This thesis has described in detail the blood supply of the soft palate and posterior pharyngeal wall in a series of dissections performed on human fetuses and cadavers. A variety of injection media were used in both fresh and fixed specimens to demonstrate the vascular anatomy. Adult cadavers were dissected by conventional methods. For the fetuses a dissection microscope and microsurgical instruments were required. Radiology and clearing techniques have also been used. It was found that three arteries are important in the supply of the normal soft palate - the ascending palatine, ascending pharyngeal and accessory meningeal arteries. The posterior pharyngeal wall was normally supplied by branches of the ascending pharyngeal and superior thyroid arteries. A small series of dissections has also been carried out on fetuses with cleft palate and the vascular anatomy shown to be similar to normal cases with some minor variations. This finding was confirmed by histological studies performed on several fetal heads. Detailed findings have been given of the blood supply of the velar muscles, in particular levator veli palatini and tensor veli palatini. Both these muscles were normally shown to have a dual arterial supply. The most common pattern observed was the levator receiving branches from the ascending palatine and ascending pharyngeal vessels and the tensor from the ascending palatine and accessory meningeal. Several velar muscles were also examined histochemically in a number of fresh specimens both to study the intramuscular vascular anatomy and to identify fibre types. In no case of levator was any large vessel seen entering the upper lateral portion of the muscle. In each muscle both type I and type IIb fibres were identified, with the levator appearing to have the highest proportion of fast twitch IIb fibres. The anatomical observations made have been related to cleft palate surgery including pharyngoplasty. It was observed that of different types of pharyngoplasty performed, laterally based flaps appeared to have the richest blood supply. The finding of dual blood supply of the levator and tensor veli palatini suggests that if careful cleft palate closure is performed these muscles should not suffer ischaemic damage. On the other hand, anatomical observations together with skull measurements made on a series of child and adult skulls point to the possibility that two manoeuvres commonly performed in cleft closure could be damaging to the levator and render a portion of it ischaemic: these are intravelar veloplasty and dissection posterior to the maxillary tuberosity. The author believes that extensive intravelar veloplasty, especially if carried out together with a deep lateral dissection behind the maxillary tuberosity, should be avoided. Dissection and histological findings in fetuses with cleft palates also showed that the levator has a tripartite insertion: into the cleft soft palate edge, the tensor tendon or aponeurosis, and the posterior aspect of the hard palatal shelf. Extensive intravelar veloplasty is often therefore not required on anatomical grounds as many of the fibres run in a normal direction. On the basis of observations made, a sequential series of steps is suggested for cleft palate closure in order to minimise risk of vascular damage to the palatal muscles.


SLC6A14 is a Na+/Cl−-coupled transporter for neutral and cationic amino acids. It is expressed at basal levels in the normal colon but is up-regulated in colon cancer. However, the relevance of this up-regulation to cancer progression and the mechanisms involved in the up-regulation remain unknown. Here, we show that SLC6A14 is essential for colon cancer and that its up-regulation involves, at least partly, Wnt signaling. The up-regulation of the transporter is evident in most human colon cancer cell lines and also in a majority of patient-derived xenografts. These findings are supported by publicly available TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) database. Treatment of colon cancer cells with α-methyltryptophan (α-MT), a blocker of SLC6A14, induces amino acid deprivation, decreases mTOR activity, increases autophagy, promotes apoptosis, and suppresses cell proliferation and invasion. In xenograft and syngeneic mouse tumor models, silencing of SLC6A14 by shRNA or blocking its function by α-MT reduces tumor growth. Similarly, the deletion of Slc6a14 in mice protects against colon cancer in two different experimental models (inflammation-associated colon cancer and genetically driven colon cancer). In colon cancer cells, expression of the transporter is reduced by Wnt antagonist or by silencing of β-catenin whereas Wnt agonist or overexpression of β-catenin shows the opposite effect. Finally, SLC6A14 as a target for β-catenin is confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. These studies demonstrate that SLC6A14 plays a critical role in the promotion of colon cancer and that its up-regulation in cancer involves Wnt signaling. These findings identify SLC6A14 as a promising drug target for the treatment of colon cancer.


Institutions persisting from colonial rule affect the spatial structure and conditions under which 100s of millions of people live in Sub-saharan African cities. In a sample of 318 cities, Francophone cities have more compact development than Anglophone, overall, in older colonial sections, and at clear extensive margins long after the colonial era. Compactness covers intensity of land use, gridiron road structures and leapfrogging of new developments. Why the difference? Under British indirect and dual mandate rule, colonial and native sections developed without coordination. In contrast, integrated city planning and land allocation were featured in French direct rule. These differences in planning traditions persist.1


This paper presents an overview of a newly developed code, NESTEM that analyzes structural components subjected to varying thermal and mechanical loads. This program is an enhanced version of NESSUS and has all the capabilities of NESSUS. In addition, it allows one to perform heat transfer analysis. The basic heat transfer variables can be included as random variables along with the mechanical random variables to quantify risk using probabilistic methods and to perform sensitivity analysis.The analysis capabilities of NESTEM have been demonstrated by analyzing a cylindrical combustor liner. This analysis includes evaluating stresses and their variations at critical points on the liner using material properties, pressure loading and basic heat transfer variables as the random variables. The heat transfer variables are convection temperatures, film coefficients, radiation temperatures, emissivity, absorptivity and conductivity. Cumulative distribution functions and sensitivity factors, for stress responses, for mechanical and thermal random variables are calculated. These results can be used to quickly identify the most critical design variables, in order to optimize the design, to make it cost effective.Copyright © 1999 by ASME


Venous blood had been collected from seventy four women with habitual abortion from Thi – Qar Governorate cities to evaluate the prevalence of the toxoplasmosis and from fifteen healthy looking women as control. The test performed by using ELISA method to detect the IgM and IgG antibodies in patients sample by commercial kit. The result showed that 30 of 74 women (40.5%) had toxoplasmosis, 13 (43.3%) with IgM antibodies, 7 (23.3%) with IgG antibodies and 10 (33.3%) with both IgM and IgG antibodies. Other women (44) although had habitual abortion but they were negative for toxoplasmosis.


A biomarker assay designed to monitor the health of Daphnia sp. as well as evaluate sites of toxicant action was used to study the toxic effects of copper, diazinon, and polyacrylamide. The assay used the uptake of a fluorescent cellular membrane-bound dye and corresponding fluorescence measurement as an early potential is an indicator of potential cellular stress. Following short-term exposure to the electrochromic dye, di-4-ANEPPS, and the toxicants, fluorescence readings were collected, stored in a database management system, and output for graphical display and statistical analysis. Median inhibitory concentrations (IC50), No Observed Effect Concentrations (NOEC), and Lowest Observed Effect Concentrations (LOEC) values for copper were approximately 52.6, 35.0, and 50.0 {micro}g/L. The approximate IC50, NOEC, LOEC values for diazinon and polyacrylamide were 0.45, 0.25, and 0.50 {micro}g/L; and 350.0, 300.0, and 500.0 {micro}g/L, respectively. Fluorescence microscopy indicated that copper primarily affected the mouth parts (orofacial) and digestive tract. Diazinon, however, primarily caused an effect on the anterior portion of the nervous system. Polyacrylamide appeared to induce toxicity throughout the entire epithelial layer of the Daphnia. These results suggested this assay may be effectively used to monitor for organism stress or toxicity as well as evaluate potential sites of toxic action.


У роботі подані результати анкетування працівників
гідрометалургійного заводу «Східний гірничозбагачувальний
комбінат» (СхідГЗК; м. Жовті Води, Дніпропетровська область, Україна) та звичайних мешканців міста, які історично пов'язані з видобуванням та переробкою уранової руди. Проведена інтегральна оцінка інтенсивності суб'єктивного дискомфорту працівників ГМЗ «СхідГЗК» та городяе для подальшого розроблення профілактичних заходів з метою запобігання радіотривожним станам. Introduction. After the Chernobyl accident radio-anxiety of the population remains one of the most acute psychosocial problems in Ukraine, especially in the regions where uranium is extracted and processed. Uranium raw material – basis of nuclear fuel for nuclear energy – has been processed in Zhovti Vody of Dnipropetrovsk region since 1950s. Zhovti Vody is a unique place. The city is surrounded with the uranium production facilities: the hydrometallurgical factory and the uranium waste tailing damp. Purpose. Our aim was to estimate perceived health status of Zhovti Vody citizens (population category «В») and the employees of the industrial complex «Eastern Mining Processing Plant» (MPP), who work with radiation sources daily (categories «A» and «B»). Materials and Methods. We checked the health status of average Zhovti Vody citizens (102) and industrial complex employees (104), who work with radiation sources daily. The samplings deferred only by the place of employment of respondents. The average age of respondents (M ± m) was 41.6 ± 0.9 years. The gender (р > 0.9) and age (р > 0.7) characteristics were similar for both groups. The applied research methods were developed and tested by the specialists of V. M. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute (Saint Petersburg). Discussion 1. According to the integral estimation of the perceived discomfort condition: the employees complained less of pain, but citizens who did not work in the industrial complex complained more. 2. Mental health of the population corresponds to the low (by anxiety and frustration indices) and middle assessment levels (on the constriction and aggressiveness scales). However, the employees of the industrial complex showed the lower degree of symptom expression. 3. The majority of population (88.3 %) showed the low level of social frustration regardless to the place of employment. 4. The correlation between physical and mental health statuses (anxiety, constriction, psychological and social frustration) confirmed interaction between pain and psychological symptoms. The employees of the industrial complex showed better estimation of perceived health status comparing with citizens, who work in other institutions. Thus, the employees of any industrial complexes normally express less radio-anxiety, because they work with radioactive sources daily.


