One internet site commonly used in the German language learning website german.about.com. german.about.com site is a site that contains writing exercises that vary. The exercises are also presented in this site is interesting, which is expected to attract students to deepen German language. The research problem addressed in this study were (1) How the suitability of the material on the site german.about.com the curriculum at SMA Negeri 3 Kediri?. (2) How does the use of the site as a learning material german.about.com write German language in SMA Negeri 3 Kediri?. While the purpose of this study was (1) to describe the suitability of the material on the site german.about.com the curriculum at SMA Negeri 3 Kediri. This research is a descriptive qualitative research which is then analyzed and described. The results of this study are: (1) writing material taken at the site in accordance with the map description german.about.com material contained in SMA Negeri 3 Kediri. It is demonstrated the relevance between the types of exercises with the Competence Standard and Basic Competence in the curriculum contained in SMA Negeri 3 Kediri. (2) Use of the site german.about.com in SMA Negeri 3 Kediri very attractive and effective for students as learning materials written German language, because the training given to the students, presented in an interesting and use language that is very light and simple. So that students are easier to understand and students can directly apply them in real life. From these results, we recommend that teachers use german.about.com site, so as to assist in the learning process of innovative and fun for students   Keywords: german.about.com websites, hearing skills ability


Graduation Date Spring 2018 Document Type Thesis Program Master of Arts degree with a major in Social Science, Environment and Community Committee Chair Name Yvonne Everett Committee Chair Affiliation HSU Faculty or Staff Second Committee Member Name Laurie Richmond Second Committee Member Affiliation HSU Faculty or Staff Third Committee Member Name Janelle Adsit Third Committee Member Affiliation HSU Faculty or Staff Subject Categories Environment and Community Abstract Through story, personal experience is connected to broader meaning. The stories that individuals tell about a flagship species contribute not only to the animal's role in conservation, but also to collective human imagination and culture. The purpose of this research is to reveal the roles (social, cultural, political, and ecological) that the desert tortoise plays in the California Desert, and to uncover how these roles are demonstrated through conservationist's narratives. This study utilizes mixed qualitative methods with the goal of discovering why the Mojave Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), an iconic and threatened species, has particular significance within the desert conservation community. Results suggest that the desert tortoise plays several salient roles in the socio-ecological landscape of the California Desert that fundamentally reflect the place-based values of residents. Six specific themes were found that reify the tortoise's place as a surrogate species and spotlight the place of the species in the human imagination. A discussion of the results illuminates how the conservation-reliant status of the tortoise, coupled with protection of biodiversity that is accomplished by deploying the species in development debates, highlights the need for more research on the social, political, and cultural significance of the tortoise. Further research exploring how narrative demonstrates sociocultural dimensions of flagship conservation could be beneficial to understanding human perceptions of iconic wildlife and anthropogenic impacts on a broad scale. Citation Style APA Recommended Citation Kohn, Halle Rayn, "The desert's canary: a narrative examination of the socio-political role of the threatened desert tortoise" (2018). Theses and projects. 150. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/150  Download


Kobe City is a metropolis including large suburbs, where housing communities have been developed for many years. People have been recently moving to the urban areas and the suburbs are losing their power to attract population. At the same time, many blocks of high-rise flats have being built near railway stations adjoining town centers, and are drawing people of all generations. Residents with different lifestyle preferences are making good use of town centers and city centers based on effective railway services to live together happily in a household as well as the same flats. Thus railway services can play an essential role in sustainable urban development. Keywords—Compact town, railway services, suburbs, sustainable development.


This paper has analysed the recent trends in growth of agriculture, income and employment in India. Although agricultural growth recorded was 3 per cent per annum during 2005-06 to 2010-11, few states like Kerala continue to witness low growth. Although small farmers have benefitted from this growth, their income levels are still very low. In general, the income of rural households has increased by 24.97 per cent during the period 2004-05 to 2009-10, and the increase has been the highest for agricultural labours (31.97%), followed by self-employed in agriculture (25.12%) and self-employed in non-agricultural sector (21.80%). Across farm-size, the non-farm sector has played a major role in raising rural income and reducing income disparity across the states. The study has reported a shift from the households selfemployed in agriculture and agricultural labours towards self-employed in non-agricultural sector and other labour-jobs, which has accentuated labour scarcity in the rural areas. The study has suggested that appropriate policies should be evolved to promote skill development and generate employment opportunities in the non-farm sector in the rural areas in order to increase livelihood, food and nutritional security, reduce the regional disparity and alleviate rural poverty in the country.


Using thin-film technology with its characteristic low masses and high aspect ratios a new range of possibilities is made available for the use of dynamic thermal measuring principles. Based on this, a micromachined sensor was developed for the measurement of transient thermal signal responses leading to the thermal characterization of fluids at low sample volumes. The achieved resolution allowed the measurement of thermal parameters of the investigated fluids, i.e., thermal conductivity and specific heat, inside microfluidic systems at a high sensitivity, enabling the detection of inter-fluid boundaries, e.g., as found in micromixers and -reactors, making the sensor a useful tool for micro fluidic system characterization. This is achieved via the measurement of the frequency dependent thermal signal response.


In Ethiopia different kinds of traditionally fermented foods and beverages are processed and consumed. Traditional fermentation takes place by microorganisms present in the substrate without addition of functional starter culture. This usually leads to long fermentation time, extensive work load on workers and inconsistent product quality. Kocho is one of the widely used Ethiopian fermented foods that suffer this problem. In developed countries production of fermented foods is based on the use of starter cultures, for instance lactic acid bacteria that initiate rapid acidification of the raw material. In Ethiopia the use of starter culture is not a common practice. In this study eight lactic acid producing bacteria were isolated as potential starter culture organisms for enset fermentation. They were characterized to genus level and screened by their desirable characteristics for fermentation. Isolates k15 (Lactobacillus spp.) and C (Streptococcus spp.) were found to be promising starter culture organisms. Both isolates were able to grow best at pH 4-8, 5℃-10℃ 2-6%NaCl and fermented enset in 12 days. The fermented enset (Kocho) was processed for nutritional value and sensory evaluations. The starter culture fermented enset had superior quality than traditionally fermented one in terms of nutritional content, color, odor, texture, test and overall acceptability. These isolates can be used for preparation of starter culture for enset fermentation that would reduce fermentation time, enhance the quality and market value of kocho there by contributing for ensuring food security in enset growing regions of Ethiopia.


A system for classification of iris color based on standard photographs, developed for use in a multiccntcr study, is described. Categories of iris color are distinguished based on predominant color (blue, gray, green, light brown, or brown) and the amount of brown or yellow pigment present in the iris. Two trained readers independently graded 339 iris photographs; discrepancies in grades were adjudicated. Measures of interobserver reliability were 0.76 by kappa for exact agreement and 0.97 for weighted kappa. The distribution of iris color grades demonstrates that the system achieved an appropriate level of detail within the authors" study population, which included patients with various racial backgrounds from five urban clinical centers. This simple, reliable classification system for iris color is offered for use in clinical research. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 31:1592-1598, 1990


Binti Muflikah. S1200007. 2006. The implementation of English Learning at the
Elemtary School in Salatiga (A Study of Ethnography). Pascasarjana Program of
Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta.
The Study was intended to find out the implementation of English Learning at
Elementary School in Salatiga, covering the objective of learning, model of syllabus,
the form and procedure of learning activity, the material of learning, the evaluation of
the students' learning achievement, and the role teachers and studens in learning
activity.
The research was conducted at SDN Salatiga 06 and SDN Sidorejo Lor 02 in
Salatiga, Central Java. The research was qualitative in the from of ethnography. The
subjects of the study were the two English teachers and their students. The data were
collected by using observation, interviews, and document analysis. The data were
analyzed by using technique continuously through domain, taxonomy, component,
and thematic analysis. The validity of data was tested by lengthening the time of
study and triangulation.
The result of the study showed that English learning at elementary school in
Salatiga was implemented as the local conten subjects. Related with the
implementation of English learning was brought forward the amount of dimension.
Those were:
1. The objective of learning English in order to make the students had a positive
attitude and perception and had the language skill (listening, speaking, reading,
and writing) in a simple used.
2. The model of syllabus used the thematic syllabus. Language performance and
language competence were taught integrative under certain topics or themes.
3. The form of learning was task-based learning, done classically. Meanwhile, the
procedure of learning was done through for steps of activites. Thoose were: to
make the learning design, and carry out pre-activity, whilst-activity, and postactivity.
4. The materials of learning consisted of the main material and the development
material. The main material was taken from the English curriculum of Kanwil
Depdikbud, Prov. Jawa Tengah. Meanwhile, the development material was taken
from other references, the materials were made by the teachers, and materials
which sourced from the students.
5. The evaluation of the students' learning achievement is to know the English
learning achievement. The implementation of evaluations was classified into five
parts. Those were the procedure of evaluation, kind of evaluation, tool of
evaluation, and form of the implementation test. The procedure of evaluation was
implemented through whilst-test and post-test. The kind of test was carried out in
oral test and written test. The tool of evaluation was the questions should be done
by the students as written test. The question were taken from text book, students'
xix
work sheet, and the questions were made by the teachers. The form of the
implementation test was given through formative test and summative test.
6. The role of teachers in learning activitiy was very dominant: to explain materials,
give task, control class, evaluate students' learning achievement.
7. The role of students in learning activity was depended on their teachers'
instruction. They had the little opportunity to train and use English.


