the third article which also invites different positions and complexity into the research field. The next two articles investigate how power and knowledge are produced, resisted and challenged in teacher and student talk within the action research project. The analysis draws on different discourses in contemporary Swedish society; for example a science discourse which produces school science (and its teachers and students) as high status, a gender equality discourse, a gender difference discourse, and an immigrant discourse which produces 'immigrant students' as problematic. Analysis of teacher talk reveals, for example, that long-established hierarchies and taken-for-granted values of school subjects in relation to gender reproduce advantage for some teachers but not for others, that teachers participate in the gendering of science subjects, and that changes in the teaching of science are resisted. Also students are located inside and outside the discourses they draw on, which qualifies or disqualifies them as 'proper' science students. Different borders are highlighted to show how students attach meaning to gender, social class, and ethnicity in different situations. Sometimes borders are produced inside bodies (the notion of the gendered brain, for example) and sometimes between cultures or according to family background. Resistance to dominant discourses is also visible in students' talk and the ways in which teachers and students reproduce borders and exclusion in the science classroom through their practices. The analysis points out the need to initiate new research which can deconstruct among others, discourses of femininity and masculinity, the 'immigrant student' and school science.


The MaquinA© Cavern is a natural resource system located at Cordisburgo, MG. It was built by nature in the last few thousand years. It's a source of knowledge to researchers and income to local people. Therefore, it's very important to preserve it. Visitors' characteristics and econometric estimation of demand systems are key information which may be important to resource management decisions. Our objective was to find the economic value of the MaquinA© Cavern. The analytical procedure was the Travel Cost method. Data were obtained by interviews. Results showed that most visitors have high educational levels and generally do not travel alone and visit MaquinA© Cavern for the first time. The average willingness to pay for visits to the MaquinA© Cavern, in each county, is R$ 80.654,81. The average willingness to pay, using individual data, is R$ 12.688,32. That estimated values do not show the real willingness to pay by individual for MaquinA© Cavern visits since use values represent a small part of total economic value of this natural resource. However, estimated values an important to public policy and local conservation projects.


The effect of time of harvest on the level of damage caused by Callosobruchus maculatus on cowpea was studied. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (variety Asontem) was planted on 9 raised beds each measuring 2.4 x 2.4 m, 3 each for early, mid and late harvests that is, 60,70 and 80 days after germination respectively. Each plot had 20 plant stands. The plants were sprayed with PAWA (Lambda cyhalothrin) at 5 weeks after germination and with Cymethoate at flower bud and pod formation stages. Harvesting was done by hand-picking pods from the inner rows of plants. The harvested pods were sun-dried and the seeds were removed and stored in sealed transparent bottles. The number of adult weevils emerging were collected and counted weekly for 8 weeks. Percent weight loss, damaged seeds and seed holes were noted for each harvest time. Mean number of emerged adults ranged from 1.7 for 60 days of harvest to 136.7 for 80 days of harvest. Significantly higher % damage was recorded for the 80 days harvest than the 60 and 70 days harvest (P= 0.0001). Percent weight loss for the different harvest times however did not differ significantly (P=0.571). Prompt harvest of matured cowpea pods would reduce the destruction of stored cowpea by C. maculatus.

 Key words: Callosobruchus maculatus, cowpea, damaged seeds, holes, weight loss.


: The activity of ATP: polyphosphate phosphotransferase was detected in free-cellular extracts of Acetabularia mediterranea. The enzyme activity in cells originally deficient in phosphorus and subsequently transferred into the phosphate-containing medium increases 5-10-fold as compared to normal. Polyphosphate degradation in A. mediterranea is probably produced by polyphosphatase, which was also detected in the free-cellular extract. It was shown that the polyphosphatase activity has two pH optima, i.e. 4.5 and 7.5, and is considerably increased when the cells are transferred into the phosphate-free medium. It is assumed that high-molecular polyphosphates involved in A. Mediterranea metabolism are responsible for regulation of orthophosphate and ATP level in the cells by ATP: polyphosphate phosphotransferase and polyphosphatase.


Recent developments in educational practices have identified the teaching of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) areas as important, but this emphasis on STEM fields has sacrificed educational focus on the arts (Cohen, 2016). This is a significant loss, not only in terms of the loss of humanities education in itself, but through the potential loss of foundational skills through practice in artistic areas. The current paper explores this idea by investigating the correlational relationship between visual spatial abilities and participation in a variety of creative activities. Spatial ability is known to be a cognitive skill that underlies success in STEM related disciplines. Though numerous studies have explored spatial ability, not much is known about how individual differences in spatial ability arise. One possible area of inquiry is personal hobbies. It seems likely that participating frequently in creative hobbies involving spatial-cognitive mechanisms would increase general spatial ability. Knowledge gained concerning the relationship between spatial ability and creative pursuits may not only support education within artistic fields, but also within science, academia, and industry. If there is a relationship between frequent engagement in creative activities and increased spatial abilities, we will have a stronger case for maintaining or increasing funding for arts education and can potentially provide a new approach to STEM pedagogy. The intent of the proposed study is to investigate the connection between the frequency of engaging in eight extracurricular activities (e.g. literature, music, arts-and-crafts, creative cooking, science and engineering, sports, visual arts, and performing arts) and whether or not engagement in these activities corresponds with increases in spatial ability.


Abstract Evelyn Underhill is mainly known for her work in mysticism and spirituality. This article explores the political dimension of her work and argues her early work in mysticism and later work in spiritual direction and retreat work underpinned her engagement with leading figures in the interwar Anglican church and their social agenda. During this period Underhill worked closely with William Temple, Charles Raven, Walter Frere and Lucy Gardner among others. In the interwar years she contributed in important ways to the Church of England Congresses, and the Conference on Christian Politics, Employment and Citizenship (COPEC) initiative. She challenged what she called the anthropocentric tendency in the Christian Social movement and insisted on the centrality of the spiritual life for any effective social reform. Underhill worked to engage the general public, as well as Christian communities, in a spiritual life that she saw as essential to the efforts of individuals and organizations seeking to alleviate contemporary social harms.


With the goal to study the mechanisms of dinuclear metalloenzymes, a new line of synthetic and computational models were prepared and studied. Mixed imidazole and carboxylate multidentate complexes were synthesized to better simulate carboxylate-rich ligand environments. Of the compounds, which showed to be the most useful, were one symmetric and the other one asymmetric and in both cases they were both found to be based on a central phenoxide moiety.

To study the mechanism of the dinickel enzyme urease, complexes containing two nickel ions were prepared from the two ligands. Analysis of the crystal structures of the synthesized model complexes indicated that the urea prefers the coordinatively unsaturated ion for its initial coordination. From kinetic studies comparing the complexes it became apparent that an open coordination site is important in facilitating hydrolytic catalytic activity. Computational models, based on the native crystal structure of the enzyme, were also used. The conclusions showed that the first coordination of urea most likely occurs on Ni1 trans to the carbamylated lysine ligand and that the published proposal based on the attack of the bridging hydroxy group is less likely due to the high energy barrier for the formation of the tetrahedral intermediate.

