In the present investigation of the human pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas fluorescens, Salmonella typhi, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, were analysed the ozone treatment by using ozonizer M221. To optical density was control and treated cultures were measured and to the different time intervals such as 5, 10 and 15 minutes of the optical density (by use of a digital spectrophotometer at 540nm) were gradually decreased. Among the treated bacterial species E.coli revealed high sensitivity to ozone treatment and compared to other bacterial strains. This was shown by the optical density value of Escherichia coli, and Salmonella typhi; Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas fluorescens such as 0.81, 0.5.0.2 and 0.01; 0.290, 0.261, 0.245 and 0.221; 0.256, 0.254, 0.235 and 0.220; 0.219, 0.17, 0.08 and 0.045. The numbers of cells surviving after ozone treatments were less than for untreated cells.


The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of Arendt's address on accepting the Lessing Prize of the Free City of Hamburg (1959); it enables us to follow some of her "trains of thought," amongst them: the role of remembrance as a salvation from the ruins of time, especially once faith in tradition and in the indestructible character of the world has been lost; and secondly the importance of literature, particularly poetry, once she has underlined the limitations of the social sciences in dealing with past and present events. In Arendt work literary texts are treated as mediations for the imagination and in the very fact of preferring the company of narrators and poets we can read her confidence that imagination eventually will catch a glimpse "of the always frightening light of truth."


The species identification of fungi belonging to genus Candida is an important issue as this genus becomes the emerging problem of nosocomial infections. As Candida krusei presents intrinsic resistance to the fluconazole that is the drug of the first choice in case of invasive candidiasis the PCR identifying the DNA of C. krusei was elaborated. The analytical sensitivity of the assay on spiked blood samples was estimated at 3-5 CFU/ml. The possibility of performing the reaction in both end-point and real-time detection format broadened the potential of its application in small and medium microbiology laboratories.


This paper proposed a novel method for leaf classification and recognition. In the method, the moment invariant and fractal dimension were regarded as the characteristic parameters of the plant leaf. In order to extract the representative characteristic parameters, pretreatment of the leaf images, including RGB-gray converting, image binarization and leafstalk removing. The extracted leaf characteristic parameters were further utilized as training sets to train the neural networks. The proposed method was proved effectively to reach a recognition rate about 92% for most of the testing leaf samples


This book shows how today's B2B leaders are integrating new approaches and technologies with proven techniques to find, get, and keep customers. The traditional business-to-business, face-to-face selling approach has been in decline for a number of years. In its place has risen a new integrated sales coverage method that incorporates the best practices of direct/database marketing and field sales into a new B2B communication mix that will dramatically improve sales and marketing productivity. "The New Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales and Marketing" ties together the best of the old and the new, introducing a new sales coverage model that meets the needs of today's fast-paced, Web-based environment while retaining the benefits that only a knowledgeable, hands-on salesperson can bring to the table.Straight-talking and well-documented, this rulebook for selling success in the marketplace will show you how your organization can attain: improved, results-based marketing through the creation of a robust prospect and customer database; precise targeting of the right market through advanced segmentation and microsegmentation techniques; and, increased results from demand generation efforts that will produce real sales opportunities, not just raw inquiries Higher sales and profits for distributors and business partners through improved feedback systems and channel efficiencies. As a marketer, each day that you cling to outmoded technologies and practices could be costing you competitive advantages that will be difficult, if not impossible, to regain. "The New Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales and Marketing" will show you how to create and deploy a new sales coverage model that will enhance your go-to-market selling strategy and tactics like never before.'Yes, it's more difficult to sell today using the traditional salesperson-based go-to-market models. That's the bad news. The good news is that a new integration between sales and marketing is emerging that is producing a new sales coverage model. The goal of this book is to fully detail this model..." - From Chapter 1. Business-to-business selling has undergone a tremendous metamorphosis in the past decade. The actual purchase decision often requires input from many more people - frequently in multiple locations - while time-pressed buyers increasingly turn to the Internet for instant product information. Meanwhile, as sales professionals watch their call-to-close ratios go through the roof, they are driven even harder to meet the frequently heard twin appeals of "sell more" and "spend less" from management."The New Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales and Marketing" breaks through this impasse, showing sales and marketing decision makers how to meld effective face-to-face sales techniques with highly targeted communications that use the latest technologies - thereby creating a fully integrated, continuous marketing and sales system.Combining his 15 years of sales and sales management experience with twenty years of B2B database/direct marketing on both the client and agency side, John M.Coe shows you what you must do to: more closely match your firm's sales procedures with today's transformed buying process; bring marketing and sales together to improve inquiry generation, lead qualification, and sales conversion; improve feedback from sales and tighten the working relationship between marketing and sales; keep customer acquisition costs down by improving the lead development process before passing the opportunity to a high-cost sales resource; dramatically increase marketing and sales productivity through effective use of marketing databases, direct mail, telemarketing, E-mail, web conferencing, and more. Let "The New Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales and Marketing" provide you with a step-by-step roadmap for integrating your organization's sales efforts with its marketing communications programs by revamping and updating your go-to-market sales strategy.


: The method and instrumentation for the analysis of enzyme activity and of fluorescent antibody of antigen binding is described. It is based on the microscopic photometry of stain intensities per area of functional units. Thus it was shown that the concentration of aminopeptidase (EC 220.127.116.11) per area in procimal tubule of kidney from pig and mouse is constant. In contrast to the pig the tubules from the outer medulla of the mouse contained twice as much enzyme as those from the cortex. A non constant concentration of aminopeptidase per area was found in crypts of duodenum and in stimulated macrophages.


This study aims at assessing the competencies and attitude in using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among librarians working in Govt. and Govt. Aided First Grade Colleges (Affiliated to University of Mysore) of Mysore region in Karnataka. The study emphasizing on exploring the competency level in using ICT based applications, library automation and digital library software, use of e-resources, difficulties faced among the responding librarians and also knowing attitude towards using ICT. The results of the study shows that majority of librarians have good competency level in using basic ICT & e-resources and also felt the need for further training in improving the use of ICT applications to render better library services to their users. Lack of sufficient budget for ICT implementation in the libraries is also a major concern in acquiring ICT skills among librarians. In spite of some difficulties, majority of respondents have shown positive attitude towards using ICT and its applications in library services.


Monaural speech separation is a well-recognized challenge. Recent studies utilize supervised classification methods to estimate the ideal binary mask (IBM) to address the problem. In a supervised learning framework, the issue of generalization to conditions different from those in training is very important. This paper presents methods that require only a small training corpus and can generalize to unseen conditions. The system utilizes support vector machines to learn classification cues and then employs a rethresholding technique to estimate the IBM. A distribution fitting method is used to generalize to unseen signal-to-noise ratio conditions and voice activity detection based adaptation is used to generalize to unseen noise conditions. Systematic evaluation and comparison show that the proposed approach produces high quality IBM estimates under unseen conditions.


To the Editor.— I found the recent article "Truth Telling in Medicine" by Mark Sheldon, PhD (1982;247:651), to be interesting and thought-provoking. There is one aspect of this issue that needs more emphasis than it has received. One of the most neglected aspects of the physician-patient relationship is the right of the patient to be a self-sovereign, autonomous, free human being. Throughout history, this right has been violated time and time again under the guise of "helping" the patient. If one concludes that it is in the "best interest" of a patient for the physician to lie to that patient, then one has decided that the physician— not the patient—is the true judge of the "best interest" of the patient. If that is true, the patient has no selfsovereignty, and the physician is sovereign over the patient. Back in the days when blacks were totally enslaved, many slave owners justified


DISCLAIMER
In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.

PURPOSE
Sulbactam/durlobactam is a combination antibiotic designed to target Acinetobacter baumannii, including carbapenem-resistant and multidrug-resistant strains. The objective of this study was to determine the physical compatibility of sulbactam/durlobactam solution during simulated Y-site administration with 95 intravenous (IV) drugs.

METHODS
Vials of sulbactam/durlobactam solution were diluted in 0.9% sodium chloride injection to a volume of 100 mL (the final concentration of both drugs was 15 mg/mL). All other IV drugs were reconstituted according to the manufacturer's recommendations and diluted with 0.9% sodium chloride injection to the upper range of concentrations used clinically or tested undiluted as intended for administration. Y-site conditions were simulated by mixing 5 mL of sulbactam/durlobactam with 5 mL of the tested drug solutions in a 1:1 ratio. Solutions were inspected for physical characteristics (clarity, color and Tyndall effect), turbidity, and pH changes before admixture, immediately post admixture, and over 4 hours. Incompatibility was defined as any observed precipitation, significant color change, positive Tyndall test, or turbidity change of ≥0.5 nephelometric turbidity unit during the observation period.

RESULTS
Sulbactam/durlobactam was physically compatible with 38 out of 42 antimicrobials tested (90.5%) and compatible overall with 86 of 95 drugs tested (90.5%). Incompatibility was observed with albumin, amiodarone hydrochloride, ceftaroline fosamil, ciprofloxacin, daptomycin, levofloxacin, phenytoin sodium, vecuronium, and propofol.

CONCLUSION
The Y-site compatibility of sulbactam/durlobactam with 95 IV drugs was described. These compatibility data will assist pharmacists and nurses to safely coordinate administration of IV medications with sulbactam/durlobactam.


A simple and novel preparation method for Cu nanoparticles has been suggested in this work. Its main innovative thought lies in preparing nano-copper in liquid paraffin without addition of other reductant. The paraffin is cheap and nontoxic, and the copper nanoparticles prepared by this method are not oxidized when exposed to air at room temperature. The obtained nano-copper has been characterized by X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The TEM results confirm that the optimal average size of nanoparticles is about 20 nm. The effects of time, temperature and surfactant on the size of nano-copper have been investigated. The results show that the optimized conditions are reaction temperature of 250 oC and reaction time of 3 h. By this method, the raw materials are cheap and the process is simple, so it can be applicable to large-scale production of copper nanoparticles.