We investigate whether post-hoc model explanations are effective for diagnosing model errors--model debugging. In response to the challenge of explaining a model's prediction, a vast array of explanation methods have been proposed. Despite increasing use, it is unclear if they are effective. To start, we categorize \textit{bugs}, based on their source, into:~\textit{data, model, and test-time} contamination bugs. For several explanation methods, we assess their ability to: detect spurious correlation artifacts (data contamination), diagnose mislabeled training examples (data contamination), differentiate between a (partially) re-initialized model and a trained one (model contamination), and detect out-of-distribution inputs (test-time contamination). We find that the methods tested are able to diagnose a spurious background bug, but not conclusively identify mislabeled training examples. In addition, a class of methods, that modify the back-propagation algorithm are invariant to the higher layer parameters of a deep network; hence, ineffective for diagnosing model contamination. We complement our analysis with a human subject study, and find that subjects fail to identify defective models using attributions, but instead rely, primarily, on model predictions. Taken together, our results provide guidance for practitioners and researchers turning to explanations as tools for model debugging.


I investigate optimal stock/bond asset allocation, gradual SPIA purchase decisions, and consumption decisions in retirement. I use a utility function that is intended to be representative of a retired individual's need for an income floor and desire for upside potential. The optimal strategy is similar in terms of asset allocation to the optimal strategy for stocks and bonds alone, but with annuitization occurring. Bond and stock annuitization appear to largely occur independently. Annuitization is both portfolio size and age dependent. Portfolio size dependent annuitization may start to occur prior to age 50. Unlike traditional floor and upside recommendations no SPIAs should be purchased if the portfolio is too small or too large. Turning to age dependence, the annuitization of bonds occurs earlier than the annuitization of stocks. For a male, bonds are fully annuitized by about age 62, and stocks are annuitized from about age 72 to 81. The results for a female are delayed by about 3 years. Nominal SPIAs are purchased even once annuitization reaches a maximum to counter the loss of purchasing power of nominal SPIAs due to inflation. The observed improvement in consumption from the availability of nominal SPIAs ranges from 11 to 53% depending upon age and portfolio size.


The study was done for the reason which is to developed new sorting algorithm based from the principle of pigeonhole. Majority of the sorting algorithm is based from the general purpose algorithm which to compare each element of a set by the use of logical operators such as >, < and = sign. In sorting string, one known algorithm like radix sort was the most efficient way of sorting large numbers and strings by using mixed principle of pigeonhole and other techniques. The Balangue, et al group created a new sorting algorithm for strings which only used pigeonhole principle without comparison based method. The use of pigeonhole allows one string to allocate directly in a space exactly what the key it represents to its location. The sorting algorithm require two dimensional array acting as hole of each pigeon and a conversion algorithm for strings to filter each key that represent also as a pigeon. The implementation of the algorithm is developed from c++ programming language to validate if the algorithm successful generates sorted data out from the unsorted list of data. The simulated program also tabulates the number of transitions of the algorithm and its duration to determine where and when the data traverse on each phase of the whole transition.


By exploiting intramolecular interactions such as dipole repulsion, and by incorporating a terminal chiral controlling feature, the global conformation of a molecule may be governed. In such an environment, stereoselective reactions can occur at considerable distances from the source of stereochemical information, providing a simple method for information relay over scales of >1 nm (or about seven bond lengths). This tutorial review discusses the development of this idea, and describes examples which depend on relayed dipole repulsion and on the absolute control of helicity. Future prospects in the area employing control over extended helical foldamers are elaborated.


Polysaccharides such as cellulose, starch and their water-soluble polymer derivatives have been known as degradable type polymers under action of ionizing radiation. Recently, we found that watersoluble polysaccharides derivatives such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) lead to radiation cross-linking at high concentrated aqueous solution (more than 10%, paste-like state). It was proved that the crosslinking was remarkably affected by their concentration. It was assumed that radiation formation of hydrogels of these polysaccharides derivatives were mainly due to the mobility of side chains. Side chains radicals were formed mostly via indirect effects, by the abstraction of H atoms by the intermediate products of water radiolysis. Some important characteristics of these prepared hydrogels were investigated.


In some industrial process control systems it is desirable not to allow an overshoot beyond the setpoint or a threshold, this could be a safety constraint or the requirement of the system. This paper outlines our work in designing a fuzzy PID controller to achieve a step-response with zero overshoot while improving the output transient response. Our designed fuzzy PID controller is applied to stable, marginally stable and unstable systems and their step responses are compared with a tuned conventional PID controller. A comparative case study shows that the proposed fuzzy controller is highly effective and outperforms the PID controller in achieving a zero overshoot response and enhancing the output transient response.


A procedure to obtain RNA-free preparations containing the nucleoprotein (NP) and polymerase (P) proteins from influenza virus-infected cell extracts has been developed. The influenza virus P proteins present in these preparations copied small synthetic RNA molecules derived from plasmid sequences. In addition, RNA molecules encapsidated with the NP and P proteins were amplified and packaged into virus particles when transfected into influenza virus-infected cells. Thus, the preparations of NP and P proteins display features similar to those isolated from purified influenza virions, and represent an alternative for the preparation of active influenza virus P protein.


The archaeological analysis may play a leading role in giving a general outline of the economic system in complex urban societies, also in providing information about specific aspects of the everyday life of their inhabitants. The study of the faunas of Sassari is part of a wider intervention project of urban archaeology, which involved the underground of the town in the last decade.
The analysis of new acquired contexts, the constant relationship with written sources and archaeological data, along with the comparison with previous archaeological studies, allowed the evaluation of faunal evolution over time. Furthermore, they helped to identify the changes that may be found in the age of animal slaughter, concerning the dimensions, the morphology and the exploitation of the different species having economic income. At the same time, a number of specific features related to the consumption and the processing of animal products have been analysed, thus leading to the discovery of a new category of objects never found before in the area: bone anvils used by blacksmiths to sharpen the sickles with serrated edges.
Finally, the results of the studies carried out on urban faunas have been compared with those obtained in similar researches conducted on different settlements in the area (such as villages, urban, religious and monastic centres) in order to point out the mutual relationship and the effects on food production in each period.


There is a growing realization that computer systems will need to be increasingly sensitive to their context. Traditionally, hardware and software were conceptualized as input/output systems: systems that took input, explicitly given to them by a human, and acted upon that input alone to produce an explicit output. Now, this view is seen as being too restrictive. Smart computers, intelligent agent software, and digital devices of the future will have to operate on data that are not explicitly given to them, data that they observe or gather for themselves. These operations may be dependent on time, place, weather, user preferences, or the history of interaction. In other words, context. But what, exactly, is context? We look at perspectives from software agents, sensors, and embedded devices, and also contrast traditional mathematical and formal approaches. We see how each treats the problem of context and discuss the implications for design of context-sensitive hardware and software.


The focus of the volume then shifts fully to the disease environments of the New World. Thorough and persuasive articles examine the previously unexplained ailment of dry belly ache, interpreted here as the result of lead poisoning; consider the effect of improved nutrition on a normally malnourished West Indian slave population; and Donald Cooper confirms that the susceptibility to cholera previously identified in American Blacks extended to Brazilian Blacks. Richard Steckel contributes an enterprising interdisciplinary study of slave childhood, reminding us that the common perception of good material treatment did not necessarily extend to the most vulnerable in slave societies. Finally, Thomas Wilson turns to a current medical problem, hypertension, and presents a convincing historical hypothesis for its continued high prevalence amongst Blacks. In a concluding chapter on future avenues of research, Kiple argues that with the boundaries between the physical and social sciences now broken down, black biological history has an exciting future. This volume is evidence of both the vitality and the quality of the work presently being undertaken, and of the enormous opportunities an interdisciplinary approach offers historians in this field.


A draghead known as "the pilferer", based on the principle of erosion, was invented by DEME dredging company. Using the concept of van Rhee (2010) the erosion behaviour of this particular draghead was investigated. The erosion rates created by the flow velocity along the seabed are calculated using potential flow theory. Certain assumptions were made during the use of this theory. These assumptions were validated in a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model using OpenFOAM. The CFD model also gave a better understanding of the flow field of a draghead during the erosion process. With these theories the productions of the erosion head were calculated and compared to reality. Agreement between calculations and the real situation is promising. The theory explained in this research can also be used to describe the erosion behaviour of other types of dragheads. author and Belgium for their contributions to this research. This article originally was published in the Proceedings of the CEDA Dredging Days 2012 in Abu Dhabi and is reprinted here in an adapted version with permission.


Although the human U2 and U6 snRNA genes are transcribed by RNA polymerases II and III respectively, their promoters are remarkably similar in structure. Both promoters contain a proximal element and an enhancer region with an octamer motif. The U6 promoter contains in addition an A/T rich region that defines It as an RNA polymerase III promoter. We have examined in further detail the contributions of sequences in the human U2 and U6 promoter regions to transcription by RNA polymerase II and III. We find that although the sequences surrounding the U2 cap site favor RNA polymerase II transcription, their presence cannot suppress a shift to RNA polymerase III specificity upon insertion of the U6 A/T box. In the U6 promoter, the 3' part of the proximal element homology is essential for efficient transcription and Is also involved in localizing the start site of transcription. A region downstream of the proximal element homology Is required for RNA polymerase II (but not for RNA polymerase III) transcription, both In the U2 promoter and In the U6 promoter. This element may be recognized by an RNA polymerase II transcription factor or by RNA polymerase II itself. The presence of this element in the U6 promoter raises the possibility that the human U6 gene is, under certain circumstances, transcribed by RNA polymerase II.