When ICIMP is reacted with zinc, a tetranuclear zinc complex is formed. It can easily be dissociated to dinuclear complexes. Both the structure of the complex and the structure of the environment around the avtive site in the enzyme resemble the nickel model. The complex has also been found to be very potent as a functional model for hydrolytic enzymes. Homo- and heteronuclear iron complexes were also synthesized. As a useful precursor, a mononuclear complex could be isolated and crystallographically characterized. Based on the mononuclear system, four new heterodinuclear iron complexes were isolated.


Distributed computing frameworks such as MapReduce are often used to process large computational jobs. They operate by partitioning each job into smaller tasks executed on different servers. The servers also need to exchange intermediate values to complete the computation. Experimental evidence suggests that this so-called Shuffle phase can be a significant part of the overall execution time for several classes of jobs. Prior work has demonstrated a natural tradeoff between computation and communication whereby running redundant copies of jobs can reduce the Shuffle traffic load, thereby leading to reduced overall execution times. For a single job, the main drawback of this approach is that it requires the original job to be split into a number of files that grows exponentially in the system parameters. When extended to multiple jobs (with specific function types), these techniques suffer from a limitation of a similar flavor, i.e., they require an exponentially large number of jobs to be executed. In practical scenarios, these requirements can significantly reduce the promised gains of the method. In this work, we show that a class of combinatorial structures called resolvable designs can be used to develop efficient coded distributed computing schemes for both the single and multiple job scenarios considered in prior work. We present both theoretical analysis and exhaustive experimental results (on Amazon EC2 clusters) that demonstrate the performance advantages of our method. For the single and multiple job cases, we obtain speed-ups of 4.69x (and 2.6x over prior work) and 4.31x over the baseline approach, respectively.


The tensile fracture behavior of polymer matrix composite materials was investigated with the aid of a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique. The materials, E-glass fiber reinforced epoxy matrix composites, which are applicable to bogie materials in railway vehicles to reduce weight, were used for this investigation. In order to explain stress-strain behavior of polymer matrix composite sample, the infrared thermography technique was employed. A high-speed infrared (IR) camera was used for in-situ monitoring of progressive damages of polymer matrix composite samples during tensile testing. In this investigation, the IR thermography technique was used to facilitate a better understanding of damage evolution, fracture mechanism, and failure mode of polymer matrix composite materials during monotonic loadings.


Porous Ti-Mo alloy samples with different porosities from 52% to 72% were successfully fabricated by the space-holder sintering method. The pore size of the porous Ti-Mo alloy samples were ranged from 200 to 500 μm. The plateau stress and elastic modulus of the porous Ti-Mo alloy samples increases with the decreasing of the porosity. Moreover, an apatite coating on the Ti-Mo alloy after an alkali and heat treatment was obtained through soaking into a simulated body fluid (SBF). The porous Ti-Mo alloy provides promising potential for new implant materials with new bone tissue ingrowth ability, bioactivity and mechanical properties mimicking those of natural bone.


The aim of this paper is to summarise existing evidence and new analyses that shed light on the role of reconciliation in schools and early learning services in particular, and in education more broadly. We present the first analysis in Australia of the relationship between racism/discrimination and cognitive development among the Indigenous Australian population, showing a negative and statistically significant longitudinal relationship. We discuss the policy implications of these findings, as well as the implication of the broader literature on reconciliation in schools and early learning services.


Purpose How to best select future doctors and the implications of selection for equity and access are timely, relevant, and complex issues that fundamentally affect other aspects of medical education such as curriculum design and social accountability. The authors thus conducted an environmental scan of practices related to access and selection in Canadian medical schools. Method The authors drew and built on a literature review, key informant interviews, and expert panel discussions conducted as part of the 2008–2009 Future of Medical Education in Canada project to detail the empirical basis for prioritizing the study of access and selection, the evidence base of current practices, and implications for medical schools. Results Data clustered around four principles: (1) selection criteria must address current attributes and future potential, (2) access to medical school and diversity within the class are linked to a school's social accountability framework, (3) sound instruments and protocols are necessary to maximize reliability and validity, and (4) medical schools must be accountable for the effectiveness of their admissions processes. Although initiatives addressing barriers exist, ongoing challenges include recruitment and selection for overall diversity, adoption of better criteria for nonacademic achievement, and empirical validation of selection processes. Conclusions Evidence-based selection processes can optimize the provision of broadly competent physicians for a given population. Schools must work to minimize systematic barriers for specific groups. Although this analysis provides a Canadian perspective, the principles and implications are relevant to medical education institutions elsewhere.


How can one explain the fact that a relatively weak human rights monitoring body, the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) is adopting, at times, bolder legal interpretations of international human rights law than the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – the consummate international human rights court? And how can the Committee's traditional aversion to the margin of appreciation doctrine be reconciled with the fact that it oversees a far more diverse group of states than the ECtHR? And finally, how does one explain the decision by a country to revise its laws following the issuance of the views of the HRCttee, despite the acceptance of the same laws by the ECtHR?

This Chapter seeks to provide some answers to these questions through allusion to the different historical and geopolitical context for the establishment and operation of the ECtHR and the HRCttee. In a nutshell, it argues that the ECtHR forms part of a European agenda of regional integration and democratization, which has no direct parallel at the global level, and that the said agenda influences the legal tools the Court applies and its self-role perception. At the same time, the HRCttee, like other UN treaty bodies, derive their legitimacy from other sources – especially from the notion of universality of international human rights – a notion with powerful symbolic value, which exerts on some states considerable compliance pull.


Palliative care in children involves the full cross section of childhood illness. Survival after referral to a Children's Hospice can vary from hours to many years. It is felt that survival depends on age of the child as much as the primary diagnosis. The course of the illness may influence the likelihood of being cared for at home or in the hospice following referral. Diseases with a more predictable course (cancer, SMA type 1) are more likely to die at home or in hospice. A review was done on all referrals to a single children's hospice in the UK, to understand the contribution of a children's hospice to palliative care. The dataset was examined of those referred to the Hospice during the calendar year 2000, 2005 and 2010, to understand the pattern of change in outcomes of the referral if any in the last decade. Relationship between the diagnostic category (ACT and Hospice), the interval between referral and death and the place of death were looked at. Results The data showed the same pattern in the interval between referral and death in all three years - approximately 50% of children died within the same year of referral and more than 90% of those died within 6 months of referral. Children with diagnosis falling into the ACT category 1 and 3 comprise 75% of this group dying within a year of referral. The proportion of children dying at home with more predictable course remained the same in the last decade. But there is a proportionate increase in more children coming for end of life care at the hospice. Conclusion Referrals are made to Hospices both for end of life care and supportive care. These are distinct patterns of care that may be hard to provide in the same service. Early referral is essential to get the best possible palliative care service and to build a good relationship with families by the care team. Children's palliative care needs flexibility.


