Education is of utmost importance for social development and political change, regardless of whether it is dispensed through conventional, non-conventional or ODL mode. The Indian ODL system, geared toward this philosophy, is the second largest ODL system in the world, comprising 17 open universities and 110+ dual-mode distance education institutions. The Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) undertakes training needs assessment (TNA) studies from time to time for addressing the training needs of the ODL faculty in the country, (besides offering a PG Diploma and a Masters in DE as long-term professional development programmes, which at one point of time was offered in about 22 countries, largely supported by the Commonwealth of Learning). Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the education sector to adopt changes in teaching-learning. Even though the adaptation of technologies started in the field of education prior to the pandemic, the educational institutions including ODL institutions had to go through compulsory remote online teaching during this period. It was thought prudent to undertake a TNA of ODL teachers during this pandemic and compare the variations in their training needs, which was conducted in pre-pandemic times. This paper reports the findings of a research focusing on the identification of training needs of teachers/ academics from IGNOU; their preferences on mode of training; and any difference in additional required competency during pre- and ongoing-pandemic. The data collected in January-February 2022 has been compared with the data collected in the pre-pandemic period of 2019, and implications for policy and practice on continuing professional development in ODL are drawn accordingly.


Microfinance is a term used by many in different domains to fight poverty. Poverty is a syndrome that is affecting the developing countries and especially in sub Saharan Africa. This thesis is focused on three specific objectives:

The first of them is to investigate whether CamCCUL helps its members and/or customers in developing their small or medium size businesses. The second aim is to find out whether rural SMEs can secure micro-financing with ease and on reasonable terms. Lastly, to determine if there are underlying factors, such as size of operation, securable wealth, or gender of application, is a factor in getting a loan.

In other to accomplish the task, we had to gather data from primary and secondary sources in the rural areas of Cameroon. The primary sources where from questionnaires and interviews. The population was drawn from two different groups; the members of CamCCUL and the credit unions constituting CamCCUL league. We made used of closed and open ended questions. The responses were analysed using percentage frequency tables.

From the information that we have, it is realised that CamCCUL has a positive impact in the development of the members' businesses. CamCCUL provide its members with financial and social intermediation services to help improve their businesses.

Securing micro-financing by SMEs is determined by the stage or level of development in which the business is. Businesses that are viewed as growing had it easy to get a loan. But the main criteria used were the ability to pay back and to meet the set requirements to obtain a loan. The main requirement is fixed tangible assets such as land.

We noticed that the poorest of the poor were not included in designing and implementing their policies. The entry requirements are difficult for the poorest to meet thus they do not enjoy the services of CamCCUL. We can say that the poorest are those who are not involve in any income generating activities.


In the present study, a compact heat exchanger for cryogenically fueled gas turbine engine applications is introduced. The proposed concept can be integrated into one or various vanes that comprise the compression system and uses the existing vane surface to reject core heat to the cryogenic fuel. The requirements for the heat exchanger are defined for a large geared-turbofan engine operating on liquid hydrogen. The resulting preliminary conceptual design is integrated into a modified interconnecting duct and connected to the last stage of a publicly available low-pressure compressor geometry. The feasibility of different designs is investigated numerically, providing a first insight on the parameters that govern the design of such a component.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the amount and distribution of inclusions of titanium carbonitride and manganese sulfide on the machinability and polishability of Villares VP100 steel which is used in manufacturing polymer injection molds. By means of materials metallography, captured images were processed with image analysis software to characterize the inclusions. Tool life tests were performed in an open cavity in order to approach the real processes situation found in the toolmaking industry. The flank wear and chip formation were evaluated periodically. The cutting forces were also evaluated under the same conditions applied to the tool life test. The polishing tests were performed in a polishing equipment specially developed for this purpose, which allows adjustable rotation speed and pressure load. In the polishing process, abrasives with particle size of 1mm are applied and surface roughnesses of the samples were evaluated according to the polishing time. The results show that the amount of titanium and size of titanium carbonitride hard inclusions are fundamental for good machinability, while the soft sulfides of manganese do not take any effect in the presence of these hard particles. The polishability is worsened by the presence of large inclusions of manganese sulfides, forming pin holes.


The aim of this work is the synthesis of α-tricalcium phosphate by solution combustion synthesis using urea as combustible in the stoichiometric ratio and with excess of combustible. The salts Ca(O3)2.4H2O and (H4)2HPO4 were used as reaction precursors with Ca/P ratio of 1.5. The pH adjustment was made adding nitric acid. A porous foam composed by β-tricalcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite and α or β-dicalcium pyrophosphate were obtained as reaction product. X-ray diffraction was used to identify the phases. The obtainment of α-TCP was possible after a heat treatment where the material was held at 1250°C for 15 hours followed by quenching. Smaller particle size was obtained when four times the stoichiometric ratio of combustible was used in the reaction. α-TCP samples were immersed in SBF in order to verify the biocompatibility.


A bioactive material is known as a natural or man-made material that prompts a specific biological response from the body such as bonding to tissue. They have numerous applications in the repair and reconstruction of diseased and damaged tissue, and tissue and hard tissue (bone) re-engineering. In this study, we have evaluated the same gamma-ray shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ), effective atomic number (Z eff ), half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) for selected bioactive glasses. The shielding effectiveness of the selected glasses is found comparable each other. Effective atomic number (Z eff ) is convenient parameters used to characterize the radiation response of a multi-element material in the technical and industrial applications, radiation shielding design, absorbed dose. Thus, it is very significant to choose accurate method to determine this parameter unambiguously. In the present study, effective atomic number of different type of material has been calculated by using calculation method for total photon interaction in the energy region of 1 keV to 100 GeV. The results obtained from this study show that effective atomic number depends strongly on the chemical composition of the interaction material in the lower as well as higher energy region, but in the intermediate energy region, the chemical composition dependence becomes very weak. This result can be interpreted that an increase in P 2 O 5 content in the composition of bioactive glasses results as an in increase of bioactivity of that particular materials. Therefore, this study underlines the finding that   bioactive glasses would be potential biomaterials for biomedical applications.


Across Latin America 420 indigenous languages are spoken. Spanish is considered a second language in indigenous communities and is progressively introduced in education. However, most of the tools to support teaching processes of a second language have been developed for the most common languages such as English, French, German, Italian, etc. As a result, only a small amount of learning objects and authoring tools have been developed for indigenous people considering the specific needs of their population. This paper introduces Multilingual-Tiny as a web authoring tool to support the virtual experience of indigenous students and teachers when they are creating learning objects in indigenous languages or in Spanish language, in particular, when they have to deal with the grammatical structures of Spanish. Multilingual-Tiny has a module based on the Case-based Reasoning technique to provide recommendations in real time when teachers and students write texts in Spanish. An experiment was performed in order to compare some local similarity functions to retrieve cases from the case library taking into account the grammatical structures. As a result we found the similarity function with the best performance.


We have investigated the effect of natural frequency shift in single-crystal silicon, rectangular, electrostatic torsion actuators due to the electrostatic force. The electrostatic actuator was fabricated by using ultra-thin silicon wafer, SU-8 thermal compression bonding, and deep reactive ion etching. Natural frequency and Q factor of the actuator were tested in a high vacuum ambient. An analytical model was proposed to simulate the effect of natural frequency shift due to the electrostatic force. It showed that the natural frequency decreased with the increase in applied voltage, which could be used to tune the natural frequency of the torsion actuator. At a voltage near pull-in, the natural frequency was close to zero due to the negative electrostatic spring constant. The pull-in curve of the actuator was tested in air. Good agreement was found by comparing the results of analytical model with those of Coventor 2001 finite element analysis software and experiments.


This study explores the relationship between general human capital investment, financial knowledge, occupational spillovers, and the accumulation of wealth in a primarily descriptive manner. Drawing upon human capital theory and following previous related work by Delavande, Rohwedder and Willis (2008), we hypothesized that individuals with daily exposure to financial knowledge through their occupation would benefit by having greater financial knowledge that would translate into greater wealth accumulation than individuals who do not enjoy such spillovers from their occupation. Using data from the Cognitive Economics Study and the Health and Retirement Study, we find strong evidence that individuals in financial occupations tend to have greater financial knowledge and moderate evidence that they also have greater wealth accumulation.