This review focuses on diarrhea caused by toxins released by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. These bacteria are known to produce toxins that have adverse effects on the intestinal tissue in Man and animals. E. coli is contracted through the ingestion of water or food contaminated by this bacterium. Generally, E. coli colonizes the intestinal mucosa where it multiplies and causes damage to the target cells or interferes with the homeostasis that prevails in the gastrointestinal tract. Enteropathogens such as E. coli are only able to exhibit their effects after colonization of the intestinal mucosa from where they release their toxins. These bacteria mainly affect chloride ions secretion through second messenger pathways resulting in secretory diarrhea. In this review, the association of bacteria with the gastrointestinal tract as pathogens and the resulting effects on the various systems of the intestine, including the nervous system and mediators leading to secretion and diarrhea are examined.


This paper describes several unexpected benefits of rodenticide-registration research funded by The California Bait Surcharge Program. An enclosure-type study was conducted to determine efficacy of single, preand test-bait broadcasts (10 lb./ac.) of 0% and 2% zinc phosphide (ZqP,, CAS #1314-84-7) steam-rolled-oat (SRO) groats to control voles (Microtus spp.) in alfalfa (Medicago sariva). Unexpected research spinoffs resulted from the use of: 1) eight randomly-located, sieved-dirt plots per enclosure to monitor bait distribution, bait removal, and rodentlavim (non-target) activity; 2) a bait-weathering plot and bait-sample analyses to monitor Zn3P2 biodeterioration; and 3) a C++language program to derive theoretical benefit-cost ratios associated with Zn3P2-bait broadcasts.


An employer will invest in safety and health precautions until the cost is more than the expense of paying higher wages, workers' compensation, and other accident and illness costs. Employees receive additional protection because governments have chosen to augment these financial incentives with regulation. Studies indicate that all three approaches cause employers to invest in health and safety precautions, but the extent to which injuries and illnesses are reduced is difficult to verify and may be limited in numerous work situations. The literature has identified potential reforms, but the viability of key reforms is uncertain. Thus, labor markets, compensation, and regulation are highly imperfect alternatives concerning the reduction of occupational accidents and illnesses. As a result, continued reliance on all three approaches is indicated.


The cotton fiber was oxidized to dialdehyde cellulose by sodium periodate oxidation reaction. The oxidized cotton samples having different oxidation level were obtained with adjusting the periodate concentration and oxidation time. The wide angle X-ray diffraction analysis indicated the crystallinity of the cotton cellulose by the slight oxidation increased, whereas the crystallinity decreased significantly with increase in the degree of oxidation of the cotton cellulose. Differential scanning calorimetric curves of the oxidized samples showed that the slightly oxidized cotton cellulose decomposed at a somewhat higher temperature than the original cotton cellulose in the endothermic decomposition stages up to 350 . However, as the periodate concentration and oxidation time were enhanced further, the endothermic decomposition peak of the oxidized cotton cellulose shifted fast to lower temperature. Furthermore, the changes in the structure and crystallinity were also reflected in the mechanical property studies of these oxidized cellulose samples. The mechanical strength of the cotton thread, which was oxidized by periodate at the concentration of 0.0–1.0 mg/ml and oxidation time for 0–3 h, was found to be almost the same as the original cotton thread, but it decreased remarkably when the oxidation conditions became stronger. These results obtained suggest information in understanding the crystalline structure changes of cellulose in periodate oxidation and planning applications of the oxidized cellulose products.


Monitoring patients with serious cardiovascular problems is invaluable in preventing further crises and achieving a faster, more effective attention. To this end, noninvasive cardiologic tests such as dynamic electrocardiography (e.g., Holter) have proven useful in clinical practice. The present document puts forward a novel Holter system that benefits from the GSM mobile telephony standard widespread technology. The suggested design adds to the traditional Holter capabilities the attractive features of real-time processing and the possibility of monitoring the patients' heart anywhere, anytime.


Consumption of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) during ischemia leads to the failure of cell membrane ATP-dependent ion pumps, cell lysis, and activation of the inflammatory cascade, which contributes to endothelial injury during reperfusion. Adenosine is a lipidsoluble precursor in ATP metabolism that may be depleted during reperfusion, exacerbating this injury. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of adenosine administration with reperfusion on endothelium-dependent relaxation in the rabbit superficial femoral artery. New Zealand white rabbits underwent 3 hours of complete unilateral hindlimb ischemia followed by 2 hours of reperfusion. Animals received an intraarterial infusion of adenosine (0.35 mg/kg/min) or an equivalent volume of normal saline (1 cc/min) during the first 20 minutes of reperfusion. A sham group underwent aortoiliac collateral ligation and 5 hours of anesthesia without ischemia. A control group underwent immediate superficial femoral artery explantation with no collateral ligation or prolonged anesthesia. The superficial femoral arteries were explanted and suspended as 3 mm segments upon isometric force transducers within organ bath chambers. Contraction was evaluated with potassium chloride (KCl) and maximal norepinephrine (NE). Acetylcholine (Ach) relaxation was determined after NE submaximal contraction. No difference in contractile response to KCl was observed among the four groups. A significant increase in contraction to maximum NE was observed for vessels in the adenosine group (P<0.05). A significant increase in relaxation was noted over four consecutive doses of Ach administered to vessels from the adenosine, sham, and control groups when compared with the saline group (P<0.05). Adenosine administered during reperfusion preserved endothelium-dependent relaxation after ischemia and reperfusion in the rabbit superficial femoral artery. Adenosine may act as a substrate for ATP resynthesis and maintain cellular integrity during reperfusion. This form of pharmacologic therapy may prove clinically useful in the treatment of extremity ischemia/reperfusion injury.


The stellar occultation technique provides competitive accuracy in determining the sizes, shapes, astrometry, etc., of the occulting body, comparable to in-situ observations by spacecraft. With the increase in the number of known Solar System objects expected from the LSST, the highly precise astrometric catalogues, such as Gaia, and the improvement of ephemerides, occultations observations will become more common with a higher number of chords in each observation. In the context of the Big Data era, we developed sora, an open-source python library to reduce and analyse stellar occultation data efficiently. It includes routines from predicting such events up to the determination of Solar System bodies' sizes, shapes, and positions.


The ground plane (GP) concept is one of the techniques used to reduce the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) in nanoscale MOSFETs and is effective only when the distance between the GP and the drain is small as compared with the channel length. Therefore, if the GP is placed in the substrate (GPS), the buried oxide (BOX) thickness should be kept as small as possible which, however, results in an increased subthreshold slope. As a result, for sub-100-nm channel lengths, it is not possible to achieve both reduced DIBL and steep subthreshold slope using GPS. In this brief, a new device structure with the GP BOX is proposed to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings so that a reduced DIBL as well as an improved subthreshold slope can be obtained. Two-dimensional simulation is used to understand the efficacy of the proposed method.


Poly(ethylene glycol)–poly(vinylphosphonic acid) block copolymers (PEG-b-PVPA) of low average molar mass were synthesized by RAFT/MADIX polymerization. Their intrinsic properties (i.e. anionic-neutral character which brings both ability to strongly interact with cations and steric stabilization) allow the one-step in situ synthesis of water-dispersible iron oxide nanoparticles with controlled size and high colloidal stability. The effect of structural properties of the polymer (chain length of PEG and PVPA blocks) on the formation and/or stabilization of nanoparticles has been evaluated. Additionally, PVPA and PAA block complexing abilities were compared and the advantage of phosphonic acid groups over carboxylic acid groups was proven. Hemocompatibility tests carried out with the DHBCs alone and DHBC/iron oxide hybrid nanoparticles revealed that the hemolysis rates observed with phosphonated copolymers were much lower than for their carboxylated analogs.


A three-month-old girl with nephroblastoma had at the same time a hypercalcemia and elevated parathyroid hormone levels. Both biochemical findings disappeared after surgical removal of the tumor.


Echo planar imaging (EPI)-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data are often corrupted by Nyquist ghost artifacts resulting from odd-even shifts of the EPI read-outs. Algorithms that corrects for the Nyquist ghost artifacts rely on calibration scans that are collected prior to the data acquisition. However, a more complex pattern of ghosting artifacts arises when diffusion-weighted data are acquired using segmented k-space EPI read-outs. The additional under-sampling present in the segmented acquisitions and the inter-shot motion during diffusion weighted acquistion cause ghosting artifacts in addition to the EPI ghosting arising from odd-even shifts. We propose a comprehensive method that can remove the Nyquist-ghosting artifacts as well as the inter-shot motion-induced ghosting artifacts in diffusion weighted images in a single step from partial Fourier data without the need for a calibration scan. We show very high quality diffusion data recovery using the proposed method.


The wave propagation in an adiabatic tapered waveguide with left-handed metamaterial (LHM) core and air cladding is investigated by mode-matching method. The results show that the forward guided modes will always couple to the backward modes at the 'critical' thickness in the lossless waveguide. So, the propagating wave will not be completely standstill at the 'critical' thickness as proposed in previous reports, but be 'bounced' back. Besides, the propagation of wave in a lossy LHM tapered waveguide is also investigated.