Inference attacks against Machine Learning (ML) models allow adversaries to learn sensitive information about training data, model parameters, etc. While researchers have studied, in depth, several kinds of attacks, they have done so in isolation. As a result, we lack a comprehensive picture of the risks caused by the attacks, e.g., the different scenarios they can be applied to, the common factors that influence their performance, the relationship among them, or the effectiveness of possible defenses. In this paper, we fill this gap by presenting a first-of-its-kind holistic risk assessment of different inference attacks against machine learning models. We concentrate on four attacks -- namely, membership inference, model inversion, attribute inference, and model stealing -- and establish a threat model taxonomy. Our extensive experimental evaluation, run on five model architectures and four image datasets, shows that the complexity of the training dataset plays an important role with respect to the attack's performance, while the effectiveness of model stealing and membership inference attacks are negatively correlated. We also show that defenses like DP-SGD and Knowledge Distillation can only mitigate some of the inference attacks. Our analysis relies on a modular re-usable software, ML-Doctor, which enables ML model owners to assess the risks of deploying their models, and equally serves as a benchmark tool for researchers and practitioners.


Abstract:Nicolaus Caussin's Eloquentia sacrae et humaneae parellela (1619) forges a distinctly modern history of rhetoric that ties discourse to culture. What were the conditions that made this new history of rhetoric possible? Marc Fumaroli has argued that political exigency in Cardinal Richelieu's France demanded a reconciliation of divergent religious and secular forms of eloquence that implicated, in turn, a newly "eclectic" history of rhetoric. But political exigency alone does not account for this nascent pluralism; we also need to look at the internal dynamics of rhetorical theory as it moved across literate cultures in Europe. With this goal in mind, I first demonstrate in this article how textbooks after the heady days of Protestant Reformation in Germany tried in vain to systematize the passions of art, friendship, and politics. Partially in response to this failure, I then argue, there emerged in France a new rhetoric sensitive to the historical contingency of passionate situations. My claim is not simply that rhetoric is bound to be temporal and situational, but more precisely that Caussin initiates historical rhetorics: the capacity to theorize how discourse is bound to culture in its plurality and historical contingency.


Results of histological studies of desmoid tumours of various localisation and determination of their mitotic regimen are presented. the mitotic regimen of nonrelapsing desmoids is characterized by an extremely low mitotic index (on the average 0.9 mitosis per 1000 cells), a normal ratio of phases of mitosis and by the presence of only individual pathological mitoses. In the group of relapsing desmoids the mitotic index on the average is 2.4%; the analysis of the percentage ratio of mitosis phases reveals predominance of metaphases, the frequency of pathological mitoses being increased. These changes apparently reflect the trend of these tumours towards the unlimited growth, which is confirmed by their clinical course.


Beijing Institute of Dental Research, Beijing Key Laboratory, Beijing Stomatological Hospital & School of Stomatology, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, People's Republic of China Purpose: Cellular senescence is a physiological phenomenon by which cells irreversibly lose their proliferative potential. It is not clear whether senescent cells are related to malignant transformation in oral precancerous lesions. The role of peroxiredoxin1 (Prx1)induced cell senescence in OLK malignant transformation has not been reported. The aim of this study is to investigate the role and mechanism of cell senescence in oral carcinogenesis. Methods: In this study, 4-nitro-quinoline-1-oxide (4NQO) induced tongue carcinogenesis model in Prx1 and Prx1 mice and dysplastic oral keratinocyte (DOK) were used. Prx1 knockdown DOK cells were harvested with shRNA injection, and cell senescence was detected via the senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA β-gal) assay. The senescence and mitophagy-related proteins were observed by immunohistochemistry (IHC), Western blot and qRT-PCR. The binding of Prx1 with prohibitin 2 (PHB2) and light chain 3 (LC3) was predicted via ZDOCK and measured in mice by Duolink analysis. Results: Histologically, 4NQO treatment induced epithelial hyperplasia, dysplasia (mild, moderate and severe), carcinomas in situ and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in mouse tongue mucosa. The malignant transformation rate in Prx1 mice (37.5%) was significantly lower compared with Prx1 mice (57.1%). In Prx1 mice, a higher number of senescent cells and greater expression of p53 and p21 were observed in hyperplastic and dysplastic tongue tissues when compared with those in OSCC tissues. Prx1 knockdown induced a greater number of senescent cells in hyperplastic tissues, and DOK cells accompanied cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase and PHB2/LC3II downregulation. Prx1 was predicted to dock with PHB2 and LC3 via ZDOCK, and the interactions were confirmed by in situ Duolink analysis. Conclusion: Prx1 silencing inhibits the oral carcinogenesis by inducing cell senescence dependent on mitophagy.


Urban geography in the 1980s experienced significant transformations in theory, method, and practice largely from new currents in social theory. In this paper we describe and analyze the ways in which social theoretical influences shaped our own work as we entered the discipline first as graduate students and later as junior faculty. Drawn into the social theoretical currents that were swirling both within and outside (urban) geography, our own earliest work was an attempt to engage with and struggle against some of these currents. In our paper we address the theoretical, methodological and practical issues that most challenged us as representatives of a generation of urban geographers who "came of age" in the 1980s. We specifically address our common interest in making a space for a sophisticated conceptualization of agency in a paradigm of the urban political economy that was over-determined by structural theory. We use Caroline Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman as an epistemological framework for thinking through our evolving feminist work on culture and social reproduction as well as an entry point into the dramatic changes that were occurring in geographers' theorizations of capitalist urbanization in the 1980s.


The recent advances in sensor technologies have made these small, tiny devices much cheaper and convenient to use in many different applications, for example, the weather and environmental monitoring fields, the hospital and factory operation sites, on the traffic road and moving vehicles and so on. Data loss and corruption is inevitable in wireless sensor networks due to the wireless interference, limited sensor power and outlier from malicious electronic devices and so on. Therefore, before processing sensor data in different wireless sensor network applications, certain data cleaning steps need to be performed to ensure the data quality, such as dealing with outliers, missing sensor readings, and noisy data. In this paper, we discuss the issues need to be considered in the data cleaning steps of this integrated data cleaning model for signal processing in wireless sensor networks. We also present an integrated model for data cleaning on signal processing systems in wireless sensor network to deal with different data cleaning problems.


A coordinate measurement machine (CMM) is an advanced, multi-purpose quality control system used to help inspection keep pace with modern production requirements. These machines can provide repeatable dimensional and geometric accuracy (micro- or nano-metre accuracy) of everything from small engine blocks, to sheet metal parts, to circuit boards. However, their performance may degrade when subjected to different forms of external disturbances, including geometric, kinematic, thermal and dynamic forces. By studying the influences of these disturbances, the impact on the machine measuring accuracy can be understood. The research work described in this thesis investigates two important aspects of machine accuracy of a newly developed coordinate measurement machine. The Small Coordinate Measuring Machine (SCMM) consists of a non-contact laser displacement probe supported on three mutually perpendicular (X, Y & Z) axes. The geometric and kinematic errors, which have been shown to account for more than two-thirds of the machine errors, of the SCMM were studied. A mathematical model has been proposed and incorporates geometric, kinematic and orientation errors of the probe that may have been introduced during the assembly process. Using the Renishaw performance measurement system, the error components of each individual carriage were diagnosed. The resulting study of these errors provided a better understanding of the performance of these positioning carriages. The mathematical model was also able to show the extent of the positioning errors of the carriages and the combined volumetric error of the SCMM. The second part of this research investigated the influence of drift on the probe output. This study aimed to demonstrate the magnitude of these environmental changes and the impact it has on the stability of the output of the non-contact, laser displacement probe. System Identification has been used to identify the correlation of the drift in the output of the probe and the changes reflected in the environment. A linear, 3rd order AutoRegressive model with eXogeneous input (ARX) has been chosen based on its merits. The results obtained from both the mathematical and linear models were eventually applied to a practical measurement problem, leading to a significant improvement in the measurement accuracy.


Migraine is a complex disabling disease influenced mainly by age and gender during the life span. Neuroendocrine events related to reproductive stages and to the menstrual cycle may cause significant change in the clinical pattern of migraine over time, as a consequence of failure in adaptation higher in women than in men. Indeed, the individual threshold of vulnerability to manifest migraine is modulated by hormonal fluctuations naturally occurring throughout the menstrual cycle and at the time of reproductive transitions. In the present short review, the role of endogenous estrogen at the level of brain circuitries which are involved in multiple cellular, neurochemical and neurophysiological processes associated with migraine will be summarized in the context of reproductive milestones. In addition, some clues to recognize hormonally sensitive women on the basis of their migraine history, i.e. onset, association with menstruation or premenstrual syndrome, course during pregnancy and menopause, will be discussed in order to expand the knowledge of reproductive endocrinology in the management of migraine in women.


Design of design of X-Y-Theta fine stage using VCM (voice coil motor) is presented in this paper. This fine stage is combined with linear DC motor. Long range, high speed and high precision of the stage is obtained by using dual servo control for laser micro/nano machining. A novel structure of VCM for the fine stage is proposed. The fine stage can have 3 DOF(X-Y-Theta) motion by four VCM actuators which are located on the same plane. The X-Y-Theta fine stage is designed to have high acceleration for high throughput. Based on the design, the stage is fabricated. The designed stage has the acceleration of 5m/s2 with 45kg total mass. In addition, this actuator is feedback controlled using HP laser interferometer. The reaction force between the coarse and fine stage of the dual servo is compensated by force compensator.