A number of recent studies have demonstrated that groups benefit considerably from access to shared visual information. This is due, in part, to the communicative efficiencies provided by the shared visual context. However, a large gap exists between our current theoretical understanding and our existing models. We address this gap by developing a computational model that integrates linguistic cues with visual cues in a way that effectively models reference during tightly-coupled, task-oriented interactions. The results demonstrate that an integrated model significantly outperforms existing language-only and visual-only models. The findings can be used to inform and augment the development of conversational agents, applications that dynamically track discourse and collaborative interactions, and dialogue managers for natural language interfaces.


Verbal short term memory skills of individuals with Down syndrome are very poor (Hulme and MacKenzie, 1992; Bower and Hayes, 1994). This study reports on the verbal short term memory skills of individuals with Down syndrome and on the possibility of increasing memory span durably by using a rehearsal training strategy. Three tasks (letter span, digit span and word span) were presented to two groups of 12 individuals with Down syndrome as a pre-test. A global span measure was established for each individual. Each group contained four children, four teenagers and four young adults. The groups had similar memory span and mental age at the beginning of the study. None of these individuals seemed to clearly rehearse. One group of 12 was exposed to an intensive rehearsal training during eight weeks (half an hour a week). The methodology was inspired from that used by Hulme and MacKenzie (1992), and partially from that used by Broadley and MacDonald (1993). The other group of 12 received no training. After the training, the three initial memory tasks were presented again to the two groups as a post-test. The trained participants significantly improved their memory span, whereas the non-trained participants did not improve at all. Only the trained individuals showed, at this time, clear signs of systematic rehearsal. Two other post-tests were presented to them, one six weeks and the other six months after the first post-test. The trained participants did not seem, at these times, to rehearse systematically any more. Their memory performances fell significantly lower than after the first post-test but remained significantly higher than at the beginning of the study.


The aim of the study was to determine the influence of the soil type and differential sulphur rates used with or without Basfoliar 36 Extra on the soil pH as well as the amount of available forms of copper, zinc and manganese based on the micro plots field experiment. Moreover, the relationship between the studied microelements was examined. The experiment was performed in two-factor design; the first-order factor was the soil type (Typic Hapludolls, Typic Hapludalfs, Typic Haplorthods, Typic Endoaquolls), while the second-order factor - fertilization with sulphur and compound fertilizer - Basfoliar 36 Extra. The plant tested was Rota cultivar maize. The use of sulphur and sulphur combined with Basfoliar 36 Extra changed the classification of the soils in terms of their pH. In the soils under study, as a result of the 10-years application of sulphur and/or foliar fertiliser with NPK fertilization as well as growing maize in monoculture showing a high uptake of macro- and micro-nutrients, there was reported a clear decrease in the content of zinc, copper and manganese, as compared with the initial content. With that in mind, one shall assume that growing maize in a 10-year monoculture is connected with an intensive use of soils, which can result in a clear deficit of the elements studied in soil.


Selected dairy caseins have been shown to have capacity for chaperone-like regulation of folding pathways of other caseins, specifically in preventing development of fibrillar aggregates of beta sheet structure. An assay based on fibril formation by reduced and carboxymethylated-kappa casein (RCM-kCn) was thus used to screen for anti-fibril activity among a selection of dairy protein hydrolysates, in order to discover peptides with possible anti-fibril, chaperone activity. From the selection of eight dairy hydrolysates based on different dairy protein fractions, two of the hydrolysates of whey protein exhibited superior anti-fibril bioactivity against RCM-kCn and amyloid beta (Aβ), the peptide associated with fibrillar plaque deposits in brains of Alzheimer's Disease patients. It is also possible that the chaperone-like activity responsible for anti-fibril activity may exert protective bioactivity in other protein folding diseases involving proteins other than Aβ, accessible from the periphery. Anti-fibril peptides may also confer stability and prevent aggregation of thermally denatured dairy protein systems during processing. These results demonstrate the capacity of dairy peptides to inhibit Aβ fibril formation in vitro and justifies further investigation of this property as a novel class of bioactivity for dairy peptides.


Insurance telematics is a recent technology-enabled service innovation advanced by insurance companies and adopted by millions of drivers worldwide. This research study explores the insurance telematics technology acceptance and use among the new Millennials generation, which represents both a challenge and an opportunity for insurers. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study uses data from 138 Millennials in the USA to delve into their perceived attitudinal behavior and intention to use insurance telematics. The findings provide empirical confirmation of the integrative and predictive power of the proposed combined theoretical framework (TAM-TPB) to explain insurance telematics adoption and use. The results also suggest a sophistication-level shift in Millennials preferences from functionality evaluation to applicability value sought through the adoption and use. And the findings ascertain the role of perceived enjoyment, trust, and social media as critical factors influencing Millennials attitudinal behavior and intention to use insurance telematics. Considering these results, the authors further discuss implications for scholars and practitioners, and suggest future research directions.


Using a multilevel, longitudinal model, we tested the mugging thesis, which states that 'a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged', in a national sample of Italians (N = 457, nested in 54 counties) surveyed four times between October 2002 and January 2007. We predicted participants' increase in conservatism as a function of the cross-level interactions between criminal victimisation on the one hand and the unemployment and the crime rates for their areas of residence on the other. Conservatism increased among victimised participants living in areas characterised by high unemployment rates, but not among those living in areas with low unemployment rates. The cross-level interaction between victimisation and crime rate did not influence our dependent variable. The strengths, implications and limitations of this research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Ambipolar charge-transport semiconducting polymer containing both a hole-transporting moiety, triphenylaniline (TPD), and an electron-transporting moiety, oxadiazole (OXD), in the main chain has been synthesized and investigated. OXD units allow an improvement in luminous efficiency (LE) of the polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). One hundred times enhanced LE was observed from PLEDs made by the polymer with OXD units as compared with that PLEDs made by the polymer without OXD units. These results indicate that enhanced LE was attributed to an improvement in the charge balance of electrons and holes inside this ambipolar polymer.


The mechanism of action of helium-neon laser stimulation has been studied in 26 eyes of 15 patients with dystrophic diseases of the eye and on the ground of 63 lymphangiographic investigations of the same patients. It was found that low-energy helium-neon laser stimulation (0.05-0.5 mWt/cm2) has a positive effect on restoration of visual functions. Lymphangiographic investigations have revealed a new biological phenomenon--activation of disturbed lymphatic flow under the action of a specially organized laser radiation. The results obtained confirm the earlier hypothesis (M. M. Krasnov et al., 1982) that under the action of laser radiation a normal physiologic system purifying the retina from disintegrated products is engaged into action.


This paper focuses on the design, performance modeling, and evaluation of probabilistic logic using superparamagnetic nanomagnets for which there exists a strong interplay between deterministic dynamics and intrinsic thermal noise. The switching element in the spin domain is chosen as the giant spin-Hall effect (GSHE) device that operates based on the dipolar coupling phenomenon in a two-magnet system to achieve low-energy ( $\approx ~1.3$  fJ/b) and low-power ( $\approx ~0.5~\mu $  W) switching characteristics. The use of spin currents on the order of a few tens of mA/ $\mu $ m2 in the subcritical regime to operate the GSHE device yields nondeterministic switching behavior with probability of correctness less than 100%. Therefore, the proposed technique allows us to trade off circuit accuracy for tremendous reduction in energy and power dissipation. In this paper, we identify the required dimensions and material parameters of the read–write units to ensure robust magnetic dipolar coupling for reliable operation of the GSHE switch. Then, through Monte Carlo simulations, we evaluate the probabilistic switching behavior of the GSHE switch as a function of the input spin current amplitude and pulsewidth for various orientations of the magnetization vectors. The delay of the GSHE switch is quantified using a probability distribution function owing to the randomness imparted to the dynamics by intrinsic thermal noise of the nanomagnets. The relationship between the probability of correctness and the energy dissipation of the GSHE switch is quantified. The results are extended to evaluate the performance and circuit error rate of complex logic gates, such as NAND and NOR, constructed using the GSHE switch. It is shown that unlike the probabilistic CMOS (PCMOS) logic, the circuit error rate in the GSHE logic becomes a function of the input vector combination and the prior state of the switch. These nuances are captured in the compact model of the circuit error rate of multiple-input GSHE logic developed in this paper. The performance of the probabilistic GSHE logic is compared with that of PCMOS logic at the 14 nm technology node. Since the noise generation process in PCMOS logic has a limited bandwidth of tens of megahertz and consumes tens of microwatt power, the peripheral circuitry becomes prohibitive. By utilizing the inherent thermal stochasticity, nanomagnets provide a clear advantage to implement probabilistic computing platform targeted toward error-tolerant applications such as those from the image processing and machine learning domains.


