Background Harnessing supportive influences in close relationships is an innovative and potentially effective strategy to improve sun protection behaviors. Objective This pilot randomized controlled clinical trial evaluates the feasibility and impact of Sun Safe Partners Online, a web-based, couples-focused intervention to improve sun protection behavior. Methods A total of 75 couples reporting suboptimal levels of sun protection recruited from Facebook advertisements were randomized to receive a web-based intervention called Sun Safe Partners Online or a Generic Online Sun Safety Information intervention. Sun Safe Partners Online had 4 individual-focused modules and 4 couples-focused modules. Feasibility was assessed by study enrollment, engagement, follow-up survey completion, and intervention evaluation. Participants completed baseline and a 1-month postintervention survey assessing sun protection and exposure, along with individual and relationship attitudes about the importance of sun protection. Results Using Facebook as a recruitment strategy resulted in rapid enrollment and higher acceptance than for the prior telephone and print trial. The follow-up survey completion was higher in the Generic Online condition (100%) than in the Sun Safe Partners Online condition (87.2%). Engagement in Sun Safe Partners Online was high, with more than two-thirds of participants completing all modules. Evaluations of Sun Safe Partners Online content and features as well as ease of navigation were excellent. Sun Safe Partners Online showed small effects on sun protection behaviors and sun exposure on weekends compared with the Generic Online intervention and moderate effect size increases in the Sun Safe Partners Online condition. Conclusions This study uses a novel approach to facilitate engagement in sun protection by harnessing the influence of relationships among spouses and cohabiting partners. A couples-focused intervention may hold promise as a means to improve sun protection behaviors beyond interventions focused solely on individuals by leveraging the concern, collaboration, and support among intimate partners and addressing relationship-based barriers to sun protection. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04549675; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04549675


Background Endovascular treatment is the first line therapy for the management of ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms, but delayed aneurysm rupture leading to bleeding/rebleeding can occur subsequently. ARETA (Analysis of Recanalization after Endovascular Treatment of intracranial Aneurysm) is a prospective, multicenter study conducted to analyze aneurysm recanalization. We analyzed delayed bleeding and rebleeding in this large cohort. Methods 16 neurointerventional departments prospectively enrolled patients treated for ruptured and unruptured aneurysms between December 2013 and May 2015 (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01942512). Participant demographics, aneurysm characteristics and endovascular techniques were recorded. Data were analyzed from participants with ruptured or unruptured aneurysms treated by coiling or balloon-assisted coiling. Rates of bleeding and rebleeding were analyzed and associated factors were studied using univariable and multivariable analyses. Results The bleeding rate was 0.0% in patients with unruptured aneurysms and 1.0% (95% CI 0.3% to 1.7%) in patients with ruptured aneurysms. In multivariate analysis, two factors were associated with rebleeding occurrence: incomplete aneurysm occlusion after initial treatment (2.0% in incomplete aneurysm occlusion vs 0.2% in complete aneurysm occlusion, OR 10.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 83.3; p=0.03) and dome-to-neck ratio (1.5±0.5 with rebleeding vs 2.2±0.9 without rebleeding, OR 0.2, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.8; p=0.03). Modalities of management of aneurysm rebleeding as well as clinical outcomes are described. Conclusions Aneurysm coiling affords good protection against bleeding (for unruptured aneurysms) and rebleeding (for ruptured aneurysms) at 1 year with rates of 0.0% and 1.0%, respectively. Aneurysm occlusion and dome-to-neck ratio are the two factors that appear to play a role in the occurrence of rebleeding.


"I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States..." Thus began not only the first of Franklin Roosevelt's celebrated radio addresses, collectively called Fireside Chats, but also the birth of the media era of the rhetorical presidency. Humorist Will Rogers later said that the president took "such a dry subject as banking and made everyone understand it, even the bankers." Roosevelt also took a giant step toward restoring confidence in the nation's banks and, eventually, in its economy. Amos Kiewe tells the story of the First Fireside Chat, the context in which it was constructed, the events leading to the radio address, and the impact it had on the American people and the nation's economy. Roosevelt told America, "The success of our whole national program depends, of course, on the cooperation of the public - on its intelligent support and its use of a reliable system." Kiewe succinctly demonstrates how the rhetoric of the soon-to-be-famous First Fireside Chat laid the groundwork for that support and the recovery of American capitalism.


Attention is drawn to two fundamental obstacles to an efficient functioning of government-supported drugstores (propharmacies) in rural Cameroon. These obstacles are mismanagement and high prices. Suggestions are offered as to how the drugstores can be made more efficient.


BACKGROUND
Low back pain is a common problem managed by primary care physicians and orthopedic specialists.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the outcome of new LBP episodes in patients who chose to visit either an orthopedist or their general practitioner.

METHODS
All patients visiting the orthopedist or physician during the study period were screened for a new complaint of LBP. After the initial visit the patients were interviewed by phone using a structured questionnaire, with a follow-up interview one month later. The study was performed at Clalit Health Services primary care and consultation clinics. A random sample of 125 GPs and 17 orthopedists were chosen. Consecutively recruited were 166 patients who visited the GP and 75 the orthopedist. The main outcome measures evaluated were perceived complaint severity and degree of disturbance to everyday functioning, problem resolution, and health services utilization.

RESULTS
Patients who decided to first visit the orthopedist indicated a higher disturbance to everyday functioning (75% vs. 70%, P < 0.01), were invited for further follow-up visits (6% vs. 51%, P < 0.05) and had more computed tomography and bone scans (20 vs. 3%, P < 0.001 and 9 vs. 2%, P < 0.05, respectively). Health status after one month showed that patients who chose the GP were more likely to have their problem solved (36 vs. 17%, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Symptom resolution for a new LBP complaint was significantly higher in patients who decided on the GP, even when controlling for severity of illness and degree of disturbance to everyday functioning.


Abstract. Significance: The large background, narrow dynamic range, and detector saturation have been the common limiting factors in stimulated emission (SE)-based pump-probe microscopy, attributed to the very small signal overriding the very intense laser probe beam. To better differentiate the signal of interest from the background, lock-in detection is used to measure the fluorescence quenching, which is termed spontaneous loss (SL). The advantages are manifold. The spontaneous fluorescence signal can be well separated from both the pump and the probe beams with filters, thus eliminating the background, enlarging the dynamic range, and avoiding the saturation of the detector. Aim: We propose and demonstrate an integrated pump-probe microscopy technique based on lock-in detection for background removal and dynamic range enhancement through SL detection. Approach: The experimental setup is configured with a pulsed diode laser at a wavelength λpu  =  635  nm, acting as a pump (excitation) and a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser at a central wavelength λpr  =  780  nm, serving as the probe beam (stimulation). Both pulse trains are temporally synchronized through high precision delay control by adjusting the length of the triggering cables. The pump and probe beams are alternatively modulated at different frequencies f1 and f2 to extract the stimulated gain (SG) and SL signal. Results: SG signal shows saturation due to the irradiation of the intense probe beam onto the photodetector. However, the detector saturation does not occur at high probe beam power for SL detection. The fluorescence lifetime images are acquired with reduced background. The theoretical signal-to-noise ratios for SG and SL are also estimated by photon statistics. Conclusion: We have confirmed that the detection of SL allows the elimination of the large background without photodetector saturation, which commonly exists in SG configuration. This modality would allow unprecedented manipulation and investigation of fluorophores in fluorescence imaging.


Purpose: The authors compare the success of macular hole surgery with a short duration tamponade using 5% perfluoropropane (C3F8), intermediate duration tamponade using 10% C3F8, or a long duration tamponade using 16% C3F8 in a prospective consecutive clinical trial at two institutions. Methods: Vitrectomy and fluid-gas exchange was performed in 29 eyes treated with 5% C3F8 and 1 week of prone positioning, 30 eyes treated with 10% C3F8 and 2 weeks of prone positioning, and 90 eyes treated with 16% C3F8 and 2 weeks of prone positioning 90% of time, followed by 2 weeks of prone positioning 50% of time. Results: The macular hole was closed successfully in 19 of 29 eyes (65.6%) treated with 5% C3F8, 19 of 30 eyes (63.3%) treated with 10% C3F8, and 85 of 90 eyes (94.4%) treated with 16% C3F8 at 3 months (P = 0.00017 for 5% vs. 16% C3F8, P = 0.00006 for 10% vs. 16% C3F8). The visual acuity improvements measured by refraction using the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) acuity charts paralleled the success of macular hole closure. The acuity improved a mean improvement of + 9.6 ETDRS letters for eyes treated with 5% C3F8, + 6.4 ETDRS letters for eyes treated with 10% C3F8, and + 13.1 ETDRS letters in eyes treated with 16% C3F8. Conclusions: A long duration intraocular gas tamponade with 16% C3F8 gives a substantially higher success rate for macular hole surgery than a short (5% C3F8) or intermediate duration (10% C3F8) intraocular gas tamponade.


Abstract It is well established that beliefs provide powerful cues that influence reasoning. Over the last decade research has revealed that judgments based upon logical structure may also pre-empt deliberative reasoning. Evidence for 'intuitive logic' has been claimed using a range of measures (i.e. confidence ratings or latency of response on conflict problems). However, it is unclear how well such measures genuinely reflect logical intuition. In this paper we introduce a new method designed to test for evidence of intuitive logic. In two experiments participants were asked to make random judgments about the logical validity of a series of simple and complex syllogistic arguments. For simple arguments there was an effect of logical validity on random responding, which was absent for complex arguments. These findings provide a novel demonstration that people are intuitively sensitive to logical structure.


