Author(s): Sparks, Nicole Renee | Advisor(s): zur Nieden, Nicole I | Abstract: Cigarette smoke is a mixture of over 7000 toxic components with at least 69 smoke chemicals producing cancers, suggesting that smoking is harmful to smokers. More importantly, the World Health Organization has estimated that 10% of the world's population is involuntarily exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, a number that does not include developing embryos. However, tobacco exposure during embryonic development is one of the risk factors for developing a congenital birth defect. An understudied, yet important abnormality caused by maternal smoking is the improper development of the embryonic skeleton, which can result in long-term burdens on the affected child and their family, creating a need for investigation that is addressed in this thesis.Due to the difficulty in quitting smoking while pregnant, women often look to use harm reduction tobacco products (HRTPs) because they are perceived as a safer alternative in comparison to conventional cigarettes. These products include ultra-filtered cigarettes with reduced carcinogen content, and chewing tobacco, which omits exposure to harmful combustion products. However, there is a lack of investigation to reveal the molecular mechanisms involved in skeletal embryotoxicity induced by conventional and harm-reduction tobacco, the unraveling of which is another objective of this thesis. In the process of this investigation, an in vitro model based on human embryonic stem cells was developed. These cells are the only currently available cell culture system, which mimics the development of the human embryo. As this thesis shows, their differentiation into osteoblasts in vitro can be used to study chemical toxicity and the molecular mechanisms thereof.


ABSTRACT Objectives: Family responsibilities and social expectations often prompt conflict in caregivers' decision-making processes. Janis and Mann's (1977) conflict model describes vigilance as high-quality decision-making resulting in optimal outcomes. The purpose of our research was threefold: (1) to describe decision styles in a population of family caregivers of persons with dementia; (2) to examine the socio-economic characteristics associated with caregivers who are more likely to be vigilant decision-makers; and (3) to assess differences in caregiving experiences between vigilant and non-vigilant caregivers. Method: Our analysis was based on 639 survey respondents recruited from a university-affiliated memory disorders clinic. Results: Our typical caregiver was Caucasian non-Hispanic, was currently married, and had two children. Approximately half of our sample used a 'pure vigilant' decision style. Vigilance was associated with more positive and fewer negative caregiving outcomes. Conclusion: Supporting caregivers to become vigilant decision-makers is a functionally viable intervention that could significantly improve the caregiving experience.


This technical note presents some policy guidance on main targeting mechanisms for social programs and criteria for their evaluation. Several methods exist to target social programs to the desired population. These should be judged on the basis of three criteria: targeting efficiency, leakage, and administrative costs. Considerations of political feasibility should also be made.


Allometric growth patterns of functional morphological variables that reflect resource use in fish were correlated with the diet of Diplodus capensis in southern Angola. A total of 114 individuals (76–336 mm FL) were collected for stomach content analysis and a further 35 individuals (80–320 mm FL) for morphometric analysis. The major dietary components belonged to the groups Chlorophyta, Cirripedia, Rhodophyta and Bivalvia, and made up 71.7% of the diet in terms of a computed ranking index. There was a clear ontogenetic dietary shift with small fish feeding predominantly on algae and large fish on barnacles and mussels. This increasingly durophagous diet corresponded with a positive allometric growth pattern in the gape dimensions (width, height and surface area), adductor mandibulae muscle process and incisor width. Conversely, the relative gut length followed an isometric growth pattern, suggesting a decreased absorptive capacity. This isometric growth pattern is attributed to the better digestibility of the durophagous prey items when compared with algae and further corroborates a link between the morphology and an ontogenetic dietary shift observed in this species.


In order to improve the predictive accuracy of homogenized micro mechanics models the strain partitioning between the fibres and the matrix must be accurate. Early homogenization schemes are only applicable for elastic deformations of composites; however, it has become important to be able to predict the response of composite materials up to the point of failure to improve the design of lightweight structural composite structures. Approaches to improve the strain partitioning for homogenized schemes where the material undergoes elasto-viscoplastic response are discussed. For complex polymer materials models where the composite has an elastic fibre which is perfectly bonded to the matrix it is proposed that the fibre strain is related to the recoverable elastic strain of the matrix material. Simulation results are shown for a unidirectional carbon fibre epoxy composite at various strain rates under transverse loading.


Metal-on-metal (MoM) bearings, comprised of Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum (CoCrMo), have been widely used in total hip replacements, however this material is susceptible to in vivo corrosion and wear (tribocorrosion). Proteins within the synovial fluid surrounding implants can have a profound effect on the corrosion kinetics of MoM implants, but the interaction between the proteins and the implant surface is not thoroughly understood. Studies suggest that carbonaceous films found on hip retrievals may act as a lubricant at articulating surfaces to reduce wear, corrosion, and friction.
Therefore, the goal of this study is to induce film formation in a proteinaceous environment through electrochemical treatment and evaluate film effectiveness using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and tribocorrosion. Surface characterization techniques were utilized to understand the homogeneity of film formation. It is hypothesized that promotion of superior film formation occurs at higher protein concentrations allowing for more mechanically resistant film.
Results indicate improved corrosion kinetics with increasing protein concentration and tribocorrosion testing shows film formation reduces friction. Understanding corrosion and wear mechanisms of hip joint implants will help to guide future designs and functional needs of implants. In addition, this investigation adds to the knowledge of understanding the role of protein in providing implant protection during loading conditions.


The study of electron transport in low-dimensional systems is of importance, not only from a fundamental point of view, but also for future electronic and spintronic devices. In this context heterostructures containing a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) are a key technology. In particular GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, with a 2DEG at typically 100 nm below the surface, are widely studied. In order to explore electron transport in such systems, low-resistance ohmic contacts are required that connect the 2DEG to macroscopic measurement leads at the surface. Here we report on designing and measuring a dedicated device for unraveling the various resistance contributions in such contacts, which include pristine 2DEG series resistance, the 2DEG resistance under a contact, the contact resistance itself, and the influence of pressing a bonding wire onto a contact. We also report here a robust recipe for contacts with very low resistance, with values that do not change significantly for annealing times between 20 and 350 sec, hence providing the flexibility to use this method for materials with different 2DEG depths. The type of heating used for annealing is found to strongly influence the annealing process and hence the quality of the resulting contacts.


Schools of fish, flocks of birds and other groups of organisms, can move in a highly coordinated fashion despite the fact that each member only experiences its immediate surroundings and there exists no obvious leader. Understanding how the global properties of the group, for example its shape, dynamics and organization, emerge from local interactions between individuals is a key goal of research in field of collective motion. The main theoretical tool used to investigate this is self-propelled particle (SPP) models. Over the past few decades development and analysis of SPP-models have provided us with considerable insight into how collective motion works in general, and in specific species of collectively moving animals. However, even simple SPP-models are often hard to analyze efficiently. Most often the only way to analyze them is by using computer simulations, and for more elaborate models even this approach may be unfeasible. This talk will contain a brief introduction to self-propelled particle models and an outline of why many of them are hard to analyze efficiently.


Simultaneous measurements of parameters of CN Tower lightning strikes have been performed since 1991. The current derivative signals measured, are corrupted by a 100 kHz oscillating interference. This noise has caused substantial limitations on the usage of the CN Tower lightning current data. As a result, we became motivated to characterize it and search for its source. Furthermore identifying the low-frequency noise is expected to help in its removal and avoid it altogether in future installations.

This thesis proves that the low-frequency noise corrupting the lightning current derivative signals is the Loran-C radionavigation signal. This finding is a major contribution not only for the CN Tower lightning project but also for any other research related to measurement of lightning at tall structures. Researchers and experimentalists should be aware of the existence of the Loran-C signal and take the necessary precautions to avoid its interference effect.


Assessment is a sensitive issue, and converting traditional methods of assessment to Computer-Assisted Assessment (CAA) is acknowledged to be a risky activity (Harwood & Warburton 2004; Zakrzewski & Steven 2000). As students become more litigious (Baty 2004; QAA 1998) and competitive pressures increase Universities cannot afford mistakes when implementing new assessment strategies.
The University of Southampton is developing a managed learning environment (MLE). It ran a pilot Perception CAA project across the institution in preparation for the launch of Perception as a full-scale University CAA service, in anticipation of its integration into the MLE. Many Perception tests were run during this project, but two different large simultaneous tests failed irretrievably. In one case the outcome was positive, whilst the other was less so.
This paper reflects on the differences between these two failed tests and thereby presents a novel view of the issues inherent in implementing CAA on an institutional scale. Only one study of ameliorating genuine CAA failures was found in the literature {Harwood, 2004 139 /id} and most published studies are of small-scale CAA practice where the risks are perhaps more apparent and more easily contained, rather than the full-scale institutional implementation which is the context of this study (Kennedy 1998).


ABSTRACT We have purified a fructosyltransferase from conidia of the inulin-producing fungus Aspergillus sydowi IAM 2544 and obtained peptide sequences from proteolytic fragments of the protein. With degenerated primers, we amplified a PCR fragment that was used to screen a cDNA library. The fructosyltransferase gene fromAspergillus sydowi (EMBL accession no. AJ289046 ) is expressed in conidia, while no expression could be detected in mycelia by Northern blot analysis of mycelial RNA. The gene encodes a protein with a calculated molecular mass of 75 kDa that is different from all fructosyltransferases in the databases. The only homology that could be detected was to the invertase of Aspergillus niger (EMBL accession no. L06844 ). The gene was functionally expressed inEscherichia coli, yeast, and potato plants. With protein extracts from transgenic bacteria and yeast, fructooligosaccharides could be produced in vitro. In transgenic potato plants, inulin molecules of up to 40 hexose units were synthesized in vivo. While in vitro experiments with protein extracts from conidia ofAspergillus sydowi yielded the same pattern of oligosaccharides as extracts from transformed bacteria and yeast, in vivo inulin synthesis with fungal conidia leads to the production of a high-molecular-weight polymer.