Maximum Power Point Tracking is a method to track power point of an energy source in order to generate maximum power. One of the MPPT method for photovoltaic system is fractional open voltage MPPT. In this paper the fractional open voltage MPPT is modified by using artificial neural network trained using genetic algorithm. Artificial neural networks are successfully trained by using genetic algorithm. The best mean squared error (MSE) value obtained is 0.000453. The network tested using test data, yielding average error = 0.00949509 and MSE = 0.00012814. The neural network-based MPPT can improve the fractional open voltage MPPT by 4.79%. Index Terms---Genetic Algorithm, MPPT, Neural Network, Photovoltaic


The University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC), on behalf of the California Department of Transportation initiated a comprehensive, phased research study into the use of warm-mix asphalt, involving laboratory and accelerated load testing, and full-scale field experiments. The objective of this study was to determine whether warmmix asphalt performs equal to or better than conventional hot-mix asphalt. The third phase of the study covered rubberized asphalt. Caltrans is mandated by law to use rubber recycled from scrap tires in at least 35% of all asphalt placed in the state. Although the benefits of rubberized asphalt are well documented, it has numerous limitations that are often not considered in research, including higher production and placement temperatures that have environmental and health constraints, and restrictions on long hauls and early and late season paving. Observations during rubberized warm-mix experiments indicated an absence of smoke and odour and significantly better workability compared to the hot-mix controls. Similar compaction levels were recorded on hot-mix control and warm-mix sections and on experiments in remote locations, rubberized mixes could be hauled for up to four hours, placed with ease whilst still achieving the required compaction. Equal or better performance has been observed over four years. Based on these research results, Caltrans placed more than one million tons of rubberized warm-mix during the 2011 paving season.


In biological samples, proteins and peptides are altered by proteolytic activity. The actual ex vivo form of the peptidome or proteome analyzed, therefore, does not always reflect the natural in vivo state. Sample stabilization and sample treatment are thereby decisive for how far these two states diverge. To assess ex vivo formation of peptides, we used enzymatic incorporation of oxygen-18 water during proteolysis (PALeO approach) to label ex-vivo-formed peptides in rodent brain tissue. Rates of ex-vivo-formed peptides were determined in 25 samples that were stabilized and treated by six different protocols, whereby samples were subjected to different conditions such as temperature, urea concentration, and duration of treatment. Samples were measured by nano LC-Orbitrap-MS, and incorporation of oxygen-18 was determined by MS/MS database search and analysis of the precursor isotope pattern. Extent of ex vivo degradations was affected relevantly by the sample treatment protocol applied and stopped almost completely by heat stabilization. Determination of the formation state by oxygen-18 incorporation by MS/MS database search correlated well to more elaborate analysis of the MS isotope pattern. Overall, oxygen-18 labeling in combination with shotgun data-acquisition and MS/MS database search offers an adjuvant and easily applicable tool to monitor sample quality and fidelity in peptide and neuropeptide sample preparations.


The issue of whether unemployment benefits should increase or decrease over the unemployment spell is analyzed in an analytically tractable model allowing moral hazard, adverse selection and hidden savings. Analytical results show that when the search productivity of unemployed is constant over the unemployment spell, benefits should typically increase or be constant. The only exception is when there is moral hazard and no hidden savings. In general, adverse selection problems calls for increasing benefits, moral hazard problems for constant benefits and decreasing search productivity for decreasing benefits.


Understanding population dynamics is critical for the management of animal populations. Comparatively little is known about the relative importance of endogenous (i.e. density-dependent) and exogenous (i.e. density-independent) factors on the population dynamics of amphibians with complex life cycles. We examined the potential effects of density-dependent and -independent (i.e. climatic) factors on population dynamics by analyzing a 15-yr time series data of the agile frog Rana dalmatina population from Târnava Mare Valley, Romania. We used two statistical models: 1) the partial rate correlation function to identify the feedback structure and the potential time lags in the time series data and 2) a Gompertz state-space model to simultaneously investigate direct and delayed density dependence as well as climatic effects on population growth rate. We found evidence for direct negative density dependence, whereas delayed density dependence and climate did not show a strong influence on population growth rate. Here we demonstrated that direct density dependence rather than delayed density dependence or climate determined the dynamics of our study population. Our results confirm the findings of many experimental studies and suggest that density dependence may buffer amphibian populations against environmental stress. Consequently, it may not be easy to scale up from individual-level effects to population-level effects.


Children as young as 18 months of age are capable of reasoning about other people's desires for objects and food items. During the same age range, children acquire concepts of male and female, including knowledge of the activities, toys, and other objects associated with each gender. The present study assessed whether children's knowledge of gender stereotypes plays a role in their inferences about men's and women's desires for objects. Using an object request task, 20- and 24-month-old children were shown a series of object pairs, each consisting of one feminine- and one masculine-stereotyped item. A male or female experimenter expressed a desire for one of the two items, as revealed by a happy vs. disgust facial expression, then requested that the child give him or her one item. Half of the children observed the experimenter expressing preferences for the gender-appropriate objects, and the other half, preferences for the gender-inappropriate objects. A stereotyping task was also included to ensure that the objects were gender stereotyped by the children. Children were hypothesized to be more likely to select the desired item to hand to the experimenter if it was gender consistent than if it was gender inconsistent, beginning at 24 months. This effect was hypothesized to be stronger for girls than boys. Children were also administered a task to assess their understanding of other people's desires for food items, in addition to various gender-concept and gender-typing measures. Results suggested that some children show a rudimentary ability to reason about others' desires for gender-typed objects in the second year of life. Specifically, boys who demonstrated adequate gender-category knowledge and a basic understanding of others' desires for food successfully offered the experimenter the desired item on the majority of trials. Although these boys also displayed significant gender-stereotype knowledge on the stereotyping trials, they based their desire inferences on the experimenter's affective cues, rather than on the gender stereotyping of the objects. Girls with similar gender and food desire knowledge, however, did not consistently offer the experimenter the desired items. Rather, they offered the experimenter cross-gender-typed items, regardless of which objects were desired.


Alcohol abuse and dependence can be disabling to the family functioning and especially nurturing of the children. However, information on the effect of alcohol abuse and dependence on the role of parents as nurturers in the rural settings of Kenya is limited. The purpose of this study was to establish effects of Alcohol abuse and dependence on parents in the rural settings and how this impacted on their parental roles as nurtures and especially in guiding children. The parents who use alcohol frequently experienced alcohol related disorders that could be disabling them from their parental duties. The effects of alcohol abuse and dependence on parental guidance in Marachi central location in Butula Division in Busia County and Mathira division in Nyeri County were derived from a questionnaire and focus group discussions with parents who frequently use alcohol. A total of 83 parents, 41 from Butula Division Busia County and 42 from Mathira Division in Nyeri County participated in the study. The findings from this study indicate that alcohol abuse and dependence not only drained family resources but more importantly led to negative self assessment that worked against the role of parents as models and nurturers hence their inability in guiding children to grow into desirable persons for individual development and functioning of the society.


Since HJ-1B was launched, 7 sets of blackbody data have been used to calculate onboard calibration coefficients, but the research work on the validation of coefficients is rare. According to the onboard calibration principle, calibration coefficients of HJ-1B thermal infrared channel on Sep 14th, 2009 were calculated with the half-width, moments and look-up table methods. MODIS was selected for the reference sensor, and algorithms of spectral match were improved between the HJ-1B thermal infrared channel and MODIS 31, 32 channels based on the spectral response divergence. The relationship of top of atmosphere (TOA) radiance between the remote sensors was calculated, based on which the surface leaving brightness temperature was calculated by Planck function to validate the brightness temperature calculated through the onboard calibration coefficients. The equivalent brightness temperature calculated by spectral response divergence method is 285.97 K, and the inversion brightness temperature calculated by half-width, moments and look-up table methods is 288.77, 274.52 and 285.97 K respectively. The difference between the inversion brightness temperature and the equivalent brightness temperature is 2.8, -11.46 and 0.02 K, respectively, which demonstrate that onboard calibration coefficients calculated by the look-up table method has better precision and feasibility.