This qualitative research study seeks an understanding of the experience and needs of family members of patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) at a large, metropolitan hospital. This study utilizes a self-developed, semi-structured interview, transitioning the findings of the The Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI) (Molter, & Leske, 1983) into open-ended interview questions. The interviews query participants about their needs related to their family member's stay in the ICU, their interactions with the health care team and any recommendations they wished to offer to family members of patients in the ICU and to the health care team. The twelve interviews were coded and the findings are reported using "issue focused" analysis as described by Weiss (1994). The interviews yield multiple needs of family members of patients in the ICU including the need for: communication, information, visitation, vigilance, assurance, and "realistic hope." The interviews also reveal that the advice offered by the participants to both future family members of patients in the ICU and to the health care team caring for patients and families mirror their own indicated needs. Discrepancies in the findings, as well as in the "advice" offered, suggests additional research in this area is warranted. Additional research investigating interventions designed to meet the families' needs and the role of social work in the ICU in meeting these needs is also indicated. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Social Work (DSW) First Advisor Lina Hartocollis, PhD Second Advisor Ram Cnaan, PhD Third Advisor Jane Leske, PhD


The development of new nanomaterials for energy technologies is
dependent on understanding the intricate relation between material
properties and atomic structure. It is, therefore, crucial to be able to
routinely characterise the atomic structure in nanomaterials, and a
promising method for this task is Pair Distribution Function (PDF)
analysis. The PDF can be obtained through Fourier transformation of x-ray total scattering data, and represents a histogram of
all interatomic distances in the sample. Going from the distance
information in the PDF to a chemical structure is an unassigned
distance geometry problem (uDGP), and solving this is often the bottleneck in nanostructure analysis. In this work, we propose to
use a Conditional Variational Autoencoder (CVAE) to automatically
solve the uDGP to obtain valid chemical structures from PDFs. We
use a simple model system of hypothetical mono-metallic nanoparticles containing up to 100 atoms in the face centered cubic (FCC)
structure as a proof of concept. The model is trained to predict the
assigned distance matrix (aDM) from a simulated PDF of the structure as the conditional input. We introduce a novel representation
of structures by projecting them inside a unit sphere and adding
additional anchor points or satellites to help in the reconstruction
of the chemical structure. The performance of the CVAE model is
compared to a Deterministic Autoencoder (DAE) showing that both
models are able to solve the uDGP reasonably well. We further show
that the CVAE learns a structured and meaningful latent embedding
space which can be used to predict new chemical structures.


Aim: The clinical value of FibroScan in evaluation of hepatic fibrosis was assessed in Chinese patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: Liver stiffness and other NAFLD related variables were measured in NAFLD patients with either elevated or normal hyaluronic acid (HA) levels, and in healthy volunteers respectively. Moreover, hepatic fibrosis rat model was used for the correlation analysis between the measured liver elasticity and its corresponding pathological changes. Results: The severity of NAFLD in patients was positively correlated with both HA level and FibroScan values suggesting that fibrosis occured along with the progression of NAFLD. Interestingly, the FibroScan value was found to change at an earlier stage of the disease than that of HA level. The mean liver elasticity in the sampling volume of the region of interest in experimental rats, which were subject to the induction of liver fibrosis using peritoneal injection of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) for 6 or 9 weeks respectively, was measured using Fibroscan. The examination of pathological changes of these experimental rats demonstrated the positive correlation of the measured elasticity values with the extent (severity) of the corresponding pathological changes in the rats of 6 weeks post induction of liver fibrosis with a moderate liver fibrosis, or 9 weeks with a severe liver fibrosis. The average liver stiffness for the normal liver (S0) was 4.51 ± 0.82 kPa, for moderate liver fibrosis (S2) was 6.91 ± 1.32 kPa, and for severe liver fibrosis (S3) 9.62 ± 1.82 kPa. Conclusion: FibroScan can be used to objectively and quantitatively identify the trend in the changing stiffness of the liver and noninvasively detect the development of liver fibrosis.


This thesis presents a graph grammar approach for the recognition of handwritten mathematical expressions. Pen based interfaces provide a natural human computer interaction; interfaces for entering mathematical expressions are no exception to that. The problem is challenging, as it includes the sub-problems of character recognition (OCR) and 2-dimensional structure understanding. Thus, on top of the problems of the standard OCR systems, such as high variation in character shapes, the two dimensional nature of a mathematical expression brings further ambiguity. We use graph grammars for structural understanding of the expressions in order to represent as much information as possible in the parse process. Representing input expression as a graph protects the geometrical relations among the symbols of the input, while alternatives include methods for linearization of the input which may introduce critical errors into the parse process. Also graph grammars have the advantage of flexibility over procedurally coded parse systems. Another important aspect of our system is the fact that all alternative parses are evaluated and the one with maximum likelihood is selected as the intended expression. The likelihoods are estimated according to OCR confidence scores and structural relationships statistics. The segmentation step precedes the parse process, and segments and groups strokes collected from the Tablet input, according to timestamps and distance in space respectively. Then, the segmented symbols are recognized by the OCR engine which uses offline (image) features to allow for flexibility in time dimension, such as adding extra strokes and symbols anytime during the equation. The extracted features are used in an ANN and SVM combination engine returning top-3 character alternatives and confidence values. The parse process expands the graph by generating new tokens with repeated application of grammar rules. At the end, one or more tokens contain the full expression, along with a confidence value based on the 2-dimensional layout of the symbols in the expression and the associated statistics of geometrical relations between symbols. These and the OCR confidence scores are used in disambiguating alternative parses. Our approach is more powerful compared to graph re-writing systems in that all alternative parses are evaluated, rather than selecting the most likely rule application at a particular step, in an irreversible fashion. This also eliminates the need for specifying rule precedences, making system development or use of alternate grammars easier. The only limitation of our system is that segmentation errors are irreversible. That is, the parse process does not handle alternate segmentations, in order to keep the complexity of the parse process down. We alleviate this problem by providing feedback to the user as the segmentation proceeds, in real time. Our user interface gives error correction tools to the user to correct OCR errors and it can generate LATEX code, and MathML codes and graphical rendering of the input handwritten mathematical expression. An extensive collection of mathematical expression and isolated symbols are collected from 15 users for 57 different expressions from a 70-character alphabet. There are, in total, 1710 mathematical expressions and 10500 isolated characters. All samples are in the natural writing styles of the users.


The high demands on precision and quality of industrial sheet metal forming processes are increasing steadily. Therefore, more and more effects concerning the machines but also the material behaviour of the workpiece must be considered. Here, we consider an automatic panel bender of Salvagnini Maschinenbau GmbH [1]. In this application, it turned out that the speed of bending is a relevant influence factor. Goal of this work is to estimate the influence of strain rate on bending forces and the shape of the bent profile. In a previous work [2], an analytic model in the framework of Bernoulli-Euler beam theory for the bending of a cantilever with elasto-plastic behaviour has been presented, dimensionless influence parameters have been derived, and it has been shown that the influence parameters obtained by linear beam theory are also relevant for the nonlinear industrial application involving large deformations. To include the strain rate dependency, the beam model now has been extended to elasto-visco-plastic behaviour. Besides the plastic deformations also the elastic ones are important, since the springback angle must be known exactly to achieve the required accuracy. To represent this effect, Hollomon's equation [3] was extended by an elastic term. Additionally, the strain rate sensitivity is considered according to [4]. With this beam model, numerical studies have been performed, in which forces, and deflections have been analysed for small deformations. Finally, the results of beam theory have been compared with 3D-Finite Element computations. A very good coincidence turned out. The results also show that the strain rate has a significant influence on deformations and forces. The outcome of the present study will be used to consider the strain rate as an additional parameter in the digital twin of the automatic panel bender [1].


The wear of a brazed diamond wheel with diamond grits covered with brazing alloy was investigated in comparison with a traditional brazed wheel whose grits were without covering. The two wheels were brazed in vacuum furnace and grits on one of them were overlaid with a thin layer of brazing alloy. The wear of the two wheels was tested through grinding of granite, during which grinding forces were measured and the wear states of diamond grits were observed. It is shown that grits covered with brazing alloy exhibited stronger self-sharpening ability and fracture resistance. Therefore, the wheel with covered diamonds performed lower grinding force and better wear performance.


To understand the Internet addiction disorder's impact on the youth's socialization,we should first understand the social background and reasons that caused the youth's Internet addiction disorder.In the information era, the youth will inevitably meet with lots of problems and conflicts in terms of study,making friends,family education,and so on,which has increased the possibility of their suffering from Internet addiction disorder.Once the youth become addicted,their normal socialization process will be badly impacted,which can be found in the three following aspects such as setting social authority,forming social roles,and social communication modes.


Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic, debilitating immunological disorder for which there are few effective treatments. New therapies targeting gut homing molecules, such as CCR9 and α4β7, are currently in development, with some of these reaching clinical trials. Gut-trophic molecules and their receptors are critical to the development of both tolerant and inflammatory immune responses in the gut. However, we know little regarding the function of homing molecules as it relates to IBD. Data have suggested both pathological and protective roles for gut homing molecules in IBD development and maintenance. In addition, recent research findings have suggested that chemokines can influence T cell differentiation and function. Given the current clinical relevance, it is essential to obtain a better understanding of the role of gut homing molecules in the regulation of IBD.


We consider a multi-agent convex optimization problem where agents are to minimize a sum of local objective functions subject to a global inequality constraint and a global constraint set. To deal with this, we devise a distributed primal-dual subgradient algorithm which is based on the characterization of the primal-dual optimal solutions as the saddle points of the Lagrangian function. This algorithm allows the agents to exchange information over networks with time-varying topologies and asymptotically agree on a pair of primal-dual optimal solutions and the optimal value.