Permeability.-The permeability of Laminaria agardhii as affected by anions from various inorganic and organic salts of sodium has been measured by RABER,/5 who used OSTERHOUT's electrical conductivity method. All of the anions increase permeability, following in a general way the HOFMEISTER series. The anions arrange themselves by their effects into several groups: thus the monovalent, bivalent, and trivalent groups can be recognized by the quantitative difference in permeability change with members of each group. The tetravalent anion, Fe(CN)6, did not produce a fourth group, but this is explained as due to low concentration of the salt. The author believes that the effects of anions on permeability depend upon the valency of the anion, regardless of whether the salts are organic or inorganic.-C. A. SHULL.


Editor – Over the past 10 years, endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) has been put forward as an effective treatment for facial blushing. In several series of patients, including one published recently in this journal, 1 self-reported ratings of blushing decreased substantially after surgery and only a low incidence of adverse outcomes was encountered. 2–4 Although the operation is usually successful in the short term, side-effects from the procedure may ultimately cause patient dissatisfaction (Reisfeld, http://www.sweaty-palms.com/ blushing.html). Unfortunately, the distress experienced by a minority of patients after surgical sympathectomy is given little weight in most of the published literature. Nevertheless, the establishment of support groups and Internet forums testify that this distress is real and is not limited to a few isolated cases (e.g. http://home.swipnet.se/sympatiska/index3.htm; http:// www.ets-sideeffects.netfirms.com; http://pub157.ezboard.com/ betsandreversals). In fact, dissatisfaction with the long-term outcome after ETS has resulted in the development of a nerve graft procedure to reverse the sympathectomy in the hope that this would also eliminate disabling side-effects. 5,6 In anticipation of unwanted side-effects, some surgeons prefer to clamp rather than sever the sympathetic chain to facilitate later reversal of the procedure. 4 The most common reason for dissatisfaction with ETS is the development of excessive ('compensatory') sweating below the level of the sympathectomy. 3,7–10 Compensatory sweating develops in up to 90% of patients who undergo surgical sympathectomy of the upper limbs and face, and can be severe and disabling. 10 Although not as widely recognized as compensatory sweating, some patients also develop gustatory sweating and a range of other less specific symptoms after ETS. 3,4 Bilateral thoracic sympathectomy alters cardiovascular control and inhibits increases in cardiac output during exercise. 11,12 Whether this contributes to the circulatory problems and chronic fatigue reported by some sympathectomized patients is unclear. From a psychological point of view, it is hard to endorse a destructive surgical procedure to prevent the physiological disturbances associated with anxiety, 13 particularly when the procedure carries risks of operative complications and disabling side-effects. In the case of emotional blushing, perceptions about blushing frequently do not match physiological signs. In particular, people who are concerned about blushing consistently report high levels of social distress and overestimate the intensity of blushing when they feel self-conscious or embarrassed. 14 That is, the patient's problem often is fear of blushing rather than blushing itself. This fear develops easily; simply telling people who usually are unconcerned about blushing that they blushed during a social encounter can engender embarrassment and concern about blushing in future social encounters. 15 Drott et al . 1 noted that 'patients should be encouraged to try non-surgical options as the first line of treatment' for facial blushing (page 118). In my view ETS should not be offered to people concerned about recurrent emotional blushing, because the risks of irreversible operative complications and side-effects outweigh the potential for indirect and possibly transient psychological gains.


Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is an important enteric pathogen causing post-weaning diarrhoea in piglets. Enterotoxins of E. coli induce the release of fluid into the intestines without apparent inflammation. Some serotypes of E. coli, especially O149:F4 can often be identified in association with haemorrhagic gastroenteritis. In this study we infected the weaned piglets (n = 53) by oral administration of enterotoxigenic E. coli O149:F4 strains isolated from piglets suffering from haemorrhagic gastroenteritis. The clinical course of infection and shedding of the challenge E. coli strain in the faeces of infected piglets was monitored for 14 days. The challenge strain soon outnumbered the other E. coli types in the intestines of most piglets. Diarrhoea developed in the majority of piglets and its severity varied. Severe diarrhoea was observed in 10% of the piglets but only one piglet died due to dehydration. No inflammatory lesions were detected in the intestines of the dead piglet and the other euthanized piglets. We assume that development of haemorrhagic gastroenteritis depends on the involvement of other factors that need to be identified. E. coli O149:F4 are only one of the causative factors of haemorrhagic gastroenteritis in piglets after weaning.


'WORKING PRESS: books by and about working class artists' 1986 - 1996' was an unfunded self-publication imprint that was started in 1985 by Doctor Stefan Szczelkun, an artist and academic at Westminster University, and Graham Harwood, graphic designer.

The publications produced explore perceptions of the working class, women artists, disabled artists and black artists, and gives an insight into self-funded publishing activity of the time.

Material has been donated to the University for Creative Arts through Doctor Stefan Szczelkun, after approaching UCA's research cluster bookRoom, who suggested that it should be hosted within the library. bookRoom, formed in 2004, focuses on critical and practice based research into the photographic book and the printed page, and has an interest in the Working Press self-publication imprint.

The collection includes correspondence and financial material related to the Working Press (and written to and by, Stefan Szczelkun), the imprint itself, and Artist Books and pamphlets collected by Stefan Szczelkun. The collection does not include books collected by, or correspondence administrated by Graham Harwood.

The paper would look at issues and ways of cataloguing this collection, Stefan's involvement in the cataloguing of these papers, and bookRoom's requirements as researchers.


Cooling/lubrication conditions have significant influences on surface integrity, chip morphology, tool life and eventually productive efficiency when machining titanium alloy Ti6Al4V. Milling experiment under different cooling/lubrication conditions, namely dry, wet, MQL and nitrogen gas jet were conducted. Cutting forces, surface roughness and chip morphology are obtained. It is shown that cooling/lubrication conditions influence cutting force greatly while its effect on surface roughness is not obvious. The chip surface contacted with rake face under nitrogen gas is smoother than that under dry, but there exists nitrogen adsorption of the chip at higher speed.


Water and energy are key commodities utilized in the process industries. In this work, a new systematic design methodology has been developed for the simultaneous management of energy and water systems that also feature optimum regeneration of wastewater. In addition to allowing regeneration of wastewater, issues about heat losses inside unit operations have also been incorporated in the simultaneous management of water and energy. To implement such a design, two new design aspects are introduced; new method for "Non-isothermal Mixing" points identification and new "Separate System" generation. The first aspect involves "non-isothermal mixing", which enables direct heat recovery between water streams, and therefore allows the reduction of the number of heat transfer units. An NLP model is formulated to identify feasible non-isothermal mixing points in the network regarding minimum operation cost, which satisfy minimum freshwater and utility requirements. The other aspect is the generation of "separate system" in heat exchanger network design. The flexibility of mixing and splitting of water streams allows separate systems to be created as a cost-efficient series of heat exchanger units between freshwater and wastewater streams. The new design aspects have been illustrated with a case study. The results show 60% of total cost saving relevant to the conventional design method.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


: This review seeks to understand the role of remittances in international nurse migration within the context of three theories of international migration: equilibrium approaches, social networks, and globalization. To analyze the phenomenon, an integrative review of the literature was conducted. Search terms sought articles discussing, either directly or indirectly, remittances and international nurse migration. The initial search returned 369 articles, and further screening decreased the total to 65. Full text screening reduced the final number for the analysis to 48. A directed content analysis structured the analytic approach by examining how authors discussed remittances in the content and context of the paper. The final analysis showed the majority of papers were policy analyses (five); opinion papers, reviews, or editorials that indirectly discussed remittances (27); or were qualitative and quantitative studies (16), either with primary data collection (14) or secondary data analyses (two). Overall, a nurse's individual motivation for sending remittances home stemmed from familial factors but was never a primary driver of migration. Domestic labor market factors were more likely to drive nurses to migrate. The nurse's country of origin also was a factor in the remittance dynamic. The identity of the author of the paper played a role in how they discussed remittances in the context of international nurse migration. The three theories of migration helped explain various aspects of the role of remittances in international nursing migration. While the phenomenon has changed since the 2008 global economic crisis and the passing of the World Health Organization's Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in 2010, future research around the role of remittances needs to consider the confluence of gender, social, political, labor market, and economic dynamics, and not just view the phenomenon from an individual lens.


We present a Bayes-Random Fields framework which is capable of integrating unlimited data sources for discovering relevant network architecture of large-scale networks. The random field potential function is designed to impose a cluster constraint, teamed with a full Bayesian approach for incorporating heterogenous data sets. The probabilistic nature of our framework facilitates robust analysis in order to minimize the influence of noise inherent in the data on the inferred structure in a seamless and coherent manner. This is later proved in its applications to both large-scale synthetic data sets and Saccharomyces Cerevisiae data sets. The analytical and experimental results reveal the varied characteristic of different types of data and refelct their discriminative ability in terms of identifying direct gene interactions.


The main goal of this research is to analyse the effect of angular velocity on stability and vibration of a simply supported Rayleigh rotating shaft. To this end, non-dimensional kinetic and potential energies are written while lateral vibration is considered. Finite element method is employed to discrete the formulations and Linear method is applied to analyse instability threshold of a rotating shaft. These results represent the significant effects of mass moment of inertia, centrifugal forces and rotational speed. Also, the differences between Rayleigh and Euler-Bernoulli modelling are delivered. Furthermore, the effect of slenderness ratio on instability threshold and the natural frequencies are illustrated. Increasing rotational speed leads to decreasing of instability threshold and forward and backward natural frequencies. These formulations can be used to choose the safe working conditions for a shaft. © 2014 IAU, Arak Branch.All rights reserved.