When designing buried plastic sewer pipes, the relative strain caused by deflection of the circular pipe section is of particular interest. The reason for increased interest is the present development going on in many pipe factories, with attempts to find lighter pipe structures to minimize the amount of pipe material needed. A common way is to increase the effective wall thickness according to the I-beam principle. The structural possibilities available for optimizing the relation between pipe stiffness and pipe material needed, will in many cases be limited by the largest permissible strain of the pipe material. In a previous report a method is suggested for determining the permissible constant strain value under stress relaxation condition for HDPE. In the present paper the same method is applied for determining the corresponding strain value for uPVC gravity sewer pipes.


One of the challenges in research and education is to be innovative in helping society to develop sustainable applied technology, i.e. applied health technology that keeps pace with the need in society, both nationally and internationally for technology development in health promotion and prevention as well as in healthcare and social services. The School of Health Science at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) has the stated aim of moving in that direction as new areas of research and education are formulated. The School has defined Health and Technology and Sustainable Active Ageing as the two main focal areas for research and education. To emphasise the importance of bringing research and education into line with each another, a "Bachelor programme in Public Health Science aligned to Community Planning", was established and started in 2009.


The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth. Drawing on qualitative studies and quantitative evidence from large household surveys, this book explores the dimensions of child undernutrition in India and examines the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, India's main early child development intervention, in addressing it. Although levels of undernutrition in India declined modestly during the 1990s, the reductions lagged behind those achieved by other countries with similar economic growth. Nutritional inequalities across different states and socioeconomic and demographic groups remain large. Although the ICDS program appears to be well-designed and well-placed to address the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition in India, several problems exist that prevent it from reaching its potential. The book concludes with a discussion of a number of concrete actions that can be taken to bridge the gap between the policy intentions of ICDS and its actual implementation.


The present report addresses the methodological challenges to collection of data on the situation of parents of adults who become ill and die of HIV/AIDS describes and evaluates the different strategies adopted in our research on the topic in Thailand and draws lessons for researchers who might wish to conduct related studies in other settings. The specific challenges we discuss involve the sensitivity of the topic the extended time frame in which impacts may occur case definition obtaining an appropriate sample the need to develop sensitive instruments and the protection of confidentiality. We then describe in some detail five data collection strategies we developed during the course of our research in Thailand: interviews with key informants about individual AIDS cases and their families; open-ended interviews with AIDS parents; direct survey interviews with AIDS affected and non-AIDS affected parents; assisted self-administered questionnaires to persons living with HIV/AIDS; and extraction of information from welfare applications related to AIDS. To highlight the relative strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches we compare them in terms of sample characteristics selected results and problems they posed for maintaining confidentiality. We conclude with the major lessons from our experience that we believe can help guide future research on this topic generally. (authors)


A middle-aged patient presented with right-sided chemosis, exophthalmos, and progressive visual loss. Digital subtraction angiography revealed a type D carotid-cavernous fistula (CCF). Transarterial embolization through the internal maxillary artery was unsuccessful, and there was no venous access to the CCF. A robotic-guided direct transtemporal embolization of the CCF with Onyx was performed, resulting in successful fistula obliteration and symptom resolution. This is the first reported case of a robotic-guided direct transcranial CCF embolization. We include a technical video that demonstrates this procedure (Supplemental File 1)


Background: Physiotherapy may provide a means of delaying onset or progression of Huntington's disease (HD), resulting in improved daily functioning and quality of life. Physiotherapy is being more frequently recommended for people with HD, but there have been no specific guidelines published for implementation of a structured physiotherapy program. The Physiotherapy Working Group (PWG) of the European Huntington's Disease Network (EHDN) set out to develop a comprehensive Guidance Document for physiotherapists to provide best practice guidelines. Methods: A review of the literature was conducted using a systematic approach. There was insufficient literature in support of physiotherapy interventions and approaches to be able to conduct a complete evidenced-based review, therefore, physiotherapy expert subgroups were formed to incorporate consensus as to best practice. A draft document was distributed to the entire membership of the working group, to outside physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals within EHDN to elicit feedback and comments. Results: A Guidance Document covering eight specific areas pertaining to physiotherapy management of HD was developed. In order to facilitate the document's practical usability among clinicians, a treatment-based classification system is proposed to categorize patients based on presenting signs and symptoms, and provide a foundation for development of a more standardized intervention approach. Discussion: The Physiotherapy Guidance for HD is a comprehensive, consensus- and evidence-based document that can be used by physiotherapists to implement a plan of care that is currently consistent with best practice for individuals at all stages of HD. As evidence becomes available, future systematic reviews will be required in order to inform further development. The use of treatment-based classifications, which aim to better categorize common signs and symptoms and link them to appropriate intervention plans, may be useful in relatively rare diseases, such as HD, to aid clinical reasoning and promote effective outcome evaluation.


In subarctic Canada, Chipewyan (Dene) men's meals have become a significant forum for talking about vexing shifts in relationships between men and women. While not necessarily resolving these issues, men's bush meals emerge as a powerful clearinghouse of information, an expression of fellowship and community, an ongoing assessment of gender relations and, perhaps, compensation for what has been lost in recent transformations in men's and women's lives. Food, therefore, and the varied forms of discourse surrounding it, are inextricably part of and reflective of the social transformations impacting Chipewyan society. How these dynamics play out in the semiotics of actual meal-time conversation are explored in several case examples of men's meal gatherings. In these settings, conversations about, around, through and as food embrace an ensemble of iconic, indexical and symbolic properties which underscore the dilemma of "missing women." Thus, even as Chipewyan women have withdrawn from bush landscapes in recent history, men's pervasive meal-time conversations about their wives and female relatives are a way of symbolically inserting them back into these spaces. Keywords: Food and conversation, gender segregation, men's bush meals, "missing women" as iconic metadiscourse, Chipewyan, Canada


In this study we examined the relationship between safety climate and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) using a comparative analysis between workers active in citizenship behaviors and their colleagues who were passive or inactive regarding OCBs. Additional analyses were also conducted to compare job satisfaction, compliance with safe work policies, and accident frequency between the two groups; t tests were used in these comparative analyses. A positive association was found between safety perception and OCBs: workers who actively engaged in citizenship behaviors had positive perceptions of safety in their workplaces, and vice versa. Additionally, the group active in OCBs expressed more job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety management policies, and subsequently had a relatively lower accident involvement rate. The implications of these findings in the work environment are discussed.


Objective To identify the prevalence of mood disorder diagnoses in patients undergoing cartilage transplantation procedures and determine the relationship between mood disorders, opioid usage, and postoperative health care costs. Design Patients with current procedural terminology (CPT) codes for osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT), osteochondral allograft transplantation (OCA), and autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) were identified in the Truven Health Marketscan database (January 2009-September 2014). Patients were grouped based on having a preoperative mood disorder diagnosis (preMDD). Preoperative opioids, postoperative opioids ≥90 days, and health care costs within the year postoperative were compared for those with and without mood disorders. Costs were analyzed, adjusting for preoperative cost, sex, age, and opioid usage, for those with and without mood disorders. Results A total of 3,682 patients were analyzed (ACI: 690, OAT: 1,294, OCA: 1,698). A quarter of patients had preMDD (ACI: 25.4%, OAT: 20.6%, OCA: 22.7%). Postoperative opioid use was more prevalent in preMDD patients (OAT: 37.1% vs. 24.1%, P < 0.001; OCA: 30.4% vs. 24.8%, P = 0.032; ACI: 33.7% vs. 26.2%, P = 0.070) (odds ratio [OR] ranged from 1.29 to 1.86). First-year postoperative log-transformed costs were significantly greater for preMDD patients (ACI: $7,733 vs. $5,689*, P = 0.012; OAT: $5,221 vs. $3,823*, P < 0.001; OCA: $6,973 vs. $3,992*, P < 0.001; *medians reported). The estimated adjusted first postoperative year cost increase for preMDD OCA patients was 41.7% (P < 0.001) and 28.0% for OAT patients (P = 0.034). There was no statistical difference for ACI patients (P = 0.654). Conclusion Cartilage transplantation patients have a high prevalence of preoperative mood disorders. Opioid use and health care costs were significantly greater for patients with preoperative mood disorder diagnoses. Level of Evidence: Level III, retrospective therapeutic study.