One of the intriguing events accompanying large tsunamis, especially those that strike the Pacific coasts of Japan, is the luminous phenomenon; many historical Japanese documents have described how fire balls or pillars of fire seemed to come out from the sea when tsunami approached. Among 17 events of large tsunamis from 684 to 1946, where the surface wave magnitude was greater than 8 or the tsunami magnitude was greater than 3, nine tsunami events accompanied luminous phenomena. In spite the event's high probability, few explanations have been offered as to the source mechanism except luminescent planktonic organisms, which is hardly plausible because luminous tsunamis have been eye-witnessed even in the winter season when such planktonic organisms are less active, and even in the daytime when the intensity of light emitted from planktonic organisms is unlikely to exceed the day-time brightness.Most tsunami earthquakes are thought to be associated with sediments in the accretionary prism. One recent important finding is that large volumes of stable methane hydrate are present within ocean-floor sediments at water depths exceeding about 500m at lower temperatures. When the equilibrium conditions of coupled low temperature and moderate hydrostatic pressure are disturbed by an earthquake, the hydrate abruptly decomposes. Conversely, a breakdown of hydrate may cause a further mass movement, and a cascading chain of events may occur. Some eye-witness reports in historical documents strongly suggest that luminous phenomena associated with tsunami are attributable to methane hydrate disruption, not others causes such as luminescent planktonic organisms.


Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This study aims to examine the relationship between the formal management control system (MCS) on organisational performance and innovation. It also evaluates the role of leadership characteristics as the moderating variable between MCS and innovation. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employs a survey questionnaire, and data collected from business units of Indonesian manufacturing and services firms. The warp partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyse the data and test the proposed model. Research findings: The findings demonstrate that: (1) A welldesigned formal MCS can improve organisational performance and innovation; (2) managers with good characteristics such as showing good behaviour through compliance with company rules, involving themselves in subordinates' activities, and supporting subordinates' ideas, can improve subordinates' creativity in producing innovation. Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study expands the existing literature by examining the role of leadership characteristics as a moderating variable between the formal management control system (MCS) and innovation. Practitioner/Policy implications: The findings of this study demonstrate that, for Indonesian firms to compete in globally-competitive markets, they need to implement well-designed formal MCS. For formal MCS to contribute to innovation, managers who demonstrate good leadership characteristics are crucial. Research limitation/Implications: Future research can investigate comparative analyses of different ASEAN countries since different Asian countries have different dominant cultures and values, which may have some impact on MCS, organisational performance and innovation. It may also consider how different types of MCS improve organisational performance and innovation performance.


People can experience feeling vulnerable whenever their health or usual function is compromised and can increase when they enter unfamiliar surroundings, situations or relationships. One's experience of vulnerability can also be heightened through interaction between the individual and the society within which they live. As such, vulnerability is a dynamic concept that crosses the interface between the self and the social world. It is, therefore, a key concept for professional practice; however this complex, elusive phenomenon is ill defined within the literature. Within studies of vulnerability it is the existential (lived) experience (emic perspective) that is the most silent in comparison to normative perspectives (etic perspective). The Gypsy/Travelling community are often normatively identified by researchers and professionals as a vulnerable group due to increased morbidity and mortality (Goward et al. 2006; Parry et al. 2007) as well as their marginalised status within society (Van Cleemput 2007; McCaffery 2009). But this tells little of the experience of feeling vulnerable by the individuals themselves, and yet without their stories and experiences how can professionals ensure that service developments meet their needs. This research addresses this gap in the evidence base by exploring the lived experience of vulnerability of a Gypsy/Travelling community. The study consisted of two phases (a breadth phase followed by a depth phase), after the work of Todres and Galvin (2005). The breadth phase (Phase 1) consisted of narrative interviews with five Gypsies and Travellers exploring times in their lives when they had felt vulnerable. This identified the following:  A feeling of vulnerability created by the potential or actual lack of physical travelling experience.  Fear of the future and declining physical health.  Being an outsider; this experience of vulnerability contained two similar but distinct variants. o Insider identity o Perception of others outside the Gypsy /Travelling community  Vulnerability connected to the ambiguities of their historical, cultural and geographical identity. Phase 2 explored the experience of vulnerability related to the ambiguities of their historical, cultural and geographical identity by exploring their experience of being part of a cultural group with threatened cultural identity and heritage. The lived experience of this type of vulnerability was described by 15 participants and descriptive phenomenological analysis (Giorgi 2009) identified six constituents of the phenomenon of vulnerability:  Vulnerability due to feeling defined and homogenised in a particular way  Vulnerability of feeling pressurised to conform to live a particular way  Vulnerability of feeling split in one's identity  Vulnerability due to feeling a loss of one's heritage  Vulnerability of feeling discriminated, persecuted and threatened  Vulnerability of powerlessness The findings of this study on the lived experience of vulnerability (emic) present a different perspective to vulnerability than what is already known from the literature (etic). This develops the understanding of the concept of vulnerability itself, which can enhance professional skill and knowledge when working with people who may be experiencing feeling vulnerable. In addition, this thesis illuminates a light on experiences of vulnerability of Gypsies and Travellers, largely hidden within society. This new knowledge of their stories can be used to influence policy as well as statutory services (health, education and social care). Lastly, the thesis proposes a new, novel theory to understand vulnerability, referred to as "Etemic"; a fusion between the emic and etic. It argues that it is only through an appreciation of the Etemic that services can be developed to effectively address the needs of individuals within the Gypsy/Travelling community.


We introduce confidence-weighted linear classifiers, which add parameter confidence information to linear classifiers. Online learners in this setting update both classifier parameters and the estimate of their confidence. The particular online algorithms we study here maintain a Gaussian distribution over parameter vectors and update the mean and covariance of the distribution with each instance. Empirical evaluation on a range of NLP tasks show that our algorithm improves over other state of the art online and batch methods, learns faster in the online setting, and lends itself to better classifier combination after parallel training.


This article outlines the debate around the emancipatory claims of community-based research (CBR) and identifies discursive frictions as a pivotal point upon which much of CBR practice revolves. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, we suggest that CBR is neither inherently emancipatory nor repressive, but that research outcomes are more often a product of power asymmetries in CBR relationships. To illustrate how power asymmetries in research relationships produce discursive frictions, several studies from our work and the literature are presented. The article provides examples of CBR relationships between the researcher and community members and relationships within the community to illustrate how power asymmetries and discursive frictions in these relationships dynamically influence research outcomes and thus alert researchers to the need to address power asymmetries not just before initiating CBR projects, but during CBR projects as well. We interrogate how power asymmetries and discursive frictions operate and are constructed in CBR in an attempt to highlight how research might be conducted more effectively and ethically. Finally, we indicate that some of the tensions and challenges associated with CBR might be ameliorated by the use of participatory facilitation methodologies, such as photo-voice and story circle discussion groups, that draw attention to power asymmetries and purposefully use more creative participatory tools to restructure power relationships and ultimately address the inequities that exist in the research process. Because CBR is continually caught up in power dynamics, we hope that highlighting some examples might offer an opportunity for increased dialogue and critical reflection on its claims of empowerment and emancipation. Keywords: discursive friction, Foucault, participatory methodologies, power asymmetries, research relationships, emancipatory research


As the title suggests, this book is about human gestures and their various meanings. On the basis of a pilot study, the authors chose 20 symbolic gestures for in-depth investigation. The local meaning of each of these gestures was determined by means of interviews in 40 localities ranging from the Canary Islands in the south-west to Oslo in the north and Istanbul in the east. In total the investigation spanned 25 countries, involved 15 different languages and utilized 1 200 male subjects (females could not be used because social norms in certain areas would have made them reluctant to co-operate). The bulk of this book consists of a description of the results obtained. Each gesture is described with the aid of illustrations, its possible origins are speculated on and then the geographical distribution of the various meanings are presented with the aid of bar diagrams and maps. The book ends with brief discussions on various aspects of gestures such as boundaries and confusions. This book is beautifully presented, easy to read and interesting. It is obvious that a lot of careful planning preceded this study and consequently the methodology is exemplary. For instance, in addition to the approximately 40-minute-Iong interviews, .which were conducted in the subjects own language, the researchers also made field observations and both still and cine film records wherever possible. Overall, however, although this book is worth reading, I do not think it makes any significant contribution to the literature of the social sciences, as the authors would have us believe. In fact, I doubt whether the topic warranted the time and expense involved.


Diffusion-based generative models have achieved remarkable success in image generation. Their guidance formulation allows an external model to plug-and-play control the generation process for various tasks without finetuning the diffusion model. However, the direct use of publicly available off-the-shelf models for guidance fails due to their poor performance on noisy inputs. For that, the existing practice is to fine-tune the guidance models with labeled data corrupted with noises. In this paper, we argue that this practice has limitations in two aspects: (1) performing on inputs with extremely various noises is too hard for a single guidance model; (2) collecting labeled datasets hinders scaling up for various tasks. To tackle the limitations, we propose a novel strategy that leverages multiple experts where each expert is specialized in a particular noise range and guides the reverse process of the diffusion at its corresponding timesteps. However, as it is infeasible to manage multiple networks and utilize labeled data, we present a practical guidance framework termed Practical Plug-And-Play (PPAP), which leverages parameter-efficient fine-tuning and data-free knowledge transfer. We exhaustively conduct ImageNet class conditional generation experiments to show that our method can successfully guide diffusion with small trainable parameters and no labeled data. Finally, we show that image classifiers, depth estimators, and semantic segmentation models can guide publicly available GLIDE through our framework in a plug-and-play manner. Our code is available at https://github.com/riiid/PPAP.