In a grid application, some requirements may change while the execution is in progress. This paper presents invivo enhancement, changing running grid applications, to facilitate their perfective and adaptive maintenance. Because applications in this domain are not only typically long-running, but also time-consuming to deploy, we propose a dynamic update technique that can change a running application flexibly and efficiently. Specifically, this paper presents a novel technique for dynamically updating grid applications that are deployed on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Our technique overcomes constraints of JVM HotSwap, a facility for replacing classes at runtime. While HotSwap precludes the programmer from adding new methods and fields, changing the signatures of existing methods, and has no support for transferring state between old and new objects, our approach effectively removes these constraints by rewriting program bytecode. Further, the rewritten programs incur only minimal performance overhead (less than 2% on average). We demonstrate the efficiency and extensibility of our approach through micro and macro benchmarks, as well as through a case study of dynamically updating a parallel bioinformatics application.


Although Champsosaurus is well-known in Late Cretaceous and Paleocene deposits of North America, their cranial anatomy is poorly understood. Here, a well-preserved skull of Champsosaurus lindoei is described in detail using high-resolution micro-CT scanning. This confirms the presence of the putative neomorphic bone, which may be homologous with the pre-existing stapes, or developed through incomplete fusion of dermatocranial ossification centres. The ventral openings on the skull of Champsosaurus relate to the fenestrae ovales, an unusual configuration that may be convergent with other aquatic reptiles. Overall, the endocranial anatomy of Champsosaurus is typical for a basal diapsid. The morphology of the pars inferior of the inner ear suggests that Champsosaurus were capable of detecting sound underwater, and geometric morphometric analyses of the semicircular canals suggests that they were specialized for detecting head movements in an aquatic environment. Taken together, these results suggest that Champsosaurus were well adapted for an aquatic lifestyle.


Abstract The August 7-8, 2008, eruption of Kasatochi Island volcano, located in the central Aleutians Islands, Alaska, produced abundant, compositionally heterogeneous basaltic andesite (52-55 wt% SiO2) that has been interpreted to result from pre-eruptive magma mixing. The basaltic andesite contains two populations of plagioclase phenocrysts. The first, volumetrically dominant population consists of oscillatory-zoned phenocrysts with an overall normal zonation trend toward comparatively sodic rims (An55-65), interrupted by dissolution features and spikes in calcium content (up to ~An85). The second population consists of phenocrysts with highly calcic compositions (~An90). These phenocrysts contain sharp decreases in calcium content close to their rims (reaching as low as ~An60), but are otherwise texturally and compositionally homogeneous. Groundmass plagioclase microlites are generally much more calcic than rims of the first phenocryst population, with more than 50% of measured microlites containing >An80. Major, minor, and trace element concentrations of plagioclase microlites and phenocrysts indicate that oscillatory-zoned phenocrysts derived from cooler (800-950 °C), more silicic mixing magma, while unzoned, calcic phenocrysts were associated with hotter (900-1050 °C), mafic magma. The mixing of these magmas just prior to eruption, followed by decompression during the eruption itself created high effective undercoolings in the mafic end-member, and lead to the nucleation of high-An microlites. MgO and FeO concentrations of plagioclase microlites and high-An phenocryst rims (up to ~0.4 and ~1.3 wt%, respectively) provide further evidence for high mixing- and eruptioninduced effective undercoolings.


Numerous tools de ne metamodels to describe the require- ments included in CDA speci cations, the most recent and standardized one is the HL7 Templates Standard. The Templates Design resulting of this standard allow distribut- ing the CDA speci cation in a formal way. One application of this normalization is the validation of CDA documents. IHE-Europe/Gazelle team developed already a methodol- ogy named Gazelle ObjectsChecker in order to generate model-based validation of XML requirements, including HL7 CDA standard. The aim of this paper is to describe the way the re- quirements from HL7 Templates Standard are imported on Gazelle ObjectsChecker, and the bene t of such method- ology for CDA implementation guides and for CDA docu- ments validation.


This paper describes a design for testability technique for operational transconductance amplifier and capacitor filters using an oscillation-based test topology. The oscillation-based test structure is a vectorless output test strategy easily extendable to built-in self-test. The proposed methodology converts filter under test into a quadrature oscillator using very simple techniques and measures the output frequency. The oscillation frequency may be considered as a digital signal and it can be evaluated using digital circuitry therefore the test time is very small. These characteristics imply that the proposed method is very suitable for catastrophic and parametric faults testing and also effective in detecting single and multiple faults. The validity of the proposed method has been verified using comparison between faulty and fault-free simulation results of two integrator loop and Tow-Thomas filters. Simulation results in 0.25 mum CMOS technology show that the proposed oscillation-based test strategy for OTA-C filters has 87% fault coverage and with a minimum number of extra components, requires a negligible area overhead.


Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) has been shown to learn useful and information-preserving representations. Neural Networks (NNs) are widely applied, yet their weight space is still not fully understood. Therefore, we propose to use SSL to learn hyper-representations of the weights of populations of NNs. To that end, we introduce domain specific data augmentations and an adapted attention architecture. Our empirical evaluation demonstrates that self-supervised representation learning in this domain is able to recover diverse NN model characteristics. Further, we show that the proposed learned representations outperform prior work for predicting hyper-parameters, test accuracy, and generalization gap as well as transfer to out-of-distribution settings.


A multivariable predictive functional control (M-PFC) algorithm based on a two-inputs/two-outputs system with the transfer function model is presented in this paper. A simple and explicit solution of manipulated variables of the control system can be obtained by optimizing the objective function. Simulations of the system applying M-PFC are also provided in here, showing that the presented algorithm has good performance of tracking set-point without steady-state error, disturbance rejection and robustness. Finally, the application of temperature control for the methylamine synthesizing tower is addressed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed PFC algorithm.


Hua et al. analyzed the ion selectivity profiles of two cloned Arabidopsis ion channels that are similar to members of the animal cyclic nucleotide-gated nonselective cation channel family (CNGC) and discovered that one of them, AtCNGC2, used a novel mechanism to achieve selectivity for K+. The selective permeability of ion channels in the cell membrane allows cells to exclude unwanted ions and helps them maintain steep transmembrane ion gradients that are exploited in signaling. Research on bacterial and animal channels selectively permeable to potassium (K+ channels) has implicated a characteristic GYG (glycine-tyrosine-glycine) motif as providing the K+ selectivity filter; this motif has been considered essential for K+ selectivity. Hua et al. used structural modeling to identify a unique alanine-asparagine-aspartate (AND) motif as providing a putative selectivity filter for AtCNCG2, which displays a cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent inwardly rectifying K+ current. The authors used mutational analysis in combination with electrophysiological measurements of cAMP-dependent ion currents through channels expressed in human embryonic kidney cells or Xenopus oocytes to confirm that the ND portion of the motif was required for AtCNGC's selective permeability to K+ over Na+ (alanine was not mutated). The second channel, AtCNCG1, did not contain the AND motif and was equally permeable to Na+ and K+. AtCNCG1 represents the first cloned plant channel shown to be permeable to Na+ and may represent a physiologically significant pathway for Na+ uptake. Advances in understanding the basis of plant ion channel selectivity may have important implications regarding the ability to grow crops in regions of high soil salinity. B.-G. Hua, R. W. Mercier, Q. Liang, G. A. Berkowitz, Plants do it differently: A new basis for potassium/sodium selectivity in the pore of an ion channel. Plant Physiol. 132, 1353-1361 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The presence of peers is suggested to increase risk-taking behaviour by heightening response to reward. The current study investigated this using a computerised financial risk-taking task which was performed twice by a group of young adults (n=201, median age 19.8 years); once alone and once while in the presence of two peers. An overall increase in risk-taking was observed when with peers compared to when alone (CHANGE). CHANGE was positively associated with self-reported levels of reward responsiveness and fun seeking while older age and lack of perseverance were associated with reduced CHANGE. The association between risk-taking when with peers and both resistance to the influence of peers and age was indirect through reward responsiveness. Reward responsiveness was positively associated with impulsiveness. Only in those who showed a peer-related decrease in risk-taking (1/3 of participants), risk-taking in the presence of peers was associated with increased impulsiveness. The current findings suggest an important role for reward responsiveness in risk-taking behaviour and demonstrate the influence of peers. Increased understanding of these processes has direct implications for prevention and intervention efforts. Placing risk-taking behaviour within varying (social) contexts with an eye for differences in personality, development and emotions provides ample scope for future research.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of esmolol added to propofol-remifentanil combination for hypotensive anesthesia on hemodynamic conditions, consumption of anesthetic drugs, and recovery, during elective septorhinoplasty.

METHODS
This prospective, randomized study was carried out at Gazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey in 2005. Following Institutional Ethical Committee approval, 40 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) I patients were divided into 2 equal groups group remifentanil infusion RP and group esmolol infusion (RP-E). After anesthesia induction with propofol (2-2.5 mg/kg), the mean arterial pressure was aimed to be between 50 mm Hg and 65 mm Hg for controlled hypotensive anesthesia in both groups. In group RP, a remifentanil infusion of 0.1-0.5 microg/kg/min was titrated, following a bolus of 1 microg/kg; for group RP-E, an esmolol infusion of 100-300 mg/kg/min was titrated, following a bolus of 500 microg/kg; to achieve a target blood pressure. In addition, propofol was infused according to depth of anesthesia to maintain anesthesia in both groups. Electrocardiography, heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output, and consumption of anesthetic drugs were recorded. Postoperatively, recovery times, visual analog pain scores, and side effects were observed.

RESULTS
The decrease in the intraoperative heart rate was more significant in group RP-E than in group RP. The remifentanil consumption was much lower in group RP-E. The recovery times were similar in both groups.