Significance Frameshift and nonsense mutations pose a major problem for disease therapeutic development. Eliminating these mutations from the messenger RNA by inducing exon skipping is a relatively unexplored treatment approach, though it has shown promise for some diseases. Here, we show that eliminating a common stop mutation associated with cystic fibrosis (CF), by inducing the skipping of the exon it is located in, results in a restoration of the open reading frame and recovers CFTR protein function in a manner expected to be therapeutic in CF patients who don't currently have effective treatment options. These results are an important advancement for the CF community but also have implications for other diseases where terminating mutations are responsible for dysfunction. CFTR gene mutations that result in the introduction of premature termination codons (PTCs) are common in cystic fibrosis (CF). This mutation type causes a severe form of the disease, likely because of low CFTR messenger RNA (mRNA) expression as a result of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, as well as the production of a nonfunctional, truncated CFTR protein. Current therapeutics for CF, which target residual protein function, are less effective in patients with these types of mutations due in part to low CFTR protein levels. Splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), designed to induce skipping of exons in order to restore the mRNA open reading frame, have shown therapeutic promise preclinically and clinically for a number of diseases. We hypothesized that ASO-mediated skipping of CFTR exon 23 would recover CFTR activity associated with terminating mutations in the exon, including CFTR p.W1282X, the fifth most common mutation in CF. Here, we show that CFTR lacking the amino acids encoding exon 23 is partially functional and responsive to corrector and modulator drugs currently in clinical use. ASO-induced exon 23 skipping rescued CFTR expression and chloride current in primary human bronchial epithelial cells isolated from a homozygote CFTR-W1282X patient. These results support the use of ASOs in treating CF patients with CFTR class I mutations in exon 23 that result in unstable CFTR mRNA and truncations of the CFTR protein.


Cryptography defines different methods and technologies used in ensuring communication between two parties over any communication medium is secure, especially in presence of a third part. This is achieved through the use of several methods, such as encryption, decryption, signing, generating of pseudo-random numbers, among many others. Cryptography uses a key, or some sort of a password to either encrypt or decrypt a message that needs to be kept secret. This is made possible using two classes of key-based encryption and decryption algorithms, namely symmetric and asymmetric algorithms. The best known and the most widely used public key system is RSA. This algorithm comprises of three phases, which are the key generation phase, encryption phase, and the decryption phase. Owing to the advancement in computing technology, RSA is prone to some security risks, which makes it less secure. The following paper preview different proposals on different methods used to enhance the RSA algorithm and increase its security. Some of these enhancements include combining the RSA algorithm with Diffie-Hellman or ElGamal algorithm, modification of RSA to include three or four prime numbers, offline storage of generated keys, a secured algorithm for RSA where the message can be encrypted using dual encryption keys, etc.


This obituary essay on the final book by the cultural critic Christopher Lasch appeared in the Times Literary Supplement in 1995. The essay examines Lasch's final work, The Revolt of the Elites, against the rest of his body of writing. In particular, it examines Lasch's populism and stance against the increasingly transnatonal elites loosely characterized as the New Class. It discusses Lasch's emphasis on the family as the locus of what remained a significantly Freudian cultural discourse, and examines the ways in which Lasch saw the family as being taken apart and then reassembled according to the mores of the administrative state. The review essay concludes by asking to what extent Lasch was a communitarian, and what role he assigned elites in society.


A shift from cultivating cereal crops towards vegetables and other cash crops has evolved through the process of agricultural intensification in the hills of the Himalayan region. Agricultural intensification has attracted the attention of researchers in Nepalese agriculture due to its potential impacts on the environment and socio-economic status of farmers. Nevertheless, socio-economic drivers of agricultural intensification are as yet poorly studied in the Himalayan region. Farmers' perceptions of the effects of agricultural intensification on society and the environment are analysed in the Ansikhola watershed of Kavre district, Nepal. Before the onset of agricultural intensification, food sufficiency was the primary measure of the economic condition of farmers. However, in recent years agricultural income and profits have become key socio-economic measures. This study reveals that intensive agricultural practices shifted need-based cereal farming to market-oriented vegetable-based production systems, thereby improving socio-economic conditions for farmers. Positive changes in wealth and social status, migration from rural to urban areas, and shift in social division of labour are other important impacts.


Tacrolimus ointment (Protopic, Fujisawa) is an effective agent in a class of topical immunomodulators. Its mechanism of action is based on calcineurin inhibition, which results in decreased T-cell activation and inflammatory cytokine release. Tacrolimus ointment is safe and effective for short- and long-term treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) in pediatric and adult patients. The most common adverse events associated with its use are a transient burning sensation and pruritus at the site of application. Unlike topical corticosteroid agents, tacrolimus ointment does not cause a reduction in collagen synthesis or skin thickness. Because tacrolimus ointment does not cause skin atrophy, it may be safely used for months or years on all skin areas, including the face and intertriginous areas.


The purpose of this investigation was to identify a deep-water running (DWR) style that most closely approximates terrestrial running, particularly relative to the lower extremities. Twenty intercollegiate distance runners (women, N = 12; men, N = 8) were videotaped from the right sagittal view while running on a treadmill (TR) and in deep water at 55–60% of their TR &OV0312;O2max using 2 DWR styles: cross-country (CC) and high-knee (HK). Variables of interest were horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) displacement of the knee and ankle, stride rate (SR), &OV0312;O2, heart rate (HR), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Multivariate omnibus tests revealed statistically significant differences for RPE (p < 0.001). The post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed significant differences between TR and both DWR styles (p < 0.001). The kinematic variables multivariate omnibus tests were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.001 to p < 0.019). The post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed significant differences in SR (p < 0.001) between TR (1.25 ± 0.08 Hz) and both DWR styles and also between the CC (0.81 ± 0.08 Hz) and HK (1.14 ± 0.10 Hz) styles of DWR. The CC style of DWR was found to be similar to TR with respect to linear ankle displacement, whereas the HK style was significantly different from TR in all comparisons made for ankle and knee displacement. The CC style of DWR is recommended as an adjunct to distance running training if the goal is to mimic the specificity of the ankle linear horizontal displacement of land-based running, but the SR will be slower at a comparable percentage of &OV0312;O2max.


An excellent heterojunction structure is vital for the improvement of photocatalytic performance. In this study, BiOCl/MIL-100(Fe) hybrid composites were prepared via a one-pot coprecipitation method for the first time. The prepared materials were characterized and then used as a photo-Fenton catalyst for the removal of organic pollutants in wastewater. The BiOCl/MIL-100(Fe) hybrid exhibited better photo-Fenton activity than MIL-100(Fe) and BiOCl for RhB degradation; in particular, the hybrid with 50% Bi molar concentration showed the highest efficiency. The excellent performance can be ascribed to the presence of coordinatively unsaturated iron centers, abundant Lewis acid sites, fast H2O2 activation, and efficient carrier separation on BiOCl nanosheets due to the high charge carrier mobility of the nanosheets. The photo-Fenton mechanism was studied, and the results indicated that ˙OH and h+ were the main active species for organic pollutant degradation. The coprecipitation-based hybridization approach presented in this paper opens up an avenue for the sustainable fabrication of photo-Fenton catalysts with abundant coordinatively unsaturated metal centers and efficient electron–hole separation capacity.


A new porous material, alveolate Cu2−xSe microsheets, was synthesized through a simple one-step solvothermal process. The surface morphology and microstructure of the as-prepared Cu2−xSe were characterized by various techniques. It was found that the as-synthesized Cu2−xSe has hierarchical porosity composed of mesopores and macropores, and rich active surfaces of {111} facets. A noteworthy visible-light-responsive photocatalytic discoloration of Rhodamine B was observed for the as-developed alveolate Cu2−xSe microsheets. The superior photocatalytic properties demonstrated by the as-synthesized Cu2−xSe are mainly attributed to the highly accessible active surfaces of the {111} facets and the wider light absorption range resulting from its narrower band gap.


The topic of this research is: The Implementation of International Rules related to the Protection of Vulnerable Persons in Cameroon. Implementation is one most topical issues with respect to Human Rights in developing countries. States have adopted international rules concerning vulnerable persons, which have consequently given rise to a complete body of instruments. The responsibility of implementing these rules is emphasized by several legal instruments that govern Human Rights in general, particularly the United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Since independence, the respect of Human Rights has been enshrined in the Cameroon's constitution. However, in spite of this theoretical consecration, concerns related to the protection of human rights persist due to socio-cultural sluggishness and economic difficulties, which cause dramatic effects within the most vulnerable social groups. The main point of departure for the research is to understand how Cameroon is implementing international rules which it has ratified in relation to the protection of vulnerable persons. The research methodology utilized consisted of an analysis of international legal instruments in relation with the social environment. It is based on the sociological positivism and adopts universalism, cultural relativism, legal and institutional pluralism and the spiral of change as explanatory theories. On basis of the notion of vulnerability, four categories of persons that stand to benefit from international rules were selected : children, elderly persons, women and disabled persons. Due to the "intersectionality" between the different forms of marginalization, the thesis proposes an operational definition in general. This definition refers to a person in a precarious situation and with temporary or permanent weaknesses inherent to her nature, her living condition or physical or mental condition that - in interaction with socio-cultural barriers - makes her unable to protect her interests and exposes her to exclusion and external attacks threatening her autonomy, dignity or physical or psychological integrity and requires, in this respect, special protection measures. It evaluates the overall mechanism of protection of rights in the light of the universalism of Human Rights and cultural diversity, and demonstrates that the protection of vulnerable persons is the responsibility of the whole society. Even if the State remains a key actor and acts on the basis of national solidarity, a lead role is also played by the international community that contributes in the context of collective responsibility to the implementation of protection rules of vulnerable persons in Cameroon. The obstacles to the full realization of the rights of vulnerable persons cannot be overrated. They suffer from persistence of many social and cultural constraints that become apparent in practices as child trafficking, labour, violence against women, early and forced marriages, genital mutilation, stigmatization of people with disabilities, or neglect of the elderly. Nevertheless the principles, institutions, and procedures put in place to ensure the implementation of international rules on the protection of vulnerable persons in Cameroon are in favour of a better social integration of such persons.