Abstract Cluster headache is one of the most debilitating pain syndromes. A significant number of patients are refractory to conventional therapies. The Clusterbusters.org medication use survey sought to characterize the effects of both conventional and alternative medications used in cluster headache. Participants were recruited from cluster headache websites and headache clinics. The final analysis included responses from 496 participants. The survey was modeled after previously published surveys and was available online. Most responses were chosen from a list, though others were free-texted. Conventional abortive and preventative medications were identified and their efficacies agreed with those previously published. The indoleamine hallucinogens, psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide, and lysergic acid amide, were comparable to or more efficacious than most conventional medications. These agents were also perceived to shorten/abort a cluster period and bring chronic cluster headache into remission more so than conventional medications. Furthermore, infrequent and non-hallucinogenic doses were reported to be efficacious. Findings provide additional evidence that several indoleamine hallucinogens are rated as effective in treating cluster headache. These data reinforce the need for further investigation of the effects of these and related compounds in cluster headache under experimentally controlled settings.


The paper analyzes fiscal decentralization in a three-tier federal framework in India. After a brief discussion on the evolution of Indian federalism and the description of the prevailing system, the paper brings out anomalies in assignments between centre and states and states and local bodies. Critical analysis of intergovernmental transfers brings out the efficiency and equity implications of their transfers. The paper has some important findings. The inclusion of the third tier in the analysis brings out the true picture of fiscal deficits. Analysis shows that structural deficits in the country are due to fiscal mismanagement at both central and state levels. Despite the semblance of a hard budget constraint at the State level, the states have found ways to soften the constraints. Although the transfer system has equalizing impact, it has disincentives for fiscal management. Constitutional sanction has enabled the institution of local governments, but they do not play a major role in providing public services and much less in raising resources.


A new scheme for 3D face recognition is presented in this paper. Firstly, we use Iterative Closet Point (ICP) to align all 3D faces with the first 3D face. Secondly, we reduce noise, especially the noise which in front of the face, and remove the spikes. Then we detect the nose tip point. Once the nose tip is successfully found, we crop a region, which is defined by a sphere radius of 100 mm centered at the nose tip. Then we use the Corresponding Point Direction Measure (CPDM) to matching the 3D face with the gallery 3D faces and get the score. At the same time, we use the region to construct depth image, and get the Gabor feature, LBP feature, principle component of the depth image. Finally, we fuse the CPDM result, Gabor feature, LBP feature, and principle component of depth image to finish the recognition. This paper presents a new method for matching 3D face and a new scheme for 3D face recognition. Experiments demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the new method.


One of the most important challenging problems in modern mechanical manufacture industry is how to reload the repaired tool properly to the numerical machine. An innovation method is put forward considering the above mentioned problem. It takes account of raster sensors due to the characteristics of high accuracy, wide scope of dynamic measurement, non-contact measurement and flexible to automation and numeralization. A measurement system is constructed based on the principle of raster sensors. One operating example of raster provides quite precise results, which would be one of the solutions to the key problem of reloading machine tool.


Using a formula developed by the State of Kentucky and the best data available for the State of Tennessee, it is estimated that this state currently has a slight oversupply of dentists, but that by the turn of the century this will have become a shortage. There is no reason to doubt these estimates except that for confidence in them we will need state-specific data on the supply of dental manpower, the need for dental care, and the demand for dental care. Following the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and others, the College of Dentistry has initiated the Dental Manpower Project to develop and maintain a database which will allow Tennessee to forecast and monitor trends in the supply of dental personnel and factors affecting need and demand. Hopefully, such an activity will help us avoid mistakes like those made 25 to 30 years ago which resulted in the education of too many dentists nationwide (and in this state) and an unfortunate breach between practitioners and dental education.


This thesis presents model driven development that is one of more promising paradigms for software development. By modeling problem domains at a higher abstract level it promises an efficient new way of providing the computer with instructions for building a system. The model being the main artefact for automatic generation of software. Unfortunately modelling languages do not yet posses enough descriptive power to effectively describe solution in enough details so classical programming approach needs to be used as well.
There are many model driven approaches, MDA being the most specific and widely used. It uses UML as main modelling language. EMF tool implements MDA standards and uses class diagrams for defining models that are used for automatic code generation. Special and detailed requirements can be implemented by using native tool support for manual modification of generated code.
EMF tool was used for writing an application for definition of restaurant menus. It has been found, on the basis of practical experiences gained at using this tool, that EMF tool is most efficient at writing data-centric applications with a lot of repetitive code, generic user interfaces and loosely defined requirements. It has also been found that a lot of programming knowledge with steep learning curve is still needed for implementing specific and detailed requirements.


Abstract Fused deposition modeling is one of the most well-known additive manufacturing methods. It might be considered the easiest way to produce particle reinforced composites or unreinforced sheets which are biodegradable and used in the packaging industry as well as for custom products. In this study, polylactic acid (PLA) sheets were produced by 3D printing and thermoformed using a lab-scale thermoforming machine. This article aims to determine the deformation behavior of 3d printed PLA sheets during thermoforming. In addition to experimental work, finite element analysis was performed to investigate the prediction capabilities of Mooney-Rivlin and Ogden models for PLA sheets. In addition, the initial thickness of the sheet was optimized using FEA and a python script to obtain final uniform thickness distribution. Thanks to 3D printing's capability for printing sheets of variable thickness, sheets of variable thickness were printed to verify the material models. As a result, based on the thickness distribution obtained from the experimental study, Mooney-Rivlin and Odgen material models were found to be inadequate for representing the actual deformation behavior of PLA sheets.


Internalized stigma of mental illness is associated with poor mental health and represents a prominent barrier to accessing treatment. Few studies have investigated the effects of cognitive–behavioral treatment approaches on internalized stigma, particularly without a targeted stigma intervention. The current study examined the relationship between internalized stigma and depression, anxiety, quality of life, functioning, and physical health among patients with a range of psychiatric diagnoses in a short-term, partial hospitalization program. Results suggested that internalized stigma was associated with worse mental and physical health at baseline, and stigma levels decreased over the course of treatment. Reduction in internalized stigma was associated with improvement in symptom severity, functioning, and quality of life. The components of treatment settings and cognitive–behavioral interventions that may reduce internalized stigma are discussed, along with their potential to improve health if extended to the public sphere.


It has been shown that the clinical course of sickle cell (SS) patients can be ameliorated by administration of hydroxyurea (HU). Induction of hemoglobin F (HbF) is thought to be the mechanism responsible for clinical improvement in some patients. However, HU has a variable effect on HbF production and there exists no good correlation between the extent of HbF increase and clinical response. On the other hand, the degree of adherence of SS to vascular endothelium and neutrophil counts correlate well with clinical severity. Being a cytotoxic drug, used in myeloproliferative diseases, HU may alter proliferation among various cell lines. Moreover, HU has been reported to reduce red blood cell (RBC) adhesion receptor expression in young SS individuals and induces changes in endothelial cells in vitro. It should be conceived that in addition to its effects on HbF production, HU may change the clinical symptoms of SS patients by affecting the degree of adherence of different blood cells, by influencing the activity of endothelium as well as the activity of white blood cells (WBC) and platelets. To analyze whether several of the determinants of adhesion are modulated by HU treatment we studied the levels of endothelial activity (soluble vascular adhesion molecule-1, (sVCAM-1), interleukin-8 (IL-8), fibronectin, neutrophil activity (sL-selectin, sIL-6 receptor-α, myeloperoxidase) and platelet activity (von Willebrand factor) in relation to clinical symptoms, hematological data and HbF levels in 8 SS patients before and during 5 months of HU therapy. Steady state sVCAM-1 levels are increased compared to normal controls and a significant decrease is noted during HU treatment, suggesting a decrease in the interactions between RBC and vascular endothelium. The IL-8 levels are comparable to those in normal controls and remain unaffected by HU therapy. Intercurrent infection and crises reveal striking increases in IL-8 which are accompanied by leukocytosis, but otherwise the IL-8 levels do not correlate with hematological data. HU has no demonstrable effect on fibronectin or soluble neutrophil adhesion molecules, but the levels of myeloperoxidase decrease significantly while WBC counts do not, implying a reduction in neutrophil activity which may help attenuate the propagation phase of a vasoocclusive crisis.


It is believed that the adoption of Interorganizational systems (IOS) can enable organization to use the information processing capabilities to reduce interorganizational coordination costs and improve performance. However, the past researches have shown mixed results about the impact of IOS on coordination costs. While drawing on transaction cost analysis and resource-dependence theory, this paper suggests that analyzing the relationship between IOS use and coordination costs should consider different levels of asset specificity and interdependence of participating organizations. This article presents an analyzing method and suggests that, when asset specificity or interdependence is high, IOS use can reduce coordination costs for monitoring or cooperative purpose. While under a condition of low asset specificity or low interdependence, the association between IOS use and coordination costs reducing is negative.