With the expanding multifaceted nature and vulnerability of worldwide inventory chains, interruption occasions are as often as possible happening in production network. Commercial condition is separated into two sorts including inner and outer business conditions. In the examination, our inward business condition is organization culture and inside business condition is supply chain performance (SCP). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of organizational culture (OC), corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and its components on business performance (BP) through SCP in the non-financial sector of Thailand. Research sample comprises of 120 non-financial firms operating in Thailand. The study finds that SCP fully mediates the relationship between work reinforcement & BP and time availability and BP. Whereas, SCP is found to have partial mediation in the relationship between CE & BP, OC & BP, management support & BP, organization boundaries & BP and reward reinforcement and BP. Findings of study are important for mangers in understanding and implementation of better OC which leads to CE and will ultimately enhance BP.


Summary — On account of a vast use of the aluminum-containing initiators and catalysts for the polymer synthesis the applications of the 27 Al NMR spectroscopy to studies of the polymerization mechanisms is described. In the extensive introduction the specific features of Al atom, important with regard to the 27 Al NMR spectroscopy, are discussed. The latter include strong tendency of the organoaluminum compounds to aggregation and quadrupolar character of the 27 Al nucleus. Attention is also drawn to some pitfalls in the quantitative analysis of the 27 Al NMR spectra which result from an extraneous multinuclear probe head signal, base-line rolling, and the absorption bands broadening at lower temperatures. Finally, examples of application of the 27 Al NMR to determining the active centers structure in the ring-opening polymerization of e-caprolactone (CL) and L,L-lactide (LA) initiated with dialkylaluminum alkoxides, aluminum tris-alkoxides or dialkylaluminum alkoxide/(S)(+)- -2,2'-[1,1'-binaphtyl-2,2'-diylbis-(nitrylmethilidyne)diphenol] [SB(OH)2] system are reported in more detail.


Background. Partial PTSD, employed initially in relation to Vietnam veterans, has been recently extended to civilian victims of trauma. We examined the extent to which partial PTSD is distinguishable from full DSM-PTSD with respect to level of impairment. Method. A representative sample of 2181 persons was interviewed by telephone to record lifetime traumatic events and to assess DSM-IV PTSD criteria. Partial PTSD was defined as [ges ]1 symptom in each of three symptom groups (criteria B, C and D) and duration of [ges ]1 month. Impairment in persons with PTSD and partial PTSD was measured by number of work-related and personal disability days during the 30-day period when the respondent was most upset by the trauma. Results. Compared to exposed persons with neither PTSD nor partial PTSD, increment in work-loss days associated with PTSD was 11·4 (S.E.=0·6) days and with partial PTSD, 3·3 (S.E.=0·4) days (adjusted for sex, education and employment). Similar disparities were found across other impairment indicators. Persons who fell short of PTSD criteria by one symptom of avoidance and numbing reported an increment of 5·0 (S.E.=0·7) work-loss days, 6·0 fewer than full PTSD. PTSD was associated with excess impairment, controlling for number of symptoms. A significantly lower proportion of persons with partial PTSD than full PTSD experienced symptoms for more than 2 years. A lower proportion of persons with partial PTSD than full PTSD had an etiologic event of high magnitude. Conclusions. PTSD identifies the most severe trauma victims, who are markedly distinguishable from victims with subthreshold PTSD.


Health self-management tools, believed to provide effective and cost-efficient healthcare, are often rejected by consumers. Regulatory focus theory (Higgins 2014) could facilitate adoption patterns of such tools by positioning adoption as matching/mismatching individual motivational concern: promotion/prevention focus. This research proposes that people perceive products as inherently promotion or prevention oriented, and matching person orientation to product orientation enhances tool uptake. The paper outlines the development of a scale measuring promotion/prevention characteristics of objects, providing evidence for dimensionality, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The resulting PM-PV scale allows promotion/prevention categorization for personal healthcare tools with potential for wider generalization.


Purpose The Olleyes VisuALL-K is a pediatric videogame-based static threshold perimeter using a virtual reality headset. We determined normal threshold sensitivities for the 24-2 test locations using the virtual reality perimetry (VRP) and also tested patients on the Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA). Patient satisfaction for the two instruments was compared. Methods This exploratory study tested 50 normal pediatric participants aged 8 to 17 years on the HFA and VRP. The main outcome measure was threshold sensitivity at the 24-2 test locations for the two instruments. Results The mean participant age was 13.0 ± 2.6 years; 50% were female. The threshold values for VRP are reported as measured on the device and after conversion to an HFA-equivalent scale. Age-adjusted thresholds showed a mean sensitivity of 31.8 ± 1.1 dB (46.1 ± dB HFA equivalent) diminution from the maximum light intensity in the VRP and 31.0 ± 1.5 dB diminution from the maximum light intensity in the HFA; interparticipant variability in mean threshold sensitivity was 2.7 ± 0.4 dB for the VRP and 2.7 ± 0.6 dB for the HFA. The HFA demonstrated decreased threshold sensitivity with increasing eccentricity, whereas the VRP threshold did not seem to vary with eccentricity. Mild age effects on threshold sensitivity were seen in the VRP and the HFA (R2 = 0.11, P < 0.001 and R2 = 0.05, P < 0.05, respectively). The mean time to completion for VRP and HFA was 7.6 ± 1.5 and 5.3 ± 0.9 min/eye, respectively (P < 0.0001). Patient satisfaction scores favored VRP (P < 0.01) despite the longer test duration. Conclusions The Olleyes game-based VRP and HFA can be used to map out the peripheral vision in normal children. The VRP has a higher patient satisfaction when used in children than the HFA. The portability of the test allows it to be performed in a myriad of environments, lending a flexibility that can benefit this population. Translational Relevance This virtual reality perimetry device provides an alternative to the Humphrey Field Analyzer for children.


Author(s): Gao, Min | Advisor(s): He, Lei | Abstract: With the increasing power of computers and advances in constraint solving technologies, formal and semi-formal verification have received great attentions on many applications. Formal verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property. These verification techniques have wide range of applications in real life. This dissertation describes the applications of formal and semi-formal verification in four parts. The first part of the dissertation focuses on software testing. For software testing, symbolic/concolic testing reasons about data symbolically but enumerates program paths. The existing concolic technique enumerates paths sequentially, leading to poor branch coverage in limited time. We improve concolic testing by bounded model checking. During concolic testing, we identify program regions that can be encoded by BMC on the fly so that program paths within these regions are checked simultaneously. We have implemented the new algorithm on top of KLEE and called the new tool Llsplat. We have compared Llsplat with KLEE using 10 programs from the Windows NT Drivers Simplified and 88 programs from the GNU Coreutils benchmark sets. With 3600 second testing time for each program, Llsplat provides on average 13% relative branch coverage improvement on all 10 programs in the Windows drivers set, and on average 16% relative branch coverage improvement on 80 out of 88 programs in the GNU Coreutils set.The second part of the dissertation implements symbolic/concolic testing methods onto an embedded platform. With the more extensive use and of higher demand of the embedded systems, reliability of the embedded software becomes a critical issue. Thus it is important to design a test harness that can test embedded software on the real platform or hardware in the loop framework comprehensively and systematically. We present our design prototype Codecomb. Codecomb implements symbolic/concolic execution that is able to achieve high branch coverage to generated test cases. It mainly exploits client/server architecture to achieve the isolation of testing tools and program under test such that complex computing job is performed in the server side. Experimental results show that Codecomb can detect program deficiency automatically on the embedded platform, and precisely locate errors such as buffer overflow, memory leak in a running program.The third part of the dissertation applies formal and semi-methods to high-level synthesis (HLS) for VLSI. Verifying functional equivalence of high-level synthesis with formal methods ensures the correctness of the transformation flow. Current verification work widely uses static analysis such as model checking, while a pure dynamic execution flow is missing. In this part, we propose a functional verification flow for HLS utilizing symbolic execution on both C and Verilog directly. Specifically, on behavior C level we collect program traces via symbolicexecution. As for Verilog level, we first generate a circuit satisfiability modulo theory (SMT) representation. Then we propose a light-weight pure symbolic execution framework to collect Verilog's on-the-fly time invariant version-based traces. To alleviate the scalability issue, we develop an operation abstraction method using SMT solvers to match potential C and Verilog traces. Extensive experiments on circuits from numerical computing and Chstone benchmark verify the validity and effectiveness of the flow.The last part of the dissertation investigates the applications on Energy Internet. Energy Router based system is a crucial part in the energy transmission and management under the circumstance of Energy Internet for green cities. During its design process, a sound formal verification and a performance monitoring scheme are needed to check its reliability and meaningful quantitative properties. In this chapter, we provide formal verification solutions for ER based system by proposing a continuous-time Markov chain model describing the architecture of ER based system. To verify real world function of the ER based system, we choose electricity trading to propose a Markov decision process model running on an ER subsystem to describe the trading behaviour. To monitor the system performance, we project the energy scheduling process in ER based system, and then implemented this scheduling process on top of cloud computing experiment tool. Finally, we perform extensive experiment evaluations to investigate the system reliability properties, quantitative properties, and scheduling behaviours. The experiment verifies the effectiveness of the proposed models and the monitoring scheme.