VEGF-A is a key regulator of rheumatoid (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). During articular inflammation in OA and RA there is increased synovial angiogenesis and upregulation of angiogenic growth factors such as VEGF-A. VEGF-A comprises two splice variant families, VEGF-Axxxa and VEGF-Axxxb (xxx represents the number of amino acids, from 121 to 206), resulting from alternative splice site selection in exon 8. This site selection is controlled by Serine/Arginine Rich Splicing Factor Kinase 1 (SRPK1), which phophorylates Serine/Arginine Rich Splicing Factor 1 (SRSF1), inducing it to translocate to the nucleus. In most normal tissues, VEGF-Axxxb isoforms predominate, with anti-nociceptive and anti-angiogenic functions. I contrast, in pathological conditions such as inflammation and solid tumours, VEGF-Axxxa isoforms predominate, with pro-nociceptive and pro-angiogenic functions. VEGF-A has been proposed as a therapeutic target in RA and OA. To date, there are no published data on the functionally distinct VEGF-A splice variants in either RA or OA.To determine the patterns of, and relationships between, VEGF-A, SRPK1, and SRSF1 expression and activation and synovial inflammation in human RA and OA.The study was approved by the Nottingham Research Ethics Committee 1 (05/Q2403/24) and Derby Research Ethics Committee 1 (11/H0405/2). Tissues were selected from age- and sex-matched cases in the University of Nottingham joint tissue repository. Post-mortem (PM) samples of healthy knee synovium (n=14, no history of arthritis or knee pain in the 12 months prior to death, no significant articular or synovial pathology) and arthroplasty-derived synovium samples from OA (n=35) or RA (n=14) patients were compared. OA samples were selected to represent the variety of inflammation levels, from low to high grade (0-3, Haywood et al., 2003). 8um thick sections were stained for SRSF1, SRPK1, total VEGF-A and VEGFxxxb via immunohistochemistry. Expression was estimated as fractional area, relative staining intensity (VEGF-Axxxb), and SRSF1 activation quantified by the degree of nuclear localisation. Statistical analyses were performed using Kruskal-Wallis followed by Dunn's tests and Spearman's rank correlations.SRPK1 expression was similar across all conditions. SRSF1 showed significantly higher expression in the OA tissue compared to PM (H(2)= 11.29, p=0.002; OA median=0.2, IQR(0.15, 0.28); PM median=0.09, IQR(0.07, 0.16)), and significantly higher nuclear localisation (indicating activation) in RA vs. OA, and in both RA and OA vs PM (H(2)=37.65, p<0.0001 RA cf. PM; p=0,007 OA cf. PM; RA median=89, IQR(83, 93); OA median=36.1, IQR(29, 42); PM median=19.8, IQR(14,21)). Nuclear SRSF1 was significantly correlated with inflammation score (r= 0.52, p<0.05). Total VEGF-A expression was significantly increased in RA compared to PM and OA (H(2)=23.3, p<0.001 RA cf. PM; RA median=0.4, IQR(0.37,0.59); PM median=0.18, IQR(0.15,0.2)) and was also correlated with the severity of inflammation (r=0.47 p<0.05). VEGF-Axxxb showed no changed in expression in OA or RA, although VEGF-Axxxb staining intensity was significant higher in RA samples, compared to controls (H(2)=7.2 p=0.02; RA median=2.3(1, 4); PM median=0.9 (0.7, 1.4)).Increased levels of SRSF1 activation, and the association of total VEGF-A expression with inflammation score, support the hypothesis that there is activation of alternative splicing in inflamed synovium in RA and OA. Targeting this pathway could be a novel therapeutic strategy in OA & RA.[1]HAYWOOD L., MCWILLIAMS D. F., PEARSON C. I., GILL S. E., GANESAN A., WILSON D. & WALSH D. A. 2003. Inflammation and angiogenesis in osteoarthritis.Arthritis Rheum,48, 2173-7.Dimitrios Amanitis: None declared, Seyed Shahtaheri: None declared, Daniel Daniel McWilliams: None declared, Nicholas Beazley-Long: None declared, David Walsh Grant/research support from: 2016: Investigator-led grant from Pfizer Ltd (ICRP) on Pain Phenotypes in RA; non-personal financial disclosure (payment to University)., Consultant of: DAW has undertaken paid consultancy to Pfizer Ltd, Eli Lilly and Company and GSK Consumer Healthcare., Paid instructor for: 2019: Consultancy to Love Productions; consultancy on programme design, contribution to programme content on self-management of chronic pain (payments to University)2019: Consultancy to AbbVie Ltd; 13.06.19; presentation on RA pain at EULAR, Madrid, and webinar (payments to University).2019: Consultancy to Eli Lilly and Company Ltd. 06.06.19 Centre for Collaborative Neuroscience, Windlesham, Surrey, UK (payment to University).2019: Consultancy to Pfizer (payment to University).2018: Consultancy to Pfizer. 07.12.18. USA. 1 day. Tanezumab (payment to University).2018: Consultancy to Pfizer. 23.11.18. Manchester UK. 1 day. Tanezumab (payment to University).2018: Consultancy to Pfizer. 1.11.18. Skype. 4h. Tanezumab (payment to University).2018: Consultancy to GlaxoSmithKline Plc. 1 day. Pain in RA and anti-GM-CSF (payment to University).2018: Consultancy to Pfizer Ltd; Presentation at OARSI; non-personal financial disclosure (payment to University)2018: Consultancy to Pfizer Ltd; Patient preference study; non-personal financial disclosure (payment to University)2017: Consultancy to Pfizer Ltd; personal financial disclosure2017: Consultancy to Pfizer Ltd through Nottingham University; non-personal financial disclosure (payment to University).2015: Consultancy to GSK Consumer Healthcare; personal financial disclosure., Speakers bureau: 2019: Irish Society of Rheumatology: speaker fees (personal pecuniary), Lucy Donaldson Shareholder of: LFD is a co-inventor on patents protecting alternative RNA splicing control and VEGF-A splice variants for therapeutic application in a number of different conditions. LFD is also a founder equity holder in, and consultant to, Exonate Ltd, and Emenda Therapeutics Ltd. Both companies have with a focus on development of alternative RNA splicing control for therapeutic application in a number of different conditions, including ophthalmology (www.exonate.com), analgesia and arthritis (www.emendatherapeutics.com).,Consultant of:LFD is a co-inventor on patents protecting alternative RNA splicing control and VEGF-A splice variants for therapeutic application in a number of different conditions. LFD is also a founder equity holder in, and consultant to, Exonate Ltd, and Emenda Therapeutics Ltd. Both companies have with a focus on development of alternative RNA splicing control for therapeutic application in a number of different conditions, including ophthalmology (www.exonate.com), analgesia and arthritis (www.emendatherapeutics.com).


Targeted cancer therapies (TCTs) present a breakthrough that marked the field of medical oncology over the last two decades. These therapeutics brought improvements in survival and/or quality of life for various metastatic cancers, which came at a considerable cost. This thesis is centred on contrasting TCTs' costs and effectiveness in the conditions of Serbia. Additionally, inferences drawn for Serbia were tested through simultaneous analyses in Dutch setting whenever possible. Firstly, the thesis examined the general conditions in epidemiology of cancer and access to the TCTs in Serbia. Furthermore, it dealt with the estimation of costs and effectiveness in an example of metastatic renal cell cancer TCTs within the Serbian and the Dutch setting. In that way major issues in modelling of TCTs effectiveness were illustrated. Costs minimisation analysis of same TCTs with different routes of administration served to describe the pattern of supportive costs in TCTs' use within Serbian and Dutch practice. Raising mortality and relatively poor survival with the disease stressed cancer as one of the main health issues in Serbia. Although broader access to TCTs is possible and may contribute to the improvement of cancer survival, most of TCTs would not appear cost effective under traditionally accepted thresholds. In order to enable effective TCTs evaluation, Serbia needs to constitute a rational reimbursement policy with clear definition and important role of pharmacoeconomics within it. Finally, relying on Dutch experiences TCTs may require even more elaborated reimbursement regulations with emphasis on appropriate cost effectiveness modelling.


A guide to the benefits of managing your identify as an author and researcher and preferred methods of doing this.


Soccer matches have a typical duration of 90 min. However, when matches are drawn in some knockout cup scenarios and an outright winner is required, an additional 30 min period, termed extra-time (ET), is played. The performance and physiological responses to 90 min of soccer-specific exercise have been extensively investigated, however; there is a paucity of research investigating the demands of 120 min of soccer-specific exercise (i.e., matches requiring ET). Accordingly, the aims of this thesis were 1) to elucidate professional practitioner perceptions of ET, 2) to investigate the performance and physiological responses during prolonged actual and simulated match-play, and 3) to examine the influence of a nutritional intervention on performance during ET.

To actuate aim one, a qualitative approach (i.e., an online survey) was used to assess practitioner perceptions of ET and their current applied practices. To accomplish aim two, quantitative research projects utilising performance analysis techniques and an analogue of match-play (simulated soccer match) were used. To actuate aim three, the same analogue of match-play was used to investigate the effect of carbohydrate-electrolyte gels ingested prior to ET on performance and physiology.