CONCLUSION
Addition of esmolol to propofol-remifentanil combination leads to a decrease in remifentanil consumption, without a decrease in cardiac output during hypotensive anesthesia.


BACKGROUND: Using small endoscopes it is now possible to evaluate the status of lacrimal ducts in vivo. GRIN-Lenses produce better pictures from the lacrimal ways than fiber-bundles. GRIN-endoscopes are rigid. The present study is concerned with the feasibility and indications of such GRIN-endoscopic examination. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two different GRIN-endoscopes with a distal diameter of 0.89 mm were used. One with a phi 0.5 mm optic and an additional working channel and another one with a phi 0.35 mm optic and two additional working channels. One channel each was used for injection of air or 0.9% NaCl. Either a laser fiber or another instrument (max phi 0.16 mm) could be introduced into the second channel. 44 patients in age between 18 and 87 with symptoms of epiphora or signs of chronic lacrimal way affections were examined. RESULTS: The presaccal lacrimal ducts could be clearly visualized in all patients. In case of presaccal stenosis, the examination of the lacrimal sac was not always possible. The endoscope used, based of GRIN-lenses, gave an excellent image quality. Endoscopy under local anesthesia was well tolerated by all the patients with affection of the lacrimal drainage system. Because this ambulant examination does not stress the patient too much, it could be repeated a number of times. Endoscopy under general narcosis could enlarge the application spectrum. This method can complement the ambulant diagnostics and therapy of the lacrimal drainage system.


The Constitution for the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) embraces language as a basic human right and multilingualism as a national resource. One latest foreign language to be given recognition by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2015 is Mandarin, a Chinese language, for incremental implementation as a non-official optional language from 2016 in primary schools. One of the stakeholders at the centre of the implementation of this latest foreign language to be recognised, whose voice has not been heard, are teachers. The methodology adapted in the collection of data is quantitative in that pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire. The results indicate mixed attitudes with more appearing to be not entirely supportive of this move by the DBE. Teachers do not share the same sentiments that are expressed at political level about the significance of Mandarin for trade and globalisation. The findings suggest a need for the DBE to rethink this plan and training proportional to the minimum training requirements for the teaching of a foreign language to be provided to teachers. There would need to be some consultation to ensure a greater teachers' support as the project continues to be piloted and implemented in more schools across the country.


A new method of reinforcing concrete columns with steel equal angle (SEA) sections has been investigated. A total of 12 square high-strength concrete (HSC) column specimens (with 210 mm [8.26 in.] sides and 600 mm [23.62 in.] height) reinforced longitudinally with either steel bars or SEA sections were cast and tested. The lateral tie spacing of specimens varied from 50 to 400 mm (1.96 to 15.74 in.). The influences of the type of longitudinal reinforcement and the spacing of lateral ties on the behavior of HSC specimens under axial compression were investigated. Experimental results showed that the use of the SEA sections as longitudinal reinforcements in HSC column specimens led to significant improvements in the axial load-carrying capacity and ductility compared to the corresponding HSC column specimens reinforced longitudinally with steel bars. Disciplines Engineering | Science and Technology Studies Publication Details Ibrahim, A. A., Sheikh, M. & Hadi, M. N. S. (2018). Axial Compressive Behavior of Steel Equal Angle Section-Reinforced Square High-Strength Concrete Column. Aci Structural Journal, 115 (5), 1431-1442. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers1/2712


Thyroid nodules are very common in the general population and most of them are benign. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the thyroid is routinely used because it is a rapid, simple, accurate and cost-effective technique which allows the adequate selection of patients who should be managed surgically. However, the diagnostic yield of FNA is variable and depends of multiple factors including the one who performs FNA, the aspiration and cytological slide preparation techniques, and cytopathologist's experience. On-site evaluation of thyroid FNA material and close clinico-pathological collaboration offer many advantages and optimizes the yield of FNA.


The research investigates the reasons for the establishment of the National Library of Uganda, examines the process of its establishment and outlines its challenges and achievements. The historical background of library services in Uganda is presented. A total of twenty (20) respondents were interviewed from library information services and institutions. Data collection is done by in-depth face to face interviews using open-ended interview schedule, observation and documents. Findings revealed that the NLU was established because of the decentralization of the public libraries to the district which left the Public Libraries Board with few functions and there was also a need for a body to coordinate library services in the country. The two institutions acting as national libraries were ineffective. The challenges faced by the NLU include among others the nonfunctional rented building, lack of library policy, limited financial and human resources. Some achievements of the NLU are the improvement of the reading culture among school children, publishing the National Bibliography of Uganda.


PURPOSE
Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha expression was studied retrospectively in locally advanced carcinoma of the cervix in relation to other methods for measuring/assessing tumor hypoxia and outcome after radiotherapy.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
HIF-1alpha expression was examined in formalin-fixed tumor biopsies using a semiquantitative scoring system and correlated with measurements of hypoxia obtained using oxygen electrodes, pimonidazole staining, and carbonic anhydrase 9.

RESULTS
High HIF-1alpha expression showed a weak correlation with low pO2 (r = -0.26; P = 0.030; n = 72). Weak significant correlations were found between HIF-1alpha and pimonidazole staining (r = 0.34; P = 0.040; n = 36) and carbonic anhydrase IX (r = 0.27; P = 0.001; n = 160). There was no relationship with surviving fraction at 2 Gy. The relationship between HIF-1alpha expression and radiotherapy outcome was examined in 99 patients. HIF-1alpha expression did not correlate with disease stage, grade, tumor size, and patient age. HIF-1alpha alone was not a significant prognostic factor for disease-free survival, metastasis-free survival, or local recurrence-free survival. High HIF-1alpha expression tended to be associated with poor outcome in small tumors but good outcome in large tumors, with statistically significant interactions between HIF-1alpha and tumor size for survival (P = 0.046) and local control (P = 0.009).

CONCLUSIONS
In this study, HIF-1alpha had no prognostic significance in locally advanced carcinoma of the cervix. The possible switch in large tumors for an association between high HIF-1alpha expression and good outcome might relate to tumor size-related changes in the balance of genes up-regulated by HIF-1alpha. Whereas angiogenesis-promoting genes might be preferentially up-regulated in small tumors, proapoptotic genes might be induced in large tumors. This hypothesis needs testing in future work.


The fabrication and performances of cantilevered probes with reduced parasitic capacitance starting from a commercial Si3N4 cantilever chip is presented. Nanomachining and metal deposition induced by focused ion beam techniques were employed in order to modify the original insulating pyramidal tip and insert a conducting metallic tip. Two parallel metallic electrodes deposited on the original cantilever arms are employed for tip biasing and as ground plane in order to minimize the electrostatic force due to the capacitive interaction between cantilever and sample surface. Excitation spectra and force-to-distance characterization are shown with different electrode configurations. Applications of this scheme in electrostatic force microscopy, Kelvin probe microscopy and local anodic oxidation is discussed.


Occurrence and activity budget of the leopard tortoise, Geochelone pardalis were studied in northern Tanzania between October 1993 and June 1996. Tortoises occurred most frequently in short grass (51.5%) and along roads and track verges (33.9%), but only occasionally in the bush undergrowth (6.7%) and shambas (3.6%). Walking (46.3%) and feeding (37.2%) were the most frequent activities. Resting was observed only occasionally (13.6%) while courtship (1.9%) and drinking (0.9%) were rarely recorded. Activity budget differed significantly between the age classes and habitats, but not between the sexes. Juveniles walked more frequently (59.3%) than other age classes. Walking was most frequent along roads and tracks (68.8%). Adult tortoises rested more frequently (18.7%) than other age classes but the difference was not significant. The proportions of individuals resting in the various habitats differed significantly, with resting being most frequent in the shrub undergrowth (93.3%). Juveniles were observed feeding less frequently than other age classes but the difference was not significant. Feeding was recorded in all habitats, but it was least frequent in the shrub undergrowth. Tanzania Journal of Science Volume 27 (2001), pp. 87-99


Arabinofuranosyl-5-azacytosine (ara-AC), a nucleoside combining the structural elements of 5-azacytidine and arabinofuranosylcytosine, exhibited unusually wide therapeutic activity against several murine leukemias and all three human xenografts of the National Cancer Institute tumor panel. Activity was observed following either a daily or an intermittent regimen of treatment in the i.p. L1210 model. However, when multiple doses were administered on each treatment day, a greater therapeutic effect was produced and the total dose was reduced. Extensive necrosis was observed by light and electron microscopy in P388 tumors treated with ara-AC. Following s.c. administration, ara-AC caused regression of the mammary and lung xenografts (MX-1 and LX-1) and a 93% inhibition of the human colon tumor (CX-1); other analogues of this drug failed to demonstrate a comparably broad spectrum of activity. Morphological assessment of treated xenografts revealed a general loss of cell-to-cell contact and abundant necrosis 24 h after the administration of ara-AC. In culture, the 50% inhibitory concentrations of ara-AC for P388 and L1210 cells at 24 h were 1.9 and 4.5 microM, respectively, and the decline in replication rates was dependent on drug concentration. The cytocidal nature of the drug was demonstrated by cloning experiments in which it was observed that ara-AC abolished the clonogenicity of lymphoblasts but was only minimally cytotoxic to normal murine bone marrow progenitor cells. As adjudged by flow cytometry, the drug induced a distinct slowing of cell cycle traverse through S phase. Induction of the differentiation of HL-60 cells in culture was another cytotropic effect of this drug. At 44% differentiation (10 microM ara-AC), 50% of the cultured cells were viable. Its broad spectrum antitumor activity, its selective toxicity to tumor cells, and its ability to produce cytodifferentiation render ara-AC of interest as a potential antineoplastic agent in humans.