Abstract
Objective: Consistent self-care is vital to maintaining good health and quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), as well as avoiding life-limiting conditions. Evidence suggests depression impacts on T1D self-care, but research into what might influence this is lacking. The aim of the current study was to explore whether shame-proneness predicts diabetes self-care in an emerging adult population and whether this relationship is mediated by depression. Method: 292 participants between the ages of 16 and 25 and with T1D took part in an online survey. They completed measures of shame-proneness, depression and adherence to diabetes self-care activities, and provided their most recent HbA1c reading. Results: As hypothesised, all four shame subscales showed a significant correlation between high shame and low self-care. All four types of shame evidenced some partial mediation by depression, though this was only marginal for diabetes shame. There was evidence of stronger mediation by depression in the models of behavioural and character shame. For the models assessing diabetes-related and body shame on self-care outcomes, the direct effect of shame generally remained significant. HbA1c levels in the sample were high (mean=64 mmol/mol) and uptake of attendance at structured diabetes education courses was low (40%). Conclusion: Preliminary support was found for a model whereby diabetes and body shame directly affect T1D self-care in emerging adults. Depression remains an important factor in T1D self-care and for some may be influenced by character and behavioural shame. Potential ways of reducing shame for people with T1D are discussed. Further research is needed to establish causality and measure factors which may play a role in triggering and maintaining shame.


This paper provides a detailed description of how TermPedia which is a document enrichment tool, is applied to educational literature in order to help students easily understand their reading material. The paper assumes that technical terms are one of the major hindrances to document content comprehension. TermPedia has the ability to extract, define, and link technical terms to Wikipedia. It is expected that relevant term definitions and explanations will ease the comprehension of educational documents by students and thereby improve their reading speed and shorten the time they needed for knowledge acquisition.


The internal structure of samples produced by additive manufacturing (AM) technology of copolymer acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) was studied by microcomputer tomography ( micro-CT). The results of micro-CT were correlated with the mechanical properties of samples. The aim of this paper was to demonstrate the acetone vaporization influence on the structure and mechanical properties of ABS samples printed with additive manufacturing technology. Samples were printed on three different devices and scanned with micro-CT after acetone vapors treatment. Mass and hardness of the samples were measured. Finally, the static tensile test was performed. Irregularly spaced voids, which directly affected samples properties, have been detected. Under the influence of acetone vaporization, the properties of the samples have changed such as: number of voids, mass, hardness, tensile strength.


Sulfonylurea herbicides are widely used for control for most broad-leaves weeds and common grasses in agricultural crops in quite low application rate (less than 100 g/ha). Their persistence in the soil environment is mainly dependent on several site specific factors, such as rainfall, soil properties (especially pH and organic matter), climate and combination of factors. The fate of sulfonylurea herbicides in soil ranges from few weeks to three or more years. Generally, sulfonylurea herbicides represent potential environment pollutants in soil and water. One of the most applicable SU herbicide is nicosulfuron (1-(4.6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl)-3-(3-dimethylcarbamoyl-2-pyridylsulfonyl) urea). In extreme weather conditions, nicosulfuron residue in soil can influence phytotoxicity symptoms in some sensitive crops, such as sugar beet or soybean. In order to develop simple and rapid, but enough sensitive method for determination of nicosulfuron residues in soil sample, this study was conducted. Method validation was performed by analyzing spiked uncontaminated soil samples (10 g) with nicosulfuron at three levels 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 μg/ml. Extraction was done with phosphate buffer pH 7.4/methanol (80/20, v/v) solution. The mixture was shaken for 1 min using Vortex and liquid and solid phases were separated by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 5 min. The extraction process was repeated two times, followed by cleaning up on C18 cartridges. Analysis was carried out using an HPLC-UV diode array detection system (Agilent 1100, USA), with an Agilent Zorbax Eclipse C18 column (50 mm × 4.6 mm, 1.8 μm) and mobile phase consisting of ultrapure water pH 2.5 with H3PO4 and acetonitrile (70/30, v/v). Presence of nicosulfuron was confirmed by overlapping spectra (240 nm) from standard solution and from soil sample spiked with nicosulfuron. The accuracy of the defined method was confirmed by the good results of recovery assay (89%). The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.01 mg/kg and 0.05 mg/kg, respectively. Described method is applicable for analysis of this herbicide in real soil samples.


Knotted polypeptides constitute a group of proteins whose backbone chain entangles in the folded state. The folding mechanism of knotted protein is complex, involving multiple intermediate states. Therefore, it is difficult to determine experimentally the thermodynamic and kinetic barriers associated with threading the polypeptide chain. To address this problem, we used optical tweezers to study the folding mechanism of MJ0366, the smallest protein containing a shallow trefoil knot. Specifically, we mechanically manipulated the knotted protein from different pulling directions to either tighten the knot upon unfolding or to untie the protein from different points of its structure. When the knot was tightened in force‐ramp experiments, we observed single unfolding and refolding transitions characterized by unimodal force distributions, and an accompanying change in contour length (Lc = 24 ± 3 nm) consistent with the expected theoretical value. Moreover, in constant‐force experiments, we observed that the protein oscillates between two states, whose frequency of interconversion showed a linear dependence with force. These observations suggest a two‐state folding mechanism when the trefoil knot remains in the polypeptide chain. However, when the knot is untied by keeping the C‐termini free to thread, the protein unfolds in either one or two transitions and at forces higher than those observed when pulling from the N and C termini. Moreover, 50% of the unfolding transitions have a Lc shorter than the expected value, suggesting that the protein can be trapped in a misfolded state during its refolding process. When the knot is untied by keeping both N‐ and C‐termini free to thread, we observed a single unfolding force distribution with the expected Lc for this construct. However, the refolding process could not be characterized because it occurs at forces below the resolution limit (<1 pN). Our results suggest that when the knot remains in the unfolded state, the folding landscape have a smooth and funneled shape. However, when the knotted protein has to overcome the threading process this energy landscape becomes rough.


Topological invariants of a dataset, such as the number of holes that survive from one length scale to another (persistent Betti numbers) can be used to analyse and classify data in machine learning applications. We present an improved quantum algorithm for computing persistent Betti numbers, and provide an end-to-end complexity analysis. Our approach provides large polynomial time improvements, and an exponential space saving, over existing quantum algorithms. Subject to gap dependencies, our algorithm obtains an almost quintic speedup in the number of datapoints over rigorous state-of-the-art classical algorithms for calculating the persistent Betti numbers to constant additive error - the salient task for applications. However, this may be reduced to closer to quadratic when compared against heuristic classical methods and observed scalings. We discuss whether quantum algorithms can achieve an exponential speedup for tasks of practical interest, as claimed previously. We conclude that there is currently no evidence that this is the case.


In this study, the suitability of Agama lizard as a biomarker in assessing environmental pollution levels of arsenium (As), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) was investigated. Samples of top soil and agama lizards were taken from five sites within a university community in Nigeria for the study. Soil samples, livers and kidneys from the lizards were subjected to wet acid digestion and levels of heavy metals in the digested samples were determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Results of the study showed that the levels of the metals ranged from Cd, 20.4 ± 2.6 ig/g to Zn, 978.6 ± 2.2 ig/g in soil; Cd, not detected to Zn, 42.2 ± 0.3 ig/g in liver; As and Ba, not detected to 47.6 ± 1.0 ig/g Zn in kidney. The inter matrices correlation coefficient values obtained for the heavy metals showed that the kidney of lizards would be more relevant in assessing soil levels of such heavy metals as As, Ba, Cd, Mn and Pb among others. Key words : Agama lizard, environmental pollution, soil, heavy metals, liver, kidney.


SMEs sector showed a dominant contribution to the gross domestic product. SMEs have been able to demonstrate the contribution and the identity as the main pillar to supporting the national economy to help drive the economic recovery process in Indonesia. By improving and enhancing business performance of SMEs, it is expected that the economy would be able to run faster, more advanced, and drive economic growth better in the future. Several factors affect the business performance of SMEs is sustainable competitiveness, organizational learning, and entrepreneurial orientation. The study examines the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on organizational learning and sustainable competitiveness against changes in business performance. Population in this study is SMEs which processing of cassava into tapein Bondowoso Region, Indonesia. The data collected consists of primary data (based on field surveys). Respondents are firm leaders (the owner or manager). Each SME will be represented by one respondent. The analysis technique used structural equation model to test the hypotheses. The study found an entrepreneurial orientation influence organizational learning; entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning have an effect and a significant positive relationship to sustainable competitiveness, and sustainable competitiveness influence business performance of tape SMEs.


Observational studies often seek to infer the causal effect of a treatment even though both the assigned treatment and the outcome depend on other confounding variables. An effective strategy for deal-ing with confounders is to estimate a propensity model that corrects for the relationship between covariates and assigned treatment. Unfortunately, the confounding variables themselves are not always observed, in which case we can only bound the propensity, and therefore bound the magnitude of causal effects. In many important cases, like ad-ministering a dose of some medicine, the possible treatments belong to a continuum. Sensitivity models, which are required to tie the true propensity to something that can be estimated, have been explored for binary treatments. We propose one for continuous treatments . We develop a framework to compute ignorance intervals on the partially identified dose-response curves, enabling us to quantify the susceptibility of an inference to hidden confounders. We show with simulations and three real-world observational studies that our approach can give non-trivial bounds on causal effects from continuous treatments in the presence of hidden confounders.


Behavioral biology and neuroscience are the next frontiers for legal thought. In the next few years, behavioral biology and neuroscience will become as important for the analysis of law as economics has been for the last several decades. In this book (Vandeplas 2011), Professor Fruehwald presents the general principles of behavioral biology and neuroscience, then he applies these principles to topics in the law. He believes that there was a nascent legal system on the savannah, where innate behavioral rules were enforced by devices such as force, reputation, and ostracism. Among the topics he explores are the use of behavioral biology and neuroscience to critique postmodern legal thought, reciprocal altruism as the basis for contract, a biological basis of rights, and how behavioral biology can be used to analyze constitutional cases. He concludes by showing why it is important to base law on a correct view of human nature.