Practitioners generally account for ET when preparing and recovering players and the majority (91%) of practitioners want research to be conducted on ET. Using notational analysis, reductions in technical performance (i.e., passing and dribbling) were observed during ET. Furthermore, when using a simulated match protocol, perturbations in both performance and physiology compared to the previous 90 min of exercise occur. Specifically reductions in both physical (i.e., sprint speeds) and technical (i.e., shooting speed) parameters, taxing of endogenous fuel sources, dehydration, and shifts in substrate utilisation (i.e., a move towards fat oxidation as a fuel source) were observed. The ingestion of carbohydrate-electrolyte gels prior to ET improved dribbling performance, however; this intervention was unable to attenuate decrements in physical performance and hydration status.

In conclusion, ET influences both soccer-specific performance and physiological responses. In agreement with practitioners working in professional soccer, more research is required to investigate the efficacy of interventions (particularly hydro-nutritional interventions) that improve performance and ameliorate perturbations in physiology and metabolism.


This thesis covers three areas of development of nanomaterials synthesis; namely the synthesis of superhydrophobic polymer-nanoparticle composites (chapter 3), the synthesis of doped quantum dots for catalysis and photoluminescence enhancement (chapter 4) and the synthesis of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles from inexpensive, readily available reagents (chapter 5). Details of characterisation and analytical techniques and synthetic methods used are given in chapter 2, and the thesis summarised in chapter 6. Superhydrophobic polymer-nanoparticle composites represent a class of material which combine the superhydrophobicity of the polymer with the functionality of incorporated nanoparticles. Reactive oxygen species generated by photocatalytic nanoparticles degrade organic matter, and thus degrade the polymer, resulting in a loss of superhydrophobicity. In this chapter, a general method for the incorporation of hydrophobically ligated nanoparticles into a superhydrophobic poly(dimethylsiloxane) polymer matrix via AACVD is demonstrated. This resulted in a highly effective, robust titania nanoparticle-poly(dimethylsiloxane) composite for photocatalysis, along with, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first superparamagnetic-superhydrophobic polymer composite. Chapter 4 deals with the synthesis and characterisation of a quantum dot based photoactivated catalyst vector which releases Cu+ via UV irradiation, the first of its kind. The catalytic activity was evaluated using "click" chemistry under UV irradiation, with quantum dots being recoverable and able to undergo several catalytic cycles. A mechanism for the photoluminescence and copper release is also postulated. The copper is incorporated into the shells of quantum dots via the decomposition of single source metal-dithiocarbamates. Chapter 5 details a method for the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles for magnetic hyperthermia, but from reagents obtained from the high street. A low cost synthesis was developed and the resulting nanoparticles functionalised with an amphiphilic polymer and tested for magnetic hyperthermia.


While there are many self-reflexive accounts of 'field' experience, few researchers have explicitly examined how different places within the field shape gender performances and subsequently the research process. This paper spatialises the notion of 'performance' by examining how male and female bodies in particular places of the field are perceived both by researchers and participants as markers of gender identity. The analysis is based on fieldwork in Subhash Camp, a squatter settlement in New Delhi where the author and her research assistant conducted semi-structured interviews with the residents. The fieldwork highlighted how the embedded power structures in different places of the field created encounters between different gendered bodies and, in turn, how different relationships between researchers and participants shaped the field 'experience'. I suggest that the 'field' should not be understood as a homogeneous terrain, but as a fragmented collection of places, each constructing multiple gender identities in research, and each telling its own research story.


The unfair-trade codes of the GATT/WTO are better suited to addressing complaints from manufacturing than agriculture. This is because the seasonality and uncertainty of agricultural output, together with substantial use of contracting with factors of production, makes sales at a loss a rational business practice during certain times of the year. This cost dumping induces the use of constructed values in the calculation of dumping margins by the US, which typically generates high duties. The model provides for cyclical dumping arising as a supply phenomenon. This contrasts with cyclical dumping in manufacturing that is induced by demand fluctuations.


OBJECTIVE To develop a high-resolution melting (HRM) assay to detect the g.66493737C>T polymorphism in the myostatin gene (MSTN) and determine the frequency of 3 previously defined g.66493737 genotypes (T/T, T/C, and C/C) in warmblood horses. SAMPLES Blood samples from 23 horses. PROCEDURES From each blood sample, DNA was extracted and analyzed by standard PCR methods and an HRM assay to determine the MSTN genotype. Three protocols (standard protocol, protocol in which a high-salt solution was added to the reaction mixture before the first melting cycle, and protocol in which an unlabeled probe was added to the reaction mixture before analysis) for the HRM assay were designed and compared. Genotype results determined by the HRM protocol that generated the most consistent melting curves were compared with those determined by sequencing. RESULTS The HRM protocol in which an unlabeled probe was added to the reaction mixture generated the most consistent melting curves. The genotypes of the g.66493737C>T polymorphism were determined for 22 horses (16 by HRM analysis and 20 by sequencing); 14, 7, and 1 had the T/T, T/C, and C/C genotypes, respectively. The genotype determined by HRM analysis agreed with that determined by sequencing for 14 of 16 horses. The frequency of alleles T and C was 79.5% and 20.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that HRM analysis may be a faster and more economical alternative than PCR methods for genotyping. Genotyping results might be useful as predictors of athletic performance for horses.


It has been demonstrated recently that when a reversion of the strain is applied during the hot working of a Nb-microalloyed steel, the subsequent static recrystallization kinetics is significantly affected. However, depending on the magnitude of the reversion, the static softening kinetics can be accelerated or delayed. This relates to the substructure dissolution taking place by the effect of the reversal. In the present work, new microstructural results obtained by EBSD on an austenitic stainless steel hot deformed by torsion is used to explain better the observed effect of the reversion of the strain.


Cow's milk containing pathogenic bacteria is an important threat to the consumers. The objectives of the present study were to identify the bacterial agents of public health importance in milk samples (n=35) of different locations and to determine their sensitivity to different antibiotics. The milk samples were collected and transported aseptically and subsequently allowed for culture in bacteriological media, Gram's staining and biochemical tests for the identification of bacterial species. The bacteria identified were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi, and their prevalence, in case of vendor milk specimens (n=28), were 96.43%, 53.57% and 35.71% respectively, and of brand milk specimens (n=7), were 42.86 %, 28.57% and 0%, respectively. This suggests that cautionary measures should be taken for quality milk production and consumption. The antibiotic sensitivity test was done by disc diffusion method and the average inhibition zones, in case of Staphylococcus aureus , were 32 mm for oxytetracycline, 26 mm for amoxicillin, 35 mm for ciprofloxacin, 27 mm for cefotaxime, 30 mm for ceftriaxone, 30 mm for azithromycin, and 26 mm for erythromycin; in case of Escherichia coli , were 5 mm for oxytetracycline, 9 mm for amoxicillin, 22 mm for ciprofloxacin, 30 mm for cefotaxime, 31 mm for ceftriaxone, 15 mm for azithromycin, and 0 mm for erythromycin; in case of Salmonella typhi., were 25 mm for oxytetracycline, 24 mm for amoxicillin, 38 mm for ciprofloxacin, 31 mm for cefotaxime, 34 mm for ceftriaxone, 24 mm for azithromycin, and 0 mm for erythromycin. Therefore, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone may be the antibiotics of first choice, and cefotaxime and azithromycin may be the second choice among the test antibiotics for the treatment of illness caused by these bacteria. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2015, 1(3): 457-462


This dissertation analyzes the tension between the self and the commons in the transitional phase from Classical to Late Antiquity. This period embodies the intersection of three worldviews converging in the Roman Empire. Right where political Laconophilia, metaphysical Platonism, and Judeo-Christian theology meet, a wave of communitarian projects along the Mare Nostrum redefine what it means to be human. The main product of this theopolitical climate is a renewed understanding of the commons built upon an innovative sense of individuality that does not necessarily result in political solipsism. An anti-individualist sense of individuality, the monastic self, capable of revealing the limitations of modern communitarianism and individualism at once.


The issue regarding lack of women leaders in construction has been a prominent concern for
many years because women in mainstream management reduces potential managerial skills
shortage in the industry and increases women's interest for construction related occupations.
This paper is based on a study, which was designed to identify the role of women in leadership
positions in the UK construction industry and the barriers confronting their careers. A literature
review has been carried out followed by four case studies that were developed around four
female leaders in the industry in order to identify the role and the barriers confronting them.
Results of this study revealed that role of women leaders in construction is yet to be improved
both in terms of number of leaders and the significance of their role. However, the findings of
the case studies show that the majority of women leaders do not find problems in their
leadership ability and the recognition which is received, however working in a site environment
brings additional inconveniences to women in performing their role as leaders. Further the study
revealed that women leaders in construction face career barriers which prevent them from
advancing towards leadership positions. The results from the case studies indicate that the task
of balancing family and work commitments, childcare problems and old boys networks are the
most common barriers encountered by women in leadership positions in construction.


Artistically controlling fluids has always been a challenging task. Optimization techniques rely on approximating simulation states towards target velocity or density field configurations, which are often handcrafted by artists to indirectly control smoke dynamics. Patch synthesis techniques transfer image textures or simulation features to a target flow field. However, these are either limited to adding structural patterns or augmenting coarse flows with turbulent structures, and hence cannot capture the full spectrum of different styles and semantically complex structures. In this paper, we propose the first Transport-based Neural Style Transfer (TNST) algorithm for volumetric smoke data. Our method is able to transfer features from natural images to smoke simulations, enabling general content-aware manipulations ranging from simple patterns to intricate motifs. The proposed algorithm is physically inspired, since it computes the density transport from a source input smoke to a desired target configuration. Our transport-based approach allows direct control over the divergence of the stylization velocity field by optimizing incompressible and irrotational potentials that transport smoke towards stylization. Temporal consistency is ensured by transporting and aligning subsequent stylized velocities, and 3D reconstructions are computed by seamlessly merging stylizations from different camera viewpoints.