We consider the dynamics in and near galaxy clusters. Gas, dark matter and galaxies are presently falling into the clusters between approximately 1 and 5 virial radii. At very large distances, beyond 10 virial radii, all matter is following the Hubble flow, and inside the virial radius the matter particles have on average zero radial velocity. The cosmological parameters are imprinted on the infall profile of the gas, however, no method exists, which allows a measurement of it. We consider the results of two cosmological simulations (using the numerical codes RAMSES and Gadget) and find that the gas and dark matter radial velocities are very similar. We derive the relevant dynamical equations, in particular the generalized hydrostatic equilibrium equation, including both the expansion of the Universe and the cosmological background. This generalized gas equation is the main new contribution of this paper. We combine these generalized equations with the results of the numerical simulations to estimate the contribution to the measured cluster masses from the radial velocity: inside the virial radius it is negligible, and inside two virial radii the effect is below 40%, in agreement the earlier analyses for DM. We point out how the infall velocity in principle may be observable, by measuring the gas properties to distance of about two virial radii, however, this is practically not possible today.


In this study, a dual-side cooling topology based on a silicon cold plate and an electrical functional silicon-interposer with embedded fluid channels is benchmarked against mere back-side cooling. The back-side cold plate can be operated in a split-flow mode, whereas in the case of the interposer only a single in- and outlet can be implemented, which results in a cross-flow heat-exchange mode. An interposer cavity can be achieved by back-to-back bonding of interposer shells to achieve large channel heights. Sealing-ring structures and embedded TSVs are required to prevent contact between water and the electrically active TSVs. Optimal micro-channel dimensions of 150 μm width and 250 μm height were computed using an analytical convection model that considered mass and heat transfer. The impact of thermal interfaces arising from the electrical interconnects between the chip stack and the interposer was studied by numerical heat-conduction modeling. Neither, the interconnect type, rail or pillar, nor the application of thermally conductive underfills did result in significant changes in junction temperature. However, the dual-side cooling approach resulted in twice lower thermal gradients at the inlet of the cavity than with the back-side or front-side cooling option only. Although the cross-flow mode of the interposer increases the coolant temperature more than the cold plate, dual-side cooling extends the power dissipation limit for single dies and chip stacks substantially, supporting performance and efficiency scaling.


The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of fan engagement on merchandise purchase intentions. We draw on existing fan engagement literature and focus on non-transactional fan engagement and its effects on merchandise purchasing as a single transactional fan engagement dimension. Data were collected from 206 season ticket holders (Study 1) and 520 fans of professional sports teams (Study 2) and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings show non-transactional fan engagement dimensions explain 51% (Study 1) and 60% (Study 2) of merchandise purchase intentions and consumption is driven by fan engagement dimensions related to the individual fan, rather than those dimensions that are influenced by others. This article contributes to the sports marketing literature by providing specific insights on the relationship between non-transactional fan engagement dimensions and merchandise consumption intentions. Thus, the findings have important implications for sport marketers as merchandise represents a crucial revenue stream of sport organizations.


The paper shows a formal approach for the description and modeling of work processes based on a cognitive work analysis. It is shown how the results of a cognitive work analysis on a medium size airport are transferred into a formal executable human machine model for simulating the controllers work processes to control the airport processes. The formal model serves for an evaluation of different variants of work organization, a design of a new working position and monitoring of psychological parameters. Critical system states and inconsistencies in the human machine system are identified through comparison of the knowledge state of the controllers with process states of the airport system. The first steps of model verification and validation are introduced in this paper.


The impending development of NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will require a new entry guidance algorithm that provides sufficient performance to meet all requirements. This study examined the effects on entry footprints of enhancing the skip trajectory entry guidance used in the Apollo program. The skip trajectory entry guidance was modified to include a numerical predictor-corrector phase during atmospheric skip portion of the entry trajectory. Four degree-of-freedom simulation was used to determine the footprint of the entry vehicle for the baseline Apollo entry guidance and predictor-corrector enhanced guidance with both high and low lofting at several lunar return entry conditions. The results show that the predictor-corrector guidance modification significantly improves the entry footprint of the CEV for the lunar return mission. The performance provided by the enhanced algorithm is likely to meet the entry range requirements for the CEV.


Abstract:A corpus of 360 distinct early modern printed editions (from 1472 to 1650) containing Johannes de Sacrobosco's Tractatus de sphaera is "dissected" into a corpus of 540 text-parts, 241 of them re-occurring at least once. Through the exploration of the data, we recognized a relevant position for four anonymous authors in their social network. We demonstrate that the text-parts originally assigned to the anonymous authors were authored or edited by Georg Rheticus. By means of data analysis, we conclusively establish that Rheticus profoundly impacted the content of such textbooks for the introductory class in geocentric astronomy all over Europe between 1538 and 1629.


Molecular descriptor selection is a pivotal tool for quantitative structure–activity relationship modeling. This paper proposes a novel molecular descriptor selection method on the basis of taking into account the information of the group type that the descriptor belongs to. This descriptor selection method is on the basis of combining penalized logistic regression with 2‐sample t test. The proposed method can perform filtering and weighting simultaneously. Specifically, 2‐sample t test is employed as filter method by removing the descriptor which is not show statistically significant difference. On the other hand, a weighted penalized logistic regression is used by assigning a weight depending on the 2‐sample t test value inside the descriptor type block. The proposed method is experimentally tested and compared with state‐of‐the‐art selection methods. The results show that our proposed method is simpler and faster with efficient classification performance.


Since 2008, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have brought innovation, research, new policies and paradigms, but also challenges to Academia worldwide. Usually developed and delivered as independent online courses, MOOCs are used for blended learning in many universities. This study analyses a corpus of 52 selected articles related to using MOOCs in higher education courses. The aim of the research is to find answers to the following questions: Which models of MOOC integration exist? Which are the research topics and trends identified in the state-of-the-art literature presenting the integration of MOOCs into blended courses? The article could be useful for teachers/instructors wanting to integrate MOOCs in their courses, but also for researchers and policy makers. Higher education institutions from around the globe are challenged with a demand of improving student learning, but also with the constant requirement of demonstrating the effectiveness of different academic programs. It has been presented in that teaching and learning cannot be reduced only to technology, but to be based on open pedagogies with key ingredients such as students' engagement, open learning environments, presence of challenges etc., constituting what is coined in literature as effective teaching. In has been demonstrated that those students who are profoundly challenged and engaged will be much more prone to reflect, then question, evaluate, and finally make connections between a spectrum of ideas. A state-of-the-art educational approach for obtaining effective teaching is that of blended learning. Such a method offers to students a combination between traditional in the class, face-to-face instruction and a plethora of outside the class activities.


The increases of human growth causes electrical energy demand's expantion while the supply decreases drastically. Energy crisis had triggeredalternative renewable energy sourcesdevelopmentto substitutethe use ofoil that had beenmain energy resources for the people. Microorganisms utilization is used to produce electrical by researchers these years as an effort to actualize the goals. The system used is microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology which utilize metabolism activity from microorganisms to produce electrical energy. Microorganismswill perform metabolism bybreaking down glucose into hydrogen (H 2 ) and oxygen (O 2 ).Hydrogen has a role as raw material that used in reduction reaction with oxygen until it releases electron in anoda as electrical flows source. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an example microorganisms that can utilize for produce electrical energy. This research aims to  find optimal concentration for glucose as a carbon source in microbial fuel cell Saccharomyces cerevisiae to form electrical energy. This research use S. cerevisiae as microorganisms and variation of glucose concentration as a carbon source. Parameters measured in this study is the voltage (mV) and current (mA). Research's result shows that glucose in 10 % (w/v) concentrate forms higher results in voltage (mV) and current (mA) compare to glucose with 20% (w/v) concentrate and in the concentrate of 30% (w/v) which values each 561,833 mV and 105,133 mA. Analysis of variance with level of confidence 95% shows glucose concentrates don't react significantly voltage but react significantly on current. Tukey HSD's test show significant different between current that was formed by glucose in the concentrate of 10% (w/v) compared to glucose in the concentrate of 20% (w/v) and 30% (w/v). Keywords : Saccharomyces cerevisiae, microbial fuel cell (MFC), glucose, electrical energy


Why do people vote for (and against) moderate rent controls? The microeconomic effects of rent controls are complex-they affect both renters and homeowners in many ways, creating a complicated pattern of winners and losers. Renters stand to gain initially from the controlled rents, but competition for scarce housing dissipates these gains. Homeowners are affected by changing housing demand patterns and shifts in property tax burdens. An econometric analysis of the 1980 Seattle, Washington rent control referendum supports the conclusion that voters recognized the microeconomic gains and losses and voted accordingly on this issue. Use of census tract data makes this public choice analysis particularly strong compared to other studies that aggregate voters at the city or county level, possibly missing important intrajurisdiction voting patterns. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.


Aim: The way caregivers experience the sexuality of older adults has implications to their identity and sexual manifestations. There are few studies that focus on the meaning of caring of older adults, taking into account their sexuality. This study aims to explore the experiences of formal caregivers (FC) towards sexuality among older adults, and to obtain a description of their experiences. Method: Complete data were available from six caregivers working in a nursing home. We used a sociodemographic questionnaire and topic interview guide. The data was subjected to content analysis. Results: The most prevalent response of the interviewed participants for 'beliefs about the interest in sexuality' was 'health limitations despite the desire', for 'observed behaviours related to sexual expression' was 'masturbation', and for 'reactions/behaviours due to the demonstration of sexual expression was 'using humour". Conclusion: Future educational and intervention programs in the institution should take into account our findings to improve their efficacy on discussing these issues and to ultimately promote sexual wellbeing.