This study aims to investigate the effects of the computer-based instruction on the achievements and problem solving skills of the science and technology students. This is a study based on the pre-test/post-test control group design. The participants of the study consist of 52 students; 26 in the experimental group, 26 in the control group. The achievements test on "the world, the sun and the moon" and the Problem Solving Inventory for children were used to collect data. The experimental group received the computer-based science and technology instruction three hours a week during three weeks. In the analyses of data, the independent groups t-test was used at the outset of the study to find out the whether the levels of the two groups were equivalent in terms of their achievements and problem solving skills and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov single sample test to find out whether the data follow a normal distribution and finally, the covariance analysis (ANCOVA) to evaluate the efficacy of the experimental process. The result of the study reveals that there is a statistically significant increase in the achievements and problem solving skills of the students in the experimental group that received the computerbased science and technology instruction.


HSPB7 is a member of the small heat-shock protein (HSPB) family and is expressed in the cardiomyocytes from cardiogenesis onwards. A dramatic increase in HSPB7 is detected in the heart and blood plasma immediately after myocardial infarction. Additionally, several single-nucleotide polymorphisms of HSPB7 have been identified to be associated with heart failure caused by cardiomyopathy in human patients. Although a recent study has shown that HSPB7 is required for maintaining myofiber structure in skeletal muscle, its molecular and physiological functions in the heart remain unclear. In the present study, we generated a cardiac-specific inducible HSPB7 knockout mouse and demonstrated that the loss of HSPB7 in cardiomyocytes results in rapid heart failure and sudden death. The electrocardiogram showed cardiac arrhythmia with abnormal conduction in the HSPB7 mutant mice before death. In HSPB7 CKO cardiomyocytes, no significant defect was detected in the organization of contractile proteins in sarcomeres, but a severe structural disruption was observed in the intercalated discs. The expression of connexin 43, a gap-junction protein located at the intercalated discs, was downregulated in HSPB7 knockout cardiomyocytes. Mislocalization of desmoplakin, and N-cadherin, the intercalated disc proteins, was also observed in the HSPB7 CKO hearts. Furthermore, filamin C, the interaction protein of HSPB7, was upregulated and aggregated in HSPB7 mutant cardiomyocytes. In conclusion, our findings characterize HSPB7 as an intercalated disc protein and suggest it has an essential role in maintaining intercalated disc integrity and conduction function in the adult heart.


ABSTRACT Analysis of 104 samples from the sediment of the Santa Clara River drainage basin in Southern California provides evidence that the silt fraction is more representative of total sediment composition than is either the sand or clay fraction. The mineralogy of the coarse silt (4-6 ) is similar to that of the sand fraction, whereas that of the fine silt (6-8 ) is closer to the clay fraction. Silt-size particles have resulted mainly from disintegration of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Fractured quartz and feldspars produced the light (density 2.89) silt-size. Two suites of silt-size, heavy minerals occur in the shelf samples. The mineral assemblage of one of the suites suggests that the basin's rock and soil are its source, that of the other suite that the source or sources are other than the basin. Certain components of the basin suite can be recognized by the soil-derived minerals (leucoxene and anatase), those derived from the Sespe Formation from South Mountains (hyacinth), and minerals from other sedimentary source rocks and soils (hematite-altered biotite, abraded zircon and apatite, weathered clinozoisite, and geothite), or from metamorphic source rocks (blue-green hornblende, actinolite, and sphene).


SIR,-In their interesting report of the successful use of open-chest cardiac massage in a stillborn infant (January 13, p. 91) Drs. R. J. R. Reilly and H. A. H. Melville state that there has been no report of the use of the closed-chest technique in a case of cardiac arrest in the newborn. Since the latter technique has obvious advantages, if it can be shown to be effective, and the pliable chest of the newborn infant seems well suited to its use, we would like briefly to report two recent cases. In each of them the absence of heart sounds on auscultation was confirmed by two independent observers at some stage, and apparently normal cardiac action was restored subsequently.


In order to study the effect of various nitrogen rates and azotobacter application on qualitative yield and protein percentage of three forage canola cultivars (RGS 003, Hyolla 401and Hyolla 330), an experiment was conducted in Seed and Plant Improvement Institute Research Farm, Karaj (35°48Â'N, 51°10Â'E and 1321m H) during crop season 2005. The factors were arranged as factorial split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Two levels of Aztobacter (application and non application) and three nitrogen levels (0, 75,150 Kg.ha-1) were randomized to the main plots and cultivars were located in sub-plots. Results showed that Azotobacter application significantly affected on quantitative traits. High nitrogen increased all quantities traits, protein percent and glucosinolate rate in plant forage. There were differences among cultivars for dry and wet forage weight, stem length and sub-branch number. According to this research, 150 kg.ha-1 nitrogen produced the most forage yield. But in regards to reduction necessity of chemical fertilizer application in direction of sustainable agriculture, of 75 kg.ha-1 nitrogen withAzotobacter application was considered as the best treatment and RGS003 was introduced as the best cultivars.


The skew-symmetric distributions exhibit the versatility characteristic in relation to the corresponding conventional ones due to the existence of the additional feature of skewness.
The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyze the main types of the skew-symmetric distributions by recording the basic relations, theorems, principles and properties that characterize them. This analysis is considered as an important one due to the increasingly frequent need to use skew-symmetric distributions in applications, where the actual data do not adequately follow the usual symmetric distributions. The properties of the skew-symmetric distributions, according to the usual used symmetric distributions, such as normal distribution, logistic distribution and
t-distribution that seem to be very useful in the modern field of the science of statistics.
On the practical part of the thesis, in which the R language is used, through the creation of code take part the graphs of the so-called " Probability-Density-Function" of the distributions, which are also analyzed in the theoretical part as well as their functions and characteristics that are presented for a more complete comprehension and presentation of these distributions as they are not very well known.


This is a guide to resources available to students enrolled in Management and Organisations, including information on databases, journals, books, websites, referencing and more.


The submicroscopic structure of the maturing spermatid nucleus of the grasshopper, Gelastorrhinus bicoler de Haan, has been studied in thin tissue sections by electron microscopy. In the early spermatid the nucleus appears dense with no clearly resolvable fine structure. In the advanced spermatid with a conical-shaped nucleus, the karyoplasm begins to show a fibrillar structure. At subsequent stages, the elongated spermatid nucleus displays in cross-sections a hexagonal honeycomb pattern and in longitudinal sections an array of parallel lines, 70 A in diameter and spaced 100 to 220 A apart. As differentiation of the spermatid proceeds further, the space between the lines becomes narrower and narrower until it can no longer be resolved.


Introduction: The powder mixture of the two species of Asparagaceae (Asparagus filicinus and Asparagus officinalis) was found to be used traditionally for the treatment of heart palpitation in west Sikkim. Objective: Pharmacognostic characterisation was carried out for the authentication of the powder drug which included powder microscopy, fluorescence analysis and physicochemical characterisation. The presence of any therapeutic potential in HP was also determined by qualitative and quantitative estimation of phytochemicals along with free radical scavenging activity of various successive solvent extracts (based on their polarity). Thin layer chromatography (TLC) of the powdered HP was also done. The standard software SPSS (ver. 15.0) and XLSTAT 2009 (Addinsoft) and Smith's Statistical Package were used for different statistical analysis. Results: Powder microscopy of HP revealed the presence of calcium oxalate crystal, tracheids, stone cells etc. Various fluorescence colours were exhibited by HP on UV after reacting with different chemical reagents. The analysis values were also obtained in a satisfactory way. TLC and qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of some active phytoconstituents. Among all the solvent extracts, acetone, heptane, ethyl acetate and benzene extracts showed higher antioxidant potential. Conclusion: The results support the use of HP as a traditional medicine and further purification should be done for the identification of bioactive phytoconstituents responsible for its antioxidant activity.


Cattle's feeding is based on grass silage in Northern Europe, but grass growth is highly dependent on weather conditions. In farms decision making, grass area is usually determined by the variation of yield. To be adequate in every situation, the lowest expected yield level determines the cultivated area. Other way to manage the grass yield risk is to increase silage storage capacity over annual consumption. Variation of grass yield in climate data from years 1961-1990 was compared with 15 different climate scenario models simulating years 2046-2065. A model was developed for evaluating the inadequacy risk in terms of cultivated area and storing capacity. The cost of risk is presented and discussed. In northern Europe a typical farm has storage for roughage consumption of almost one year. In addition, there can be a buffer storage. The  extra storage is to be used before and during the harvest season. New harvest will be fed to animals only after the buffer empty. Shortage in the buffer storage is possible to be filled, when the yield exceeds the target level. For risk management, two alternative mechanisms are given: forage buffer and possibility to alter the field area. According to our results, there are no significant adverse effects in the cost of risk and implied farm profitability due to climate change. Selecting the risk management scenario of 30 % grass yield risk turned out to be the least cost solution.


Hybrid Knowledge Bases based on Lifschitz's logic of Minimal Knowledge with Negation as Failure are a successful approach to combine the expressivity of Description Logics and Logic Programming in a single language. Their syntax, defined by Motik and Rosati, disallows function symbols. In order to define a well-founded semantics for MKNF HKBs, Knorr et al. define a partition of the modal atoms occurring in it, called the alternating fixpoint partition. In this paper, we propose an iterated fixpoint semantics for HKBs with function symbols. We prove that our semantics extends Knorr et al.'s, in that, for a function-free HKBs, it coincides with its alternating fixpoint partition. The proposed semantics lends itself well to a probabilistic extension with a distribution semantic approach, which is the subject of future work.