ABSTRACT Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder affecting normal structure and function of motile cilia, phenotypically manifested as chronic respiratory infections, laterality defects and infertility. Autosomal recessive mutations in genes encoding for different components of the ciliary axoneme have been associated with PCD in humans and in model organisms. The CCDC151 gene encodes for a coiled-coil axonemal protein that ensures correct attachment of outer dynein arm (ODA) complexes to microtubules. A correct arrangement of dynein arm complexes is required to provide the proper mechanical force necessary for cilia beat. Loss-of-function mutations in CCDC151 in humans leads to PCD disease with respiratory distress and defective left-right body asymmetry. In mice with the Ccdc151Snbl loss-of-function mutation (Snowball mutant), left-right body asymmetry with heart defects have been observed. Here, we demonstrate that loss of Ccdc151 gene function via targeted gene deletion in mice leads to perinatal lethality and congenital hydrocephalus. Microcomputed tomography (microCT) X-ray imaging of Ccdc151–β-galactosidase reporter expression in whole-mount brain and histological analysis show that Ccdc151 is expressed in ependymal cells lining the ventricular brain system, further confirming the role of Ccdc151 dysfunction in hydrocephalus development. Analyzing the features of hydrocephalus in the Ccdc151-knockout animals by microCT volumetric imaging, we observe continuity of the aqueduct of Sylvius, indicating the communicating nature of hydrocephalus in the Ccdc151-knockout animals. Congenital defects in left-right asymmetry and male infertility have been also observed in Ccdc151-null animals. Ccdc151 gene deletion in adult animals results in abnormal sperm counts and defective sperm motility. This article has an associated First Person interview with the joint first authors of the paper. Summary: Ccdc151-knockout mice develop PCD with hydrocephalus, situs abnormalities and male infertility. Novel 3D microCT imaging analysis of the Ccdc151-lacZ reporter gene demonstrates Ccdc151 expression in ependymal cells.


The Euler Curve Transform (ECT) of Turner et al. is a complete invariant of an embedded simplicial complex, which is amenable to statistical analysis. We generalize the ECT to provide a similarly convenient representation for weighted simplicial complexes, objects which arise naturally, for example, in certain medical imaging applications. We leverage work of Ghrist et al. on Euler integral calculus to prove that this invariant—dubbed the Weighted Euler Curve Transform (WECT)—is also complete. We explain how to transform a segmented region of interest in a grayscale image into a weighted simplicial complex and then into a WECT representation. This WECT representation is applied to study Glioblastoma Multiforme brain tumor shape and texture data. We show that the WECT representation is effective at clustering tumors based on qualitative shape and texture features and that this clustering correlates with patient survival time.


Data-centered participatory design research projects—wherein researchers collaborate with community members for the purpose of gathering, generating, or communicating data about the community or their causes—can place epistemic burdens on minoritized or racialized groups, even in projects focused on social justice outcomes. Analysis of epistemic burden encourages researchers to rethink the purpose and value of data in community organizing and activism more generally. This paper describes three varieties of epistemic burden drawn from two case studies based on the authors' previous work with anti-police brutality community organizations. The authors conclude with a discussion of ways to alleviate and avoid these issues through a series of questions about participatory research design. Ultimately, we call for a reorientation of knowledge production away from putative design solutions to community problems and toward a more robust interrogation of the power dynamics of research itself.


We describe a two-generation family with combined clinical features of myoclonic epilepsy, progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO), proximal myopathy, pigmentary retinopathy, progressive deafness, basal ganglia calcification, and ragged-red fibers in a muscle biopsy specimen. One family member died unexpectedly at age 22 years. The molecular tests revealed an A-to-G transition at nucleotide position 3243 of the mitochondrial tRNA1eu(UUR) gene. No one in this family had stroke-like episodes. Although the propositus (a 28-year-old woman) had a significant number of white hairs, the percentage of mutant mtDNA in white-hair roots was not different from that in the colored-hair roots. Our findings suggest that the 3243 mutation can be associated with mixed clinical features of myoclonic epilepsy with ragged-red fibers (MERRF) and PEO and that a preferential increase in the levels of the mutant mtDNA is not related to graying of hair, and hence to the hypothesized production of premature aging of cells.


Interleukin 10tm1Cgn (IL 10tm) mice have been utilized as a model of chronic inflammation and declining health span because of their propensity to develop chronic activation in NFkB pathways, skeletal muscle and cardiac changes, and mitochondrial dysfunction. We hypothesized that older IL 10tm frail mice would have alterations similar to frail, older humans in measured parameters of glucose metabolism, oxygen consumption (VO2), respiratory quotient (RQ), spontaneous locomotor activity, body composition and plasma adipokine levels. To test this hypothesis, we investigated these metabolic parameters in cohorts of 3, 10, and 20 month old IL 10tm female mice and age and gender matched C57Bl/6 mice. Insulin sensitivity, glucose homeostasis, locomotor activity and RQ were not significantly altered between the two strains of mice. Interestingly, old IL 10tm mice had significantly decreased VO2 when normalized by lean mass, but not when normalized by fat mass or the lean/fat mass ratio. NMR based body composition analysis and dissection weights show that fat mass is decreased with age in IL 10tm mice compared to controls. Further, plasma adiponectin and leptin were also decreased in IL 10tm.These findings suggest that frailty observed in this mouse model of chronic inflammation may in part be driven by alterations in fat mass, hormone secretion and energy metabolism.


Old age care will become an increasing task in all societies as population aging gives an increasing number of elderly that will need help with daily activities. In this article different means – and their costs – of old age care are discussed. There are three ways of organizing old age care, the family, the market and the state, each one with its pros and cons. Irrespective of form, old age care is expensive and due to aging costs will increase. Thus it is important to find forms that have both high quality and use resources efficiently. Population aging as well as migration, changing family patterns and changing economic structures pose challenges to old age care and will most probably induce changes in old types of care. There might be lessons to draw from other countries. The main focus of this article is on the Swedish way, with some minor references to German and Japanese ways. It is shown how the Swedish system has evolved from being mostly a responsibility of the family to today's responsibility of the local public sector. It is tax financed and need of care is judged by local authority. Recently, privatization of providing old age care has obtained a footing, not financing though. Dissatisfaction with the care provided has lately increased the care given by family members


This paper analyzes canon 3 of the council of Pisa of 1135, with which the trade in persons is prohibited, pointing out that this prohibition must be considered valid also for the sale of inhabitants of Corsica, be they men or women. After having drawn up a general overview of the council, it will focus on the text of the third canon to understand the reasons that led the council fathers to deal with the subject of slavery, firmly defending the Corsican population, considered as a "minority" victim of a political and economic system. As we will try to show, the text of this canon is a unicum of its kind and is fully inserted within the panorama of the Church's teaching on the subject of slavery, adding a new piece to the mosaic of what was already known about the work of the ecclesiastical institution on this subject.


Conventionally, inductor current is sensed and quantized before it can be used by digitally controlled DC-DC converters. These are intuitively done by using two separated functional blocks-an analog current sensor and an ADC. A few research works have investigated other ways of obtaining the inductor current information in the digital domain. This paper proposes an on-chip digital inductor current sensor that combines both the inductor current-sensing and quantization into a single functional block. In this way, the redundancies found in the conventional approach can be reduced and optimizations can be made to save chip area and power consumption. An 8-bit digital inductor current sensor has been designed and fabricated with a UMC 0.13 μm CMOS process. The measurement results show that the digital sensor can provide digital inductor current information with a conversion time of 225 ns. This can be used by a buck converter with a switching frequency up to 4 MHz. The digital sensor has linear and monotonic input-output transfer curve properties with an LSB of 6.79 mA. It consumes current of 700 μA at 1.2 V supply voltage.