An asymptotic lower bound on the rates of two-level binary codes with unequal error protection is presented. The bound is based on a class of codes that are constructive in the sense that the description complexity is polynomial in the codeword length. In some cases, the bound exceeds an upper bound for linear codes, proving the existence of constructive nonlinear UEP codes that are better than any linear codes.


Nonnegative CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (NCP) decomposition is an important tool to process nonnegative tensor. Sometimes, additional sparse regularization is needed to extract meaningful nonnegative and sparse components. Thus, an optimization method for NCP that can impose sparsity efficiently is required. In this paper, we construct NCP with sparse regularization (sparse NCP) by l1-norm. Several popular optimization methods in block coordinate descent framework are employed to solve the sparse NCP, all of which are deeply analyzed with mathematical solutions. We compare these methods by experiments on synthetic and real tensor data, both of which contain third-order and fourth-order cases. After comparison, the methods that have fast computation and high effectiveness to impose sparsity will be concluded. In addition, we proposed an accelerated method to compute the objective function and relative error of sparse NCP, which has significantly improved the computation of tensor decomposition especially for higher-order tensor.


The New York Fed's Survey of Primary Dealers plays a key role in the Federal Reserve's understanding of market expectations for monetary policy and the economy, providing timely and comprehensive dealer insight into a range of topics. In recent years, the survey has evolved to reflect the changing macroeconomic environment brought about by the financial crisis and by the Fed's move into new policy tools aimed at adjusting the size and composition of its balance sheet and giving more explicit forward guidance on the path of short-term interest rates. This study offers an in-depth look at the survey and discusses its structure and evolution.


Composites of palm fiber and polypropylene were compounded using a mixing device at various temperatures, mixing times, and mixing intensities. Two mixing options were utilized. Either the mixing device was mounted with a mixer or a single screw extruder. The composites were subsequently injection molded into standard tensile specimens for mechanical characterization. Tests were performed to determine the effects of processing parameters such as the mixing and molding temperatures, mixing speed, and mixing time on the mechanical performance of the palm-polypropylene composite. The optimum processing conditions for the mixer were determined to be: Mixing Speed = 50 rpm, Mixing Time = 8 min, and Processing Temperature = 200°C. Optimum extruder conditions, on the other hand, were determined as 40 rpm extruder screw speed and processing temperatures of Zone 1=195°C, Zone 2=200°C, Zone 3=205°C, and Nozzle 210°C. Use of the extruder resulted in higher composite strength with much shorter processing time. Further studies are also being conducted to include coupling agents in the processing to improve the interfacial adhesion between the palm fibers and the polypropylene matrix.


In disaster scenarios where communication networks have broken down, it is important to ensure a reliable data delivery from an emergency operations center to the local target nodes within its effective time limit. We propose a hybrid data delivery mechanism that exploits the load-carry-and-delivery by UAVs with a mixture of localized ad-hoc routing over partially connected terrestrial networks. We aim to achieve reliable on-time data delivery to the target nodes, while preserving the low routing cost. Our proposed routing methodology consists of three steps: 1) localized network construction, 2) network probing by UAVs, and 3) localized ad-hoc routing based on a dynamic depth routing tree depending on the data urgency. Here, we present an innovative cost-effective local data sharing structure called localized minimal routing tree that balances with the direct data delivery by UAVs. After the initial network setup and probing procedure, each UAV makes a series of near-optimal decisions of which grid points to visit considering its localized network topology and data urgency. Our time-dependent routing mechanism dynamically decides data recipient nodes to serve more urgent data delivery with a higher priority at a time. The simulation experiments validated our combined path planning and routing approach, achieving 71% higher reliability than the best possible performance by using only the network nodes and consuming 20% lower energy than the UAV-only approach, while maintaining high reliability. Thus, our work makes a strong case for systematically combining the two approaches.


By applying various surface treatments to the oxide gate of pentacene transistors, both in vacuum (H2, O2 and Ar plasma treatments) and in aqueous solution, we were able to vary the balance between oxygen-free radicals (Si•), oxygen-centered radicals (Si−O• and Si−O−O•), and other defect types such as silanol (Si−OH), silicon hydride (Si−H), and silicate groups (Si−O−). The consequences of these modifications on the microstructure of pentacene deposited onto the gate have been studied by contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. The changes in the transport properties of the ultrathin devices were deduced from their electrical characteristics and from independent four-probe measurements. While the wetting properties of the oxide and in turn the pentacene growth process is mainly controlled by the Si−OH/Si−O− balance, it has been evidenced that oxygen-centered radicals act as charge transfer centers and determine to a large extent the transport properties of many thin-film transistors.


The last few years have seen a great expansion in knowledge of the biochemistry of viruses. Virologists whose main concern is the diagnosis and investigation of viral disease in man often find it difficult to keep abreast of the rapid advances in the field. The first volume of Professor Fenner's book, The Biology of Animal Viruses, provides an answer to this dilemma. This volume deals with the molecular and cellular biology of viruses, and is a clear, well-balanced, and instructive account of the fundamental aspects of virology. The book starts with the controversial subject of viral classification and nomenclature, and this is followed by descriptions of the structure of the particles of various viruses based on the morphology by electronmicroscopy and on the chemical structure determined by analysis of the chemical constituents of particles. The biochemistry of the intracellular replication of the different groups of viruses is then described in detail. This is usually a difficult subject for the virologist who is not also a biochemist, but here the various biochemical events which take place inside virus-infected cells are discussed in such apparently simple terms that it is easy for the general reader to understand and follow the intricate mechanisms involved. An account is also given of the effects of viruses on the host cells from the destructive effect of cytocidal viruses like poliovirus to the transformation of normal cells into malignant cells by tumour viruses such as polyoma virus. Knowledge of the structure and function of animal cells is essential to the understanding of animal virology, and this subject is fully and clearly discussed, together with other important aspects of virology, such as the interaction of virus with antibody and the production and mechanism of action of interferon. Professor Fenner is, of course, well known for his studies on viral genetics, and this section of the book is particularly stimulating. Recombination and complementation between animal viruses have important implications for medical virology-for example, the genetic material of one virus may be contained in the protein coat (which determines antigenic specificity) of another virus-and medical virologists will find the descriptions of these phenomena of great interest. The photographs, diagrams, and tables are well chosen, and include line drawings of the processes involved in the infection of cells by different viruses which provide simple and useful summaries of these events. This book gives an up-to-date account of the molecular biology of viruses clearly and in considerable but never overwhelming detail. The only serious criticism of it is that the exceptionally high price (£8 12s. 6d. per volume) makes it likely that most virologists will have to be content to borrow it from a library. It is a real pity that the publishers could not have put this useful textbook on the market at a more reasonable price.


Prevention is better than cure, it is said, but is it more efficient? In the quest for improvements in health and life expectancy, and reductions in the growth of health care costs, attention has focused on the cost-effectiveness of preventive over curative medicine. Economics adds an essential dimension to the analysis of prevention policy that extends far beyond the study of comparative costs. The aim of this book is to give, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the economics of prevention. It examines the scope of economics; the impact of the economy on avoidable ill-health, and of prevention on the economy; the economic rationale for provision of preventive services and regulation of hazardous activities; the cost-benefit approach and the nature of efficiency in prevention; the practice of economic appraisal; economic influences on the demand for hazardous commodities and screening services; theories of preventive behaviour; national prevention programme budgeting and priority setting; and the potential contribution of health economics.


Tobacco, alcohol, and betel quid are the main causes of squamous cell cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. These substances can cause multifocal carcinogenesis leading to multiple synchronous or metachronous cancers of the oesophagus, head and neck region, and lungs ('field cancerisation'). Globally there are several million people who have survived either head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) or lung cancer (LC). HNSCC and LC survivors are at increased risk of developing second primary malignancies, including second primary cancers of the oesophagus. The risk of second primary oesophageal squamous cell cancer (OSCC) ranges from 8-30% in HNSCC patients. LC and HNSCC survivors should be offered endoscopic surveillance of the oesophagus. Lugol chromoendoscopy is the traditional and best evaluated screening method to detect early squamous cell neoplasias of the oesophagus. More recently, narrow band imaging combined with magnifying endoscopy has been established as an alternative screening method in Asia. Low-dose chest computed tomography (CT) is the best evidencebased screening technique to detect (second primary) LC and to reduce LC-related mortality. Low-dose chest CT screening is therefore recommended in OSCC, HNSCC, and LC survivors. In addition, OSCC survivors should undergo periodic pharyngolaryngoscopy for early detection of second primary HNSCC. Secondary prevention aims at quitting smoking, betel quid chewing, and alcohol consumption. As field cancerisation involves the oesophagus, the bronchi, and the head and neck region, the patients at risk are best surveilled and managed by an interdisciplinary team.


A novel organic-inorganic nanocomposite NF membrane containing SiO2 were prepared by interfacial polymerization on polysulfone (PSF) ultrafiltration membrane with poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) as monomers. The membranes were investigated by Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microcopy(FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Detector(EDX), then the separation performance of salt solution was investigated. The results indicated that the nanoparticles were well-distributed in the membranes. The addition of SiO2 in the skin layer increased thermal stability and improved roughness and hydrophility of membrane. The pure flux for PA-SiO2 increased than neat PA membrane while the rejection rate of Na2SO4 salt solution was lower than the latter.