Background : Medical students encounter a variety of experiences that have an impact on their emerging professional identity. Clerkship, in particular, presents opportunities for students to consider their career options and decide upon a career path. The process of developing their professional identity begins well before clerkship, however. Anecdotal evidence suggests that interests in medicine begin as early as childhood. This study retrospectively examines the decision-making process clerks make in choosing medicine as a career. Methods: A total of 76 clerks (36 male, 34 female, 6 not reported) responded to four open-ended and two follow-up questions that measure career interests and pursuits. Questions addressed when and how students developed interests in medicine and alternate careers before beginning medical school. An additional eight closed questions drawn from the Ego Status Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status II (EOM-EIS-II) were administered. Content analyses and inter-rater reliability analyses were conducted to classify students according to Marcia's 1  four ego identity statuses. Results: Having obtained high inter-rater consistency (Cohen's Kappa coefficient of 0.92), responses to the open-ended questions resulted in the classification of three identity statuses. In total, 49.3% of students were in the 'achieved' (high exploration and commitment to choices) status and 48.1% were in the 'foreclosed' (low exploration but high commitment to choices) status. A small percentage (1.3%) of students were in the 'moratorium'category (high exploration but low commitment to choices), while none of the students were in the 'diffused' (low exploration and low commitment to choices) category. Conclusions: With approximately half of the students demonstrating a 'foreclosed' status, this study reveals that despite exposure to a variety of careers when attending university, only half of the students had seriously pursued a career outside of medicine. The majority of students, moreover, developed an interest in medicine before adulthood, and did so independently from parental influence.


In this paper, we compare and contrast the four most promising (i.e. commercially viable in the near future) technologies for the post-combustion capture (PCC) of CO2 that can be retrofitted to a conventional pulverised-coal power plant. These are CO2 capture using: (i) chilled ammonia, (ii) alkali-metal carbonates, (iii) membranes and (iv) calcium looping. These four technologies are compared to the benchmark monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubbing process in terms of efficiency penalty and cost indicators. We first review the relevant CO2 capture chemistry and typical process flow schematics, and then discuss energy- and mass-balance considerations. We consider 18 published techno-economic studies on these technologies and highlight the key measures, including net CO2 capture rate, net power output, net plant efficiency, capital costs, cost of electricity and cost of CO2 avoided. Calcium looping technology results in the lowest efficiency penalty (4.6%-points) and cost of PCC (36.3% increase in levelised cost of electricity). In addition, the cost of CO2 avoided by employing calcium looping for PCC can be as low as 29 USD2010 per tCO2. On all three of these criteria, calcium looping performs more than twice as well as the benchmark MEA PCC process.


Glucose consumption of the rat suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) was studied under various experimental conditions by means of the [14C]deoxyglucose (DG) technique. The results show that glucose consumption of the SCN, in contrast to other brain structures, is a function of both the time of day and environmental lighting conditions. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the SCN have an essential role in circadian rhythm regulation and indicate that the DG technique may provide a novel approach for the study of the central neural mechanisms underlying circadian rhythm regulation.


This article is a preliminary exploration, aiming to identify the drivers of a plethora of developments led by luxury fashion designers. It was found that both luxury fashion designers and the hotel companies realised a strategic fit between brands and products offer, based on the consumer demand for the luxury experience. One common motive amongst the two industries was to capitalise on each other's brand reputation, particularly known for its capability to provide quality and luxury products. This article also identified that the Chinese market has the potential to grow and could be a lucrative location into which to expand the luxury fashion designers' hotel concept.


The deregulated electricity market calls for robust optimal power flow (OPF) tools that can provide a) deterministic convergence; b) accurate computation of nodal prices; c) support of both smooth and nonsmooth costing of a variety of resources and services, such as real energy, reactive energy, voltages support, etc.; d) full active and reactive power flow modeling of large-scale systems; and e) satisfactory worst-case performance that meets the real-time dispatching requirement. Most prior research on OPF has focused on performance issues in the context of regulated systems, without giving much emphasis to requirements a)-c). This paper discusses the computational challenges brought up by the deregulation and attempts to address them through the introduction of new OPF formulations and algorithms. Trust-region- based augmented Lagrangian method (TRALM), step-controlled primal-dual interior point method (SCIPM), and constrained cost variable (CCV) OPF formulation are proposed. The new formulations and algorithms, along with several existing ones, are tested and compared using large-scale power system models.


In outbred Western populations, most individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are sporadic cases, dominant de novo mutations (DNM) are frequent, and autosomal recessive ID (ARID) is very rare. Because of the high rate of parental consanguinity, which raises the risk for ARID and other recessive disorders, the prevalence of ID is significantly higher in near‐ and middle‐east countries. Indeed, homozygosity mapping and sequencing in consanguineous families have already identified a plethora of ARID genes, but because of the design of these studies, DNMs could not be systematically assessed, and the proportion of cases that are potentially preventable by avoiding consanguineous marriages or through carrier testing is hitherto unknown. This prompted us to perform whole‐exome sequencing in 100 sporadic ID patients from Iran and their healthy consanguineous parents. In 61 patients, we identified apparently causative changes in known ID genes. Of these, 44 were homozygous recessive and 17 dominant DNMs. Assuming that the DNM rate is stable, these results suggest that parental consanguinity raises the ID risk about 3.6‐fold, and about 4.1 to 4.25‐fold for children of first‐cousin unions. These results do not rhyme with recent opinions that consanguinity‐related health risks are generally small and have been "overstated" in the past.


Forest resources are critical to environmental, economic, and social development, and there is substantial interest in understanding how global forest area will evolve in the future. Using an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model of total forest area that we updated using more recent data sets, we projected forest area through 2100 in 168 countries using variables including income, rural population density, and the size of the labor force under different world visions drawn from alternative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). Results provided support for the existence of an EKC for total forest area, with rural population density negatively affecting forest area and labor force size positively affecting forest area. The projections showed modest and continuous increases in global forest area in all the SSPs, but varying trends for major world regions, which is consistent with the projected trends from the explanatory variables in each country. Aggregate global forest area is projected to increase by 7% as of 2100 relative to 2015 levels in SSP3, which predicts a future with the lowest rate of economic growth, and by 36% in SSP5, which is a future with the highest rate of economic growth and greater economic equality across countries. The results show how projections driven only by income produce biased results compared to the projections made with an EKC that includes rural population density and labor force variables.


This study addresses the optimal spectrum sensing detection based on the complete or partial side-information on the signal and noise statistics. The use of the generalised-likelihood ratio test (GLRT) involves maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of the nuisances. ML estimation of the unknowns is especially challenging for wideband cognitive radio because closed-form solutions are often not available. Based on the equivalence between the wideband regime and the low-signal-to-noise ratio regime, this study provides a general kernel framework for GLRT spectrum sensing. It is shown that any GLRT detector exclusively depends on the projection of the sample covariance matrix of the data onto a given underlying kernel that reflects the available side-information in the problem. The kernels in several scenarios of interest are derived, including the widespread single and multi-frequency channelisation cases. Theoretical interpretations and numerical results show the trade-off between detection performance and the degree of side-information on the most informative statistics for detection, that is, the modulation format and spectrum distribution of the primary users.


This paper is concerned with digital sub-systems comprising bistable flip-flops connected to a common source of clock-pulses. This configuration, of which the feedback shift register is the most important special case, is useful for the generation of periodic binary codes and sequences. It is assumed that the building-blocks for these circuits are integrated J-K flip-flops and NAND gates, and design techniques appropriate for this situation are described.


Observations: Actinic granuloma, O'Brien granuloma or annular elastolytic giant cell granuloma is a rare, idiopathic skin disorder of middle-aged adults characterized by granuloma annulare like plaques on sun exposed areas clinically and elastolysis, elastophagocytosis and a multinucleated cell infiltrate histopathologically. The annular plaques of actinic granuloma have atrophic or hypopigmented centers and elevated erythematous borders. The characteristic histopathological findings are nonpalisading granulomatous reaction, elastolysis, elastophagocytosis. The lesions are usually asmyptomatic but tend to persist and respond little to treatment. Several treatments have been tried with variable success. We describe a 50-year-old man presented with a 4 year history of asymptomatic, annular, erythematous plaques on dorsum of his left hand, V line of the upper chest and nape of the neck. The diagnosis of actinic granuloma was made by clinically and histopathologically and the lesions disappeared dramatically with intralesional corticosteroid injection and no recurrence has been observed in 1-year follow up.


Autotransplantation of the adrenal gland in the rat and in the guinea pig has been reported by a number of investigators. 1 However, it is generally accepted that such a graft undergoes partial necrosis which is followed by regeneration of cortical tissue only. A successful transplantation of the whole adrenal gland in small animals has not been described. Crowe and Wislocki 2 were among the first to attempt to transplant the adrenal in the dog. They observed that when fragments of the gland were placed in muscle only the cortical tissue survived. Such transplants were found to be functionless. Oldberg 3 and Blodinger and his co-workers 4 also were unable to obtain functioning autogenous grafts of the adrenal in the dog. Recently, however, Levy and Blalock 5 have reported transplantation of the kidney together with the adrenal to the neck (with reestablishment of the blood supply by suture of vessels)


This paper analyzes the relationship between expected grades and student evaluations of teaching in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Isik University from Fall 2007 to Spring 2013. Findings indicate that there is a positive and significant association between student evaluations of teaching and expected grades. This result is robust to controlling for instructor and course fixed effects. Results using student-level data also suggest that student evaluations of teaching are negatively associated with the variance of the expected grades within a class. This is consistent with the hypothesis that students are risk averse and prefer less uncertainty about their expected course grades.