The adaptive advantage of epibenthic articulate brachiopods over inarticulate forms resulted from a modification of the mechanics of shell opening from an indirect hydraulic system to a direct muscular one. As a consequence, the articulate brachiopods were able to reduce the complex muscular system of the ancestral inarticulates, freeing two-thirds of the space within the shell for enlargement of the feeding apparatus. The original hydraulic mechanism of the inarticulate brachiopods most likely evolved from the hydrostatic skeleton of metameric lower invertebrates, probably polychaete-like annelids, as shown by a biomechanical analysis. The transitional stages between such annelids and inarticulate brachiopods are presented and explained as adaptive improvements in body construction.


: Not only in the field of education but also in many other forms of social expression and action, a period of fundamental changes can be observed due to the incorporation of new data imposed by the technological revolution. However, the process of integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the learning process requires coordination, system change and radical transformations. These changes should be incorporated into curricula, while active teachers should have ongoing training on new technologies. In such a context, this paper comes to explore the views of secondary education teachers on the use of information and communication technologies in the learning process. In particular, a sample survey was conducted to determine the degree of utilization of new information and communication technologies in the learning process, especially in secondary school teachers in the Prefecture of Aitoloakarnania. The statistical software SPSS 23 was used to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires. Tools and methods of descriptive and inductive statistics were used. The results highlight the low percentage of teachers who have received Level B certification and demonstrate the low level of ICT use by teachers, identifying at the same time all the factors affecting negatively their use and application.


The paper makes assessment of global e-cigarette publications (3885 publications) trends over the past 18 years (2001-8) via a bibliometric analysis, using Scopus database. The paper further provides an insight into qualitative performance of e-cigarettes research in terms of qualitative indicators, such as relative citation index, citations per paper, highly cited papers, top 15 global organizations and authors in the field, most favored subjects in the field. E-cigarettes annual and nine-year cumulative global publication output registered 113.60% and 7570.0% growth during the last 18 years and its citation impact averaged to 18.71 citations per paper. 89.63% share of the global research output and more than 100% share of global citation output in the field emanates from top 10 (among 37 participating countries) during 2001-18. Seven (out of top 10) countries registered relative citation index above their global average of 1.29: Canada and Italy (2.32 each), Greece (1.75), Australia (1.54), U.K. and Switzerland (1.42 each) and France (1.30) during 2001-18. Medicine is the most preferred subject on e-cigarettes research with 81.75% global publications share, followed distantly by pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (13.15%), social sciences (9.146%), environment science (7.26%), etc. during this period. Among 525 organizations and 729 authors participating in e-cigarettes research, the top 15 organizations and the authors collectively contributed 26.64% and 13.64% global publication share and 47.78% and 33.25% global citation share, respectively during 2001-18. USA and U.K. were the leading global organizations with global publications share of 52.15% and 12.54%. University of California, San Francisco, USA and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills, USA were the leading organizations with 135 and 87 papers. Roswell Park Cancer Institute, USA (53.79 and 2.88) and Food and Drug Administration, MD, USA (42.33 and 2.26) were the two leading organizations in terms of citation impact per paper and relative citation index. R. Polosa (61 papers) and K.E. Farsalinos (45 papers) were the two most productive authors on the subject. M.L. Goniewicz (77.02 and 4.12) and S.A. Glantz (69.50 and 3.71) were the two leading authors in terms of citation impact per paper and relative citation index. Nicotine and Tobacco Research (184 papers) and Tobacco Control (168 papers) were the leading journals (among 305 participating journals) publishing on this theme. 141 papers (among 3885 total papers) registered 100 to 2902 citations per paper, cumulating to a total 31459 citations, averaging to 223.11 citations per paper. Key words: E-Cigarettes, Global publications, Scientometrics, Bibliometrics.


Lately there has been enormous enhancement of buildings architecturally. Most of the buildings are designed and constructed with diverse variations like soft–storey, torsional irregularity, asymmetrical layout of walls, irregularities in plan and elevation and thus overall building configuration. Any such variation result in challenging implications in terms of structural reliability and appropriate design of structural members. Calculation of lateral forces on these structures is an essential process in case of high– rise structures and structural performance of these aesthetically appealing asymmetric irregular shaped buildings especially when subjected to heavy wind forces need to be carefully assessed by structural engineers. The present work intends at performance evaluation by studying structural reliability of symmetrical and asymmetrical regular square, L, C and T–shaped reinforced concrete multi–storey buildings subjected to wind loads. The wind load analysis on these buildings is carried out in line with ASCE 7–10 design code. A comparative evaluation of critical parameters like fundamental period, natural and circular frequency of building, maximum joint displacement, storey drift ratio, inter–storey drift, internal forces in structural members, storey response and storey stiffness determines that difference in shape of a particular storey (or building) influence overall structural performance of building.


The synergistic interaction of etoposide with cisplatin in certain tumors prompted an evaluation of its potential role in the i.p. treatment of ovarian cancer and other intraabdominal malignancies. \Ve conducted a Phase I evaluation of etoposide as a single agent to determine the maximum tolerated dose i.p., to describe dose-limiting and other toxic effects, and to examine the pharmacokinetics of etoposide in this setting. Etoposide was diluted in 2 liters of normal saline, and instilled i.p. over 10 to 25 min following maximal drainage of ascites. The dwelling time was 4 h, followed by peritoneal drainage. Twenty-two patients received 56 courses at doses which ranged from 100 to 800 mg/nr. The median age was 49, the median performance status was 1, and 18 patients had received prior chemotherapy, with or without radiation. The principal acute toxicity was abdominal pain in 10 patients; this was usually accompanied by signs of peritoneal irritation and was always responsive to nonsteroidal antiinflammatory medications. The major toxicity was dose-related neutropenia; Grade 3 or 4 toxicity affected five of six patients at 800 mg/nr. Thrombocytopenia, nausea and vomiting, and alopecia were also ob served. The recommended dose for further study is 700 mg/m2. The pharmacokinetics of etoposide in plasma and peritoneal fluid was meas ured in 19 patients. Peritoneal levels over the 4-h dwelling time declined monoexponentially with a harmonic mean half-life of 3.5 h (range, 1.9 to 7.8). Plasma levels rose to a peak at 2.9 ±1.7 (SD) h and then declined exponentially with a harmonic mean terminal half-life of 7.7 h (range, 4.2 to 15.6). The plasma area under the concentration-time curve in creased linearly with respect to dose. The relative pharmacological advantage (ratio of peritoneal to plasma area under concentration-time curve) for i.p. administration was measured as 2.8 and was independent of dose. Based on the high plasma protein binding of etoposide (94%) and the minimal protein binding in the fluid instilled i.p., the ratio of the areas under the concentration-time curves of free drug is estimated to be 47. These results illustrate that tumor confined to the peritoneal cavity would be exposed to substantially higher free (diffusible) drug concentra tions following i.p. than following i.v. administration and support the further evaluation of etoposide by this route.