Amyloid beta (Aβ) deposits are implicated in the pathogenesis of debilitating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. In the present study, the interactions of carbon-based nanoparticles (NPs) such as fullerene and fullerenol having different surface chemistry with Aβ were investigated using molecular dynamics simulations and docking studies. A detailed analysis of docking results showed that in 68% of the Aβ conformations, fullerene and fullerenol showed interactions with the N-terminal region of the peptide. However, the high-affinity binding site (E=−48.31 kJ/mol) of fullerene resides in the hydrophobic middle region of the peptide, whereas fullerenol interacts favorably with the charged N-terminal region with a binding energy of −50.42 kJ/mol. The above differences in binding could be attributed to the surface chemistry of fullerene and fullerenol. Moreover, the N-terminal and middle regions of Aβ play an important role in Aβ aggregation. Therefore, the binding of fullerene and fullerenol could inhibit amyloid aggregation. This information will be helpful in designing NPs for targeting amyloid-related disorders.


Heavy metals that have been associated only with chemists have now become a concern of environmentalist also. They impact the ecosystems when released into water bodies or soil by various human activities resulting in the environmental pollution. High concentration of Cr (VI) is harmful to animal and human health. The hexavalent chromium exists in aquatic media as water soluble complex anions and persist. These are concentrated in industrial waste water especially from the tannery industries and release of effluents from industries adversely affects the environment. The removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions is carried out by different physical, chemical and biological methods. Now a days, use of plants waste products such as: barks, manures or lignocellulosic materials, for the removal of heavy metals from polluted water are becoming of more concern. In the present study, low-cost and easily available material such as plant barks for the removal of chromium VI from its aqueous solution was investigated. Bark powders of plants namely, Pongamia glabra, Tamarindus indicus, Tesphesia populnea, and Mangifera indica obtained from nearby saw mills, were used as adsorbent for the removal of Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions in excess of maximum permissible limits. Adsorption for chromium (VI) was found to be highly dose dependent compared to the other parameters observed with almost 100 % efficiency at pH 2, contact time of 2h at room temperature with 3 g l-1 bark dosage. The adsorption capacities of all the plant barks for chromium (VI) was found to be comparable to other commercial adsorbents currently employed for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous wastes. The results have demonstrated the immense potential of plants bark powder as an alternative adsorbent for removal of Cr(VI) ions from polluted water.


One of the most significant causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality is represented by neonatal sepsis that often manifests itself as a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). The progression of SIRS usually leads to multiple organ dysfunction, occasionally culminating in multiple organ failure (MOF). The loss of endothelial barrier represents the unifying lesion of multiple organs in newborns affected by sepsis and the most important pathological change responsible for the evolution toward MOF in neonates. The aim of this study is to present the most important pathological changes occurring in neonatal sepsis. Proceedings of the International Course on Perinatal Pathology (part of the 10 th International Workshop on Neonatology · October 22 nd -25 th , 2014) · Cagliari (Italy) · October 25 th , 2014 ·  The role of the clinical pathological dialogue in problem solving Guest Editors: Gavino Faa, Vassilios Fanos, Peter Van Eyken


We describe a new type of barbiturate-based matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor incorporating a nitric oxide (NO) donor/mimetic group (series 1). The compounds were designed to inhibit MMP at enzyme level and to attenuate MMP-9 secretion arising from inflammatory signaling. To detect effects related to the nitrate, we prepared and studied an analogous series of barbiturate C5-alkyl alcohols that were unable to release NO (series 2). Both series inhibited recombinant human MMP-2/9 activity with nanomolar potency. Series 1 consistently inhibited the secretion of MMP-9 from TNFα/IL1β stimulated Caco-2 cells at 10 μM, which could be attributed to NO related effects because the non-nitrate panel did not affect enzyme levels. Several compounds from series 1 (10 μM) inhibited tumor cell invasion but none from the non-nitrate panel did. The work shows that MMP-inhibitory barbiturates are suitable scaffolds for hybrid design, targeting additional facets of MMP pathophysiology, with potential to improve risk-benefit ratios.


Bilingualism, or the knowledge of more than one language, is quite prevalent throughout the world. However, much of the cognitive literature that exists on language processing and memory retrieval has included participants who are monolingual speakers. The current chapter introduces the ways in which bilingualism has been investigated in the areas of autobiographical memory, memory recall, and communication in applied settings. The notion of code-switching or language-mixing is introduced as a strategic means through which bilingual memory may be fruitfully investigated. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol4/iss2/1


FPGA (field programmable gate array) based reconfigurable processor has been shown to meet the increasingly challenging performance targets and shorter time-to-market pressures. In this paper, we propose a method to rapidly estimate the FPGA area costs of custom instructions without the need for hardware synthesis. The proposed estimation technique relies on a novel approach to partition the custom instruction data-paths into a set of clusters, where each cluster can be realized using an FPGA logic element or a coarse-grained arithmetic unit. Experiments based on 20 custom instructions reveal that the estimation results show an average of only 8% increase in the area costs when compared with the corresponding hardware synthesized results. In addition, we show that the maximum FPGA area utilized by custom instructions of each of the seven applications examined is equivalent to about 1000 Xilinx FPGA logic elements.


Abstract : The resolution analysis of generalized Radon Transform (GRT) inversion of seismic data is carried out in general anisotropic media. The GRT inversion formula is derived from the ray-Born approximation of the wave field for volume scatterers. However, by considering scattering surfaces in the resolution analysis, rather than parameter perturbations, we show that the inversion provides a reflectivity map and reflection/transmission coefficients as functions of scattering angles and azimuths. Those coefficients can be subjected to any type of Amplitude Versus Angle (AVA) or Amplitude Versus Offset (AVO) analysis. By applying the inversion to Kirchhoff approximate data rather than Born approximate data, we show that the output is actually linear in the reflection coefficients and, hence, a nonlinear function of the change in medium parameters across discontinuity surfaces -- the reflectors of the medium.


Web usage mining has traditionally focused on the individual queries or query words leading to a web site or web page visit, mining patterns in such data. In our work, we aim to characterize websites in terms of the semantics of the queries that lead to them by linking queries to large knowledge bases on the Web. We demonstrate how to exploit such links for more effective pattern mining on query log data. We also show how such patterns can be used to qualitatively describe the differences between competing websites in the same domain and to quantitatively predict website abandonment.


There is a great supply of leafy vegetables on the market; hence capturing consumer's attention (and decision) is critically important. Several scientific publications deal with consumer choices and the newest technology to capture consumer attention is eye-tracking. Eye-trackers are commonly used in Western Europe and Asia also, where it is an important and widely-used tool during product developments and the creation of marketing strategies. In Hungary, there are only a few publications about eye-tracking applications in vegetable growing and food industry. In our research, photographs about sorrel, lamb lettuce, spinach, leaf lettuce and dandelion leafs were analysed by eye-tracking technology and the eye movements of the participants during their decision making process of leafy vegetables were captured and evaluated. The eye-tracking analyses were carried out in the Sensory Laboratory of the Faculty of Food Sciences of Szent István University, using a Tobii X2-60 eye-tracker and Tobii Studio (version 3.0.5, Tobii Technology AB, Sweden) software. We aimed to answer the following research questions: Are there any connections between the eye movements of participants and their decisions? What amount of visual attention can be registered during the decision making process? Furthermore, the following metrics were measured and evaluated: fixation durations on the leafy vegetables, number of returns to products, pathways of visual attention, time until the final decision making and motivation of their final decisions. Measurement of the subconscious consumer decision making processes is way easier using eye-trackers compared to the traditional questionnaire-based methods, because it is hard or impossible to control our eye movements. Eye-tracking can be used successfully for understanding the expectations and decisions of the consumers.


Inactivation curves of Listeria monocytogenes by high pressure were obtained at three pressure levels (400, 500 and 600 MPa) and three temperature levels (27, 43 and 60C) in ultra-high temperature (UHT) whole milk. The milk samples after treatment were plated on both nonselective and selective media to determine the log reduction value and to obtain the inactivation curve. The inactivation curves were fitted to the widely used two-parameter Weibull model with parameters α (characteristic time) and β (shape factor) and a reduced one-parameter Weibull model where the α value with the correct physical interpretation was predetermined. The log reduction value at the characteristic time from the regressed two-parameter Weibull model and the experimental data must both be 0.434; however, in the literature, there is evidence that the regressed model and the experimental values do not match always. Accordingly, this study focuses on the two-parameter and one-parameter Weibull models to bring out this inconsistency. Although there was loss in goodness of fit by adapting the one-parameter model, yet the model represented the correct physical interpretation of parameter α. Development of such mathematically consistent models may help industry to design, develop and optimize safe processing conditions that are based on reliable model parameters.

Practical Application

In previous studies, inactivation curves of microorganisms have been modeled using the widely used two-parameter Weibull model. However, it was not verified or investigated whether the parameters obtained by nonlinear regression represent the correct experimental value, especially the scale factor/characteristic time. The log reduction value obtained at a treatment time equals 5 to the regressed scale characteristic time should be 1/0.434 depending on the form of Weibull model used. However, in the literature, there is evidence that the regressed model and the experimental values do not match always. In this study, it was shown that predetermining the scale factor/characteristic time from the experimental data addresses this self-consistency issue. Development of such mathematically consistent models would help industry to design reliable and optimum safe processing conditions.