Digital filter multiple access (DFMA) passive optical networks (PONs) exploit centralized softwaredefined networking (SDN) controller-managed and transceiver-embedded digital orthogonal filters in individual optical network units (ONUs) to enable end-users to adaptively and dynamically access and share a common fiber transmission medium. DFMA PONs have the potential of not only equipping NG-PONs with sufficient network operation flexibility, adaptability, elasticity, and reconfigurability, but also providing highly desirable backward compatibility with current PON standards. In this paper, for the first time to our knowledge, multipoint-to-point upstream signal transmission in intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IMDD)DFMAPONs is experimentally demonstrated using two real-time, reconfigurable, optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-modulated ONUs and an offline optical line terminal. The experimental demonstrations show that each ONU achieves a similar upstreambit error rate performance, excellent tolerance to inter-ONU sample timing offset, and a relatively large ONU launch power variation range.


The Mediterranean region is one of the most seismically active areas in the world, an effect which is associated with the conjunction between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, as well as the drift of other plates like the Anatolian and Aegean. On the other hand, the movements of numerous other smaller tectonic features also contribute to the complex geotectonic situation in the region. The seismic events occurring in the region comprise the shocks in the vast range of magnitude and depth, but a big percentage of all events occur in the shallower lithospheric layers with moderate strength. The studying of this group of shocks is realizable by different geophysical approaches and it contributes to the more precise determination of the plate boundaries. Moreover, the combination between different investigating methods enlarges the flexibility and reliability of the study. The present work is focused on the investigation of the advantages and disadvantages of the application and combination of different methods for examining several moderate shallow seismic events that occurred in the last 15 years in the Mediterranean. The data available for the study of the different earthquakes are InSAR, GPS and levelling measurements, seismological records, geological and tectonic information. The events used for the investigation are spread in the different parts of the Mediterranean region: Konitsa (1996), Boumerdes (2003), Lefkada (2003), L'Aquila (2009), and some others.


There have been only a few reports about a surgical resection of pulmonary metastasis from malignant head and neck tumor. Here we investigate the survival after a pulmonary metastasectomy, and discuss the prognostic factors. We retrospectively reviewed 25 patients who underwent a pulmonary metastasectomy from malignant head and neck tumor at Kyushu University Hospital from 1981 through 2008. We assessed the five year overall survival by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test using the Stat View software program. The three- or five-year overall survival after a metastasectomy was 53.3% and 50.0%, respectively. We investigated the clinico-pathological prognostic factors including gender, age, histology, disease free interval, number or size of pulmonary metastatic tumors, and the operative procedure. Both age (older than 60 years) (P=0.0189) and pulmonary metastases from squamous cell carcinomas in either oral cavity or pharyngeal region (P=0.0002) were identified to be adverse prognostic factors. To obtain a long survival, a positive surgical resection is considered to be an effective and standard treatment for pulmonary metastasis from malignant head and neck tumor. It is also necessary, however, to elucidate fully the primary site and histology of such pulmonary metastasis.


Vibration behavior of different types of porous functionally graded (FG) conical sandwich shells are investigated based on a modified high order sandwich shells theory for the first time. Sandwich shell includes FG face sheets covering a homogeneous core and the second one includes homogeneous face sheets and a FG core. Power law rule modified by considering two types of porosity distributions is used to model the functionally graded materials. All materials are temperature dependent and uniform, linear and nonlinear temperature distributions are used to model the effect of the temperature variation in the sandwiches. Governing equations are obtained by the Hamilton's energy principle and solved with Galerkin method. To verify the results, they are compared with ones achieved by finite element method obtained by Abaqus software for special cases with the results in literatures.


Since 2009 Vetenskap & Allmänhet (Public & Science, VA) coordinates an annual mass experiment as part of ForskarFredag — the Swedish events on the European Researchers' Night. Through the experiments, thousands of Swedish students from preschool to upper secondary school have contributed to the development of scientific knowledge on, for example, the acoustic environment in classrooms, children's and adolescents' perception of hazardous environments and the development of autumn leaves in deciduous trees. The aim is to stimulate scientific literacy and an interest in science while generating scientific output. The essay discusses how the mass experiments can contribute to encouraging scientific citizenship. Abstract


Recent research in the studies of socio-ecology has raised an intriguing side effect associated with coping strategies and perceptions of environmental risk – where a perceived ability to cope with the effects of climate change and ecological degradation leads to an over-estimation of self-reliance and resilience. Known as the 'paradox of resilience', little has been understood about how or when such over-estimations occur. This paper sheds light on such phenomena by constructing a fabula (or narrative structure) of the paradox by investigating the case of extreme water shortage and the coping strategies of residents in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Despite the long delay in providing public access to water, and the high cost this imposes on the public, members of the public have grown accustomed to the unreliable water supply, and willingly accept the high and coping costs of finding alternative sources of water. Using the lived experiences method, the paper reveals a link between self-perceptions of resilience, the incremental nature of the problem, a perceived ability to pay coping costs, and a lack of confidence in government capacity.


A kind of array micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) cantilever of biochip is designed, which integrated capacitive pressure sensor. Before and after hybridization reaction, by the change of capacitance value, it can measure the capacitance values through integrated circuit (IC) to judge whether the solution containing the cantilever probe genes. In order to improve the detection sensitivity, it aggravate cantilever by gold nanoparticles combining hybridization information, applying Au-S chemical bond of gold nanoparticles and dithiol HS(CH2)6SH to combine and fix DNA probes and applying target DNA marked with biotin to combine gold nanoparticles by Biotin - Streptavidin combining. The results shows that this biochip can detect biological samples fast, high throughput, low cost, high sensitivity and reliably.


The method of Painleve analysis is introduced and used to explore the integrability of certain physically significant nonlinear partial differential equations (nPDEs). These nPDEs include the Burgers' equation, Korteweg-de Vries equation (KdV) and nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation. Furthermore, it is shown primarily that this Painleve test is intended to determine necessary conditions for such class of nPDEs to have the Painleve property. However, the nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation is shown instead to be integrable with respect to the Weak Painleve test.


BACKGROUND
Currently, the health scenario is riddled with the burden of noncommunicable diseases.

AIM
The aim of this study is to assess the awareness of school children regarding the risk factors of noncommunicable diseases (NCD).

SETTING AND DESIGN
Three hundred and seventy-five school children, studying in classes 6 to 10, formed the study subjects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The school selected for the study was a government school, located in a rural area. The socioeconomic status of the children was mainly in the upper lower and lower class. Students from the 6 to 10 grades formed the study subjects and from among them, a random sample of 375 children were selected for the study. A close-ended questionnaire relating to 3 most commonly occurring NCDs, namely, Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD), and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) was administered to the students.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Frequency and proportions were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS
It is found that awareness among the school children regarding lifestyle risk factors of NCDs is not satisfactory. The areas of least knowledge were found to be regarding passive smoking, early age at marriage, and reuse of cooking oil as risk factors for NCD.

CONCLUSION
The study recommends the need for curriculum-based health education regarding the prevention aspects and motivation of the children to incorporate healthy lifestyle practices into their daily lives.


PURPOSE
Walking speed is a cardinal indicator of poststroke gait performance; however, no consensus exists regarding the optimal treatment method(s) for its enhancement. The most widely accepted criterion for establishing the contribution of treatment to walking speed is the gain in speed. The actual speed, however, at the end of the intervention (final speed) may be more important for functional community ambulation. This review examines the contribution of the prevailing methods for gait rehabilitation to final walking speed.

METHOD
Walking speed information was derived from studies included in meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines. Recent references, not included in the mentioned sources, were incorporated in cases when gait speed was an outcome variable. Final speed was assessed by the reported speed values and by inferring the capacity for functional community walking at the end of the intervention period.

RESULTS
Similar outcomes for final walking speed were found for the different prevailing treatment methods. Treatment gains were likewise comparable and generally insufficient for upgrading patients' functional community walking capacity.

CONCLUSIONS
Different treatment methods exist for poststroke gait rehabilitation. Their availability, mode of application, and costs vary, yet outcomes are largely similar. Therefore, choosing an appropriate method may be guided by a pragmatic approach. Simple "low technology" and conventional exercise to date is at least as efficacious as more complex strategies such as treadmill and robotic-based interventions.


New national road into Cape Town begins to take shape: This aerial view from above the contour plough-lines on the Bellville hills shows the wide, white ribbon which is the path of the new national-road approach to Cape Town. The road, now being made, will have double-width traffic lanes and the route will by-pass the populous areas of Parow and Goodwood, seen on the left, as well as Wingfield airport. The new highway will open up a vast area of as yet undeveloped country.


C6 rat glioblastoma cells are able to attach to and to spread on culture dishes which are coated with purified central nervous system myelin, in contrast to normal astrocytes, fibroblasts or neurons which adhere poorly and are unable to spread on this substrate. The metalloprotease blockers o-phenanthroline and a newly developed oligopeptide could specifically inhibit C6 cell spreading on central nervous system myelin, suggesting a crucial role for a metalloprotease. Here we characterize this metalloproteolytic activity of C6 cells using a peptide degradation assay with the iodinated tetrapeptide carbobenzoxy-Phe-Ala-Phe-125I-Tyr-amide as a substrate. Purified, salt-washed C6 plasma membranes cleaved the peptide between alanine and phenylalanine, an effect which is strongly inhibited by o-phenanthroline, but not by thiol-blocking agents or aspartic and serine protease inhibitors. The metalloendoprotease is highly sensitive to phosphoramidon but insensitive to thiorphan. The enzyme is tightly bound to the plasma membrane but not G protein-phosphatidylinositol linked. It can be solubilized in part by the detergents 3-(3-cholamidopropyldimethylamino)-1-propanesulfonate or Triton X-114. Gel filtration chromatography using the Triton X-114-solubilized proteins or the proteins removed by a short trypsin treatment revealed a molecular weight range for the C6 enzyme of 60,000-100,000. Polymerase chain reaction with primers corresponding to endopeptidase 24.11 or to the highly conserved motif of the "astacin family" showed that both enzymes were not detectable in the C6 glioblastoma cells.