Medulloblastomas are malignant brain tumors that arise in the cerebellum in children and disseminate via the cerebrospinal fluid to the leptomeningeal spaces of the brain and spinal cord. Challenged by the poor prognosis for patients with metastatic dissemination, pediatric oncologists have developed aggressive treatment protocols, combining surgery, craniospinal radiation, and high-dose chemotherapy, that often cause disabling neurotoxic effects in long-term survivors. Insights into the genetic control of medulloblastoma dissemination have come from transposon insertion mutagenesis studies. Mobilizing the Sleeping Beauty transposon in cerebellar neural progenitor cells caused widespread dissemination of typically nonmetastatic medulloblastomas in Patched þ/À mice, in which Shh signaling is hyperactive. Candidate metastasis genes were identified by sequencing the insertion sites and then mapping these sequences back to the mouse genome. To determine whether genes located at transposon insertion sites directly caused medulloblastomas to disseminate, we overexpressed candidate genes in Nestin þ neural progenitors in the cerebella of mice by retroviral transfer in combination with Shh. We show here that ectopic expression of Eras, Lhx1, Ccrk, and Akt shifted the in vivo growth characteristics of Shh-induced medulloblastomas from a localized pattern to a disseminated pattern in which tumor cells seeded the leptomeningeal spaces of the brain and spinal cord.


Faults at convergent plate boundaries are important conduits for fluid escape, and recent evidence suggests that fluid expulsion along them is both transient and heterogeneous. For the Nankai and Barbados convergent margins, we have used numerical models to investigate the long-term partitioning of expelled fluids between diffuse flow and flow along connected high-permeability fault conduits. For a simple case of spatial heterogeneity, we estimated the extent of high-permeability conduits necessary to maintain a balance between incoming and expelled fluids. For the case of transient expulsion, we constrained the duration of elevated permeability required to balance the fluid budgets. Comparison of modeled and observed geochemical profiles suggests that the initiation of connected flow conduits is delayed with respect to the time of accretion into each accretionary complex and may be related to burial below a critical depth, either where the overlying wedge is sufficiently thick to prevent fluid escape to the sea floor or where sediments behave brittlely.


TRIP-assisted steel with a composition of 0.2%C, 1.6%Mn, 1.5%Al was studied in the undeformed state, after the application of 10 and 30 % static tensile strain parallel to rolling the direction of the sheet and after dynamic (Hopkinson) fracture test. Detailed examination of the microstructure and microtexture by means of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) was carried out in order to quantify the microstructural constituents and to study the strain distribution. The microtexture evolution and the distribution of the specific texture components between the BCC and FCC phases were studied as a function of the external strain and the strain mode-static or dynamic. The strain localization and strain distribution between the structural constituents were quantified based on local misorientation maps. The full constraint Taylor model was used to predict the texture changes in the material and the results were compared to the experimental findings. Comparing the local misorientation data it was found that at low strains the ferrite accommodates approximately 10 times more deformation than the retained austenite. The strain localizes initially on the BCC-FCC phase boundaries and is then spread in the BCC constituents (ferrite and bainite) creating a deformation skeleton in the BCC phase. It was found that the observed texture changes in the measured retained austenite texture after deformation do not correspond exactly to the model prediction. The austenite texture components which were predicted by the Taylor model were not found in the measured austenite texture after deformation which means that they are first transformed to martensite, which is considered as an indication for the selective transformation of austenite under strain.


The main objective of this paper is to identify the relationship between foreign policy, international image and national transformation using Nigeria as focus from independence to date. The paper adopted a historical approach backed by textual analysis of secondary data which it relied heavily upon and these informed the findings, conclusion and recommendations that followed. The contention of the paper is that effective and proactive foreign policy articulation and implementation have profound effects on international image which could galvanize or impact on national transformation.


This paper reviews various nonlinear analysis methods for physiological signals. The assessment is based on a discussion of chaos-inspired methods, such as fractal dimension (FD), correlation dimension (D2), largest Lyapunov exponet (LLE), Renyi's entropy (REN), Shannon spectral entropy (SEN), and approximate entropy (ApEn). We document that these methods are used to extract discriminative features from electroencephalograph (EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) signals by reviewing the relevant scientific literature. EEG features can be used to support the diagnosis of epilepsy and HRV features can be used to support the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases as well as diabetes. Documenting the widespread use of these and other nonlinear methods supports our thesis that the study of feature extraction methods, based on the chaos theory, is an important subject which has been gaining more and significance in biomedical engineering. We adopt the position that pursuing research in the field of biomedical engineering is ultimately a progmatic activity, where it is necessary to engage in features that work. In this case, the nonlinear features are working well, even if we do not have conclusive evidence that the underlying physiological phenomena are indeed chaotic.


Vedolizumab has shown efficacy, safety and tolerability as treatment for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, vedolizumab induction therapy only shows clinical response and remission in roughly 55% and 30% of IBD patients, respectively. Vedolizumab binds and blocks migration of T-lymphocytes and eosinophils. In this study, we aimed to explore the predictive value of mucosal eosinophils and serum eotaxin-1, an eosinophil chemoattractant, regarding response to vedolizumab induction therapy.

 84 IBD patients treated within the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) (37 Crohn's disease [CD], 47 ulcerative colitis [UC]) were included. In a subset of 24 IBD patients (9 CD, 15 UC) histopathological data were analyzed for eosinophil counts in high power fields (hpf) in non-inflamed colon ascendens tissue prior to vedolizumab treatment. In another subset of 64 IBD patients, (28 CD, 36 UC) baseline serum eotaxin-1 was quantified prior to vedolizumab treatment. Clinical response or remission was defined as a decrease of the Harvey Bradshaw Index (HBI) for CD or Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SCCAI) for UC together with physician's global assessment (PGA). Serum eotaxin-1 was externally assessed as a biomarker for response to vedolizumab induction therapy in 100 IBD patients derived from the GEMINI 1 & 2 trials.

 Baseline eosinophil mucosal count was significantly higher in vedolizumab induction therapy responders, compared to primary non responders (69[34–138] vs. 24[18–28] eosinophils/hpf respectively, P<0.01). Baseline serum eotaxin-1 levels in the UMCG cohort were significantly elevated in therapy responders, compared to primary non-responders (0.33 vs. 0.20 ng/mL, P<0.01). The final prediction model based on mucosal eosinophil count showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.90 and serum eotaxin-1 an adjusted AUC of 0.79 The optimal with balanced cut-off value for eosinophil count was > 30 eosinophils/hpf with a sensitivity of 90.9% and specificity of 92.3% (Youden's index 0.83). Results derived from the GEMINI I & II cohorts did not show any associations between eotaxin-1 levels and therapy response.

 Mucosal eosinophil abundance in non-inflamed colon ascendens biopsies can predict vedolizumab induction therapy response in IBD patients. More studies are warranted to confirm these preliminary results and further investigate the additional value of eotaxin-1 regarding predicting vedolizumab therapy response.


ABSTRACT The current study examines the influence of positive, negative, and mixed portrayals of the police in the media on perceptions of police. Participants were randomly assigned to watch an edited video segment from entertainment media. Employing a within-subjects design, participants were surveyed on their perceptions of police, exposed to a video clip, and then re-surveyed. Results from paired-samples t-tests provide evidence concerning media impact on perceptions of police with strong internal validity. The current findings indicate that media exposure can matter, particularly when it introduces negative images of police. Even when mixed images of police were presented, participants were more driven by the negative portrayal. This finding is in line with an asymmetrical impact of negative encounters with police relative to positive encounters.


The effectiveness of Nitroglycerin and its derivates in angina pectoris is well-known. One of the main effects is the reduction of left ventricular filling pressure. Therefore in patients with left ventricular failure after acute myocardial infarction or with chronic coronary heart disease the indication for Nitroglycerin has to be proved. In 51 patients with 76 measurements Nitroglycerin sublingual, intravenous Nitroglycerin, Isosorbide-Dinitrate and Myocardon were investigated. All substances decreased pulmonary artery pressure especially left ventricular filling pressure. Cardiac output increased or decreased in dependence to the height of left ventricular enddiastolic pressure. In the patients with myocardial infarction and left ventricular failure with filling pressures over 20 mm Hg a significant increase in cardiac output was observed. On the contrary in patients without left ventricular failure cardiac output decreased slightly. Nitroglycerin sublingual is especially useful in the most severe form of left ventricular failure: in pulmonary oedema. 0.8 mg of Nitroglycerin 3 to 4 times in 5 to 10 minutes distance is necessary dependent on the severity of the pulmonary oedema and the height of the blood pressure. The permanent intravenous infusion of Nitroglycerin (3 to 6 mg per hour) is very efficient in the treatment of congestive failure in acute myocardial infarction. The left ventricular filling pressure decreased from 28 to 16 mm Hg with an increase in cardiac output from 3.5 to 4.01/min. The mean arterial pressure dropped about 10 mm Hg. Also with oral derivates of Nitroglycerin (Isosorbide-Dinitrate and Myocardon) an extensive decrease in left ventricular filling pressure and an increase in cardiac output has been observed in patients with left heart failure.