Even today, thirty years after the legal battles to save the endangered snail darter, the little fish that blocked completion of a TVA dam is still invoked as an icon of leftist extremism and governmental foolishness. In this eye-opening book, the lawyer who with his students fought and won the Supreme Court case-known officially as Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill-tells the hidden story behind one of the nation's most significant environmental law battles. The realities of the darter's case, Plater asserts, have been consistently mischaracterized in politics and the media. This book offers a detailed account of the six-year crusade against a pork-barrel project that made no economic sense and was flawed from the start. In reality TVA's project was designed for recreation and real estate development. And at the heart of the little group fighting the project in the courts and Congress were family farmers trying to save their homes and farms, most of which were to be resold in a corporate land development scheme. Plater's gripping tale of citizens navigating the tangled corridors of national power stimulates important questions about our nation's governance, and at last sets the snail darter's record straight.


BackgroundThere is no consensus among plastic surgeons regarding what constitutes the scope of hand surgery practice. Due to this lack, there is a wide variability in what hand surgery procedures plastic surgery resident will see and participate in during the course of training. We assessed what faculty members of plastic surgery training programs felt were contained within the scope of practice of hand surgery. MethodsA survey was sent to all members of the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons. Respondents reported size of department, faculty fellowship training, hand surgery call coverage, and amount of elective hand surgery within their training program. They also identified what procedures were within the scope of hand surgery. ResultsNinety-three responses were received. Thirty-five respondents were certified or eligible for the surgery of the hand examination. Twenty-five respondents had 0 or 1 surgery-of-the-hand surgeon among their faculty. Thirty-nine departments/divisions performed 10 or fewer elective hand surgeries per week. Seventy-eight percent of groups taking hand call reported that all faculty members took hand call regardless of whether they had hand fellowship training. Although nearly all cover hand and wrist infections, only 49% provide care for distal radius fractures. ConclusionsIn many residency programs, hand surgery exposure is in the setting of trauma and emergencies. The inclusion of complex elective hand surgeries within a plastic surgery practice and residency program allows residents to see the full spectrum of hand surgery. This allows them to make an informed decision regarding whether to seek subspecialty training and continue the participation of plastic surgeons in the full spectrum of hand surgery.


The Test Anxiety Inventory for Children and Adolescents (TAICA) is a new multidimensional measure used to assess test anxiety in elementary and secondary school students. The TAICA is a 45-item self-report measure consisting of a Total Test Anxiety scale, four debilitating test anxiety subscales (Cognitive Obstruction/Inattention, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Humiliation, and Worry), a facilitating test anxiety scale (Performance Enhancement/ Facilitation Anxiety), and a Lie scale. In the present study, the psychometric properties of the TAICA scores are examined with a volunteer sample of 206 children and adolescents. Results of the study indicate that the TAICA scores have strong to very strong internal consistency reliability and temporal stability (1- to 3-week test-retest interval). Evidence supporting the construct validity of the TAICA scores was found.


This study was conducted to reduce runoff by rainwater infiltration facility using attached growth with bacillus sp., which are reported to remove nitrogen and phosphorus as well as organic matter effectively. This study was investigated non-point pollutants removal efficiency of organic, nitrogen, and phosphorus in column using the media attached growth with bacillus sp.. To compare attached growth with bacillus sp. and detached media, two columns filled with perlite, zeolite, vermiculite, pumice, peat-moss was installed. In A column(attached growth with bacillus sp.), in case of infiltration velocity 30 mm/hr in high concentration of influent, it showed the removal efficiency(after aging term) is SS(suspended solid) 85.8±1.2 %, T-P(total phosphorus) 67.0±8.1 %, T-N(total nitrogen) 66.0±4.9 %, COD(chemical oxygen demand) 73.6±2.9 %, NH4+-N 72.7±3.0 %. In B column(detached media), in case of infiltration velocity 30 mm/hr in high concentration of influent, it showed the removal efficiency(after aging term) is SS 86.0±2.2 %, T-P 62.5±11.3 %, T-N 53.3±3.9 %, COD 34.6±3.7 %, NH4+-N 61.5±2.8 %. Removal efficiency of A column is better than B column. As the result from this study, using media with bacillus sp. can improve a effective removal of non-point source pollutants.


BACKGROUND
To assess whether the frequency pf pregnancy-induced hypertension is low, and vegetables intake and physical activity are protective against pregnancy-induced hypertension onset among rural women from Democratic republic of Congo.

METHOD
This hospital-based and longitudinal study was carried out within the rural hospital of Kimpese, DR Congo were monitored from January 1st to March 31st 2003 on basis of demographic, diet, physical activity, anthropometry and blood pressure till the onset of types of pregnancy-induced hypertension and delivery.

RESULTS
Out of 238 black pregnants, the incidence risk of arterial hypertension was 4.6% (n=11) whose 2.9% with Pre-Eclampsia and 1.7% with transient hypertension. Gestity, parity and birth weight of infants were significantly lower among hypertensive mothers, while positive family history and presence of oedemas were more elevated among hypertensive pregnants. The onset of Pre Eclampsia was higher within vendors and inactive women as well as among vegetarians (3.1%) than women with diet high in meat (9.7%). Pre Eclampsia occurred more (p<0.05) among pregnants with rare daily servings of vegetables (33.3%) than pregnants with 3 or more daily servings of vegetables (3.7%). Physical activity (RR=0.63 CI 95% 0.33 to 0.94) and > or = 3 daily servings of vegetables (RR=8.8 CI 95% 0.6 to 0.98) were significant (p<0.01) protective factors against PreEclampsia. Eclampsia was not observed.

CONCLUSION
It is timely to promote diet rich in vegetables overweight reduction and physical activity among pregnants for the prevention of pregnancy-induced hypertension.


Abstract While many sociological studies analyze the causes, conditions, and mechanisms perpetuating American racial inequality, the literature on how African Americans understand and explain these inequalities is less developed. Drawing on 150 interviews with middle-class and working-class African American men and women, this paper analyzes inductively how respondents define and conceptualize the most pressing obstacles facing their group when probed on this question. We find that middle- and working-class respondents alike identify the problem of racism as the most salient obstacle facing African Americans. Class differences appear with respect to what other obstacles are singled out as salient: while middle-class respondents focus on lack of racial solidarity among Blacks and economic problems (in this order), working-class respondents are more concerned with the fragility of the Black family followed by the lack of racial solidarity. This analysis discusses the relevance of considering how groups make sense of obstacles, and of racism and discrimination in particular, for the study of destigmatization and antiracist strategies of stigmatized minorities.


A short polarization beam splitter (PBS) is presented based on an asymmetrical evanescent coupling system, which consists of a narrow input waveguide, a narrow output waveguide, and a wide middle optical waveguide between them. The width of the waveguides is designed so that the phase-matching condition is satisfied for the TM fundamental (TM0) mode in the narrow input/output waveguide and the first higher order TM (TM1) mode in the wide middle waveguide. Meanwhile, there is a significant phase mismatch for the case with TE polarization. Therefore, for the launched TE polarized light, almost no coupling happens when it goes through the coupling region and finally the TE polarized light is output from the through port. For the launched TM0 mode in the narrow input waveguide, it is completely coupled to the TM1 mode in the wide middle waveguide by choosing the optimal length of the coupling region. Furthermore, the TM1 mode excited in the wide middle waveguide is then coupled to the TM0 mode in the narrow output waveguide through the evanescent coupling between them. A short (~25 μm long) PBS is designed based on silicon-on-insulator nanowires, while the gap width is chosen as large as 300 nm to make the fabrication easy. Numerical simulations show that the present PBS has a good fabrication tolerance for the variation of the waveguide width (more than ± 20 nm) and a broadband ( ~ 50 nm) for an extinction ratio of >; 15 dB.