What to do after high school? Use these resources to find the education that can lead you to that career that you want!


Purpose

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the possible existence of a synergistic effect of internationalization and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on a firm's value performance.

Design/methodology/approach

To empirically test the argument, this study analyzed data from 40 US-based publicly traded restaurant companies (251 observations) from 2000 to 2011 by performing a two-way fixed-effects model.

Findings

This study's findings support the hypothesis that when implemented simultaneously, internationalization and CSR have a negative synergistic impact on a restaurant firm's value performance.

Practical implications

Restaurant managers might need to inquire thoroughly into the timing and content of CSR investment strategies while entering into new international markets. Restaurant executives may additionally need to focus more on effective risk management than other issues (e.g. growth or reputation) when developing both internationalization and CSR strategies simultaneously.

Originality/value

By suggesting and demonstrating a negative synergistic effect of internationalization and CSR on a firm's value, this study presents new and unique insights into previous research regarding the combined effect of the two strategies.


This study assesses the role played by the variables of meaning and attention in mediating the cognitive effects of false autonomic feedback, first reported by Valins. In the context of a study of the physiological correlates of selective attention, subjects were instructed either to attend or to ignore pulsed sounds that were described either as veridical heart rate feedback or simply as electronic "bleeps." These auditory stimuli were presented in parallel with slides illustrating skin diseases. Consistent with previous findings, slides associated with acceleration of the pulsed sounds were subsequently rated as significantly more unpleasant than those associated with no change in the speed of these sounds. However, this effect was not contingent on the apparent meaning of these sounds (heart rate vs bleeps) but was contingent on the degree of attention paid to the sounds. The "Valins effect" was only obtained when subjected attended to the sounds. The implications of these findings for the interpretation of the cognitive effects of false autonomic feedback are discussed.


End users with extensive experience with an organization's data can often detect query errors when query results do not correspond to their ex ante expectations. Many end users, for example, newly hired business analysts, however, compose queries on unfamiliar data. Their lack of familiarity means that they may be less able to evaluate the reasonableness of their query results. Although additional query experience will eventually give them the familiarity with the data that they need, in the interim, they may not recognize incorrect results from flawed queries. This paper develops and tests base rate sensitization as a means of enabling end users to improve their query performance. Contrary to the hypotheses, sensitizing end users to base rates, as a means of improving their assessments of the likely correctness of their query results, was not associated with significantly fewer query errors on a consistent basis. In a post hoc analysis, participant conscientiousness was found to moderate query performance. Participants of high conscientiousness that were sensitized to base rates made fewer query errors than those not sensitized. In contrast, base rate-sensitized participants with low conscientiousness made more errors than those not sensitized. In this interaction, high conscientiousness participants were able to take advantage of base rate information while low conscientiousness participants appeared to be hindered by base rate sensitization.


We present a new batch volume rendering technique which alleviates the time and expertise needed by the domain scientist in order to produce quality volume rendered results. This process can be done both in situ and as a post-processing step. The advantage of performing this as an in situ process is that the user is not required to have a priori knowledge of the exact physics and how best to create a transfer function to volume render that physics during the in situ run. For the post-processing use case, the user has the ability to easily examine a wide variety of transfer functions without the tedious work of manually generating each one.


The application of neural networks for active control of lightly damped systems is considered. The training process of the neural-network controller is based on the genetic learning algorithm. The scheme imitates nature's cleansing phenomena of natural selection and survival of the fittest to generate individual controllers with the best fitness values. It essentially incorporates an exhaustive search in the weight-space governed by the rituals of crossover and mutation to seek the optimum neural-network weights to satisfy certain performance criteria. Several appropriate modifications of the classical genetic algorithm for neural-network control purposes are discussed. The genetic-trained neural-network controller is applied for tip position tracking and vibration suppression of a single-link flexible arm. Simulation studies are presented to validate the effectiveness of the advocated algorithms.


Concentrations of soluble (<0.025 μm), dissolved (<0.4 μm) and total (unfiltered) iron (Fe) were measured over the continental shelf and slope of the northern Gulf of Alaska (GoA) during spring‐summer. Large cross‐shelf gradients of surface water Fe concentrations were observed in these productive shelf waters during both seasons. Most of the particulate (>0.4 μm) and colloidal (0.025–0.4 μm) Fe size fractions were removed from surface waters within the inner and mid shelf. As a result the contribution of soluble Fe to the total Fe concentration increased from the inner shelf to the shelf break/slope waters. Surface water dissolved Fe concentrations on the northern GoA continental slope were higher than those previously observed in the central GoA gyre. Variations in surface water Fe concentrations from spring through summer appear to result from the changes in freshwater discharge and physical processes on the shelf.


The several techniques using technology based on biometrics, passwords, certificates, and smart cards can be used for user authentication in the accessible network system. One of the most popular areas in OTP authentication protocol can be used for authenticating a user by a server. It increases security by using a new password for each authentication while the previous password scheme iteratively uses a same password. In this paper we propose a secure user authentication protocol with one time password based on PingPong128 stream cipher .


Abstract The Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary record in the Campine Basin along the southern border of the North Sea Basin is analysed in terms of sequence stratigraphy. All available biostratigraphic, and in some cases, magnetostratigraphic data are used to constrain the sequence chronostratigraphy. The relative geographic extent of the strata is used as an indication of the relative sea level. Tectonic and eustatic components could be distinguished in several cases using regional geological information. Generally, sequences consist of transgressive and highstand systems tracts only and have flat, abrasion-type lower boundaries. Lowstand deposits are only identified as infill of erosional space, which generally implies marked tectonic uplift. Several eustatic and tectonic events can be correlated with similar events known elsewhere in the North Sea Basin. The time intervals spanned by the different sequences vary considerably, pointing out different control mechanisms.


As these lines are written, Moshe Katzav, the former President of the State of Israel, is in jail. He was imprisoned at the conclusion of a long legal proceeding, the first of its kind ever to be conducted against a president. Moshe Katzav, was convicted of rape and additional sexual harassment offences, and was handed down a seven-year prison sentence. His appeal with the Supreme Court was dismissed. Known as the 'Katzav Affair' - the story triggered a public storm in Israel that continued for many months, ending almost four years after it began. In the course of the affair, while being suspected of sexual crimes, President Katzav refused to resign and actually used the presidential office as a platform to lash an unprecedented attack against the law-enforcement authorities and the media. The Katzav affair exposed a number of anomalies and lacunae in Basic Law: The President. This paper addresses these issues and analyses a few of the constitutional aspects of the case.


As part of a National Science Foundation Institution Wide Curriculum reform grant, several freshmen courses in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) from across the University of Hartford were completely revised with the specific goals of improving the students appreciation of SMET, improving the first year experience, and increasing student retention. Increased faculty participation was also a primary goal. Among these courses was ET111, Introduction to Engineering Technology, which is required of all freshmen students attending the Ward College of Technology. To address these issues the course was completely revised to include a team teaching format, expansion of subject topics to include student academic and social requirements, basic research skills in the form of a research project, demonstrations of scientific principles through "hands on" exercises, use of basic computer analysis techniques, and introduction to industry professionals through monthly seminars. The importance of teamwork was also a focal point of the course. A full presentation of the course outline, the results of several student surveys and a detailed review of several of the more unique aspects of the course will be presented. Overall the student response to the course was quite good and it significantly improved the dialog between the staff, faculty and students.


Widespread use of septic tanks in the Florida Keys increase the nutrient concentrations of limestone groundwaters that discharge into shallow nearshore waters, resulting in coastal eutrophication. This study characterizes watershed nutrient inputs, transformations, and effects along a land-sea gradient stratified into four ecosystems that occur with increasing distance from land: manmade canal systems (receiving waters of nutrient inputs), seagrass meadows, patch reefs, and offshore bank reefs. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), the primary limiting nutrient, was significantly elevated in canal systems compared to the other ecosystems, while dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN; NH4+ and NO3−) a secondary limiting nutrient, was elevated both in canal systems and seagrass meadows. SRP and NH4+ concentrations decreased to low concentrations within approximately 1 km and 3 km from land, respectively. DIN and SRP accounted for their greatest contribution (up to 30%) of total N and P pools in canals, compared to dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) that dominated (up to 68%) the total N and P pools at the offshore bank reefs. Particulate N and P fractions were also elevated (up to 48%) in canals and nearshore seagrass meadows, indicating rapid biological uptake of DIN and SRP into organic particles. Chlorophylla and turbidity were also elevated in canal systems and seagrass meadows; chlorophylla was maximal during summer when maximum watershed nutrient input occurs, whereas turbidity was maximal during winter due to seasonally maximum wind conditions and sediment resuspension. DO was negatively correlated with NH4+ and SRP; hypoxia (DO<2.5 mg l−1) frequently occurred in nutrient-enriched canal systems and seagrass meadows, especially during the warm summer months. These findings correlate with recent (<5 years) observations of increasing algal blooms, seagrass epiphytization and die-off, and loss of coral cover on patch and bank reef ecosystems, suggesting that nearshore waters of the Florida Keys have entered a stage of critical eutrophication.