In the present paper, we get exact solutions of Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) of the fractionalized three-dimensional flow of Newtonian fluid with porous and heat transfer through the traveling wave parameter. The governing equations are produced dependent on established Navier-stokes equations which can be diminished to ordinary differential equation by wave parameter ξ=ax+by+nz+Utα/Γ(α+1). The new exact solutions are established for three various cases. In special cases the solution for Newtonian fluid with and without MHD and porous effects can also be found from the general solution by putting M+Φ→0 and solutions for simple Newtonian fluid can also be obtained by putting α→1 in general solutions. Finally, the effect of the parameter of interest on the stream motion, as well as difference among the Newtonian fluids is examined by 2D and 3D graphical interpretations.


PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) might change the communication profession immensely, but the academic discourse is lacking an investigation of the perspective of practitioners on this. This article addresses this research gap. It offers a literature overview and reports about an empirical study on AI in communications, presenting first insights on how professionals in the field assess the technology.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative cross-national study among 2,689 European communication practitioners investigated four research questions: RQ1 – How much do professionals know about AI and to what extent are they already using AI technologies in their everyday lives? RQ2 – How do professionals rate the impact of AI on communication management? RQ3 – Which challenges do professionals identify for implementing AI in communication management? RQ4 – Which risks do they perceive?FindingsCommunication professionals revealed a limited understanding of AI and expected the technology to impact the profession as a whole more than the way their organisations or themselves work. Lack of individual competencies and organisations struggling with different levels of competency and unclear responsibilities were identified as key challenges and risks.Research limitations/implicationsThe results highlight the need for communication managers to educate themselves and their teams about the technology and to identify the implementation of AI as a leadership issue.Originality/valueThe article offers the first cross-national quantitative study on AI in communication management. It presents valuable empirical insights on a trending topic in the discipline, highly relevant for both academics and practitioners.


PURPOSE Initial experimental results of contrast-enhanced pulmonary MR angiography using the new superparamagnetic iron oxide blood pool agent FeO-BPA. METHOD Pulmonary MRA was performed in 7 domestic pigs using a cardiac-triggered coronal T1-weighted FFE-Sequence before and up to 90 minutes after contrast injection obtained on a 1.5 T magnet with a standard gradient equipment. A dose of 4 mg Fe/kg bodyweight was used for MRA. The images were qualitatively assessed and compared with X-ray i.v.-DSA. RESULTS The injection of FeO-BPA allows the acquisition of unsaturated in-plane images of the pulmonary vascular tree down to the first order subsegmental branches including vessel diameters of approximately 1.5 mm. In the normal non-occluded vasculature, no signal void is seen in the TE range of 2.8-5.5 ms secondary to exceeding susceptibility effects which are caused by the iron oxide accumulation. Even 90 minutes after injection of FeO-BPA, assessment of the pulmonary vasculature is still satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS In the animal experiment, the use of the blood pool agent FeO-BPA provides detailed pulmonary angiograms even on a magnet with a conventional gradient system. The major advantage is the comfortable diagnostic window of > 1.5 hours which also portends its utility for future MR-guided pulmonary interventions.


"An Order to Society: Soeur Ste. Reine and the New Orleans Ursulines as Agents of Empire, 1727-1779" addresses the Ursuline Sisters of New Orleans as participants in an international, multiethnic system. All of these men and women helped to create a society and morality for colonial Louisiana and its capital city. Catherine Mauricette de Kerogon de l'Etang, Soeur Ste. Reine provides insight into the secular, temporal implications of her Sisters' ministry in New Orleans. After her return to a convent in Normandy, Kerogon wrote a series of letters to the French Court, asking for monetary compensation and defining herself as an agent of empire. Through their service to the various Atlantic populations of New Orleans, especially women and young girls, each of the Ursulines of New Orleans – French, Spanish, and Creole in origin – took part in the construction of a Eurocentric society in their New World home. "A Place Where 'You Can Live Freedom': The Landscape of the Highlander Folk School, 1932-1962" is an environmental history of the Highlander Folk School, a training site for labor and civil rights activists. Myles Horton, founder of Highlander, and his staff and students all contributed to the physical, built, and symbolic landscapes of the Folk School. Located on "Monteagle Mountain," on the Cumberland Plateau of middle Tennessee, the Highlander Folk School welcomed generations of leaders, workers, and activists to a small farm outfitted with simple structures and furnishings. There, inspired by a common ideology of potential, they discussed the movements they led, practiced radical adult education, planned for the future of the South, and created a model of integrated, egalitarian, communal living – a model that students could experience in situ and then carry home, to their own communities throughout the region. Each layer of the environment – physical, built, and symbolic – influenced the realization of Highlander's ideology of potential and affected the growth of the labor and civil rights movements of the twentieth century South.


ABSTRACT
 To attract highly qualified remote workers to their cities and countries, governments have implemented mechanisms for the stay of digital nomads, thereby promoting local economic development. To manage the entry and stay of this professional class in these regions, future residents are required to obtain special visas for digital nomads. However, the guidelines and regulations for these visas are not clearly established, and the policy frameworks that apply have not been studied extensively. Thus, this paper explores how countries develop policies to attract digital nomads, support business development and position themselves as ideal territories for these knowledge workers. The study uses an interpretative policy analysis approach to examine and comprehend the purpose behind leisure policies and digital nomad visa systems from 24 countries that have introduced them over the past decade. Findings reveal that digital nomadic visas are framed as an engagement experience with the destination and its leisure facilities. Also, facilitating these policies are government strategies to promote a business environment and strengthen a high-level entrepreneurial ecosystem. The primary research contribution has been to outline the relevant policy mechanisms that support the attraction of highly skilled mobile workers to a specific area or region and debate their intended efficiency.


Elementary teachers educating both students with and without disabilities require access to effective, easily implemented classroom management techniques to address challenging behaviors. One such intervention is a contingency contract. A review of literature suggests that contracts are implemented for students experiencing challenges with academic and social behaviors both with and without formally diagnosed disabilities in general and special education settings. However, there was little consideration of the social significance of behaviors, and contract goals were not often set according to behaviors of comparison peers. The purpose of the current study examined the effects of contingency contracts on engagement for three students in an elementary general education classroom for three participants exhibiting high rates of disengaged behavior during instruction. Contingency contracts were written with consideration of social significance and function of behavior, preference surveys, observation of comparison peers to set goals, and reinforcement for desired behaviors. Using an ABAB withdrawal design, duration of engagement and frequency of instances of engagement were both recorded. Experimental effects were observed when participants' duration of engagement increased and frequency of engagements decreased while under contract. The results suggest that contingency contracts can successfully be implemented to increase a desired behavior (engagement) with students in the general education classroom. Implications and future research directions immediately follow a discussion of the results.


Conversion of solar energy to storable chemical energy has received considerable interest in the past decade due to the limited availability of fossil fuels and concerns on environmental sustainability. One of the important processes involved in producing alternative fuels by utilizing solar energy is solar water splitting. One of the challenges in solar water splitting is to identify a semiconductor material that is capable to absorb major portion of the solar spectrum and possesses proper band edge potentials to simultaneously oxidize and reduce water. An alternative approach to the direct solar water splitting is photoelectrochemical solar water splitting, which physically separates the photoanode from photocathode for water oxidation and reduction, respectively, allowing each electrode to be independently optimized.

In this work, a composite photoanode consisting of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles embedded into ZnO nanowire arrays is fabricated for photoelectrochemical solar water splitting. The composite photoanode takes advantage of both the high photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles and the fast electron transport enabled by single crystalline ZnO nanowires. Ag3PO4 nanoparticles are able to harness visible light and possess higher photoactivity than most known semiconductors including BiVO4 and WO3 under visible light irradiation, thanks to the band structure of Ag3PO4 and the high internal surface area of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles. However, the efficiency of the photoanode made of Ag3PO4 nanoparticle films is limited by the slow electron transport between the disorderly packed Ag3PO4 nanoparticles and only very thin films of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles may be used. We have found that embedding the Ag3PO4 nanoparticles into ordered ZnO nanowire arrays may allow much thicker films of Ag3PO4 nanoparticles to be used and the photocurrent may be improved by up to six times compared to planar Ag3PO4/ZnO films, primarily due to the improved charge transportation enabled by the vertically ordered single crystalline ZnO nanowire arrays. Our result indicates that Ag3PO4 nanoparticles-embedded ZnO nanowire array is a promising composite photoanode for solar water splitting.


Architectural design is often mediated on two-dimensional representation systems and envisioned three-dimensionally in the pictorial space. The developments of advanced digital technologies have enabled us to create the pictorial representations of un-built design projects that can appear as real as photographs. The visually appealing pictures produced by photorealistic rendering tools are useful for visualizing the form and the spatial layout of the proposed architectural design; but they may be inadequate and misleading for simulating the perceptual qualities of space. This paper draws from the recent developments in computer graphics (physically based renderings and perceptually based tone mapping techniques) and proposes a computational framework to faithfully represent and simulate pictorial spaces. Guidelines are provided for generating images with appropriate representation and simulation techniques so that architects can make informed design decisions about the perceptual qualities of their designs and researchers can study depth perception in computer environments.