In this study, DNA fingerprinting and genetic diversity analysis of 79 early-maturing upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars were performed using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) molecular markers. From 126 pairs of SSR primers, we selected 71 pairs of primers that gave good polymorphisms and clear bands, had good stability, and showed even distribution on the cotton chromosomes, and 142 polymorphic genotypes were amplified. The average number of alleles amplified with the SSR primers was 2.01. The polymorphism information content (PIC) of the markers ranged from 0.1841 to 0.9043 with an average of 0.6494. The results of fingerprint analysis showed that nine varieties had characteristic bands, and at least six primer pairs could be used to completely distinguish all 79 cotton accessions. Using NTSYS-pc 2.11 cluster analysis, the genetic similarity coefficients between the cotton genotypes ranged from 0.3310-0.8705, with an average of 0.5861. All cotton accessions were grouped into five categories at a similarity coefficient of 0.57, which was consistent with the pedigree sources. At the same time, the average genetic similarity coefficients of early-maturing upland cotton varieties in China showed a low-high-low pattern of variation over time, revealing the development history of early-maturing upland cotton varieties from the 1980s to the present. This also indirectly reflects that in recent years, China's cotton breeders have focused on innovation and have continuously broadened the genetic resources for early-maturing upland cotton.


Argentinian academic research and production on urban creativity is not recent; the field has developed through a combination of different disciplines and perspectives. But what is remarkable is the shift in interest on the subject since the arrival of the New York Style Graffiti Writing in the late '90s, which made new theoretical frameworks for the phenomena possible. Considering all these multiple approaches to the subject matter, the lack of consensus and systematic research is even more noteworthy, as it generates a heterogeneous panorama in terms of research proposals and frameworks.
In this article, we will examine the way in which a field of studies on graffiti and urban art emerged in Argentina -retracing the frameworks that structured the understanding of urban creativity through lineages or inheritances-, and we will show a continuation of interest in the subject matter, reshaped as a result of the arrival of new research perspectives.


The impetus behind the Intelligence Reform Act was to prevent another terrorist attack on American soil. The statute completely overhauled the United States intelligence apparatus, largely by amending the National Security Act of 1947, which created the CIA and established the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) as its head. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that by renovating the fifty-seven-year-old National Security Act to create a modern intelligence infrastructure, Congress has also paved the way for a new intelligence-information paradigm. For the last two decades, near-blanket CIA secrecy has gone largely unchecked, principally because of the Court's ruling in CIA v. Sims.The authors believe that Sims was wrongly decided in 1985, but this article asserts that, right or wrong, Sims is no longer controlling precedent when viewed in light of the Intelligence Reform Act. This Article asserts that the CIA's ability to deny FOIA requests should be sharply circumscribed in accordance with a new information paradigm of maximum dissemination as established in the Act. Part I discusses the FOIA, its statutory exemptions and its legislative history. Part II examines the Sims decision and argues that the Court's ruling contravened Congress's intent to require the fullest disclosure possible under the FOIA. Part III summarizes the changes established by the Intelligence Reform Act and examines the legislative history of the Act to clarify the plain meaning of its text. This Article concludes that the Intelligence Reform Act offers a new intelligence information policy that recognizes that carte blanche CIA secrecy has been outmoded and acknowledges that this nation has experienced a profound shift in terms of what the public has come to expect to know about what their government is doing in their name.


The impact of lightning on tropospheric reactive nitrogen NOx (NO + NO2) and nitrogen reservoir species (HNO3, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), N2O5, and HNO4) has been evaluated using a global chemical/transport model. Comparison of calculations made with and without lightning show that lightning has a significant effect on the nitrogen species on a global scale, resulting in significant enhancements of NOx, HNO3, and PAN over the no lightning case. Of the nitrogen species, HNO3 is influenced the most, comprising approximately 60 to 80% of the total increase in the nitrogen species concentration. The increase in PAN accounts for approximately 20 to 30% of the nitrogen enhancement by lightning in the middle troposphere. In the lower troposphere of the tropics, NOx is rapidly converted into HNO3 due to the high OH concentration in this region. As a result, the enhancement in NOx from direct lightning emission is limited primarily to the upper troposphere. The conversion between NOx and less reactive nitrogen species (PAN and HNO3) also plays an important role in affecting NOx, especially over the oceans where lightning activity is low. The model results suggest that recycling of NOx from the lightning-enhanced PAN and HNO3 produces 2 to 10 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) increases in NOx over the oceans in the lower troposphere of the tropics. The enhancement of NOx over the oceans can partially explain the observations of NOx (mixing ratios of typically 10–50 pptv) over the tropical oceans, which are characterized by higher concentrations than would be expected from direct transport of NOx from the continents.


One of the most critical problems in transfer learning is the task of domain adaptation, where the goal is to apply an algorithm trained in one or more source domains to a different (but related) target domain. This paper deals with domain adaptation in the presence of covariate shift while invariances exist across domains. One of the main limitations of existing causal inference methods for solving this problem is scalability. To overcome this difficulty, we propose SCTL, an algorithm that avoids an exhaustive search and identifies invariant causal features across source and target domains based on Markov blanket discovery. SCTL does not require having prior knowledge of the causal structure, the type of interventions, or the intervention targets. There is an intrinsic locality associated with SCTL that makes it practically scalable and robust because local causal discovery increases the power of computational independence tests and makes the task of domain adaptation computationally tractable. We show the scalability and robustness of SCTL for domain adaptation using synthetic and real data sets in low-dimensional and high-dimensional settings.


Correlation analysis of 10 characters was run in three species of Dermacentor, D. nuttalli, D. ushakovae, D. niveus, and in Ixodes persulcatus, separately for each phase and sex. Correlation coefficients are very low in larvae of all species. In male nymphs correlation coefficients are on the same level in all species while the correlation coefficient level in female nymphs reflects the degree of independence of the development of characters. This defines the degree of manifestation of sexual dimorphism at the nymphal phase: the more rigid the connections between the characters the less number of characters shows sexual differences. At the phase of imago the lowest correlation coefficients are in I. persulcatus. This species displays most distinct differences in the morphology of females and males. On the basis of comparison of correlation and variability coefficients the functional role of the characters is discussed.


Drawing on Durkheim's theory of social integration, this discussion reports on findings from a pooled time-series analysis of states' spending for public welfare and their suicide rates, controlling for states' divorce rates, population change rates, population density, unemployment rates, sex ratio, and racial composition. The analysis spans a 35-year period, 1960 to 1995, at six different data points: 1960, 1970, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1995. The major hypothesis was that states' suicide rates would increase with decreases in per capita spending for public welfare, controlling for the variables listed above in three different models and using OLS to analyze the data. In the basic model, states' spending for public welfare showed no relationship to states' suicide rates; in the second model that controlled for data year and in the third model that controlled for both data year and state, its relationship was significant, but in a negative direction. Suicide rates increased in states that reduced their per capita expenditures for public welfare during the observational period. Of all the variables, the influence of divorce on suicide was the most persistent and pronounced, followed by the percentage of whites in states' populations. Whether the findings reflect an increase in the unendurable psychological pain associated with suicide, or the weakening of ties that bind individuals to each other and to the larger society (as measured by states' divorce rates and per capita expenditures for public welfare), or the vulnerabilities associated with race, states can help counter suicide trends and such negative influences as divorce as evidenced by states that spend more for public welfare and have lower suicide rates. Given that clinicians work with people experiencing the unendurable psychological pain associated with suicide, the findings from these analyses have relevance for their practice.


Gulella taitensis is a land snail of the family Streptaxidae and genus Gulella. It is endemic to Taita hills and categorized as endangered on the IUCN Red List. The species is threatened by habitat loss and disturbance due to human activities. Two people sampled snails at four sampling plots using standard timed direct search for one hour. Soil samples were collected from four different points within these sampling plots, and its pH, calcium and electrical conductivity obtained using standard soil chemical analysis methods. Litter depth, litter cover, canopy cover, log and tree density were assessed. Distribution of G. taitensis varied significantly between all the forest fragments. Most of the environmental variables investigated recorded a positive association with the G. taitensis densities. Calcium is significant for the snail's survival and has a significant correlation with litter cover, canopy cover and log density and these influences the distribution between the forest fragments. Calcium, canopy cover, log density and tree density form the best combination of environmental variables (model) that influence the distribution and abundance of G. taitensis. Polymerase Chain Reaction of DNA extracted from these snails using microsatellite primers showed there is genetic diversity within this species. We predict that there could be genetic variations within this species since the phylogenetic tree shoed two major clades and samples from the same forest fragment clustered at different clades while others clustered closely together within the same clade. There is a possibility of the presence of a hybrid or sub-species within this species. This requires more specific primers to be used to confirm it as genetic work of this genus is scanty.


This is a copy of a presentation given at the 4th International Conference, 'Protection of children in cars', 7-8 December 2006, Munich, Germany.