We present a way to observe the spin-to-orbital conversion phenomenon. A spinning evanescent wave can be asymmetrically transformed into propagation waves through one certain diffraction order by a periodical subwavelength grating. By detecting diffraction field distribution behind the grating, we observed spin-dependent diffraction patterns. Furthermore, replacing the periodical grating by a Fibonacci grating, we can simultaneously observe multiple order diffractions of a spin evanescent wave. In this case, the multiple diffraction beams can interfere with each other behind the quasi-periodical grating to form asymmetric interference patterns. Our work provides another way toward the realization of spin-to-orbital conversion of light.


Abstract Since the founding of transactional analysis (TA) by Eric Berne in the 1950s, many psychometric instruments have been developed to operationalize TA concepts. Several studies have provided general reviews of these, but the studies are not systematic and do not assess the psychometric quality of the instruments. We conducted a systematic literature review of all psychometric instruments operationalizing TA concepts by searching in Pubmed, Medline, PsycInfo, APA articles, Web-of-Knowledge, and scholar.google.com. The study quality was evaluated with the consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN). Of the 12,287 initial search hits, we selected 56 instruments in 263 studies. Among those, the Schema Mode Inventory, the Tokyo Egogram, the Adjective Check List, the ANINT-A36, and the Life Position Scale were found to have fair to good overall COSMIN quality. Except for the Life Position Scale, they operationalize ego states (Parent, Adult, Child) and the functional analysis concepts of Critical Parent, Nurturing Parent, and Adapted/Free Child. The Life Position Scale operationalized the positive and negative positions toward self and others. Other questionnaires had poor to fair COSMIN quality, usually because of a lack of studies. Meta-analyses indicated that psychopathology and physical symptoms are associated with strong Critical Parent, strong Adapted Child, weak Integrated Adult, negative coping styles, and negative positions toward oneself and others. Many instruments need further validation and translation into more languages. The Schema Mode Inventory, the Tokyo Egogram, the Adjective Check List, and the Life Position Scale are the best validated questionnaires. These could be used by researchers to test treatment effectiveness and by psychotherapists to examine the problems and etiology of clients.


The p21 products of ras proto-oncogenes are thought to be important components in pathways regulating normal cell proliferation and differentiation. These proteins acquire transforming properties as a result of activating lesions that convert ras genes to oncogenes in a wide array of malignancies. In Xenopus laevis oocytes, microinjection of transforming ras p21 is a potent inducer of maturation, whereas microinjection of a monoclonal antibody to ras p21 inhibits normal maturation induced by hormones. The phosphoinositide pathway is a ubiquitous system that appears to play a key role in diverse cellular functions. By use of the Xenopus oocyte system, it was possible to quantitate the effects of ras p21 microinjection on individual components of the phosphoinositide pathway. Within 20 minutes of microinjection, levels of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate, inositol 1-phosphate, and inositol bisphosphate increased 1.5- to 2-fold. The most striking effects were on diacylglycerol, which increased 5-fold under the same conditions. In contrast, the normal ras p21 protein induced no detectable alteration in any of the metabolites analyzed. The earliest effects of the transforming p21 on phosphoinositol turnover were observable within 2 minutes, implying a very rapid effect of ras p21 on the enzymes involved in phospholipid metabolism.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The influence of general intelligence and formal education on functional MR imaging (fMRI) activation has not been thoroughly studied in older adults. Although these factors could be controlled for through study design, this approach makes sample selection more difficult and reduces power. This study was undertaken to examine our hypothesis that intelligence and education would impact medial temporal lobe (MTL) fMRI responses to an episodic memory task in healthy elderly subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-six women and 38 men, 50–83 years of age (mean, 63.4 ± 7.9 years), completed an auditory paired-associates paradigm in a 1.5T magnet. The amplitude and volume of fMRI activation for both the right and left MTLs and MTL subregions were correlated with the intelligence quotients (IQs) and educational levels by using Pearson correlation coefficient tests and regression analyses. RESULTS: The participants' mean estimated full scale IQ and verbal IQ scores were 110.4 ± 7.6 (range, 92–123) and 108.9 ± 8.7 (range, 88–123), respectively. The years of education showed a mean of 16.1 ± 3.2 years (range, 8–25 years). The paradigm produced significant activation in the MTL and subregions. However, the volume and amplitude of activation were unrelated to either IQ or years of schooling in men and/or women. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence of an effect of IQ or education on either the volume or amplitude of fMRI activation, suggesting that these factors do not necessarily need to be incorporated into study design or considered when evaluating other group relationships with fMRI.


Numic people in the western United States are co-adapted with their traditional lands and these lands are spiritually and physically co-adapted with these people. This relationship has been documented through studies funded by the Department of Energy, Nevada Operations. 1 The u.s. Department of Energy Nevada Operations studies of American Indiacultural impacts from the transportation of Low Level Radioactive Waste were managed by Frank DiSanza. Consultation with the involved tribes was guided by Robert Furlow through the American Indian Program. Elders from twenty-six Indian tribes participated in two studies in order to explain why the transportation of radioactive waste poses serious threats. Key in their interpretation is the perception that radioactive material is an angry rock. Indian knowledge and use of this rock goes back for thousands of years. As a powerful spiritual being the angry rock constitutes a threat that can neither be contained nor controlled by conventional means. It has the power to pollute food, medicine, and places, none of which can be used afterwards by Indian people. Spiritual impacts are even more threatening, given that the angry rock would pass along highways where there are animal creation places, access to spiritual beings, and unsung human souls. A most troubling concern is that radioactivity would be transported along the path to the afterlife. The juxtaposition of the angry rock and human spirits being sung to the afterlife is unthinkable.


Tupperwave is a wave energy device based on the Oscillating-Water-Column (OWC) concept. Unlike a conventional OWC, which creates a bidirectional air flow across the self-rectifying turbine, the Tupperwave device uses rectifying valves to create a smooth unidirectional air flow, which is harnessed by a unidirectional turbine. This paper deals with the development and validation of time-domain numerical models from wave to pneumatic power for the Tupperwave device and the conventional OWC device using the same floating spar buoy structure. The numerical models are built using coupled hydrodynamic and thermodynamic equations. The isentropic assumption is used to describe the thermodynamic processes. A tank testing campaign of the two devices at 1/24th scale is described, and the results are used to validate the numerical models. The capacity of the innovative Tupperwave OWC concept to convert wave energy into useful pneumatic energy to the turbine is assessed and compared to the corresponding conventional OWC.


Immersive 360° virtual reality (VR) movies can effectively evoke a wide range of different emotional experiences. To this end, they are increasingly deployed in entertainment, marketing and research. Because emotions influence decisions and behavior, it is important to assess the user's affective appraisal of immersive 360° VR movies. Knowledge of this appraisal can serve to tune media content to achieve the desired emotional responses for a given purpose. To measure the affective appraisal of immersive VR movies, efficient immersive and validated instruments are required that minimally interfere with the VR experience itself. Here we investigated the convergent validity of a new efficient and intuitive graphical (emoji-based) affective self-report tool (the EmojiGrid) for the assessment of valence and arousal induced by videos representing 360° VEs (virtual environments). Thereto, 40 participants rated their emotional response (valence and arousal) to 62 videos from a validated public database of 360° VR movies using an EmojiGrid that was embedded in the VE, while we simultaneously assessed their autonomic physiological arousal through electrodermal activity. The mean affective ratings obtained with the EmojiGrid and those provided with the database (measured with an alternative and validated instrument) show excellent agreement for valence and good agreement for arousal. The mean arousal ratings obtained with the EmojiGrid also correlate strongly with autonomic physiological arousal. Thus, the EmojiGrid appears to be a valid and immersive affective self-report tool for measuring VE-induced emotions.


The article deals by which Montevideo reaches a very high level of primacy in terms of the rest of the urban and rural systems in Uruguay. It sets off with a description of the colonial heritage, the rural quality of the society during the first years of independent life and an increasingly rapid urbanization process that begins by the second half of the XIX century, from which it seems interesting to point out the extremely high level of primacy reached by Montevideo. This hierarchical order seems to be reproduced at different spacial levels of the country and seems to reinforce inter-regional inequalities. Montevideo, by concentranting more than 50% of the country's population, concentrates most of its economic activity and leaves the rural hinterland as an inmense depopulated "ranch".


Blending of RGP lenses is widely used to Increase patient comfort while wearing the lenses. The blending process smooths the peripheral curves of the lens, but it has not been determined if this process moved or actually removed the lens material. Twenty fluoroperm 30 bicurve, unfinished lenses were weighed on a Sartorius analytical balance to the ten-thousandth of a gram. The lenses were then modified with a tool that would simulate the blending process and reweighed. The data was then compared using a paired one-tailed tTest and the results were shown to have a statistically significant lower lens weight. Thus, we determined that blending actually removes the lens material.