The Forming Limit Diagrams (FLDs) of textured polycrystalline sheet metals were investigated using micro-macro averaging and two types of grain-interaction models: Full-Constraint (FC) and Self-consistent (SC) schemes, in conjunction with the Marciniak–Kuczynski (MK) approach. By referring to previous FLD studies based on the FC-Taylor model ─ Wu and coworkers [Effect of an initial cube texture on sheet metal formability, Materials Science and Engineering A, 364:182–7, 2004] and Inal and coworkers [Forming Limit comparison for FCC and BCC sheets, International Journal of Plasticity, 21:1255-1266, 2005] ─ we found that the MK-FC strategy leads to unrealistic results. In the former case, the researchers found that an increasing spread about the cube texture produces unexpectedly high limit strains. In the latter work, Inal et al. predicted a remarkably low forming-limit curve for a FCC material and an extremely high forming-limit curve for a BCC material, in the biaxial-stretching range. Our investigations show that simulations performed with the MK-VPSC approach successfully predict more reliable results. For the BCC structure, the MK-VPSC predictions do not give the extreme values predicted when calculations are carried out with the MK-FC approach. In the FCC case, with decreasing textural intensity ─ from the ideal cube texture, through dispersions around the cube texture with increasing cut-off angles, to a random texture ─ a smooth transition in increasing limit strains was obtained. Furthermore, these results suggest that the selected constitutive model is critical for predicting the behavior of materials that exhibit a qualitative change in crystallographic texture, and hence, evolve anisotropically during mechanical deformation.


OBJECTIVE
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery as a primary treatment for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is still debated. This study aimed to evaluate the predictors of long-term mortality in STEMI patients undergoing emergent CABG. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the long-term mortality predictors in patients with STEMI revascularized by primary CABG.

METHODS
This retrospective study included 88 consecutive patients with STEMI, who did not qualify for primary percutaneous intervention and required emergent CABG between 2010 and 2017. The study population was divided into the following 2 groups: survivors and nonsurvivors. The 2 groups were compared in terms of demographics, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative characteristics.

RESULTS
23 of the 88 patients, died during the median 92.8 (69.0-105.1) months of follow-up. Data were evaluated with univariate and multivariate analyses. Killip class (p<0.001) was found to be an independent predictor of long-term all-cause mortality in patients with STEMI revascularized by CABG, and mortality rates increased significantly as Killip class increased (log-rank test, p<0.001). Moreover, age (p=0.044) was found to be an independent predictor of long-term mortality. Left ventricular ejection fraction, glomerular filtration rate, glucose levels, and left anterior descending artery to the left internal mammary artery graft usage (p=0.001, p=0.009, p<0.001, and p=0.039, respectively) were significantly associated with long-term all-cause mortality for our study population.

CONCLUSION
Killip class was found to be an independent predictor of long-term all-cause mortality in patients with STEMI who underwent emergent CABG. The patients' admission status may give valuable information about long-term mortality.


The statistical methods based on the classical Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) approach are at heart of essentially all descriptions of multiparticle production processes. In many cases, however, one observes some deviations from the expected behaviour. It is also known that conditions necessary for the BG statistics to apply are usually satisfied only approximately. Two attitudes are possible in such situations: either to abandon statistical approach trying some other model or to generalise it to the so called nonextensive statistics (widely used in the similar circumstances in many other branches of physics). We shall provide here an overview of possible imprints of non-extensitivity existing both in high energy cosmic ray physics and in multiparticle production processes in hadronic collisions, in particular in heavy ion collisions.


The aim of the present study was to examine genetic variability in populations of An. cruzii by employing PCR-RAPD and PCR-RFLP markers. All analyses were carried out using individuals of the F1 generation of wild caught females obtained in Santa Catarina State (Florianopolis and Sao Francisco do Sul), Parana State (Morretes, Paranagua and Guaratuba) and Sao Paulo State (Cananeia). In the PCR-RAPD experiments, seven primers were used for comparisons within and among populations. The restriction profile of the ITS2 including a fragment of both 5.8S and 28S regions of the rDNA was obtained with the enzymes BstUI, HaeIII, TaqI, HhaI, Sau96I, HinfI, HincII and NruI. The PCR-RAPD method detected a large number of polymorphic bands. Genetic distance among populations of An. cruzii varied from 0,0214 to 0,0673, suggesting that all individuals used in the analyses belong to a single species. The number of migrants per generation (Nm) was 4.3, showing the existence of gene flow among populations. The restriction profile of the ITS2, 5.8S and 28S gene regions was similar in all An. cruzii samples, whereas the results obtained by using HhaI and NruI are indicative that the individuals analyzed have nucleotide sequences distinct from those of An. cruzii samples from Peruibe and Juquiazinho deposited in GenBank.


The aim of the paper is to better understand how various social and policy issues constrain the adoption of innovations among dairy farmers and presents the observations of the relationship between the adoption of green fodder feeding to dairy cattle and marketing of milk in Puducherry. Though there are some isolated successes of promoting fodder entrepreneurs by the development departments in Puducherry, these approaches could not be sustained due to lack of complementary or supportive institutional arrangements. Adoption of an innovation (fodder transaction) is more constrained by social, economic and policy issues, which include transportation of fodder, relations between the fodder growers, buyers, secretary, Milk Cooperative Society, leaders of Women Self Help Groups, government policy on milk pricing, urbanization and, industrialization, rather than technological issues. The insights offered in this paper could be useful in the design of policies to address complex economic and social issues associated with fodder usage by the dairy farmers in general and landless dairy farmers in particular.


CONTEXT
Proper diagnosis and therapy of fibrinogen deficiency requires high-quality fibrinogen assays.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the interlaboratory bias, precision, and grading of fibrinogen assays used by laboratories participating in the United States College of American Pathologists proficiency testing program in coagulation.

DESIGN
Two identical vials of normal plasma were sent to more than 3500 laboratories. Participants measured fibrinogen levels using local methods.

RESULTS
Fifty different fibrinogen methods were evaluated. All-method bias was 8.3% (range of method-specific biases, 0.0%-27.0%) and all-method coefficient of variation was 7.7% (range of method-specific coefficients of variation, 0.7%-25.8%). After controlling for reagent/instrument type, mean fibrinogen levels were 11.6% higher for prothrombin time-based reagents compared to Clauss (P < .001), and coefficient of variation was 46% lower for mechanical endpoint instruments compared to photo-optical. Most testing events (97.4%) could be reliably graded as pass or fail using a target range of ±20% from the method mean (total pass rate, 98.8%). Total fail rate was 3.0-fold lower for mechanical instruments compared to photo-optical (0.5% versus 1.5%, P  =  .001). Nonetheless many photo-optical methods had very high precision and very low fail rates.

CONCLUSIONS
Fibrinogen assays showed highly variable methodology and performance characteristics. Bias, precision, and grading were affected by the type of reagent or instrument used.


Abstract Woolly mammoths were among the most abundant cold-adapted species during the Pleistocene. Their once-large populations went extinct in two waves, an end-Pleistocene extinction of continental populations followed by the mid-Holocene extinction of relict populations on St. Paul Island ∼5,600 years ago and Wrangel Island ∼4,000 years ago. Wrangel Island mammoths experienced an episode of rapid demographic decline coincident with their isolation, leading to a small population, reduced genetic diversity, and the fixation of putatively deleterious alleles, but the functional consequences of these processes are unclear. Here, we show that a Wrangel Island mammoth genome had many putative deleterious mutations that are predicted to cause diverse behavioral and developmental defects. Resurrection and functional characterization of several genes from the Wrangel Island mammoth carrying putatively deleterious substitutions identified both loss and gain of function mutations in genes associated with developmental defects (HYLS1), oligozoospermia and reduced male fertility (NKD1), diabetes (NEUROG3), and the ability to detect floral scents (OR5A1). These data suggest that at least one Wrangel Island mammoth may have suffered adverse consequences from reduced population size and isolation.


When philosophers take an interest in nonphilosophy (religion, art, politics), it is presupposed that philosophy does not stand apart from and to the side of that which is other to it, that philosophical problems are best approached from points both inside and outside their own formal parameters. Once subjected to an extra-philosophical competence, philosophical judgment is as good as the most current scholarship guiding it. The claim in this essay-that rabbinic Judaism provides a platform from which to explore spatial motility, religious iconicity, and non-realist, plastic expression-is itself only a recent scholarly possibility with which to stretch philosophy. Our attention goes in particular to holy space, though not for any religious reason per se. God will make no appearance, nor will any of God's surrogates in recent postmodern theology (event, gift, the face of the Other). Without recourse to any point of absolute transcendence, holiness will be understood as the phenomenal space opened out by special rules negotiating the difference between inside/outside, pure/ impure. These rules define a Temple-system, which after the destruction of its physical site by the Romans in 70 CE retains its status as a pseudo-place in rabbinic memory and imagination. Talmud brings to philosophical phenomenology and to the phenomenology of religion an "architecture" based on bent space and movement, an embodied presence in a world that is no longer present at hand. The cliche regarding Judaism in contemporary theoretical circles (from Adorno through Lyotard and Derrida to Zizek and Badiou) assumes that "the law" is hostile to plastic representation and to all representation tout court. The Judaism upon which this cliche rests is not without Jewish support, just as Kant construed his anti-Judaism on the good authority of Spinoza and Mendelssohn. As observed by Kalman Bland in The Artless Jew, the notion that Judaism is aniconic was a conceit, embraced warmly by Jewish thinkers imbued with the intellectual elan of German Idealism. One finds it expressed by the eminent historian Heinrich Graetz in the nineteenth century and by the Marburg neo-Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen at the start of the twentieth. The counter-image of Judaic law that I will offer in this essay belongs more to plastic art and to late twentieth century scholar-theorists at work in pre-modern Jewish source material.1 It draws on Leviticus and ritual more than prophecy and revelation. Fixed upon bodies that are at once concrete and imaginai, this analysis runs alongside Merleau-Ponty and the phenomenology of perception. My aim is to pull Jewish philosophy and the philosophy of religion away from Levinasian Judaism and the new apophatic theology, to tug them back into the platonic cave, what Baudrillard called "the seductions of space."2 The difference between Jewish and Christian iconicity lie in form as well as in content. Christian icons are luminous, self-centered shapes. For Jean-Luc Marion, they comprise a physical presence "saturated" by an infinite meaning that is surplus to it. Viewed more prosaically, the Christian icon is a physical copy of a copy of a copy. Icons of Jesus, Mary, and the saints proliferate. There is no one single original image, apart from the Son, i.e., the image of the Father. In contrast, Judaism suggests a model of iconicity without icons. By this I mean the organization of being around a specialized, spatial configuration with no visible image, object, or person position at its center. Pre-ceding the figure of Jesus Christ, the Tabernacle and the first and second Temple (first qua physical site, then qua image) constitute this configuration in classical Judaism. Not the figure of God, not the image of God, not God as an "object of worship," it is rather the architectural frame, a three-dimensional "place of worship," that constitutes the icon which first draws the eye.3 The Order of Holy Things in Mishna and Talmud provides one such example. …