Rapidly evolving businesses generate massive amounts of time-stamped data sequences and cause a demand for both univariate and multivariate time series forecasting. For such data, traditional predictive models based on autoregression are often not sufficient to capture complex nonlinear relationships between multidimensional features and the time series outputs. In order to exploit these relationships for improved time series forecasting while also better dealing with a wider variety of prediction scenarios, a forecasting system requires a flexible and generic architecture to accommodate and tune various individual predictors as well as combination methods. In reply to this challenge, an architecture for combined, multilevel time series prediction is proposed, which is suitable for many different universal regressors and combination methods. The key strength of this architecture is its ability to build a diversified ensemble of individual predictors that form an input to a multilevel selection and fusion process before the final optimized output is obtained. Excellent generalization ability is achieved due to the highly boosted complementarity of individual models further enforced through cross-validation-linked training on exclusive data subsets and ensemble output postprocessing. In a sample configuration with basic neural network predictors and a mean combiner, the proposed system has been evaluated in different scenarios and showed a clear prediction performance gain.


This paper considers a variety of econometric models for the joint distribution of US stock and bond returns in the presence of regime switching dynamics. While simple two- or three-state models capture the univariate dynamics in bond and stock returns, a more complicated four state model with regimes characterized as crash, slow growth, bull and recovery states is required to capture their joint distribution. The transition probability matrix of this model has a very particular form. Exits from the crash state are almost always to the recovery state and occur with close to 50 percent chance suggesting a bounce-back effect from the crash to the recovery state.


Spectrum sharing systems have been recently introduced to alleviate the problem of spectrum scarcity by allowing secondary unlicensed networks to share the spectrum with primary licensed networks under acceptable interference levels to the primary users. In this work, we develop interference-aware random beam selection schemes that provide enhanced performance for the secondary network under the condition that the interference observed by the receivers of the primary network is below a predetermined/acceptable value. We consider a secondary link composed of a transmitter equipped with multiple antennas and a single-antenna receiver sharing the same spectrum with a primary link composed of a single-antenna transmitter and a single-antenna receiver. The proposed schemes select a beam, among a set of power-optimized random beams, that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the secondary link while satisfying the primary interference constraint for different levels of feedback information describing the interference level at the primary receiver. For the proposed schemes, we develop a statistical analysis for the SINR statistics as well as the capacity and bit error rate (BER) of the secondary link.


The new technologies that have a facilitation role in learning, allow the dissemination of information with reduced time costs both for teachers and students.

This paper aims to emphasize the impact of several e-learning tools used by the students of Politehnica University of Bucharest to their motivation growth regarding formal education.
We are using 2 hypotheses:
1. We expect that these e-learning tools grow students' motivation in doing course homework throughout a university year
2. We expect the students who also have a job during their studies and therefore have a lower participation in courses and practical sessions are able to maintain their motivation in doing specific homework and to graduate the university year by participating in these e-learning communities.

In the first part, the present paper aims to analyse three e-learning tools very often used by students in Politehnica University of Bucharest: Moodle, Facebook Groups, Google/Yahoo Email Groups judging by their specifics and features. We are using as research method the case study.

In the second part we propose to approach a comparative analysis of the degree of efficiency of these virtual learning communities, from a few perspectives: the frequency of usage, their usability, the preferred community for disseminating information and the degree of interactivity of each of these e-learning tools, based on the students' opinions. We have used as a research method the survey, the lot of respondents being 350 students from Politehnica University of Bucharest.
The study aimed to verify the validity of the research hypotheses and after data processing the working hypotheses have been confirmed.


The 44th International Liege Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics. Remote sensing of colour, temperature and salinity – new challenges and opportunities, 7-11 May 2012, Liege, University Campus


The importance of hydrogen bonding, a relatively strong intermolecular force of attraction between molecules in biological systems, is discussed in the respect of P450 substrate affinity towards one or more of the human P450 enzymes that are generally associated with drug and other xenobiotic metabolism. It is shown that calculation of hydrogen bond distances and energies based on simple empirical relationships provide values that agree closely with experimental findings. It is thus possible to estimate the hydrogen bond contribution to P450 enzyme-substrate binding affinity based on modelled interactions and by use of these relatively simple formulae, particularly when employed in conjunction with substrate-lipophilicity relationships.


Using multivariate self-similarity transformation, we construct explicit spatial bright and dark solitary wave solutions of the generalized nonlinear Schrodinger equation with spatially Bessel-modulated nonlinearity and an external potential. Special kinds of explicit solutions, such as periodically breathing bright and dark solitary waves, are discussed in detail. The stability of these solutions is verified by means of direct numerical simulation.


In Styria (Austria) the highest located windpark within Europe was built between 1 800 and 1 900 m a.s.l. at a lek site of black grouse in 2002. After five years monitoring data show a strong decline of the local black grouse population. Collisions of the birds with the towers are recorded, disturbance because of wind park maintenance, infrastructure and tourism are difficult to evaluate. On another mountain ridge in Styria with two windparks and a skilift the same drastic population decline was registered. Within the province of Styria between 30 and 40 locations for windparks were discussed from different points of view (technology, energy, ecology). Locations for windpower plants in alpine regions overlap with lek sites of black grouse to a very high percentage.


There is much current interest in using multisensor airborne remote sensing to monitor the structure and biodiversity of woodlands. This paper addresses the application of nonparametric (NP) image-registration techniques to precisely align images obtained from multisensor imaging, which is critical for the successful identification of individual trees using object recognition approaches. NP image registration, in particular, the technique of optimizing an objective function, containing similarity and regularization terms, provides a flexible approach for image registration. Here, we develop a NP registration approach, in which a normalized gradient field is used to quantify similarity, and curvature is used for regularization (NGF-Curv method). Using a survey of woodlands in southern Spain as an example, we show that NGF-Curv can be successful at fusing data sets when there is little prior knowledge about how the data sets are interrelated (i.e., in the absence of ground control points). The validity of NGF-Curv in airborne remote sensing is demonstrated by a series of experiments. We show that NGF-Curv is capable of aligning images precisely, making it a valuable component of algorithms designed to identify objects, such as trees, within multisensor data sets.