As South Africa is witnessing a maturing AIDS epidemic, the experience and impact of the disease are written ever more firmly into the biographical self-constructions of the infected. In this article, I explore typical strategies of dealing with uncertainties arising from new challenges, after the shock of ontological insecurity ensuing from the diagnosis, has been overcome. The analysis is based on contrasting interpretations of problem-centered biographical interviews with HIV-positive South African women. In the process, results have been formulated in terms of hypotheses regarding links between biographical situatedness and strategies of action. The hypotheses have been validated through case comparisons. The article highlights personal transformation, social support and the search for normality as key aspects for understanding these strategies and spells out how these are enabled, constrained and shaped within the social domains of religion, AIDS activism and township youth culture.
URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100135


The short-range ordered but long-range disordered structure of metallic glasses yields strong structural and dynamic heterogeneities. Stress relaxation is a technique to trace the evolution of stress in response to a fixed strain, which reflects the dynamic features phenomenologically described by the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) equation. The KWW equation describes a broad distribution of relaxation times with a small number of empirical parameters, but it does not arise from a particular physically motivated mechanistic picture. Here we report an anomalous two-stage stress relaxation behavior in a Cu46Zr46Al8 metallic glass over a wide temperature range and generalize the findings in other compositions. Thermodynamic analysis identifies two categories of processes: a fast stress-driven event with large activation volume and a slow thermally activated event with small activation volume, which synthetically dominates the stress relaxation dynamics. Discrete analyses rationalize the transition mechanism induced by stress and explain the anomalous variation of the KWW characteristic time with temperature. Atomistic simulations reveal that the stress-driven event involves virtually instantaneous short-range atomic rearrangement, while the thermally activated event is the percolation of the fast event accommodated by the long-range atomic diffusion. The insights may clarify the underlying physical mechanisms behind the phenomenological description and shed light on correlating the hierarchical dynamics and structural heterogeneity of amorphous solids.


Omega-3 fatty acids (Poly-Unsaturated Fatty Acids or PUFA n-3) have been initially found to reduce plasma levels of triglycerides and to increase levels of high-density lipoprotein in patients with marked hypertriglyceridemia. However, in both bench research studies and clinical trials, omega-3 fatty acid intake has recently been associated with an anti-arrhythmic efficacy. At experimental level, n-3 PUFA administration produces several actions on ionic channels regulating transmembrane action potential. At clinical level, the most significant finding was the reduction in the incidence of sudden death in survivors of MI in the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell'Infarto Miocardico (GISSI)-Prevention trial and the subsequent recommendation for administration of fish oil as part of the post-infarction regimen in European guidelines. More recently, Omega-3 fatty acids administration has been associated with a lower incidence of atrial fibrillation in patients who underwent cardiac surgery. Contrasting results have been instead reported in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. This article reviews in detail the basic and clinical research studies of fish oil as an anti-arrhythmic entity, the types of arrhythmias that have been beneficially affected by fish oil administration, and the presumed and known mechanisms by which the beneficial actions are exerted.


Investigations of mechanical properties of nanocrystalline (nc) materials are still in interest of materials science, because they offer wide application as structural materials thanks to their outstanding mechanical properties. NC materials demonstrate superior hardness and strength as compared with their coarse grained counterparts, but very often they possess a limited ductility or show low uniform elongation due to poor strain hardening ability. Here, we present the results of investigation of the microstructure and mechanical properties of nc Pd and Pd-x%Ag (x=20, 60) alloys. The initially coarse grained Pd-x% Ag samples were processed by high pressure torsion, which resulted in formation of homogenous ultrafine grain structure. The increase of Ag contents led to the decrease of the resulted grain size and change in deformation behavior, because of decreasing of stacking fault energy (SFE). The samples with larger Ag contents demonstrated the higher values of hardness, yield stress and ultimate stress. Remarkably the uniform elongation had also increased with increase of strength.


This paper is focused on the application of hybrid Single relaxation time lattice Boltzmann and finite volume methods in conjunction with discrete ordinates method to simulate coupled natural convection and volumetric radiation in differentially heated enclosure, filled with an absorbing, emitting and non-scattering gray medium. In this work, the velocity and temperature fields are calculated using lattice Boltzmann and finite volume methods respectively, whereas the radiative term is computed by the discrete ordinates method. This study is carried out for Pr = 0.71, a Rayleigh number range of 103 ≤ Ra ≤ 106, an optical thickness with values 0 ≤ τ ≤ 100, a Planck number ranging in 0.001≤ Pl ≤ 100 and an aspect ratio varying between 0.5 ≤ Ar ≤ 2. Results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, velocity profiles and average Nusselt number. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the presence of volumetric radiation is noteworthy. Its effect, as a function of Rayleigh number and the radiative properties, yields significant changes on the behavior of streamlines and isotherms. In the taller enclosure, the increase of average total Nusselt number with increasing Rayleigh number is less significant than that in the case of the shallow enclosure.


Rural African classrooms are still practising discourses and pedagogies that contribute towards students' continued underachievement and marginalisation. The use of behaviourist-based pedagogical approaches and the exclusion of learners' socio-cultural experiences including their mother tongue (MT) still characterise most classroom practices. The use of classroom discourse that severely constrains opportunities for pupil participation and the development of higher order thinking skills has also been noted. This paper describes an intervention based on the principles of transformative and constructive developmental pedagogy designed to improve approaches to teaching and learning in a primary school in rural Zimbabwe. Examples of prevailing classroom practices organised on prescriptive behaviourist procedures serve as the backdrop to a description of the intervention. In a meeting negotiated with teachers at the outset of the project, feedback based on classroom observation was offered to the teachers and alternative approaches were suggested. The latter focussed particularly on taking account of the local culture and pupils' own experiences and on the use of the MT. Examples of teachers embracing this approach are presented and the implications for the professional development of teachers are outlined.


This paper centers on the ninth elegy of Propertius' fourth book, remaking a neglected case for a reading as paraclausithyron and establishing a further case for siting it in a comic dramatic frame. The aim is to reveal the importance of the comic background to elegy 4.9, particularly in the paraclausithyron topos and the use of a cross-dressed Hercules. The analysis emphasizes the elegy's sources in stage comedy and contradicts the more typical claim that 4.9 absorbs Hercules into a specifically elegiac framework. Propertius 4.9, altogether, with its myth of Hercules, serves to acclimate an epic figure into the elegiac world, to explore the fluidity of gender in elegy as well as to access the specifics of comedy and mime as a genre important to Propertian poetics. The survey on paraclausithyron and gender play of transvestism in ancient poetry, shall indicate the relation of theatre with Propertius, who draws elegiac settings within the frame of a theatrical scene, veiling Hercules in the appearance of a comic lover.


The software industry needs a large number of software professionals. However, the majority content that students in schools have learned is theory, so that every software company is facing the issue of letting students master the work skills as soon as possible to meet the needs of the work. Other issues include the shortage of high-level developers, the shortage of talents and difficulty of updating the knowledge of developers. Neusoft's personnel training has a very good model. For college students, it uses Business Training Center to improve practical skills; for working staff, it fully takes into account the existing foundation of staff and uses the training complex system which combines face-to-face, e-learning and a variety of ways. Thus matching autonomy with strength and meeting diverse training needs of staffs with lower cost.


The idea that language molds our thinking has met with varying degrees of favor in the history of philosophy and linguistics. A rather puzzling aspect of this debate is the lack of rigorous demonstration or rebuttal of the language-thought connection. We believe that one obstacle is the intrinsic difficulty in treating "thought" as a measurable dependent variable in empirical, replicable, experiments. We plead the case for a more humble, but more verifiable, aspect of linguistic relativity: by looking at cases where language shapes our perception, instead of  "thought" generally. We target the domain of color terms, a field where the effects of language in shaping perception have been more striking, even if the details are highly debated, and also discuss a different kind of perception, one related to emotion terms. We argue that in this case, there is also a continuum in the proprioceptive determinants of emotions, which is structured into discrete categories by language.


OF THESIS USING NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING AND MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES TO CHARACTERIZE CONFIGURATION BUG REPORTS: A STUDY In this study, a tool is developed that achieves two purposes: (1) given bug reports, it identifies configuration bug reports from non-configuration bug reports; (2) once a bug report is identified to be a configuration bug report, the tool finds out what specific configuration option the bug report is associated. This study starts with a review of related works that used machine learning tools to solve software bug and bug report related issues. It then discusses the natural language processing and machine learning techniques. Afterwards, the development process of the proposed tool is described in detail, including the motivation, the experiment design and setup, and results analysis. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool, both crossvalidation and a similar validation technique are performed. Results show that the tool is effective at both identifying configuration bug reports and the associated configuration options for the identified bug reports. This study proves the usefulness of machine learning techniques in solving bug report related issues. It also shows that configuration and non-configuration bug reports have different characteristics that can be learned by machine learning tools. The developed tool can be improved in a number of areas to make it more effective.


PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION
The objective of this retrospective multicenter study was to assess the clinical outcome of patients with microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

METHODS
The hospital records of 166 patients with microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix were reviewed. All cases were retrospectively staged according the 1994 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) nomenclature. One hundred and forty-three cases were in Stage Ia1 and 23 in Stage Ia2 disease. Surgery consisted of conization alone in 30 (18.1%) patients, total hysterectomy in 82 (49.4%), and radical hysterectomy in 54 (32.5%). All patients in whom conization was the definite treatment had Stage Ia1 disease and had cone margins negative for intraepithelial or invasive lesions.

RESULTS
None of the 67 patients submitted to pelvic lymphadenectomy had histologically proven metastatic lymph nodes. Of the 166 patients, eight (4.8%) had an intraepithelial recurrence and four (2.4%) had an invasive recurrence. With regard to FIGO substage, disease recurred in nine (6.3%) out of 143 patients with Stage Ia1 and three (13.0%) out of 23 with Stage Ia2 cervical cancer. With regard to type of surgery, disease recurred in three (10.0%) out of the patients treated with conization alone, four (4.9%) out those who underwent total hysterectomy, and five (9.3%) out of those who underwent radical hysterectomy. It is worth noting that none of the 30 patients treated with conization alone had recurrent invasive cancer after a median follow-up of 45 months. However three (10%) of these patients developed a cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) III after 16, 33, and 94 months, respectively, from conization.