The application of pulsed electric fields (PEFs) to whole tomatoes is proposed as a pre-processing treatment to obtain purees with high health-related properties. Tomato fruit was subjected to different electric field strengths (0.4, 1.2 and 2 kV cm-1) and number of pulses (5, 18 and 30 pulses). Tomatoes were stored at 4 °C for 24 h after PEF processing and then ground and mixed with 5% olive oil. The resulting tomato-based product was subjected to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion. PEF treatments significantly increased the amount and bioaccessible fraction of carotenoids in the derived product. Treatments conducted at 2 kV cm-1 and 30 pulses led to the greatest increase in the concentration of any of the carotenoids studied in tomato-based products. The amount of carotenoids incorporated into the micellar phase was increased in the products obtained from PEF-treated tomatoes, especially after the application of 5 pulses at 2 kV cm-1. Under such treatment conditions, the bioaccessibility of lycopene, δ-carotene, β-carotene, γ-carotene and lutein was increased by 132%, 2%, 53%, 527% and 125%, respectively. Therefore, the application of PEFs as a pre-treatment could be considered as a promising technology to obtain tomato derivatives with high antioxidant potential.


Background: Delirium is a common and serious complication of major surgery for older adults. Postoperative social and behavioral support (e.g., early mobilization, mealtime assistance) may reduce the incidence and impact of delirium, and these efforts are possible with proactive patient-care programs. This pilot trial tests the hypothesis that a multicomponent decision support system, which sends automated alerts and recommendations to patient-care programs and family members for high-risk patients, will improve the postoperative environment for neurocognitive and clinical recovery. Methods: This will be a randomized, controlled, factorial pilot trial at a large academic medical center. High-risk, non-cardiac surgery patients (≥70 years old) will be recruited. Patients will be allocated to a usual care group (n=15), Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP)-based paging system (n=15), family-based paging system (n=15), or combined HELP- and family-based system (n=15). The primary outcome will be the presence of delirium, defined by positive long-form Confusion Assessment Method screening. Secondary outcomes will include additional HELP- and family-based performance metrics along with various neurocognitive and clinical recovery measures. Exploratory outcomes include the incidence of positive family-based delirium assessments post-discharge, 36-item Short Form Survey, PROMIS Cognitive Function Abilities Subset 4a, and 30-day readmission rates. Ethics and dissemination: This trial has received approval by the University of Michigan Medical Institutional Review Board (IRBMED). Dissemination plans include presentation at scientific conferences, publication in medical journals, and distribution via educational and news media. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT04007523, registered on 7/3/2019.


Modeling, simulation and identification has been actively researched in solving practical engineering problems. This book presents the wide applications of modeling, simulation and identification in the fields of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, computer science and information technology. The book consists of 17 chapters arranged in an order reflecting multidimensionality of applications related to power system, wireless communication, image and video processing, control systems, robotics, soil mechanics, road engineering, mechanical structures and workforce capacity planning. New techniques in signal processing, adaptive control, non-linear system identification, multi-agent simulation, eigenvalue analysis, risk assessment, modeling of dynamic systems, finite difference time domain modeling and visual feedback are also presented. We hope that readers will find the book useful and inspiring by examining the recent developments in the applications of modeling, simulation and identification.


Increasing industrial activities trigger the intense use of fossil fuels and increase the number of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Countries with a high share in current carbon emissions need to expand their use of renewable energy sources. Canada is an important energy producer and consumer globally. In this regard, its decisions are important for the future development of global emissions. This study examines the asymmetric effects of economic growth, renewable energy, and non-renewable energy consumption on carbon emissions in Canada from 1965 to 2017. In the first stage of the analysis, unit root testing was performed for the variables. For this, Lee-Strazicich (2003), ADF and PP unit root tests were used. The nonlinear ARDL method was used to analyze the relationship between variables. and Measures: In order to analyze the relationship between the variables in the established model, renewable energy consumption (%), non-renewable energy consumption (%), and carbon emissions (per capita-Mt). In addition, the economic growth (constant price 2010- US$) parameter was added to the model as a control variable. The findings support that energy consumption, economic growth, and renewable energy have an asymmetric effect on carbon emissions in the long run. The positive shock in renewable energy reduces carbon emissions, and a unit increase in renewable energy reduces carbon emissions by 1.29%. Besides, the negative shock in economic growth greatly deteriorates the quality of the environment; that is, a 1% reduction in economic growth causes emissions to increase by 0.74% in the long run. On the other hand, positive shocks in energy consumption have a positive and significant effect on carbon emissions. A 1% increase in energy consumption causes 1.69% carbon emissions. There are important policy implications for Canada to eliminate carbon emissions, increase the share of renewable energy sources and achieve its economic growth targets. In addition, Canada needs to reduce its consumption of non-renewable energy (such as gasoline coal, diesel, and natural gas).


The survey was conducted at ten specific location major sesame growing representative low land areas of western zone of Tigray. The study was conducted in consecutive three years (2015, 2016, and 2017) at different locations. The objectives of the study were (1) to assess and identify major sesame diseases and (2) to study the prevalence, incidence and severity of different sesame diseases. Bacterial blight (83.24%) recorded the highest diseases incidence followed by powdery mildew (78.13%), fusarium wilt (78%), phyllody (72.01%) and blight leaf spot (72%). Whereas blight leaf spot recorded highest severity (31.33%), followed by fusarium wilt (27.2%), phyllody (25.24%), bacterial blight (22.76%) and powdery mildew (22.6%). Maygaba and division locations recorded the highest diseases incidence (90.49%) and (86.76%) respectively while Lugudi recorded the lowest diseases incidence (48.055). Bacterial blight recorded 100% diseases severity in all locations followed by blight leaf spot in Doka- abagabyo (92%) and phyllody (81%,) in Adi-usmanand fusarium wilt (61. 41%) in Adi usman. From the study recommended that appropriate control methods should be identified and recommended to prevent sesame yield loss and increases productivity. Field diseases assessment and inspection; diseases control should be from emergence to capsule formation and maturity.


Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is characterised by idiopathic hypertrophy of the left ventricle (LV), sometimes accompanied by hypertrophy of the right ventricle. HCM is estimated to occur in 1:500 subjects in the general population.1 The disease is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait, but about 50% of the patients do not have relatives with HCM, suggesting sporadic mutations, unidentified genes or more complex patterns of heredity. The presentation of the disease is diverse with on the one hand asymptomatic subjects diagnosed through family screening or routine clinical examination, and on the other hand severely symptomatic subjects with impaired LV systolic function. Patients may also present with sudden cardiac death (SCD). The distribution of hypertrophy is also variable; the most common pattern is asymmetrical septal hypertrophy, but other LV morphologies are seen including concentric hypertrophy, apical hypertrophy, and hypertrophy of the LV free wall. About one quarter of patients have obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT); less commonly, dynamic obstruction may occur in the mid LV cavity or at the right ventricular (RV) outflow tract.2 3

Microscopy demonstrates a variety of abnormalities, including myocyte hypertrophy, myocardial fibre disarray (myocytes are not in parallel but lay chaotically intersected), interstitial and perivascular fibrosis, and intimal and medial hypertrophy in intramural arteries leading to narrowing of the microcirculation. These abnormalities are thought to contribute to LV diastolic dysfunction by impairing relaxation and reducing compliance as well as to scarring of the myocardium. Fibrosis and scarring may predispose to ventricular and atrial arrhythmias. Elevated left atrial and LV end diastolic pressures lead to reduced stroke volume, reduced cardiac output, and pulmonary congestion. The cardiomyopathic abnormalities are not confined to the (mostly septal) hypertrophic ventricular segments, and can be demonstrated in non-hypertrophied myocardium. Many patients show diffuse hypertrophy of the LV; in about …


Kaija Saariaho is internationally recognized as a leading figure in contemporary music, enjoying a well-deserved reputation for works that are both creatively original and of considerable appeal. Her music communicates with a refreshingly broad audience, and this special achievement deserves careful consideration. In the first symposium book in English to be dedicated exclusively to this single figure, scholars from both the UK and Saariaho's native Finland bring a range of perspectives to her richly varied output. Uncovering the compositional, historical, cultural and sociological issues that have resulted in such critical acclaim lies at the heart of this collection of essays.

Saariaho's approach to composition is an interdisciplinary one; it embraces a number of art forms - visual, literary and musical - in works that explore a creative dialogue between image, continuity and time. While such diversity is readily accommodated in a multi-authored collection, the consistency of an underlying compositional identity and integrity is also an important trait. The grouping of these essays into three strands - 'visions', 'narratives' and 'dialogues' - reflects the wide range of Saariaho's creative preoccupations while subscribing to a carefully structured succession of commentaries.


Ca1−xRbxCu3Ti4O12 (x = 0, 0.03, and 0.05) ceramics were synthesized by the sol-gel method. Their microstructure and electrical properties were investigated. In the Rb-doped samples, the Cu-rich and Ti-poor grain-boundary layers are formed, and electrical properties are also changed by doping: With the increase in doping concentration, the grain resistivity and the grain-boundary Schottky potential barrier are changed, the grain-boundary resistivity is enhanced, and the low-frequency dielectric constants and loss are reduced. These results were discussed in terms of the internal barrier layer capacitor (IBLC) mechanism, particularly focusing on the electrical properties in grains and the cationic nonstoichiometry at grain boundaries.