The Group consists of alluvial red sandstones, interspersed with lake sediments, having a maximum exposed thickness of 2 km. The present extent of the Stoer Group is shown in Plate 1. It has survived only as a narrow strip next to the Coigach fault, apparently in a hanging wall roll-over (Stewart 1993a). Figure 3 shows the Stoer Group truncated by the Coigach fault, together with its unconformable relations with the Lewisian gneiss complex beneath and the Torridon Group above. The original extent of the group can only be inferred from the sediments. It has not been identified in the subsurface offshore to the west and it is unlikely that it ever existed at the present level of erosion east of the existing outcrop. The general outlines of the sedimentary history are clear, but problems lurk in the details. For example, the oldest sediments of the group occupy palaeovalleys eroded in the gneiss complex, some of which were filled exclusively by alluvial deposits whereas others hosted swamps and temporary lakes. Another controversial topic is the origin of the volcaniclastic Stac Fada Member, and the amount of volcanic input to Stoer Group sediments generally. Stratigraphy The regional stratigraphy of the Stoer Group is shown in Figure 4. The stratotypes of the three constituent formations, originally defined at Stoer (Stewart 1991a), are described on pp. 57-70. The oldest is the Clachtoll Formation, overlying the Lewisian gneiss complex and identifiable by its clasts, virtually all of which can be traced to local basement lithologies.


Cervical and lumbar disc replacements are being performed in the modern world with increasing frequency. The intervertebral discs are fibrocartilaginous cushions serving as the spine's shock absorbing system, which guard the vertebrae, brain, and other structures (i.e. nerves). The discs permit some vertebral motion: extension and flexion. Single disc movement is very limited – however considerable motion is possible when several discs combine forces. Important variables for the function and longevity of such disc anthroplasty implants are clearly defined by the material properties of the components used for their production. Polyethylene (glycol) diacrylate-based hydrogels are powerful tools for uncovering basic cellular biology because they are considered biologically inert ("blank slate") and their mechanical properties can be varied over a large series of moduli. In addition to, PEGDA hydrogels is an emergent scaffold for tissue engineering and Regenerative Medicine since polymerization can occur rapidly at room temperature and requires low exertion input, has high water contented, is flexible, and can be modified to include a variety of biological molecules. PEGDA hydrogels are easily customizable since ECM proteins and/or growth factors can be incorporated into a hydrogel and its elasticity can be modulated from 10- 100 kPa. The complex form of an intervertebral disc can be made with the help of rapid prototyping to serve as a medium in the spine. Stereolithography was chosen to construct the disc with desired quality and dimensions.


Abstract Research on the links of the second generation to their parental homeland, and return visits in particular, is largely lacking. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 75 Albanian teenagers in London, Thessaloniki and Florence, this paper brings a multi-sited perspective on attitudes towards and experiences of homeland visits. Contrasts are drawn between positive themes emerging from the narratives, which are about belonging, family and nature in Albania, and negative impressions which relate to poverty and traditionalism, and a developing sense of boredom as teenagers get older. We then relate some of these contrasting experiences to differences in social integration in the three different host-society contexts. The conclusion elaborates the uniqueness and significance of this case, both in terms of this being the first exploration of the transnational orientations of one of Europe's newest second generations, and in relation to the home-country context of a liberalising ex-communist country still in a state of economic backwardness.


Modern high-end machines feature multiple processor packages, each of which contains multiple independent cores and integrated memory controllers connected directly to dedicated physical RAM. These packages are connected via a shared bus, creating a system with a heterogeneous memory hierarchy. Since this shared bus has less bandwidth than the sum of the links to memory, aggregate memory bandwidth is higher when parallel threads all access memory local to their processor package than when they access memory attached to a remote package.
But, the impact of this heterogeneous memory architecture is not easily understood from vendor benchmarks. Even where these measurements are available, they provide only best-case memory throughput. This work presents a series of modifications to the well-known STREAM benchmark to measure the effects of NUMA on both a 48-core AMD Opteron machine and a 32-core Intel Xeon machine.


This thesis will explore the socio-legal response(s) to women who kill. Interrogating the constructions of "woman" and "femininity" within criminal legal discourse it will argue that the agency (that is, the ability of an individual to choose to act in a particular way) of women who kill is denied, both passively and actively within criminal legal discourse. It will be argued that denying the agency of women who kill is problematic for numerous reasons, including but not limited to, the construction and reinforcement of gender discourse surrounding femininity and issues of justice both being done and being seen to be done for women who kill and for their victims. In order to address these issues, this thesis will therefore propose an agency-based model for women who kill, which will interrupt both the passive and active agency denials which currently exist for these women.


AbstractTitle: Influence of Cultural Difference on Self Employment: Chinese people living in Gavle, Sweden.Level: Final assignment for Master Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Ruihan Lei, Xi ChenSupervisor: Ehsanul Huda ChowdhuryExaminer: Maria Fregidou-MalamaDate: 2014-09Aim: This study aims to analyse the influences of cultural differences on self-employment for Chinese people in Gavle, Sweden. The study further discusses the opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs to do business in Gavle, Sweden.Method: We used qualitative approach as our research method. We focused on one to one interview as the tool for data collection. Eight respondents were selected as there are only eight Chinese entrepreneurs running 10 businesses in Gavle, Sweden at present.Result & conclusions: The individual factors influence more on the decision making of being self-employed, especially the family, age, and education background factor. Furthermore, the risk taking attitude and the ability of information collecting can also impact the self-employment success. Cultural differences are not exactly a hinder for the entrepreneurship of self-employment, but rather are perceived as an opportunity by the respondents.Suggestions for future research: This study was restricted to geographical limitation. It will be better if future research can concentrate on the relationship between problems and opportunities for studies in the field of cultural differences in other locations and other countries.Contribution of the thesis: This study shows how cultural difference impact self-employment from individual perspective and environmental perspective. It fills the gaps of related literatures; it is a detailed study of cultural influences on Chinese self-employed people living in Gavle, Sweden. It is helpful for Chinese who want to do self-employment in other countries, by understanding which specific factors to take into consideration in the process of conducting self-employment to succeed.Keyword: Self-employment, China, Sweden, Cultural differences.


Most of our daily activities in a highly mobile digital society require timely spatial decision-making. Much of such decision-making is supported by map displays on various devices with different modalities. Spatial information visualized on maps, however, is always subject to a multitude of uncertainties. If space-time decision-makers are not informed about potential uncertainties, misleading, or at worst, life-threatening outcomes might result from map-based decisions. Therefore, data uncertainties should be communicated to decision-makers, especially when they are made with limited time resources and when decision outcomes can have dramatic consequences. Thus, the current study investigates how data uncertainty visualized in maps might influence the process and outcomes of spatial decision-making, especially when made under time pressure in risky situations. Although there is very little empirical evidence from prior uncertainty visualization research that considered decision time constraints, we hypothesized that uncertainty visualization would also have an effect on decision-making under time critical and complex decision contexts. Using a map-based helicopter landing scenario in mountainous terrain, we found that neither time pressure nor uncertainty affected participants decision-making accuracy. However, uncertainty affected participants' decision strategies, and time pressure affected participants' response times. Specifically, when presented with two equally correct answers, participants avoided uncertainty more often at a cost of landing distance (an equally important decision criteria). We interpret our results as consistent with a loss-aversion heuristic and suggest implications for the study of decision-making with uncertainty visualizations.


The healing of sluggishly postburn wounds after local electrostimulation (ES) with the use of current-conducting carbon tissue as the electrode was studied in 12 patients. Analysis of the clinical data which were corroborated by the results of morphological and biochemical studies confirmed the marked stimulating effect of local ES which facilitates successful taking of dermal autografts and healing of burn wounds. The obtained data are evidence that the method of ES through a current-conducting carbon tissue is promising in the complex of measures for local treatment of burn wounds.


- Until a few decades ago, acute infectious airway obstruction was the primary indication for tracheotomy in children. Its incidence has decreased considerably due to vaccination programmes and antibiotic treatment. - Today, the primary reasons for performing tracheotomy in a child are chronic airway obstruction (laryngeal injury after intubation, craniofacial malformation, lymphangioma) and prolonged artificial ventilation. - Consequently, the percentage of children who may be decannulated after a short period has decreased. - Tracheotomised children now require longer and more intensive care than before. - Hospital discharge is possible if parents and care providers are provided thorough training and counselling; this process requires specific medical, nursing and psychosocial support. - The increasing proportion of tracheotomised children cared for at home necessitates greater involvement from family practitioners.