Approximately 25% of US children are either immigrants or children of immigrants and are pursuing postsecondary education in large numbers. Haitian Americans are underrepresented within the literature. Nicholas, Stepick, and Dutton-Stepick (2008) looked at the subgroup of Haitian American students pursuing postsecondary education; they concluded that Haitian American students pursued postsecondary education because of cultural obligation. However, the term cultural obligation is wide-ranging. Instead of assuming cultural obligation, this research examines the specific aspect of low-wage parental occupation as an alternative explanation for Haitian American students' pursuit of postsecondary education. The principal question for this research was the following: Do immigrant parents' low-wage occupations serve as a motivator for Haitian American students to pursue postsecondary education? Data were collected through qualitative methods; participants were recruited through a convenient sampling strategy, and in-depth interviews were conducted with six Haitian American postsecondary students. Participants had to meet specific criteria: be Haitian American students, be currently attending a postsecondary institution, and have parents who held low wage immigrant occupations. The results showed that the majority of participants' reasons for pursuing postsecondary education included self-efficacy, negative perceptions of parents' low wage occupation, parental support, and family honor.


Alcohol soluble fullerene derivative (FN-C60) has been synthesized and used as a cathode interfacial layer for high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs). To examine the function of the FN-C60 interfacial layer, polymer solar cells were fabricated with blends of P3:PC71BM, HXS-1:PC71BM, PDFCDTBT:PC71BM, and PDPQTBT:PC71BM as the active layer. In comparison to the bare Al electrode, power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of P3:PC71BM, HXS-1:PC71BM, PDFCDTBT:PC71BM, and PDPQTBT:PC71BM based PSCs were increased from 3.50 to 4.64%, 4.69 to 5.25%, 2.70 to 4.60%, and 1.52 to 2.29%, respectively, when FN-C60/Al was used as the electrode. Moreover, the overall photovoltaic performances of PSCs with the FN-C60/Al electrode were better than those of cells with LiF/Al electrode, indicating that FN-C60 is a potential interfacial layer material to replace LiF.


Genetic element Φ1207.3 (formerly Tn1207.3) is a prophage of Streptococcus pyogenes which carries the macrolide efflux resistance genes mef(A)/msr(D) and is capable of conjugal transfer among streptococci. Complete nucleotide sequence showed that Φ1207.3 is 52,491 bp in length and contained 58 open reading frames (ORFs). A manual homology-based annotation with functional prediction of the hypothetical gene product was possible only for 34 out of 58 ORFs. Φ1207.3 codes for two different C-methylation systems, several phage structural genes, a lysis cassette (composed by a holin and a peptidoglycan hydrolase), and three site-specific resolvases of the serine recombinase family.


ABSTRACT:The Swedish writer Sara Lidman (1923–2004) wrote her second African novel, Med fem diamanter [With Five Diamonds], which is the topic of this article, during a prolonged sojourn in Kenya (1962–63) where she first lived in Kisumu, in the Nyanza province, near Lake Victoria, before moving to Njeri in Gikuyuland. She was accompanied by Wambui Njonjo, the country's first school inspector. The Njonjo family was close to the Kenyattas. The title of the essay, "Love and Diamonds at a Risk," alludes to the postcolonial threshold dilemma of Kenyans being both perpetrators and victims of their own fate, freed from the colonial bonds but reintroduced to economic forms of Western dependence. I examine her allegorical chronicling of Kenya (1958–63) and the symbolic killing of Thiongo, a homosexual, by his brother Wachira, the "boy" pining in the servitude of both Gĩkũyũ patriarchy and the greed of Western capitalism. I demonstrate how "stealing"—both as an act of aggression and one of liberation—is manifested in cultural and linguistic artifacts, in the textures of women's kangas, in a Luo legend, and in a Christian mission. As a postcolonial writer Lidman is unique for her time in transliterating and contextualizing (not translating) Gĩkũyũ and Kiswahili words, proverbs, and stories. Finally, I examine how "love" or the idealization of "love," heterosexual and homosexual, deteriorates under the pressure of "thieving." In Lidman's ideal world androgynity is central. Med fem diamanter is a Kenyan novel written in Swedish.


Introduction and Objectives: A prospective randomized control study was conducted to compare the manual small incision cataract surgery with phacoemulsification in hospital with objectives to study main out come measures uncorrected visual acuity on post operative day 1, best corrected visual acuity post operative day 6 weeks and study secondary outcome in terms of complication rates, effect of ocular and systemic co –morbidity on visual acuity out comes and operative time taken. Materials and Methods: 100 patients with age related cataract were randomly assigned Phacoemulsification and SICS groups [group A (n=50) and group B (n=50) respectively] with written informed consent and ethical clearance. Results: There was no significant difference between techniques regarding uncorrected visual acuity on post operative day 1 and best corrected visual acuity on post operative day 6 weeks. However visual acuity on post operative day 1 showed suggestive significance of "p" value 0.064 between the two groups. Greater proportion of patients had good outcomes in both the groups as regards to final visual acuity at the end of 6 weeks showing "p" value 0.310 with Fisher Exact test. Both comorbidities showed no difference in term of events. Mean surgical time was in group. A 15.97 +/-2.02 and in group B 8.40 +/- 1.34 showing a significant "p" value of less than 0.001 using student t test. Conclusion: Manual small incision cataract surgery is similar to phacoemulsification as regards to intra and post operative outcomes, decreased complication rates final visual acuity with minimal effect of co existing comorbidities on events.


Abstract Most of the adjectival verbs in the Kathmandu and Dolakha dialects of Newar exhibit idiosyncratic phonotactic shapes, including rare disyllabic stems and heavy and nasalized rhymes. The same set of adjectival verbs exhibits irregular inflectional patterns in the derivation of lexical adjectives in Kathmandu Newar. Comparison of the modern forms of both varieties and Classical Newar suggests that we reconstruct a class of monosyllabic adjectives for Proto-Newar. In Classical and Kathmandu Newar, these adjectives received an /u/ augment; verbs were created with the infinitive -ye and the attendant Class III verb paradigm. By contrast, in Dolakha Newar the forms underwent a derivational process, probably originally compounding, with the verb yer- "come". This process resulted in disyllabic stems which now follow regular inflectional patterns, except under negation. The incorporation of the old adjectives into the modern verbal systems thus represents a separate wave in the development of modern verbs in Newar.


Contrastive learning has shown remarkable success in the field of multimodal representation learning. In this paper, we propose a pipeline of contrastive language-audio pretraining to develop an audio representation by combining audio data with natural language descriptions. To accomplish this target, we first release LAION-Audio-630K, a large collection of 633,526 audio-text pairs from different data sources. Second, we construct a contrastive language-audio pretraining model by considering different audio encoders and text encoders. We incorporate the feature fusion mechanism and keyword-to-caption augmentation into the model design to further enable the model to process audio inputs of variable lengths and enhance the performance. Third, we perform comprehensive experiments to evaluate our model across three tasks: text-to-audio retrieval, zero-shot audio classification, and supervised audio classification. The results demonstrate that our model achieves superior performance in text-to-audio retrieval task. In audio classification tasks, the model achieves state-of-the-art performance in the zero-shot setting and is able to obtain performance comparable to models' results in the non-zero-shot setting. LAION-Audio-630K1 and the proposed model 2 are both available to the public.


Five days after thyroidectomy (Tx) or sham-Tx in young male Sprague-Dawley rats, sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Control animals underwent laparotomy and manipulation of the cecum without ligation or puncture. Sixteen hours after CLP or laparotomy, protein synthesis and degradation were measured in incubated extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus (SOL) muscles by determining rate of 14C-phenylalanine incorporation into protein and tyrosine release into incubation medium, respectively. Triiodothyronine (T3) was measured in serum and muscle tissue. Protein synthesis was reduced by 39% and 22% in EDL and SOL, respectively, 16 hours after CLP in sham-Tx rats. The response to sepsis of protein synthesis was abolished in Tx rats. Protein breakdown was increased by 113% and 68% in EDL and SOL, respectively, 16 hours after CLP in sham-Tx animals. The increase in muscle proteolysis during sepsis was blunted in hypothyroid animals and was 42% and 49% in EDL and SOL, respectively. T3 in serum was reduced by sepsis, both in Tx and sham-Tx rats. T3 in muscle, however, was maintained or increased during sepsis. Abolished or blunted response of muscle protein turnover after CLP in hypothyroid animals may reflect a role of thyroid hormones in altered muscle protein metabolism during sepsis. Reduced serum levels of T3, but maintained or increased muscle concentrations of the hormone, suggests that increased T3 uptake by muscle may be one mechanism of low T3 syndrome in sepsis, further supporting the concept of a role for thyroid hormone in metabolic alterations in muscle during sepsis.