Various measures of the character of ablation season conditions in the Canadian High Arctic (north of 74°N) are discussed based on an analysis of daily climatic data from Alert, Eureka, Isachsen, Resolute, and Thule. Melting degree day totals appear to be the most useful index of "summer warmth." An abrupt change in the summer climate of the region occurred around 1963164. Various indices indicate a marked decrease in summer temperature after 1963. During the same period, annual precipitation in the north and northwest has increased. Glacier mass balance is strongly controlled by summer climate; in particular, annual melting degree day totals are highly correlated with long-term mass-balance records. This enabled mass balance on the northwest sector of the Devon Island ice cap to be reconstructed back to 194 7 I 48. Cumulative mass losses on the Devon Island ice cap from 1947148 to 1962163 are estimated to be -3500 kg m• However, from 1963164 to 1973/74 a total of < 350 kg mhave been lost. Significant ice-cap growth is presently limited by low precipitation even when mean summer temperatures are very low; an occasional warm summer may therefore obliterate cumulative mass gains over many years. The post-1963 change in summer climate appears to be related to the massive increase of volcanic dust in the upper atmosphere, primarily due to the eruption of Mt. Agung (March 1963). Subsequent eruptions may have caused the cooler conditions to persist. Volcanic dust affects solar radiation receipts and perhaps also influences the general circulation. If the high volcanic dust levels of the 1960s are responsible for reduced mass losses on High Arctic glaciers and ice caps, it is probable that other periods with high atmospheric dust levels (e.g., 1750 to 1880) had summer temperatures at least as cold as the mid to late 1960s. Conversely, the period of very negative balance on the Devon Island ice cap from 1947 to 1963 was probably typical of the period back to 1920 when the atmosphere was relatively free of volcanic dust.


Cortical neurons exhibit tremendous variability in the number and temporal distribution of spikes in their discharge patterns. Furthermore, this variability appears to be conserved over large regions of the cerebral cortex, suggesting that it is neither reduced nor expanded from stage to stage within a processing pathway. To investigate the principles underlying such statistical homogeneity, we have analyzed a model of synaptic integration incorporating a highly simplified integrate and fire mechanism with decay. We analyzed a "high-input regime" in which neurons receive hundreds of excitatory synaptic inputs during each interspike interval. To produce a graded response in this regime, the neuron must balance excitation with inhibition. We find that a simple integrate and fire mechanism with balanced excitation and inhibition produces a highly variable interspike interval, consistent with experimental data. Detailed information about the temporal pattern of synaptic inputs cannot be recovered from the pattern of output spikes, and we infer that cortical neurons are unlikely to transmit information in the temporal pattern of spike discharge. Rather, we suggest that quantities are represented as rate codes in ensembles of 50–100 neurons. These column-like ensembles tolerate large fractions of common synaptic input and yet covary only weakly in their spike discharge. We find that an ensemble of 100 neurons provides a reliable estimate of rate in just one interspike interval (10–50 msec). Finally, we derived an expression for the variance of the neural spike count that leads to a stable propagation of signal and noise in networks of neurons—that is, conditions that do not impose an accumulation or diminution of noise. The solution implies that single neurons perform simple algebra resembling averaging, and that more sophisticated computations arise by virtue of the anatomical convergence of novel combinations of inputs to the cortical column from external sources.


This thesis deals with Olive Chancellor?s ambition to fight for women?s rights as seen in Henry James? The Bostonians. As a leading character in the novel, Olive has a desire to see equal rights and better treatment for women in society. Being a follower of women?s rights movement, Olive wants to be able to voice the rights for women in Boston society. But, she does not have a courage to speak in front of the public. Besides, it is not an easy thing to be able to make a change in the life of women by herself. That is why, I am curious to analyze Olive?s reasons to achieve her ambition in order to voice the rights for women in Boston society and how she can achieve her ambition in voicing the rights for women. In order to reveal the reasons I use the literary approach such as characterization and conflict, to know Olive?s characteristic and the opposition she has with Basil Ransom and Mrs.Bunage related to her ambition. Olive?s achievement is gained through the gifted speech of her new friend, Verena Tarrant. Analyzing the topic, I also use the theory of characterization to reveal Olive?s character traits that drive her to have the ambition. Then, applying the theory of conflict, I expose the opposition between Olive and Basil Ransom and the opposition between Olive and Mrs.Burrage. Throughout the analysis, I find out that Olive has to face struggles with Basil in achieving her ambition about the rights for women through Verena. Besides that, Olive and Basil try to win each other?s influence over Verena. The struggle between Olive and Mrs.Burrage occurs in trying to control Verena?s life for each other?s purpose and belief. With Olive?s persistence and Verena?s gifted speech, Olive?s achievement in voicing the rights for women in Boston society comes true. Verena helps Olive to voice her ambition in women?s meetings and conventions. As a whole, Olive is able to fulfill her ambition in voicing the rights for women in Boston society through her great efforts with Verena?s gifted speech.


- This research investigates the effect of surfactant additives on phase inversion point in the oil-water flow in horizontal pipe. Two types of surfactants were used in the experiments; anionic type (sodium lignosulfonate (SLS)) at 200 ppm and cationic type (hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB)) at 100 ppm. The experiments were carried at mixture velocities (0.8, 1, 1.9 and 2.3) m/s. The results showed that the phase inversion points are unaffected by surfactant addition or velocity at low mixture velocities while they shifted downward at high mixture velocities. The experiments show also that anionic surfactant addition caused a forward shifting in phase inversion point and downward shifting in the addition of cationic surfactant at high mixture velocities.


Abstract Purpose: Health care practice guidelines require physiotherapists to include patients in goal-setting. However, not much is known about how this process is accomplished in practice. The purpose of this study is to analyse patient–physiotherapist consultations and to identify how physiotherapists enquire about goals and how patients respond to these enquiries. Method: 37 consenting patients and their physiotherapist from outpatient physiotherapy practice settings were videotaped. Conversation analysis was used to transcribe and analyse the data. Results: In 11 cases, physiotherapists enquire explicitly about goals. Patients' responses indicate that problems can arise when therapists' questions treat it as expected that the patient has a goal already in mind, and has sufficient understanding about "physiotherapy-relevant" goals. Patients' difficulties with stating a goal are related to patients' knowledge to propose a goal and whether they treat consultations as one in which it is appropriate to claim knowledge about goals. Conclusions: Goal-setting is not a straightforward process. Practices that entail asking patients to state their goals neither take into consideration the fact that patients may not know what an achievable goal is nor do they consider so-called social reasons for patients not to make claims to their physiotherapist about what the goals should be. Implications for Rehabilitation Patients respond to explicit goal enquiries using an open question with delayed responses indicating some communication problem. Goal-setting should not be treated as a predetermined process, but as negotiated in consultations. Goal-setting is a complex interaction in which participants manage knowledge about goals.


Bipedal walking is a quasi-cyclic activity where the movements of the ipsilateral leg and contralateral leg are time shifted for 50 percent of the gait cycle. Hemiplegia, a most common consequence of cerebro-vascular accident, results with unilateral disability; thereby the pattern of the paralyzed leg is modified, and in many cases prevents or greatly decreases the ability to walk normally. One possible method of restoring the movements of the paralyzed leg is functional electrical stimulation (FES), that is, patterned electrical activation of sensory-motor systems of the paralyzed leg. We developed a new method that combines several techniques that have been tested for control of FES: 1) optimal control based on a customized model of the individual using the system, 2) modeling of the plant as a nonlinear oscillator, and 3) triggering of the oscillator from the sensor that is representative of a specific phase during the gait cycle of the healthy leg. The optimal control is used to create the basic pattern for stimulation; the oscillator, modulated by the sensory measurements, brings to the control information related to the rhythm.