The main focus of this thesis has been directed towards developing novel surface-confined transition metal complexes for applications in heterogeneous catalysis and for the preparation of anisotropic particle surfaces. The first part describes the heterogenization of a homogeneous transition metal-based catalyst tetraphenyl cobalt porphyrin (CoTPP) on silicon wafers and on silica particles. The activity in hydroquinone oxidation for the silica particle-immobilized CoTPPs was found to be increased 100-fold compared to its homogeneous congener whereas the silicon wafer-immobilized CoTPPs achieved lower activity due to the formation of clusters of catalyst molecules on the support surface as detected with atomic force microscopy (AFM). The second part of this thesis describes the development and characterization of anisotropic particle-surfaces by electrochemical site-specific oxidation of surface-confined thiols. Reactive patches or gold gradients could be obtained on the particle surfaces depending on the type of working electrode used and on the electrolyte composition. The particle surface functionalities were characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the particle-surface-confined patches and gradients were conjugated with proteins to obtain fluorescence for investigation using fluorescence microscopy. Gold-functionalized siliceous mesocellular foams were further demonstrated to be highly efficient and selective catalysts in the cycloisomerization of 4-alkynoic acids to lactones. The final part of this thesis describes the preparation and characterization of palladium nanoparticles heterogenized in the pores of siliceous mesocellular foam. The nanoparticles were analyzed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and found to have a size of 1-2 nm. Primary- and secondary benzylic- and allylic alcohols were oxidized by the heterogeneous palladium nanoparticles in high to excellent yields using air atmosphere as the oxygen source. The nanopalladium catalyst was used up to five times without any decrease in activity and the size of the nanoparticles was retained according to TEM.


allergy, and contains disulfide (S-S) bonds that may be responsible for its allergic action. As S-S bonds may be reduced during electrolysis on the cathode side, this study was undertaken to evaluate modulation of the allergic action of OMC after electrolysis. A current of 30 mA/cm 2 was applied. The allergic action was evaluated by means of skin prick tests (SPT) with egg-allergic patients, and the modification of OMC was examined by MALDI-ToF-MS after tryptic digestion. The total free SH groups in 1% OMC solution were increased on the cathode sides after electrolysis for 30 minutes (14.8 nmol/ml) as against those of untreated OMC (1.2 nmol/ ml) and OMC on the anode side (2.8 nmol/ml). Significant mitigation of the wheal reactions by 22% were observed in the SPT with OMC on the cathode when compared with those for untreated OMC, however, the wheal reactions on the anode side did not differ from those for untreated OMC. The MALDI-ToF-MS results for untreated OMC or OMC on the anode side showed two peptide fragments suspecting potential S-S bonds (residues 63L-85S, 358A-379R) but, on the contrary, OMC on the cathode side did not give the fragments suspecting potential S-S bonds. The allergic action of OMC can be mitigated during electrolysis on the cathode side, being simultaneously formed intramolecular free SH groups. This study was supported by the Kieikai, Tokyo, and a Grant-in-Aid


ABSTRACT Thirty years after the downfall of the Soviet-led communist bloc, the United States-led liberal international order is seen as coming to an end. Policymakers have converged on the need to safeguard the "rules-based order" across the newly coined "Indo-Pacific" region. However, policy and scholarly debates lack clarity about what exactly is to be preserved, and why the terms of the "rules-based order" and the "Indo-Pacific" have rapidly found their way into policy debates despite their contested meaning. Analyzing developments in regional multilateralism, we find that mainstream discourses purport static conceptions of order, which are often conflated with United States-centered trans-Pacific alliance relationships. The ensuing problem of order stems in large part from the fact that multilateral projects for building alternate orders, undertaken since the early 1990s, have remained far below their potential. We conclude that emerging forms of multilateral cooperation across the enlarged "Indo-Pacific" region have partially filled this void.


We explorde the evidence for contemporary role of sitagliptin and evaluate for the non-glycemic effects of sitagliptin, through analysing the quantity and quality of the published evidences through the highest level of evidences ie: Randomised Controlled Clinical Trials (RCCTs). We searched Cochrane Library, pubmed- MEDLINE, IndMED databases to conduct a systematic review of published Randomised Controlled Clinical Trials (RCCTs) evaluating the contemporary role of sitaglitin for the non-glycemic effects. Only the trials with the comparator arms were included, studies evaluating glycemic effects of sitaglitin were excluded by appropriate Boolean operators. Only the RCCTs with healthy subjects and nondiabetics were included. Graph pad prism 7.0 version software and t-test was utilised for statistical analysis. 295 clinical trials published in last 10 years (20to 2017) were screened which yielded eight RCCTs, of which six met inclusion criteria, were compared for study design, patient characteristics, geography, impact factor of journals, intervention, duration and outcomes by using the appropriate statistical methods. Cumulatively, 269 patients (mean 45 patients, SD ± 64, SEM ± 26, minimum 6 patients, maximum 174 patients, 95% CI -23 to 112, p=0.147) have been evaluated across 6 RCCTs. Duration of RCCTs varies from 1 day to 1 year (n=2). Based on the impact factor of journals (mean 3.5, min 1.5, max 5.5, SD ± 1.4, SEM ± 0.59, 95% CI 2 to 5.1; p=0.0019), we formulated an indexed weightage score (mean 100, min 43.34, max 156.4, SD ± 40.9, SEM ± 16.7, 95% CI 57.to 142.9). Sitagliptin has systemic and adipose anti-inflammatory effects in cART-treated HIV+ adults with impaired glucose tolerance, improvement in the left and right ventricular ejection fraction changes from baseline to 6 months of follow-up is evident. Sitagliptin is useful in varied clinical conditions with non-glycemic effects which needs validation across global multicentric trials. Disclosure G. Khurana: None. V. Gupta: None. B.M. Makkar: None. J.K. Sharma: None. H. Khurana: None. N. Wadhwa: None.


NEW YORK - Cushman & Wakefield has secured a retail lease for 181 Smith Street, located on the corner of Smith and Warren Streets in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill neighborhood. The space will be occupied by El Milagro, a well-known furniture, antique, and jewelry store with two other locations in Park Slope. The L-shaped space contains approximately 2,000 square feet with an additional 600 square feet of outdoor selling space, which El Milagro will utilize to sell garden and outdoor products. The site is located just steps from the Bergen Street F and G subway station and neighboring retailers include Rite Aid, Chase, Lululemon, Dunkin' Donuts, and Starbucks. "Ownership of 181 Smith Street is delighted to have El Milagro join the neighborhood. This retail property, with a backyard and full basement, is ideal for a furniture use tenant," said Cushman & Wakefield's Nicole Liebman, who exclusively represented the landlord in this transaction. "With the changing landscape in Boerum Hill, El Milagro will fit in perfectly, bridging a local feel with a modern twist," said Liebman.


The goal of this paper is to show that a degree-based semantics for comparative constructions in English, based on a degree ontology going back to Cresswell (1976), meets the challenge of polarity effects in antonymous adjectives, once it is properly adapted to deal with measure expressions and the so called norm-related inferences. I present an alternative to theories that rely on a shift fromdegrees as points to degrees as intervals as proposed in von Stechow (1984a). My approach builds on the assumption that degrees constitute simple ordinal scales and measures are introduced at the LF by the necessity of interpreting numerals. The proposal is evaluated against the data from two languages with completely different polarity patterns, English and Russian.


Matrix factorisation methods decompose multivariate observations as linear combinations of latent feature vectors. The Indian Buffet Process (IBP) provides a way to model the number of latent features required for a good approximation in terms of regularised reconstruction error. Previous work has focussed on latent feature vectors with independent entries. We extend the model to include nondiagonal latent covariance structures representing characteristics such as smoothness. This is done by . Using simulations we demonstrate that under appropriate conditions a smoothness prior helps to recover the true latent features, while denoising more accurately. We demonstrate our method on a real neuroimaging dataset, where computational tractability is a sufficient challenge that the efficient strategy presented here is essential.


Background. The genus Agave has social, cultural, environmental and economic importance in Mexico. Approximately 15 species of agave are used as raw material for the production of mezcal, among them is the Agave marmorata Roelz, which is considered the longest-lived agave for the preparation of this drink because its maturation period ranges from 20 to 35 years. Agave plant tissue culture is a technique that allows obtaining plants by organogenesis (O) and / or somatic embryogenesis (ES) in a short period of time. The quality and quantity of plants propagated by these methods can be favored with the use of Temporary Immersion Systems (SIT). Objective. Establish a protocol for the regeneration of A. marmorata seedlings in SIT, with the methods of direct organogenesis and indirect somatic embryogenesis. Methodology. Two regeneration methods, direct organogenesis and indirect somatic embryogenesis, were evaluated. For the first, the effect of the frequency and number of explants grown in SIT in the sprouting and growth stages of the explant was determined. For the second, the effect of the number of explants grown in SIT on the percentage of germination and the growth rate of somatic embryos was evaluated. Results. The best treatment in the sprouting stage was obtained with 80 explants grown in SIT with an immersion frequency of 8 h and an immersion time of 2 min, with 84% sprouting and 17.5 sprouts / explant of 1 cm in height. The best growth of the explants originated from direct organogenesis was obtained with 180 cultured explants per flask with an immersion frequency of 8 hours and an immersion time of 2 min. On the other hand, in the somatic embryogenesis method, the highest percentage of embryo germination (62.2%) was achieved with 80 somatic embryos cultured in SIT with an immersion frequency of 8 hours. Implications. The results of this research contribute to a better understanding of the regeneration process of direct organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis in temporary immersion systems. This can help to scale the system commercially and to conserve germplasm. Conclusions. It was possible to establish an effective protocol for the regeneration of agave seedlings.