Developments in computing and experimental instruments help to solve problems of all medical sciences. Simulations of microcirculation have started to help scientists to make right decisions on microcirculation problems. In this study, earliest studies of the blood circulation in capillary region have been investigated and an existing numerical model of the blood flow in capillary has been studied and compared with the results from the available literature.


With the popularization of smartphone and the increasing use of mobile applications, the mobile navigation system has been widely used in museum. User satisfaction is correlated to information system usage and success. Thus it is essential that the mobile navigation system can meet the visitors' need and create a good user experience. According to previous studies, we classify the design factors affecting visitors' usability in museum mobile navigation system into seven main factors: connectivity, interface design, content design, user experience, marketing and promotion, exhibition space and cultural aspects. In this paper, a mobile guide system of the National Palace Museum which is designed and built on the basis of these seven factors is presented. Visitors can use the navigation system on their smartphones to read the timely information of the artifacts and the exhibitions ubiquitously, plan the desired tour routes, and share the unique experience via social media.


Extensive programmed DNA deletion occurs in ciliates during development. In this study we examine the excised forms of two previously characterized deletion elements, the R- and M-element, in Tetrahymena. Using divergently oriented primers in polymerase chain reactions we have detected the junctions formed by joining the two ends of these elements, providing evidence for the presence of circular excised forms. These circular forms were detected in developing macronuclear DNA from 12-24 h after mating began, but not in micronuclear or whole cell DNA of vegetative cells. They are present at very low abundance, detectable after PCR only through hybridization with specific probes. Sequence analysis shows that the circle junctions occur at or very near the known ends of the elements. There is sequence microheterogeneity in these junctions, which does not support a simple reciprocal exchange model for DNA deletion. A model involving staggered cuts and variable mismatch repair is proposed to explain these results. This model also explains the sequence microheterogeneity previously detected among the junction sequences retained in the macronuclear chromosome.


Open Learner Models (OLM) have demonstrated a multitude of benefits supporting metacognition and engaging learners. Although researchers have study different representations of OLM, a broader view that situates OLM in Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) is missing. An important element in SRL that can bring a better understanding of these tools and their effects concerns to learning motivation theories. In this work I connect these aspects and propose to study the effects of OLM and motivational factors drawn from learning motivation theories. To account for a broader spectrum of OLM representations, I proposed to explore the addition of social information and different levels of granularity in the OLM. I propose to evaluate different designs and then to evaluate the resulting interface in field studies. With the proposed work I expect to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of OLM tools which can be used to guide the development of better tools, better personalization and adaptive mechanisms, better use of such tools in supporting Self-Regulated Learning, and ultimately impact positively in learning.


This thesis considers the feasibility or replacing a series
of diesel engines, which are used in starter-motor endurance tests,
by an electrical loading system whose torque-characteristics are
similar to those or a given individual engine. The torque-characteristics
of diesel engines and starter-motors are briefly examined to
indicate the problems associated with their simulation. The
ii.
simulating system finally evolved is based on a static-switching current regulator
and useful contributions are made towards both the physical
realisation or suitable circuit-techniques and the general analysis and
operation or switching-mode circuits or this kind. Special consideration
is given to the problems or rapid and periodic reversal or the regulator output-
current, and a static-logic system is evolved that provides this
essential facility.
Some practicable and novel methods or generating high-frequency
functions are presented for the production or torque/crank-angle waveforms
for a range of engine-parameters, and proposals are made for the
electrical simulation or the engine-inertia. The effects of this latter
function upon the system torque requirements and the validity or the
overall simulation are then examined in detail.
It is concluded that an electrical simulation is possible by
use or the techniques suggested, although some complexity is unavoidable
if high accuracy and performance are to be achieved.


The rate of global warming has accelerated over the past 50 years. Increasing surface temperature is melting glaciers and raising the sea level. More flooding, droughts, hurricanes, and heat waves are being reported. Accelerated changes in climate are already affecting human health, in part by altering the epidemiology of climate-sensitive pathogens. In particular, climate change may alter the incidence and severity of respiratory infections by affecting vectors and host immune responses. Certain respiratory infections, such as avian influenza and coccidioidomycosis, are occurring in locations previously unaffected, apparently because of global warming. Young children and older adults appear to be particularly vulnerable to rapid fluctuations in ambient temperature. For example, an increase in the incidence in childhood pneumonia in Australia has been associated with sharp temperature drops from one day to the next. Extreme weather events, such as heat waves, floods, major storms, drought, and wildfires, are also believed to change the incidence of respiratory infections. An outbreak of aspergillosis among Japanese survivors of the 2011 tsunami is one such well-documented example. Changes in temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and air pollution influence viral activity and transmission. For example, in early 2000, an outbreak of Hantavirus respiratory disease was linked to a local increase in the rodent population, which in turn was attributed to a two- to threefold increase in rainfall before the outbreak. Climate-sensitive respiratory pathogens present challenges to respiratory health that may be far greater in the foreseeable future.


: Eight prospective, controlled, randomised studies on the incidence of postoperative thrombosis in gynaecological patients receiving various drugs for prevention of thromboembolism are analysed. In all patients diagnosis had been established by objective means. The rate of thrombosis in patients without drug prophylaxis has been found to vary between 14 and 29%. Infusions of dextran as well as administration of low-dose subcutaneous heparin significantly reduce the incidence of deep vein thrombosis, even as compared to postoperative oral anticoagulation with cumarins. No difference has been found between dextran and oral anticoagulants, when cumarin adminstration was started before operation, nor between dextran and heparin. Aescin did not show any prophylactic effect. High age, severe leg-vein varicosis as well as surgery for malignant disease increase the risk of thrombosis. No significant influence of overweight, previous deep venous thrombosis, epidural anaesthesia or vaginal operation as compared to abdominal approach could be demonstrated. There are no properly controlled, prospective, randomised studies on the incidence of postoperative fatal pulmonary embolism as influenced by drugs in gynaecological surgery.


We consider real world task-oriented dialog settings, where agents need to generate both fluent natural language responses and correct external actions like database queries and updates. We demonstrate that, when applied to customer support chat transcripts, Sequence to Sequence (Seq2Seq) models often generate short, incoherent and ungrammatical natural language responses that are dominated by words that occur with high frequency in the training data. These phenomena do not arise in synthetic datasets such as bAbI, where we show Seq2Seq models are nearly perfect. We develop techniques to learn embeddings that succinctly capture relevant information from the dialog history, and demonstrate that nearest neighbor based approaches in this learned neural embedding space generate more fluent responses. However, we see that these methods are not able to accurately predict when to execute an external action. We show how to combine nearest neighbor and Seq2Seq methods in a hybrid model, where nearest neighbor is used to generate fluent responses and Seq2Seq type models ensure dialog coherency and generate accurate external actions. We show that this approach is well suited for customer support scenarios, where agents' responses are typically script-driven, and correct external actions are critically important. The hybrid model on the customer support data achieves a 78% relative improvement in fluency scores, and a 130% improvement in accuracy of external calls.


The purpose of this case study was to understand the gendered experiences women students have while participating in a university entrepreneurship program through the lens of the theory of gendered organizations. I completed this study at a fouryear institution with an established entrepreneurship program. I conducted interviews and a focus group of women students, interviews of faculty and staff, class observations, and reviewed documents and artifacts. Through analysis of the data, three themes emerged: The Struggle is Real, which related to the unique struggles the participants had in the masculine domain of the entrepreneurship program; Super Women, describing the myriad of ways that women entrepreneurship students expressed their strength; and Relationships, acknowledging the importance of relationships for these women students. The last chapter of the study includes a description of the way that the themes represent the theory, indicating a gendered organization, as well as implications for theory, research, and practice. By implementing the suggestions derived from this study, educators can help women navigate this man-dominated environment, leading to more women entrepreneurs who can change the way things are done and create the millions of jobs needed, having significant impact on the economy and societal ills.


BdbD is a thiol:disulfide oxidoreductase (TDOR) from Bacillus subtilis that functions to introduce disulfide bonds in substrate proteins/peptides on the outside of the cytoplasmic membrane and, as such, plays a key role in disulfide bond management. Here we demonstrate that the protein is membrane-associated in B. subtilis and present the crystal structure of the soluble part of the protein lacking its membrane anchor. This reveals that BdbD is similar in structure to Escherichia coli DsbA, with a thioredoxin-like domain with an inserted helical domain. A major difference, however, is the presence in BdbD of a metal site, fully occupied by Ca2+, at an inter-domain position some 14 Å away from the CXXC active site. The midpoint reduction potential of soluble BdbD was determined as −75 mV versus normal hydrogen electrode, and the active site N-terminal cysteine thiol was shown to have a low pKa, consistent with BdbD being an oxidizing TDOR. Equilibrium unfolding studies revealed that the oxidizing power of the protein is based on the instability introduced by the disulfide bond in the oxidized form. The crystal structure of Ca2+-depleted BdbD showed that the protein remained folded, with only minor conformational changes. However, the reduced form of Ca2+-depleted BdbD was significantly less stable than reduced Ca2+-containing protein, and the midpoint reduction potential was shifted by approximately −20 mV, suggesting that Ca2+ functions to boost the oxidizing power of the protein. Finally, we demonstrate that electron exchange does not occur between BdbD and B. subtilis ResA, a low potential extra-cytoplasmic TDOR.