CONCLUSIONS
Conization can represent the definite treatment for patients with Stage Ia1 squamous cell cervical cancer, if cone margins and apex are disease-free. For patients with Stage Ia2 cervical cancer extrafascial hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy might be an adequate standard therapy, although the need for lymph node dissection is questionable.


Isolatedmicrofluidic stagnation point flows– stagnation point flows formedwithinmicrofluidic interfaces– have come a long way as a tool for characterizing materials, trapping/manipulating micro particles, and generating confined flows and localized chemistries. Early applications of these fluidic stagnation flows focused on characterizing emulsions and polymers. However, in recent times, these flows have taken microfluidic forms to expand the range of applications to single-cell analysis, substrate patterning, and chip-integrated devices, amongst others. This article focuses on reviewing the microfluidics literature to highlight the concept behind isolated microfluidic stagnation point flows, underline different approaches of experimentally resolving them, and then look into their applications in chemistry and life sciences; with a specific focus on micro-total-analysis systems. The literature on this topic is approached historically; from the isolated fluidic stagnation point flow generated by the early four-roll mill to the currently predominating microfluidic stagnation point flows of the cross-slot device. Finally, isolated microfluidic stagnation flows produced by the relatively recent open space microfluidics – opposed jets, microfluidic probes and micropipettes – are critically analyzed and their applications are discussed. Ultimately, the goal of this article is to inform the scientific community on the constructive aspect of microfluidic stagnation flows by demonstrating their past, present, and future applicability in analytical chemistry and life sciences.


IT Service management standards such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), and now ISO/IEC 20000, are of increasing importance to organisations around the globe. The growing awareness and adoption of ITIL is evidenced by the exponential rise in the number of Foundation certificates granted over the last five years. There is demand for ITIL-qualified staff: in March 2007, of the 21,804 Australian vacancies on it.seek.com.au, 588 jobs requested ITIL skills. These positions were in the areas of Help Desk/Support, Project Management, Business Analysis, Software Engineering, Networking, and Training. This is a marked increase since May 2004 when Seek listed only 25 jobs asking for ITIL skills. These statistics confirm reports in industry press that certification has become a 'recruiting filter' in Australia as well as in Europe (Wilson 2004, Schuller & Wheeler 2006).

In recent years there is increasing awareness of the need to integrate models for software development with processes for service support and management. The focus is moving to a life-cycle approach with shared processes rather than the confusing situation today whereby organisations are grappling with multiple models to ensure best practice in development, implementation and ongoing support.

The growing realisation of the importance of IT service management is evidenced by the current development work on CMMI for service delivery (CMMI-SVC). Process areas focused on service delivery activities have been initially drafted and will be scheduled for piloting and refinement after the release of the CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ) (Hollenbach & Buteau 2006).

The CMMI-SVC comprises 25 processes areas spread over four categories: process management, services support, service establishment and delivery, and project management. Of the 25 process areas, 16 are common to CMMI-DEV and CMMI-ACQ. Supplier agreement management is shared by CMMI-SVC with CMMI-DEV. There are five new service process areas: problem management, incident and request management, service delivery, service transition, and capacity and availability management. There are also three optional service process areas: organisational service management, service system development and service continuity management.

In December 2005, ISO member countries adopted a standard for IT Service Management - ISO/IEC 20000, based on BS 15000 which was derived from ITIL. A comparison of ISO/IEC 20000 (ISO/IEC 2005b, ISO/IEC 2005a) with CMMI-SVC processes reveals that the majority of the ISO/IEC 20000 processes are represented in CMMI-SVC with the possible exception of information security management, business relationship management, and service reporting.

In 2005, a team of researchers at the Public Research Center Henri Tudor in Luxembourg developed and trialled a process reference model (PRM) and process assessment model (PAM) consistent with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and compliant with the IT Assessment Standard ISO/IEC 15504 (Di Renzo et al. 2005). The Assessment and Improvement integrateD Approach (AIDA) project developed the PAM based on the ISO/IEC 15504-5 assessment model (ISO/IEC 2003) and includes process performance indicators for base practices and work products and process capability indicators. The PRM includes the five ITIL service support processes (incident management, problem management, configuration management, change management and release management) (OGC 2002b) and the five ITIL service delivery processes (service level management, IT financial management, capacity management, IT service continuity management and availability management) (OGC 2002a). The ITIL books were used to identify input and output work products which were then classified according to relevant processes.

Developers of both the CMMI-SVC and AIDA models will need to recognise that the release of ISO/IEC 20000 will have an impact on IT service management as organisations are expected to move to the international standard in preference to the UK Office of Government and Commerce's ITIL.

References
Di Renzo, B., Barafort, B., Lejeune, V., Prime, S. & Simon, J. M. (2005) ITIL based service management measurement and ISO/IEC 15504 process assessment : A win-win opportunity. SPICE 2005 Conference. Klagenfurt, Austria.
Hollenbach, R. & Buteau, B. (2006) CMMI for Services: Introducing the CMMI for Service Constellation. CMMI Technology Conference. Denver CO.
ISO/IEC (2003) ISO/IEC 15504.5:2004 Information technology - Process assessment - an exemplar Process Assessment Model. IN Iso/Iec Jtc 1/Sc 7/Wg10 (Ed.).
ISO/IEC (2005a) ISO/IEC 20000:2005 Information technology - Service management - Part 1: Specification. IN Jtc 1/Sc 7 (Ed.) Geneva, International Organization for Standardization.
ISO/IEC (2005b) ISO/IEC 20000:2005 Information technology - Service management - Part 2: Code of practice. IN 7, J. S. (Ed.) Geneva, International Organization for Standardization.
OGC (2002a) IT Infrastructure Library- Service Delivery, London, Stationery Office.
OGC (2002b) IT Infrastructure Library- Service Support, London, Stationery Office.
Schuller, H. & Wheeler, G. (2006,31 May) An ITIL bit of knowledge. Computerworld.
Wilson, E. (2004) Opening the book on ITIL. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney.


This paper describes the conceptualization, development and implementation of the National Health Fund in Jamaica. Established in 2003, the NHF provides direct assistance to patients for drug purchases and funding support to private and public organizations for approved projects. The NHF marks a new strategic approach to the introduction of national health financing schemes utilizing the EHPO© analytical model. EHPO© (Evaluating Health Policy Options) helps policymakers develop strategies and options and includes an interactive, dynamic computer model that is used to evaluate benefit coverage options and their financial risks. The paper examines the desirable features of national health financing systems, the Jamaica public policy context and the role of EHPO© in analyzing health benefits and coverage, financial risk and liability. It suggests lessons to other countries for the design of healthcare benefits coverage, financing, provider payment mechanisms and public policy implementation.


This paper presents an experimental investigation on fire resistance of densified normal strength concrete (DNSC), at water/binder (W/B) ratios of 0.45, 0.36, and 0.32, of which compressive strength of 28-days ranged from 42.5 MPa to 56.3 MPa. The results of the spalling test reveal that DNSC encountered explosive under high temperature. Polymer fiber can be used to improve fire resistance of DNSC. DNSC subjected to high temperature lost its mechanical properties in a similar manner to that of high-strength concrete.


Along with olives, figs and grapes, pomegranates are among the first plants to have been cultivated by man. The perceived consumer value of pomegranate and its juice is due in large part to its scientifically supported health benefits. The fruit is believed to have significant effects for arteriosclerosis, cholesterol levels and cancer prevention. In this study, the mineral compositions of commercial 100 % pomegranate juices were determined. Although processing steps include clarification and filtration, the pomegranate juices were a good source for minerals such as potassium (1283.30 mg/L), calcium (107.53 mg/L), sodium (96.02 mg/L), phosphorus (76.54 mg/L) and magnesium (67.22 mg/L). The high mineral content of pomegranate juices could contribute to the total intake of these constituents in the human diet.


This paper aims to explore the risk perceptions of parents caring for children who have severe learning disabilities and complex medical needs. The paper draws upon a qualitative study involving 20 parents, mostly mothers. The findings document the demanding care requirements which these parents had to meet. Parents viewed their role in terms of devoted vocation rather than meeting a burdensome obligation. This dedication interacted with heightened risk consciousness to fuel a sense of undelimited responsibility. Parents tended not to place sectoral or temporal boundaries around their responsibility for the care of their child. Their approach was mediated by a prevailing but not universal mistrust of the caring capabilities of others. Although parents sometimes temporarily transferred caring duties to others, they usually retained a sense of anxious responsibility for such care, supervising or auditing the activities of other carers rather than delegating risk ownership. Trust was conferred on others only when they had demonstrated a good record of accomplishment of care for the child, and were seen to have acquired detailed idiographic understanding of their individual complex needs. The findings can be understood in relation to a broader societal context of individualisation of responsibility.


WSNs consist of a large number of small sensor nodes. These nodes are very cheap in terms of cost. In military operations, there is always a threat of being attacked by enemies. So, the use of these cheap sensor nodes will help to reduce the loss. In this paper, we analyze the existing literature of using WSNs for military applications. We will discuss the available scenarios of using sensor nodes in the military uses. Provided suitable sensors the system can detect identify and classify threads based on the count, number, type weather it is armored vehicles or men in foot, type and amount of weapons they carry, etc., can be detected in advance. This system provides reliable real time war picture and better situational awareness. This will further help to improve the troop readiness and decrease the reaction time. Added using the data collected tactical planning for deploying troops effectively can be done. In case of civil applications economic zones like oil fields, gold mines, can be protected from intruders and attackers. Industrial complex and production facility can be protected with minimized man power and improved efficiency.  Basic criteria are which had to be taken into account while deploying wireless sensors for such applications has been discussed. Particularly locating the intruder with respect to the distance from the sensor node to the target in terms of latitude and longitudinal coordinates are discussed here.