Attempts to regenerate myocardial infarct (MI) using stem cells have been achieving random success rates. This study considered delivering cardiac progenitors (rCPs), developed from rat adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rADMSCs), into rat MI tissue. The study aimed to employ fibrin-based insoluble matrix as a niche for in vitro differentiation of rADMSCs to rCPs and specific composition of fibrin hydrogel to deliver the cells into MI tissue. PKH26 tracker dye labelled-rCPs/rADMSCs suspended in fibrinogen/thrombin was injected to peri-infarct zone in rat heart created by coronary artery ligation. The MI tissues were harvested after 28d, imaged to locate transplanted cells, and analyzed to detect markers of differentiation, angiogenesis, and immune response. Co-localization of Connexin 43/TroponinT with PKH26 indicated differentiation of transplanted progenitors into cardiomyocyte like cells. Additionally, the presence of CD31+ve cells, fewer CD68+ve cells, and reduced collagen deposition are appreciable in tissues transplanted with rCP in fibrin, as compared to those that received rADMSC. The results obtained indicate that fibrin acts as a favorable niche for in vitro priming of rADMSCs into transplantable lineagecommitted rCPs. The in situ clottable fibrin aided the retention and differentiation of transplanted rCPs into cardiomyocytes. Also by 28d, the tissues showed better angiogenic/ immunomodulatory effects and reduced the calcification tendency.


Intrinsic motivation (IM) is an important predictor of children's physical activity participation. The present 3-year longitudinal study examined changes in IM toward physical activity among a group of at-risk boys (N = 92) at a summer sports camp. Results showed the boys were intrinsically motivated in their first camp year, but their IM levels declined throughout 3 years of participation. This decline might be due to insufficient instructor support and repetitively scheduled activities at the camp. There were no ethnic differences in the initial IM mean scores or rates of IM change. Such homogeneity might be attributable to the boys' similar demographic characteristics. Future research should identify possible causes of declined IM for camp coordinators and instructors to better design and implement sports and physical activities to sustain the boys' IM.


Osteosarcoma, the most common primary malignancy of bone, is an aggressive cancer occurring predominantly in children and adolescents. Studies of familial cancer syndromes and sporadic cases have strongly implicated both p53 and pRb in osteosarcoma tumorigenesis. Thus, our lab created a fully penetrant mouse model of osteosarcoma based on the osteoblast-specific deletion of p53 and pRb. This model faithfully recapitulates the defining features of human OS, including pathology, metastatic behavior, and cytogenetic complexity and shares a transcriptional profile with the human disease. Using a genome-wide shRNA screen, we have identified gene products whose inhibition synergizes with p53 and pRb deletion to kill osteosarcoma cells. This screen identified genes that are required for proliferation and survival of osteosarcoma cell lines in an unbiased fashion. The screen identified a number of druggable gene products and pathways, including members of the HDAC family of histone deacetylases. Follow-up studies with selective chemical HDAC inhibitors and shRNAs against individual HDACs demonstrate that osteosarcoma cells are vulnerable to HDAC1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 inhibition. Selective inhibition of HDACs has emerged as a promising avenue toward cancer therapy, therefore we look to understand if and how HDAC inhibition can be used as a therapeutic approach to treating osteosarcoma. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4234. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4234


We exploit plausibly exogenous changes in the value of reserves in Texas's giant oil fields to determine the impact of crime in Texas counties that have reserves. Texas provides an ideal setting for this research strategy. First, Texas has the largest number of giant oil fields. Second, Texas's giant oil fields possess the greatest remaining oil potential. Third, giant oil fields are dispersed throughout the state. We find that a one percent increase in the lagged value of oil reserves increases violent crime by 0.32%, aggravated assaults by 0.40%, sex offenses by 0.40-0.50%, and drug offenses by 0.40 %. We find that changes in the value of oil reserves in counties adjacent to a given county have no effect on crime in that county. This is evidence of crime creation and not displacement of criminal activities across counties. We explore potential mechanisms that could be driving this increase in crime and find an increase in the share of young males and no increase in the size of the police force


Fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts fuel into electricity. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been used for ground transportation due to its high efficiency and zero carbon emission. When it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), PEMFCs can support much longer flight endurance than internal combustion engines and batteries do. However, a lightweight PEMFC stack is required in order to carry enough payload for UAVs. In this research, a lightweight fuel cell stack was developed and fabricated based on the Horizon fuel cell stack. The stack components, including end plates, bipolar plates, and interconnects were redesigned and fabricated to replace those heavy components. Additive manufacturing (3D printing) and electroplating were used to fabricate bipolar plates and interconnects, whereas the end plates were machined from Garolite XX plates. The fabricated lightweight PEMFC stacks were tested using a Scribner 850e Fuel Cell Test System. The lightweight stack assembled with six electroplated bipolar plates showed that the maximum power density estimated was 3.514 W/cm2 with 4.5 V and 1.6 A/cm2 conditions for 100 ml/min of H2. The same fuel cell stack tested at 200 ml/min and 300 ml/min showed higher maximum power densities than 100 ml/min. The presentation includes design and fabrication, performance characterization, weight reduction strategy, and future work.


The importance of tissue sulfate concentrations in regulating 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphosulfate (PAPS) synthesis is not known. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the influence of increased availability of inorganic sulfate on steady-state PAPS concentrations in various tissues. To increase tissue sulfate concentrations, 2-16 mmol/kg of sodium sulfate and sulfur-containing amino acids (cysteine or methionine) were infused intravenously for 2 hr into pentobarbital-anesthetized rats. Serial blood samples were taken during the infusion and analyzed for sulfate concentrations. After 2 hr of infusion, liver, kidney, and brain were removed for quantification of tissue PAPS and sulfate concentrations. Infusion of sodium sulfate, cysteine, and methionine increased serum and tissue sulfate concentrations in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Serum sulfate concentrations increased from 0.8 to 14 mM during the infusion of sodium sulfate, whereas infusions of cysteine and methionine increased serum sulfate concentrations to 4.8 and 2.0 mM, respectively. Tissue sulfate concentrations also increased during sulfate infusion. Liver sulfate concentration increased from 0.8 to 4.8 mM, kidney concentration increased from 0.6 to 31 mM, and brain concentration increased from 0.1 to 0.6 mM. Similar to the serum sulfate concentrations, sulfate infusion was the most effective in increasing tissue sulfate concentrations, cysteine was intermediate, and methionine the least effective. Although sulfate concentrations in liver, kidney, and brain increased 6-, 50-, and 6-fold by infusing sulfate, respectively; tissue PAPS levels were not altered markedly. Hepatic PAPS concentrations increased significantly (30-35%) only when infused with the higher doses (8 or 16 mmol/kg/2 hr) of sodium sulfate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Scenarios are extensively used in software architecture evaluation. These scenarios are elicited from stakeholders using either a topdown or bottom-up approach. The former approach uses categorization schemes to focus stakeholders on developing scenarios for each required category. The latter approach uses brainstorming without any explicit categories of scenarios. It is claimed that top-down approach can result in improved quality of scenarios. However, there has been no empirical evidence on the relative effectiveness of the scenario elicitation techniques. In this paper we report on a controlled experiment with 24 subjects (postgraduate and final year undergraduate students with industry experience) in an academic context with the goal to assess the relative effectiveness of the two scenario elicitation approaches. Two groups developed scenarios to characterize quality attributes: the treatment group was given software change categories, the control group was not. The outcome variable was the quality of the scenarios produced by each participant. The average quality score for individual scenario profiles in the treatment group was significantly greater than the control group. All participants using the change categories reported that the knowledge of change categories helped them develop better quality scenarios. Our results support the claim that the provision of domainspecific software change categories helps generate better quality scenarios.


The depletion of fossil sources for our energy system requires new ways and new sources to fulfil our energy demand. But more important these fossil sources have a large influence on the CO2 emission. Other sources than fossil ones (wind, sun, biomass) and technologies (wind turbines, solar cells, biomass combustion) are available and need to be implemented. A transition towards a more sustainable energy system is necessary. This requires not only the use of renewable sources but requires a more holistic approach that addresses cost savings, energy efficiency and institutional innovation as well. In many cities, there is not such a clear agenda and commitment to contribute to the renewable energy transition by adopting particular technologies. Questions of authority, allocation of costs and benefits (including split incentives), scale (concerning the appropriate geographical and administrative level to apply certain technologies), ownership, renewables and technologies (both sources and technologies can differ with regards to availability, costs and benefits, lock-in etc.) can lead to different transition paths. Consequently, the current transition process is scattered. Several stakeholders see the urgency of a more sustainable energy system. However, they act alone and their actions and implementations are limited to what they individually can do. If these actions are more in collaboration or aligned, it is expected that better results in terms of effectiveness are achieved against lower costs. Then, the questions arise, who needs to take the lead in this process, which stakeholders need to be involved and what will their role become? Do municipalities or other public organisations need to take the lead or can citizens cooperate and start their local initiative? And what is the impact (in CO2 reduction, sustainability, costs) of different approaches towards a transition to a sustainable district? This paper presents the serious multi-player tabletop game GO2Zero about a transition process to a sustainable city district. In the scope of half a day, about twenty participants (citizens, from local energy related organisation and public institutes) play a role of a local authority, a housing corporation, a tenant, a homeowner, a local sustainable energy supplier, a grid operator, a local renewable energy supplier or a contractor offering retrofitting measures and technologies. Their collaborative objective is to bring the CO2 production in the district back to zero, to reduce the energy consumption with 50% and to produce local sustainable energy. At the same time, the participants have to reach their personal objectives, like profit, energy label or stability of the grid. The participants start with a phase where they can decide upon their strategy, focussing on production or reduction of energy, working alone or together etc. After the strategy, participants have to decide if and which retrofitting investments they will make, in three consecutive rounds, each representing several years. They can choose from a number of retrofitting measures, and have to get an understanding of the pros and cons of each. After playing the game, the participants have more insight in the different opportunities for the transition, the effect of different retrofitting strategies and the dynamics of the institutionally fragmented decision-making context.The paper will report on the experiences of sessions played with local stakeholders involved in energy transition in the cities of Dubrovnik, Amsterdam and Delft. Based on preliminary results, we conclude that the game give insights in the consequences of different personal strategies (as owner work towards going off grid) for the performance on district level (business case for a heat network). Further, the sessions gave a lively discussion about the legal system as well as how to organize this process in their local situation.