The Eocene – Oligocene transition (EOT; ca. 34–33.5 Ma) is widely considered to be the biggest step in Cenozoic climate evolution. Geochemical marine records show both surface and bottom water cooling, associated with the expansion of Antarctic glaciers and a reduction in the atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, the global response of the terrestrial biosphere to the EOT is less well understood and not uniform when comparing different regions. We present new global vegetation and terrestrial climate reconstructions of the Priabonian (late Eocene; 38–33.9Ma) and Rupelian (early Oligocene;33.9–28.45Ma) by synthesising 215 pollen and spore localities. Using presence/absence data of pollen and spores with multivariate statistics has allowed the reconstruction of palaeobiomes without relying on modern analogues. There constructed palaeo-biomes do not show the equator-ward shift at the EOT, which would be expected from a global cooling. Reconstructions of mean annual temperature, cold month mean temperature and warm month mean temperature do not show a global cooling of terrestrial climate across the EOT. Our new reconstructions differ from previous global syntheses by being based on an internally consistent statistically defined classification of palaeo-biomes and our terrestrial based climate reconstructions are in stark contrast to some marine based climate estimates. Our results raise new questions on the nature and extent of terrestrial global climate change at the EOT.


Theoretical models predict a positive impact of the level of individual wealth on the job exit probability. Empirically this prediction is most likely to be relevant for elderly workers who have accumulated wealth throughout their working life and have a short residual working life. In the Netherlands, as in other European countries, there is a policy debate about the introduction of more individual freedom of choice in pension schemes. The individual level of wealth will become an increasingly important factor in the retirement decision. Therefore it is relevant to know whether workers with a different financial situation make different job exit decisions, given other factors. Empirical analysis of job exit behaviour of elderly workers so far has concentrated on properties of the pension system and health status. For a sample of elderly male workers in the Netherlands in the period 1995 through 2001, we analyse the impact of wealth, savings, and debt position on job exit rates. We find evidence for a positive effect of wealth on the probability to retire (early).


A commercial on-board exhaust emissions measurement system, the Horiba OBS-1300, was evaluated in a series of chassis dynamometer test trails. A EURO 1 (petrol) SI passenger car, operated under normal and rich combustion conditions, and a combination of static and transient sampling provided a wide range of measurement conditions for the evaluation exercise. The chassis dynamometer facility incorporated an 'industry standard' measurement system comprising MEXA-7400 gas analyzer and CVS bag sampling system which were used as 'benchmarks' for the evaluation of both OBS-1300 component (exhaust flow meter and species analyzer) measurements and 'daughter' emission measurements for regulated gas-phase species (CO, CO2, HC and NOx). Trials demonstrated very good to reasonable agreement for exhaust flow and CO, CO2 and HC concentration measurements during static (R2 ≈ 0.97, 0.99, 0.99 and 0.97, respectively) and transient (R2 ≈ 0.88, 0.96, 0.95 and 0.86, respectively) testing. Transient emission measurements of CO, CO2 and HC were generally consistent with 'parent' exhaust and species analyzer measurements (R2 ≈ 0.89, 0.89 and 0.81, respectively). Minor issues associated with exhaust flow measurement error at engine 'tick-over'/idle and HC measurement agreement under different engine operating conditions are discussed. However, in general, the OBS-1300 provided a reliable measure of CO, CO2 and HC exhaust emissions under all conditions investigated. By contrast, the OBS NOx sensor cross-sensitivity to NH3 hindered the reliability of NOx data, especially under rich engine operation conditions.


Danon disease is a rare X-linked dominant disorder caused by the lysosomeassociated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2) gene. It is characterized by the triad of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), myopathy, and intellectual disability. Genetic analysis was performed to confirm LAMP2 gene mutation in a family with Danon disease. We collected the clinical data included electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) in a family with Danon disease to reveal the clinical phenotype. Genetic analysis showed that LAMP2 gene deletion mutation (c.257_258delCC) in this family. The proband and his 13-year-old cousin developed HCM with a typical Wolff-Parkinson -White (WPW) pre-excitation pattern. cMRI with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) further confirms the myocardial fibrosis. The clinical expression of Danon disease is different in different genders. Conclusions: Genetic and pharmaceutical approaches to upregulate LAMP2 gene expression may provide a novel therapy for patients with Danon disease. Cardiol Cardiovasc Med 2021; 5 (2): 250-258 DOI: 10.26502/fccm.92920198 Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine Vol. 5 No. 2 – April 2021. [ISSN 2572-9292] 251


Recruiting older persons with diverse health statuses as participants in research projects is a challenge for health researchers, particularly because persons with health impairments and in socially disadvantaged living conditions are difficult to reach. This article presents a step model for gaining access to older people who are difficult to contact. The step model is based on the literature and a qualitative analysis of documentation, field notes and memos that stem from the recruitment processes of two studies from the German research consortium 'Autonomy despite multimorbidity in old age', both of which also included older persons who would qualify as 'hard-to-reach'.
The analysis followed the method of Grounded Theory and aimed to understand the social process of 'recruitment'. Four steps of the recruitment process were identified that had been applied – intentionally or unintentionally – in both of the projects, i.e., the qualitative as well as the quantitative projects: 1. build up Trust, 2. offer Incentives, 3. identify individual Barriers and 4. be Responsive (TIBaR).
The step model provides information for facilitating access to various target groups for qualitative as well as quantitative research designs. However, its implementation requires time, financial resources, flexibility and appropriately qualified staff members.


PURPOSE
The stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, 1984, Handbook of psychology and health IV: Social psychological aspects of health (pp. 253-256). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum) suggests that one way social support enhances health is by attenuating cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress. Research that has tested this hypothesis has reported inconsistent findings. In this review, we systematically reviewed those findings and proposed a dual-effect model of social support and CVR as a potential explanation for the inconsistency in the literature. Specifically, we proposed that when participants are more engaged during a stressor, social support acts primarily as social comfort, attenuating CVR; and when participants are not engaged, social support acts primarily as social encouragement, elevating CVR.

METHODS
We reviewed 22 previous studies that (1) empirically manipulated social support in a stressful situation, (2) measured CVR, and (3) tested a moderator of social support effects on CVR.

RESULTS
Although a majority of studies reported a CVR-mitigating effect of social support resulting in an overall significant combined p-value, we found that there were different effects of social support on CVR when we considered high- and low-engagement contexts. That is, compared to control conditions, social support lowered CVR in more engaging situations but had no significant effect on CVR in less engaging situations.

CONCLUSION
Our results suggest that a dual-effect model of social support effects on CVR may better capture the nature of social support, CVR, and health associations than the buffering hypothesis and emphasize a need to better understand the health implications of physiological reactivity in various contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? According to the stress-buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, ), one pathway social support benefits health is through mitigating the physiological arousal caused by stress. However, previous studies that examined the effects of social support on blood pressure and heart rate changes were not consistently supporting the hypothesis. Some studies reported that social support causes elevations in cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress (Anthony & O'Brien, ; Hilmert, Christenfeld, & Kulik, ; Hilmert, Kulik, & Christenfeld, ) and others showed no effect of social support on CVR (Christian & Stoney, ; Craig & Deichert, ; Gallo, Smith, & Kircher, ). What does this study add? When participants were in more engaging conditions, social support decreased CVR relative to no support. When participants were in less engaging conditions, social support did not have a significant effect on CVR. Provide an alternative way to explain the ways social support affects cardiac health.


Recent literature on online learning has focused on developing adaptive algorithms that take advantage of a regularity of the sequence of observations, yet retain worst-case performance guarantees. A complementary direction is to develop prediction methods that perform well against complex benchmarks. In this paper, we address these two directions together. We present a fully adaptive method that competes with dynamic benchmarks in which regret guarantee scales with regularity of the sequence of cost functions and comparators. Notably, the regret bound adapts to the smaller complexity measure in the problem environment. Finally, we apply our results to drifting zero-sum, two-player games where both players achieve no regret guarantees against best sequences of actions in hindsight.


It is usually impossible to impose experimental conditions in large-scale longitudinal (observational) studies in education. This increases the risk of bias due to for instance unobserved heterogeneity, missing background variables, and dropouts. A flexible statistical model is required for the nature of the observational assessment data and to account for the unexplained heterogeneity. A general class of longitudinal item response theory (IRT) models is proposed, where growth in performance can be monitored using a skewed multivariate normal distribution for the latent variables. Change in performance and unexplained heterogeneity is addressed through structured covariance patterns and skewed multivariate latent variable distributions. The Cholesky decomposition of the covariance matrix is considered to model the dependence structure. A novel multivariate skew-normal distribution is defined by the antedependence model with centered skew-normal distributed errors. A hybrid MCMC approach is developed for parameter estimation, model-fit assessment, and model comparison. Results of simulation studies show good parameter recovery. A longitudinal assessment study by the Brazilian federal government is considered to show the performance of the general LIRT model.


Radio communications possessing high signal quality and long-distance propagation have traditionally been difficult to achieve reliably over shortwave bands (up to 30 MHz). This is due to the analog modulation schemes in use and the vulnerability of shortwave radio to atmospheric disturbances. The development of the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) standard in 2001 provided digital coding methods, audio compression, and data protection features for shortwave transmissions. With DRM, nonprofit humanitarian broadcasters in underdeveloped nations have a reliable high-quality, long-distance transmission technology of lower cost than satellite radio services. The development of versatile DRM receivers is therefore necessary. This paper presents the design of a DRM receiver capable of demodulating a single DRM transmission, or "channel," and compares the receiver's performance to that of the commercial DRB-30 receiver. Plans for future improvement of the receiver's overall signal-to-noise ratio and resilience to signal fading are discussed, including the addition of multi-channel reception capability and the Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) diversity algorithm.