Thymocyte plasma and nuclear membranes obtained by the procedure described in the accompanying paper were analyzed for their biochemical composition. Plasma membranes were very rich in phospholipid, cholesterol, sialic aicd; they did not contain nucleic acids. In comparison, nuclear membranes had a lower phospholipid to protein ratio and contained much less sialic acid and cholesterol. 50% of the cellular cholesterol and of the membrane-bound sialic acid were found in the plasma membranes, 14% in the nuclear membranes. Live cells were labeled with 131I, and the acid-insoluble radioactivity was followed in the subfractions. A good correlation with the distribution and enrichment of plasma membrane market-enzymes was obtained. Label enrichment was about 50-fold in the two lightest of the three plasma membrane fractions. 60% of the label was contained in the plasma membranes, only 4% in the nuclear membranes. Cross-contamination of these two types of membranes was thus negligible. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis revealed three different patterns specific for, respectively, plasma membranes, the microsomal-mitochondrial fraction, and nuclear membranes. Each pattern was characterized by a set of proteins and glycoproteins, among which high molecular weight glycoproteins could be considered as marker-proteins of, respectively, 280,000, 260,000, and 230,000 daltons. 131I-labeling of live cells tagged with a very high specific activity three glycoproteins of mol wt 280,000, 200,000, and 135,000 daltons. Nuclear membranes prepared from labeled isolated nuclei had a set of labeled proteins completely different from plasma membranes.


The evidence concerning the level at which learned CP effects occur is complex. The goal of this study was to use a different approach to this question by manipulating the abstractness of the information available for distinguishing pairs of items in an XAB task, and the presence or absence of a short task-filled delay between X and AB. Participants engaged in XAB trials containing a mixture of trials with and without the delay task before and after standard training to classify visual texture stimuli into two categories. Training improved discrimination of pairs differing on the category-relevant dimension whether withinor betweencategory, but not on pairs differing only on non-category relevant low level features. In addition, only successful learners in the post-training trials avoided decreased discrimination accuracy due to the delay task, suggesting that they formed more stable representations. However, this effect was not limited to pairs varying in category-relevant ways.


Recently, there has been an increased interest in British educational provision arising form the consequences of the Education Reform Act (1988). The ERA was pivotal insofar as it precipitated what has been a relentless neo-liberal political campaign to legitimise 'choice' for parents and place 'power' within Schools. However, the use of school technologies that focus on 'assessment' and 'inspection', can, in this policy climate, become a means of surveillance and enforcement of morality and educational practice in the United Kingdom. Smart (1985) argues that the work of Michel Foucault (1977) can be characterised as 'neo-Marxist' and subsequently offers a set of theoretical strategies for understanding how policy discourses on education construct and control children's experiences and their identities, as constructed objects/subjects of knowledge.


Abstract Noninvasive sampling, for example, of droppings or feathers, is a promising approach for molecular genetic studies on endangered and elusive animal species. Yet, such specimens are known for containing only minute amounts of DNA, resulting in lower typing success rates relative to analyses on fresh tissues such as muscle or blood. Furthermore, artefactual signals as well as contamination are more likely to occur when DNA is limited. To increase the reliability of DNA typing from noninvasive samples, optimized DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction protocols were developed, taking advantage of developments in the forensic field aiming at successful molecular genetic analysis of DNA templates being low in quality and quantity. In the framework of an extensive monitoring project on population dynamics of capercaillie and black grouse in the Tyrolean Alps, feces samples and molted feathers from both species were collected. On a subset comprising about 200 specimens of either species, eight polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) markers were analyzed to test these improved protocols. Besides optimizing DNA yields, both lowered sample consumption and reduced hands‐on time were achieved, and the rates of informative profiles amounted to 90.7% for capercaillie and 92.4% for black grouse. Similarly, high success rates had not been achieved in earlier studies and demonstrate the benefit of the improved methodology, which should be easily adaptable for use on animal species other than those studied here. The STR genotypes were not only powerful enough to discriminate among unrelated birds but also appeared fit for telling apart closely related animals, as indicated by Pi and Pisib values. The software package allelematch aided analysis of genotypes featuring possible dropout and drop‐in effects. Finally, a comparison between molecular genetic and morphology‐based species‐of‐origin determination revealed a high degree of concordance.


The communication in Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is multi-hop in nature wherein each node relays data packets of other nodes thereby spending its resources such as battery power, CPU time and memory. In an ideal environment, each node in MANET is supposed to perform this community service truthfully. However this is not the case and existence of selfish nodes is a very common feature in MANETs. A selfish node is one that tries to utilize the network resources for its own profit but is reluctant to spend its own for others. If such behaviour prevails among large number of the nodes in the network, it may eventually lead to disruption of network. This paper studies the impact of selfish nodes concentration on the quality of service in MANETs.


Purpose This article presents a novel design of a cranial remodeling orthosis (CRO) helmet developed through a three-dimensional (3D) scanning and 3D printing process to correct an infantile plagiocephaly. Materials and Methods This research merges a handheld scanner, computer-aided engineering (CAE), and fused deposition modeling (FDM) technologies to propose an alternative to traditional plaster casting. The study finds out all criteria that will merge with requirements, 3D scanning, topological optimization into the CAE, and 3D printing to implement the design for manufacturing (DFM) approach to get a reproducible process that is less invasive for the child. Results The project identifies the current limitations and creates design requirements and acceptance criteria to define a design and manufacturing process using a topological optimization method. Based on a child's skull 3D scan, the application aims to manufacture a CRO helmet due to clinical criteria by 3D printing. The new design aims to reduce the time from assessment to initial fitting and to reduce the temperature within the CRO. The project has manufactured a CRO helmet by fused depositing modeling in 3D printing to characterize its mechanical behavior and analyze the possible improvements. Conclusions Limitations were found in the material used in the 3D printing, and some recommendations are made to improve the method. The DFM approach is useful for improving the final product by considering manufacturing and use constraints as soon as possible in the design stage, such as part orientation, infill density, and topological optimization parameters as well as the practitioner' skills. The main novelty is to have developed a 3D scanning and 3D printing process to correct an infantile plagiocephaly to obtain a CRO helmet responding to use and manufacturing constraints while proposing a suitable organic shape.


Given the risks the world economy is still facing and the ascendancy of Brazil and India as major growth poles of the global economy, government authorities in Latin America and the Caribbean should redouble their efforts to identify and capitalize upon the potential complementarities created by greater integration with the BRICs. In view of the inter-industrial nature of trade between India and Latin America including Brazil, the region should seek to create partnerships between its firms and successful Indian companies, in order to gain access to supply chains that produce more complex, technologically sophisticated inputs and services for production units. This is particularly important when growing production and trade complementarities among and between ASEAN+6 countries, now reinforced by free trade agreements, might lead to trade and investment diversion of the region's economies in Asia-Pacific. Brazil and India will continue to be key actors in safeguarding an effective multilateral system and promoting the democratization of the structures of global governance. In respect of the Doha Development Agenda, for instance, both countries should continue stressing the importance of close coordination to effectively bring about the development dimension in every aspect of the negotiations, including climate change. The region should take advantage of the economic buoyancy of China and India, as well as the new ties being forged with those countries, in order to foster innovation and competitiveness within the region. China and India offer investments (particularly in areas such as infrastructure, information and communication technologies and energy) that can supplement the funding of important projects in these sectors.