In this thesis, I investigate cladding-pumped Raman fibre lasers and amplifiers. Such devices, offering a novel way to generate Raman gain, combine the advantages of the hugely successful cladding-pumped rare-earth doped fibre lasers with those of stimulated Raman scattering. They not only inherit most advantages of conventional fibre devices, such as flexibility, high efficiency, compactness, and robustness, but also provide their own advantages and distinct properties relative to conventional fibre sources, i.e., wavelength flexibility and nearly instantaneous gain without energy storage. Cladding-pumped Raman fibre laser sources utilise double-clad Raman fibres as the gain medium. These are similar to a rare-earth doped double-clad fibre except that there is no laserion doping of the core. With double-clad fibres, the high-power output from low-cost multimode pump sources can be converted into diffraction-limited signal beams, e.g., through stimulated Raman scattering. Thus, cladding-pumped Raman fibre laser sources are a kind of brightness enhancers. In the beginning of this thesis, I theoretically analyse various factors that limit the brightness enhancement of such devices. One of the limits is unwanted 2nd-Stokes generation, which restricts the area ratio between the inner cladding and core. By designing a new DCRF with a W-type core, I successfully relax this restriction by nearly five times. Combined with other factors, i.e., core damage threshold, walk-off, numerical aperture, and background loss, a brightness enhancement of more than 3500 for the designed fibre could be achieved in such devices shown by a model with right pump sources and parameters. Secondly, I focus on the conversion efficiency of such devices. A well-designed fibre with inner-cladding-to-core area ratio around six was used as a double-clad Raman fibre, pumped by a source with nearly rectangular pulse shapes. The nearly rectangular pulses were obtained from an erbium and ytterbium co-doped master optical power oscillator through prepulse shaping. A sufficiently short piece was chosen to reduce the background loss and walk-off. The highest peak power conversion into the 1st Stokes was 75% and the energy conversion efficiency was over 60% in a pulsed cladding-pumped Raman fibre amplifier. Thirdly, I study the power scalability. Theoretically, I analyse the achievable power of such devices. The core size turns out to be a critical factor in most cases. The ultimately output power is limited to around 24 kW by thermal lensing if the core is large enough and enough pump power available. Experimentally, in collaboration with co-workers, a 100 W claddingpumped Raman fibre laser was demonstrated at 1116 nm. The output beam was nearly diffraction-limited. It shows the potential of power scalability of such devices and the ability of generating high power diffraction-limited sources at wavelengths outside the conventional range that rare-earth doped fibres offer. Since a large core size is a critical factor for power scaling, new double-clad Raman fibres with large-mode areas were introduced. They were experimentally demonstrated to work as efficiently as the previous fibre. An Nd:YAG laser was used to pump one of these fibres, and a 1 mJ Raman fibre source with good beam quality was thus demonstrated. This shows that double-clad Raman fibres offer another approach to obtaining high-brightness high-energy sources. In addition, based on a cladding-pumped Raman fibre converter, a simple and efficient method was proposed to generate supercontinuum sources.


Nature of medical images makes segmentation a difficult problem. Often the human anatomy in medical images blend with its surrounding due to low contrast thus making changes in the edge gray level too low and difficult to detect. Medical images are also noisy and fuzzy. The main challenge of this paper is to detect the outer cortical (OC) and inner cortical (IC) of the bone for the measurement of the inner diameter (ID) and the outer diameter (OD) of the cortical. The fact that bone radiographs are often grainy and inconsistent in gray level, prompt us to compare the performance of three fuzzy edge detection algorithms: Gaussian Rule based Fuzzy (GRBF), Robust Fuzzy Complement (RFC) and Classical Fuzzy Heuristics (CFH). To conduct a systematic evaluation of this fuzzy edge detector, we proposed to combine visual observation and number of edge pixels detected. The experimental data used as test samples consist of a hundred and thirty non dominant hand radiograph of normal Kelantanese female between the ages of twenty to seventy. Only metacarpal 2, 3 and 4 are considered. The results prove to be quite promising because most edges of both IC and OC are well detected.


AIM
This paper is a report of a systematic review that aimed to synthesize qualitative evidence relating to women's perceptions and experiences of group cognitive behaviour therapy and other group interventions for postnatal depression.

BACKGROUND
Postnatal depression may occur in women following childbirth, resulting in a range of distressing symptoms such as sadness, fatigue, and feelings of inability to look after their baby. Women tend to prefer psychological interventions. However, access to individual psychological therapy is limited by cost, waiting times, and availability of therapists.

DATA SOURCES
A comprehensive literature search was conducted in 17 major psychological, medical, health-related and health economics electronic bibliographic databases.

DESIGN
A qualitative evidence synthesis was conducted using thematic synthesis.

REVIEW METHODS
Databases were searched from 1966-January 2008. A total of 116 full papers were screened against the inclusion criteria. Included papers were quality assessed. The original review protocol was restricted to evidence on group cognitive behaviour therapy. However, due to the paucity of evidence, the inclusion criteria were broadened to include other group interventions. A thematic synthesis was undertaken of the data extracted from the included papers.

RESULTS
Six studies were included. Specific benefits were that treatment enabled women to develop better relationships with their baby and understand postnatal depression. Negative aspects of treatment included difficulties in applying cognitive behavioural techniques, and unfavourable social comparisons with other group members.

CONCLUSIONS
Women have contrasting perceptions and experiences of group treatment. This suggests that greater attention should be focused on identifying those most likely to benefit from these treatments in a group environment.


This research focuses on the design and development of the credit rating model for public sector banks in India. The need to enhance the existing model and to realize the impact of BASEL II Norms was the reason for the development of the models. Also, the absence of appropriate weights in the current system triggers the need for the development of the same model. Different models were constructed using weighted average method and discriminant analysis. Under the weighted average model, various risks and their sub-parameters were identified. The parameters were classified under four heads namely: industry, business, financial and management risk. The weights developed in this study were based on a conceptual understanding and the importance attached by people that are proficient in this area. A questionnaire was developed and a judgmental survey was conducted among 15 banks with 30 credit rating managers extending the loans of small and medium enterprises (SME). A total of 35 cases were taken for the validation of the model. The new model was able to classify 32 records correctly out of the 35 cases. Further, discriminant analysis was used to classify objects/records into two or more groups based on the knowledge of some variables related to them. Under the discriminant model, the sample size taken was 100 clients of the corporate banking branch. Census was used as the sampling technique, in which 69 records were taken for the development of the model and 31 for validation. However, discriminant functions were constructed, and it was observed that the discriminant and classification scores aided in the classification of the clients. The discriminant model was able to classify 27 records correctly out of 31 cases. Thus, it was concluded that the weighted average model can be used for predicting the credit worthiness of the clients because it has higher predictive power.

 Key words: Small and medium enterprise (SME), discriminant, commercial banks, credit risk, credit risk model.


Between the years 1996 and 2006 the Threatened Marine Species Recovery Centre (CREMA) detected 14 strandings and sightings of hooded seals in the coasts surrounding the Strait of Gibraltar. Five strandings and the only three sightings occurred on the Spanish coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. CREMA or its stranding report network did not deal directly with the stranded or sighted individuals but there were good descriptions and photographs to confirm identification. The frequency of stranding and sighting of hooded seal individuals on the southern coast of Spain indicate that the migratory movements of this species are performed by groups of young animals less than one year old.


Objectives: Women constitute almost 50% of the world population and play a number of roles in the community. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between sex education and women empowerment in health. Methods: Based on the aim of the study, the data were obtained reviewing the related literature on electronic and non-electronic websites and using equivalent keywords published until the last week of February 2018. In addition, mesh terms and key words were included in this research. Inclusion criteria were articles published from 2005 to February 2018. All the observation or interventional studies including ten articles which met the search criteria were studied. Results: The results revealed that sex education has different effects on sexual attitudes or activities of women. Further, it was effective in increasing the sexual autonomy of female college students. Furthermore, health providers' contribution may improve sexual autonomy. In the current study, sex education programs were effective at increasing HIV/AIDS ( Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) knowledge and condom use, reducing the risk of unprotected intercourse and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as unplanned pregnancy and abortion. Finally, abstinence-plus sex education programs increased health knowledge while they reduced risky sexual behaviors. Conclusions: In general, sex education is a critical method of women empowerment in health through increasing their health knowledge and related behaviors. Therefore, a compilation program of sex education is more useful. Accordingly, seeking to place sex training in the educational curriculum in accordance with the culture of the countries is a necessity.


This study investigated the influence of one's sexual history on his or her desirability as a same-sex friend. Participants (N = 790) completed an online survey, in which they evaluated one of 6 hypothetical targets. Descriptions differed in the information they provided on the target's sexual history. It was predicted that permissive targets (i.e., those with 20 partners) would be rated as less desirable friends than less permissive targets (i.e., those with 2 partners). This effect was expected to be moderated in three ways: 1) women would rate permissive targets more harshly than would men, 2) targets whose partners had been romantic would be evaluated more favorably than those whose partners had been casual, and 3) participants with higher numbers of partners would evaluate permissive targets less harshly than would those with fewer partners. Results suggested that permissive targets were evaluated as less desirable friends than were less permissive targets. Hypotheses on the moderating variables were generally upheld, though the strength of their effects varied across measures.