Objective To identify measures used within Denmark evaluating any type of intervention designed to facilitate patient involvement in healthcare. Design Environmental scan employing rapid review methods. Data sources MEDLINE, PsycInfo and CINAHL were searched from 6–9 April 2021 from database inception up to the date of the search. Eligibility criteria Quantitative, observational and mixed methods studies with empirical data on outcomes used to assess any type of intervention aiming to increase patient involvement with their healthcare. Language limitations were Danish and English. Data extraction and synthesis Two independent reviewers extracted data from 10% of the included studies and, due to their agreement, the data from the rest were extracted by first author. Data were analysed with reference to existing categories of measuring person-centred care; findings were synthesised using narrative summaries. Adapted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2020 guidelines were used to guide reporting. Results Among 3767 records, 43 studies met the inclusion criteria, including 74 different measures used to evaluate interventions aimed at increasing patient involvement within healthcare in Danish hospital and community settings. Generic measures assessed: patient engagement (n=3); supporting self-management (n=8); supporting shared decision-making (n=9); patient satisfaction and experiences of care (n=11); health-related patient-reported outcome (n=20). Conclusions Across Denmark, complex interventions designed to improve patient involvement with healthcare vary in their goals and content. Some targeting healthcare professionals, some patient health literacy and some service infrastructure. A plethora of measures assess the impact of these interventions on patient, professional and service delivery outcomes. Few measures assessed patient involvement directly, and it is unclear which proxy measures capture indicators of perceived involvement. Lack of conceptual clarity between intervention goals, the components of change and measures makes it difficult to see what types of intervention can best support change in services to ensure patients are more effectively involved in their healthcare.


ABSTRACT The intersection between land grabs and climate change mitigation politics in Myanmar has created new political opportunities for scaling up, expanding and deepening struggles toward 'agrarian climate justice'. Building on the concepts of 'political opportunities' and 'rural democratization' to understand how rural politics is relevant to national regime changes in the process of deepening democracy, this paper argues that scaling up beyond the local level becomes necessary to counter the concentration of power at higher levels. At the same time, this vertical process is inextricable from building horizontal networks and rooting struggles in communities. By looking at national-level land policy advocacy for more just land laws, accountability politics in mining at a regional level in the southern Tanintharyi region, and the bottom-up establishment of local indigenous territories, this paper illustrates how expanding these struggles becomes necessary, but is also accompanied by potential fault-lines. These fault-lines include divergent political tendencies within the network and challenges to working in areas contested by the Burmese state and ethnic armed organizations.


Hudiksvall Municipality will build a new preschool. The goal is that the pre-school should reflect the municipality's environmental goals and meet building regulations. The wall structures that are compared in the report is an insulated wooden frame and a frame of lightweight concrete blocks from H + HWall structures are compared within the areas of U-values, air tightness, thermal storage capacity, fire ratings, moisture, durability, emissions and environment. In these categories the two wall structures will be rated in a scale from 1 to 5 and then the categories are weighted against each other. The weighting is based on Hudiksvall Municipality's assessment of the categories importanse for their final selection.The results of the comparison show that the concrete structure is recommended for the construction of pre-school with 27.55 points against the wooden structures 23.70 points. The highest possible score after weighting is 34 points.


The quality of water from River Sokoto was assessed to determine its bacterial load and types. Standard bacteriological techniques were used to perform the total heterotrophic bacteria, faecal coliform and enterococci counts of water samples collected from six sampling points on the river and distribution of bacteria in the water samples was also determined using standard procedures. The study indicated high heterotrophic bacteria, faecal coliform and enterococci counts above permissible limits for drinking and recreational waters according to World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). A total of 434 bacteria organisms were isolated comprising nineteen different species. Among the Enterobacteriaceae , Escherichia coli, which are human pathogenic organisms, had the highest percentage (11.98%) followed by Enterobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae subspecies pneumonia . Pseudomonas  aeruginosa constituted the majority of non- Enterobacteriaceae Gram negative organisms. Staphylococcus aureus was the highest among the Gram positive organisms followed by Staphylococcus saprophyticus (5.99%). Other isolates in significant numbers are Streptococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Elizabethkingia meningoseptica and Aeromonas sobria . Bacteria of aquatic habitat like Providencia rettgeri, Raoultella ornithinolytica, Staphylococcus cohnii subspecies urealyticus  and Staphylococcus chromogenes that have not been isolated before in the study area were also isolated. River Sokoto predominantly contained E. coli which is an indication of faecal contamination and that makes it unsuitable for drinking and agricultural uses. People in the area should be encouraged to practice adequate sanitation. Key words : River Sokoto, water quality, bacterial pathogens, E. coli, health implication.


the exception, which he admits, of Dudgeon's sphygmograph. How contributions to the studies of diagnosis or pathology are going to establish the truth or otherwise of what is purely a therapeutic principle I do not know. Surely any therapeutic principle can only be judged by results. The principle of similars is a generalization from observed phenomena, not a mere theory. It is not a " creed," as Professor Langdon Brown would make out, but a definite attempt to provide some guiding principle in that appalling wilderness which is labelled modern therapeutics. It has not the support of the medical teachers in the universities, it is true, but as the majority of those teachers have not the remotest idea of the facts and real teachings of homoeopathy, and have, moreover, not the slightest intention of enlightening themselves on the subject, they are not very competent to give to medical students any views on it. Neither has it the support of rich and powerful manufacturing chemists, and so it loses the very cheap and useful " press " which other therapeutic measures (mostly short-lived) possess. Nevertheless, it has come to stay, and is experiencing quite a renascence in Germany. If leading lights of the profession wish to criticize it, they had first of all better find out exactly what it is and what it teaches, and then if they feel that it is useless as a therapeutic principle, let them demonstrate its uselessness by the only method which should appeal to scientific men-the method which thehomoeopaths themselves employ to demonstrate its truth-the method of experiment. I am, etc.,


Signal transduction pathways play diverse, context-dependent roles in vertebrate development. In studies of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), conflicting reports claim Wnt/β-catenin signaling promotes either self-renewal or differentiation. We use a sensitive reporter to establish that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is not active during hESC self-renewal. Inhibiting this pathway over multiple passages has no detrimental effect on hESC maintenance, whereas activating signaling results in loss of self-renewal and induction of mesoderm lineage genes. Following exposure to pathway agonists, hESCs exhibit a delay in activation of β-catenin signaling, which led us to postulate that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is actively repressed during self-renewal. In support of this hypothesis, we demonstrate that OCT4 represses β-catenin signaling during self-renewal and that targeted knockdown of OCT4 activates β-catenin signaling in hESCs. Using a fluorescent reporter of β-catenin signaling in live hESCs, we observe that the reporter is activated in a very heterogeneous manner in response to stimulation with Wnt ligand. Sorting cells on the basis of their fluorescence reveals that hESCs with elevated β-catenin signaling express higher levels of differentiation markers. Together these data support a dominant role for Wnt/β-catenin signaling in the differentiation rather than self-renewal of hESCs.


Tourists searching for information about destinations on online review sites are concurrently exposed to two different photograph aesthetics, professional (produced by destination managers) and amateur (generated by travelers). While the former is glossy and sharp, the latter is often grainy and overexposed. Although aesthetics are important factors in tourist decision making, the effects of the exposure to both types of photograph aesthetics remain largely unexamined. This research investigates how both types of aesthetics, either singularly or in combination, affect a destination's visual appeal and tourists' booking intentions through four controlled experiments (N = 1,282). Our results show that despite the "messy" beauty in amateur aesthetics, photos with professional aesthetics make a depicted destination appear more visually appealing, ultimately driving booking intentions. However, the negative effects of amateur aesthetics are mitigated when (1) viewed by risk-averse tourists, (2) presented alongside positive reviews, and (3) accompanied by a greater number of professional photos.


Abstract This study presents a new approach for the recycling of bilayered PET waste in an efficient, continuous process with a depolymerization degree >97%. The complex PET waste was converted by chemolysis into its monomers ethylene glycol (EG) and the corresponding salt of terephthalic acid (TA) in a twin-screw extruder (TSE). Via this method, the starting materials for PET production were recovered, and highly contaminated PET waste and PET composite materials were transformed into valuable starting materials. The PE layer of the composite PET/PE material remained inert under depolymerization conditions and could be separated by filtration. An increase in the rotational speed by 200 rpm in the TSE reduced the residence time, but the degree of depolymerization was not affected in a proportional manner. Thus, the results indicate that a shorter residence time can be compensated with intensified mechanical agitation due to higher rotational speeds to obtain a similar degree of depolymerization. These results support the potential of this recycling concept to substantially contribute to the implementation of a circular PET economy. Graphical abstract


The discovery of slow‐slip events over the past decades has changed our understanding of tectonic hazards and the earthquake cycle. Proper geodetic characterization of slow‐slip events is necessary for studies of regional interseismic, coseismic and postseismic deformation, and miscalculations can affect our understanding of the regional stress field and tectonic hazard. Because of the proliferation of GPS data over the last two decades, an automated algorithm is required to analyze the signals and model the deformation on a station by station basis. Using the relative strength index (RSI), a financial momentum oscillator, we test the ability to detect events of various sizes and durations. We first determine the statistics of the RSI under different noise conditions and then use this information as the basis for the automated transient detection algorithm by testing different synthetic signals. We then apply the technique to daily GPS displacement time series from 213 stations along the Cascadia subduction zone to form a record of transient deformation between 2005 and 2016. Our estimates of the spatial extent, duration, and propagation of major episodic tremor and slip (ETS) events are consistent with previous studies. We use the automated detections to remodel the displacement time series and obtain transient deformation rates over the past decade and discuss the tectonic implications. Finally, we analyze the correlation between transient detections and tremor showing good agreement between the two at slab depths commonly associated with ETS events.