ABSTRACT Weather conditions considerably influence the behavior of wildlife, particularly those living in harsh habitats such as the plateau. In this study, we reported unusual flight behavior of Black-necked Cranes (Grus nigricollis) where legs are drawn up. Among 15 crane species, it is the only species that spends its entire life in alpine areas. Field observations were conducted during the three winters of 2006/07, 2009/10, and 2012/13 at Dashanbao National Nature Reserve (DNNR), northeastern Yunnan, China. At the population level, ~4% of Black-necked Cranes displayed this behavior, whereas a total of 156 individuals from 49 flocks displayed this behavior among the clearly observed 4,007 individuals of 751 crane flocks. Our results showed a strong negative correlation between prevalence of this behavior and departure temperature (r  =  −0.832, P  =  0.005, n  =  9). Moreover, the average temperature of the preceding 12 hrs and duration of exposure to subzero temperature had a significant effect on the occurrence of leg-drawn-up flight behavior (P < 0.05), whereas the extreme low temperature of the preceding 12 hrs did not significantly affect the prevalence of this behavior (F1,3  =  1.974, P  =  0.26). We inferred that this infrequent flight posture developed as a behavioral response to the low air temperature and duration of exposure.


Hepatitis B virus resistance to antivirals is conferred by the selection of polymerase gene mutants with reduced susceptibility to nucleoside analogues. Because of the increasing number of resistant mutants to the different available drugs, several phenotypic assays have been developed to provide cross-resistance data to guide clinicians in the management of therapy. Their possible use in the routine follow-up of antiviral treatment is also discussed. The different in vitro models for the study of HBV resistance include enzymatic and cell-based assays. Their relevance for the analysis of viral fitness, drug susceptibility, and cross-resistance is also reviewed.


The research was conducted because of the many industries that use CuZn 70/30 as a raw material in industrialization. CuZn 70/30 was studied to obtain the strong mechanical properties of brass . Research CuZn 70/30 was evaluated using a process of heating of about 615 0 ± 5 0 C and then held for 90 minutes . The next process is the process of cold rolling by using a variety of reduction and then tested by using a Vickers hardness testing , tensile testing , observation of the microstructure . The result of this research is a fine microstructure ( below 10 μm ), hardness ( HV 211.67 ). Tensile test also conducted to get how much resistance CuZn 70/30 to resist the pull . The cold rolling process causing the decrease the mechanical properties and also increase the plastic properties of the brass.


Spatial modes of light constitute valuable resources for a variety of quantum technologies ranging from quantum communication and quantum imaging to remote sensing. Nevertheless, their vulnerabilities to phase distortions, induced by random media, impose significant limitations on the realistic implementation of numerous quantum‐photonic technologies. Unfortunately, this problem is exacerbated at the single‐photon level. Over the last two decades, this challenging problem has been tackled through conventional schemes that utilize optical nonlinearities, quantum correlations, and adaptive optics. In this article, the self‐learning and self‐evolving features of artificial neural networks are exploited to correct the complex spatial profile of distorted Laguerre–Gaussian modes at the single‐photon level. Furthermore, the potential of this technique is used to improve the channel capacity of an optical communication protocol that relies on structured single photons. The results have important implications for real‐time turbulence correction of structured photons and single‐photon images.


A large proportion of patients suffering from the malignant pediatric tumor neuroblastoma die of progressive disease despite intensive therapy. Neuroblastomas belong to the group of neuroblastic tumors, together with more differentiated ganglioneuroblastomas and benign ganglioneuromas. Little is known of the genes driving the differentiation processes in these tumor types. A search for the transcription factors differentially expressed between ganglioneuromas, ganglioneuroblastomas, and neuroblastomas in a series of 110 neuroblastic tumors (NB110) identified a large number of HOXand TALE (Three Amino acid Loop Extension)-class homeobox transcription factor genes. The MEIS1-3, PBX1 and -3, and PKNOX1 TALE genes showed highest expression in neuroblastomas and lowest in ganglioneuromas and ganglioneuroblastomas. The PKNOX2 and TGIF1-2 genes showed the opposite expression pattern. This suggests an involvement of TALE genes in neuroblastoma differentiation. Expression of MEIS1, a known oncogene in haematopoietic tumors, was high in all neuroblastomas, and strongly correlated with undifferentiated histology. Consequently we generated IMR-32 neuroblastoma cells capable of inducible shRNA-mediated MEIS1 knockdown. We observed differentiation, growth arrest and induction of apoptosis upon MEIS1 down-regulation. Affymetrix profiling of time-course experiments using these cells allowed the identification of MEIS1 target genes. Analysis of the target genes in the NB110 series showed that 323 of these were also significantly correlated to MEIS1 expression and to tumor differentiation in neuroblastic tumors. Genes involved in the cell cycle and in developmental pathways were over-represented in this gene set. We conclude that MEIS1 governs several of the signal transduction routes important for neuroblastoma survival and differentiation.


The use of waters of impaired quality has been suggested as a means to expand available water resources supply for water‐limited communities. An ongoing concern is the safety of supplies that use wastewater because of the potential for introduction of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals into drinking water supplies. Prior research into contaminants of emerging concerns (CECs) have included a variety of methods, but the only consistent removal is with reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, ultraviolet light (UV), and advanced oxidation processes (AOP). However, few of these prior studies have measurable quantities of these contaminants in the influent wastewater, so determining actual removal percentages is difficult. This project was designed to evaluate the removal of CECs to verify that a 3‐log removal of common constituents was realized. Spike testing was used to compare to prior research and to evaluate whether the project costs were competitive with other forms of reuse or other water supplies. The combination of RO/UV/AOP was effective at obtaining a 3‐log removal of CECs, but the RO and UV/AOP processes alone were not capable of removing all substances. However, despite the extensive treatment, the proposed process was both competitive cost‐wise and met the water quality goals.


Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) is a disease in cattle with complex transmission dynamics that causes substantial economic losses and affects animal welfare. The infection can be transient or persistent. The mostly asymptomatic persistently infected hosts are the main source for transmission of the virus. This characteristic makes it difficult to control the spreading of BVD. We develop a deterministic compartmental model for the spreading dynamics of BVD within a herd and derive the basic reproduction number. This epidemiological quantity indicates that identification and removal of persistently infected animals is a successful control strategy if the transmission rate of transiently infected animals is small. Removing persistently infected animals from the herd at birth results in recurrent outbreaks with decreasing peak prevalence. We propose a stochastic version of the compartmental model that includes stochasticity in the transmission parameters. This stochasticity leads to sustained oscillations in cases where the deterministic model predicts oscillations with decreasing amplitude. The results provide useful information for the design of control strategies.


We propose DOPS, a fast single-stage 3D object detection method for LIDAR data. Previous methods often make domain-specific design decisions, for example projecting points into a bird-eye view image in autonomous driving scenarios. In contrast, we propose a general-purpose method that works on both indoor and outdoor scenes. The core novelty of our method is a fast, single-pass architecture that both detects objects in 3D and estimates their shapes. 3D bounding box parameters are estimated in one pass for every point, aggregated through graph convolutions, and fed into a branch of the network that predicts latent codes representing the shape of each detected object. The latent shape space and shape decoder are learned on a synthetic dataset and then used as supervision for the end-to-end training of the 3D object detection pipeline. Thus our model is able to extract shapes without access to ground-truth shape information in the target dataset. During experiments, we find that our proposed method achieves state-of-the-art results by ~5% on object detection in ScanNet scenes, and it gets top results by 3.4% in the Waymo Open Dataset, while reproducing the shapes of detected cars.


Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging architecture providing services on a priority basis for real-time communication, by pulling out the intelligence from the hardware and developing a better management system for effective networking. Denial of service (DoS) attacks pose a significant threat to SDN, as it can disable the genuine hosts and routers by exhausting their resources. It is thus vital to provide efficient traffic management, both at the data layer and the control layer, thereby becoming more responsive to dynamic network threats such as DoS. Existing DoS prevention and mitigation models for SDN are computationally expensive and are slow to react. This paper introduces a novel biologically inspired architecture for SDN to detect DoS flooding attacks. The proposed biologically inspired architecture utilizes the concepts of the human immune system to provide a robust solution against DoS attacks in SDNs. The two layer immune inspired framework, viz innate layer and adaptive layer, is initiated at the data layer and the control layer of SDN, respectively. The proposed model is reactive and lightweight for DoS mitigation in SDNs.


Power consumption of many of the digital signal processing systems available is nonlinear. Signal distribution at the multiplier output changes significantly with respect to its input signal distributions. Data signals have a large impact on design power, so the multiplier output has to be modelled properly. A model to compute the bit-level switching activity of each multiplier output bit is presented. This model depends on word-level signal statistics and the number of multiplied input signals. It is applied to high-level power estimation of FPGA designs. The relative errors of the presented power model with respect to measured power are four to five times smaller than the errors obtained by using the standard signal model for high-level power estimation.


Abstract Introduction: Our study investigated the importance of inflammation markers – ratio of platelets and lymphocytes (PLR), ratio of neutrophils and lymphocytes (NLR) and ratio of lymphocytes and monocytes (LMR) – as predictive markers in the occurrence of fistula or stenosis in patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent gastric resections. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 178 patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma. The included patients were divided into 3 groups: group 1 (77 patients, who underwent lower gastrectomy), group 2 (27 patients, who had upper polar gastrectomy otherwise known as proximal gastrectomy), group 3 (74 patients, who underwent total gastrectomy). Ratios of PLR, NLR, respectively LMR were calculated for all patients. Results: Out of 178 patients 52 (29.2%) developed postoperative stenosis and 16 patients (9.0%) had postoperative fistulae. The occurrence of anastomotic stenosis was associated with significantly higher preoperative platelet counts (p=0.043) and PLR values (p=0.023). ROC curve analysis indicated that the optimal PLR value for the prediction of gastric stenosis was 198.4 (AUC= 0.609, sensitivity: 59.6%, specificity: 61.9%). For the prediction of fistulization PRL also displayed the highest performance among the analyzed hematological parameters (AUC=0.561, sensitivity: 43.7%, specificity: 81.5%, cut-off value 116.6. Conclusion: Our study indicates the importance of PLR as e predictive factor in the occurrence of anastomotic complications (fistulae or stenosis) immediately following surgery in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma that undergo gastric resections. Further prospective studies on larger groups of patients are required, considering that PLR, NLR and LMR will be key markers in the clinical management of patients with gastric cancer.


ABSTRACT Seftianingrum, R.; Suwasono, R.A.; Sulistioadi, Y.B.; Suhardiman, A., and Diana, R., 2020. Floral composition of the Kayan-Sembakung Delta in North Kalimantan (Indonesia) in different disturbance regimes. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(4), 741–751. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study that identify the floral composition of the Kayan-Sembakung Delta in North Kalimantan under different disturbance regimes. The landforms described in the Regional Physical Planning Project for Transmigration in Indonesia land-system map were evaluated to define the mangrove ecosystem boundary. The mangrove ecosystem disturbance levels distinguished by reclassifying the land-cover map of the mangrove ecosystem into four categories, i.e. heavily disturbed mangrove (represented by shrimp ponds abandoned five years ago or less), moderately disturbed mangrove (represented by shrimp ponds abandoned more than five years ago), regrown (secondary) mangrove forest (that may have been logged for wood but did not experience terrain alteration for fishpond development), and relatively undisturbed (primary) mangrove forest. A vegetation survey was conducted in several transects for each of these categories. Basal area, density, species diversity, and abundance of species in each location were calculated to understand the floral composition of the mangrove ecosystem. The study reveals that the mangrove forest in the Simanggaris River has the highest total basal area of 44.50 m2/ha, as well as the highest tree density of 1635 individual/ha, which indicates the most dense and mature remaining mangrove forest followed by the Sikang River near Liago Village with 85.75% of canopy cover. The heavily degraded mangrove ecosystem in Ibus Island has the highest importance value index of 278.89%, with Sonneratia sp. as the dominant species. The Kayan-Sembakung Delta hosts at least six original mangrove species, i.e. Rhizophora apiculata, Osbornia octodonta, Lumnitzera littorea, Avicennia sp, Rhizophora sp, and Sonneratia sp. In addition to the six original mangrove species listed, the inner part of the Kayan Delta also has several forest patches dominated by Nypa fruticans, whereas some parts of the Delta host a mixed vegetation composition between freshwater and brackish water ecosystems.


Presented on October 29, 2008, from 4-5 pm in room G011 of the Molecular Science and Engineering Building on the Georgia Tech Campus.


SUMMARY: Arginine biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa proceeded via transacetylation of acetylornithine with glutamate; it resembled Micrococcus glutamicus rather than Escherichia coli. Of four arginine biosynthetic enzymes, N-acetyl-y-glutamokinase, N-acetylornithine glutamate transacetylase, ornithine transcarbamylase and argininosuccinase determined under various conditions of arginine excess and deprivation, only ornithine transcarbamylase (OTCase) varied. It appeared to be fully derepressed in the wild-type strain grown in minimal medium and partially repressed in the presence of arginine. OTCase was also partially repressed in all arginine auxotrophs, even when deprived of arginine. OTCase was derepressed in bradytrophic revertants of arginine auxotrophs grown in minimal medium, but its level was never greater than that in the wild-type. The level of endogenous arginine in the wild-type strain grown in minimal medium is probably insufficient to effect repression. Exogenous arginine is more effective in repression when present as the sole carbon source.


A close relationship between adult abundance and stock productivity may not exist for many marine fish stocks, resulting in concern that the management goal of maximum sustainable yield is either inefficient or risky. Although reproductive success is tightly coupled with adult abundance and fecundity in many terrestrial animals, in exploited marine fish where and when fish spawn and consequent dispersal dynamics may have a greater impact. Here, we propose an eco-evolutionary perspective, reproductive resilience, to understand connectivity and productivity in marine fish. Reproductive resilience is the capacity of a population to maintain the reproductive success needed to result in long-term population stability despite disturbances. A stock's reproductive resilience is driven by the underlying traits in its spawner-recruit system, selected for over evolutionary timescales, and the ecological context within which it is operating. Spawner-recruit systems are species specific, have both density-dependent and fitness feedback loops and are made up of fixed, behavioural and ecologically variable traits. They operate over multiple temporal, spatial and biological scales, with trait diversity affecting reproductive resilience at both the population and individual (i.e. portfolio) scales. Models of spawner-recruit systems fall within three categories: (i) two-dimensional models (i.e. spawner and recruit); (ii) process-based biophysical dispersal models which integrate physical and environmental processes into understanding recruitment; and (iii) complex spatially explicit integrated life cycle models. We review these models and their underlying assumptions about reproductive success vs. our emerging mechanistic understanding. We conclude with practical guidelines for integrating reproductive resilience into assessments of population connectivity and stock productivity.


Homogeneity testing of materials used in analytical proficiency tests is usually carried out by selecting at random a number of the distribution units (commonly 10) and analysing them in duplicate. The results are assessed by one-way analysis of variance. Because of the limited amount of information available in these data, this analysis provides an imprecise estimate of the analytical variance σ2an, an even more imprecise estimate of the sampling variance σ2sam, and a test of low statistical power of the hypothesis σ2sam = 0. When a succession of similar materials are prepared for successive rounds, under conditions where statistical control of the whole process is a reasonable assumption, the greatly increased number of degrees of freedom obtained by pooling the data allows both variance components to be well estimated, even when the sampling variance is small. A new approach to homogeneity testing is proposed, in which, after an initial phase of data collection and variance estimation, a control chart is set up and the experimental design is reduced to 10 singleton measurements. This gives a considerable reduction in expenditure, with little or no loss in statistical power.


Candidates for endoscopic therapy of nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding include patients with bleeding ulcers, Mallory-Weiss tears, angiodysplasia, and Dieulafoy or other lesions with active bleeding, non-bleeding visible vessel, or adherent clot. Continuous infusion of intravenous proton pump inhibitors lowers rebleeding risk after endoscopic therapy. Of standard methods, a combination of epinephrine injection with thermal coagulation (bipolar or heater probe) has been shown to be optimal, with lower rebleeding rates (5-10%) than for either method alone. Endoscopic clipping is an appealing technique, but comparative data with other methods are limited and conflicting. Band ligation is also suitable for many non-ulcer lesions without a firm base. Argon plasma coagulation is most useful for lesions with a large surface area such as watermelon stomach, but of uncertain advantage for other nonvariceal bleeding lesions. Regardless of method used, technical expertise plays a role in the outcomes of therapy. Of future interest are techniques to image beneath the surface and predict rebleeding risk, and improved methods of mechanical hemostasis.