Information on the response of the endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus Mearns) to range management, especially prescribed fire, is needed to determine conservation strategies. Intensive management of grasslands for cattle grazing and conversion of grassland to other agricultural use is considered the greatest threat to the sparrow. Territory spot-mapping and estimates of reproductive success were examined in relation to time post-burn in managed cattle pastures at Avon Park Air Force Range, Highlands County, Florida from 1997-1999. We tested the hypothesis that sparrow density and reproductive success did not depend on time following fire. Contrary to previous work, there was no evidence that Florida grasshopper sparrow territory density depended on years post-burn (P = 0.842). The probability of reproductive success was significantly higher 0.5 year post-burn than at 1.5 years post-burn (P 0.27 for each pairwise comparison between years). No simple trend or highly significant polynomial relationship between reproductive success and territory density was indicated (P > 0.41). Compared to other subspecies, Florida grasshopper sparrows exhibited relatively low density (0.22 territories/ha or less) and reproductive success (20%). Our results suggest increased reproductive success at a population level 0.5 year following fire, and did not suggest an association between territory density and individual reproductive success. Additional information is needed on the effects of seasonality of fire on Florida grasshopper sparrows. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v55i4_delany


We develop a technique to upper bound the point-to-point MIMO limited rate feedback (LRF) capacity under a wide class of vector quantization schemes. The upper bound turns out to be tight and can also be used to obtain an absolute upper bound by using a bounding distribution for Grassmannian beamforming. The bounding technique can be applied to other problems requiring the exact evaluation of the expected value of matrix determinant.


This paper proposes a new routing protocol for ad hoc networks built around the source routing technique combined with the location (e.g., GPS coordinates) of nodes obtained by an energy and distance smart dissemination mechanism. The key new observation used is that the location information provides each node with a snapshot of the topology of the complete network from which a source route may be computed locally rather than through route discovery. The resulting protocol has reduced delay, and is more bandwidth and energy efficient, than both traditional (proactive and reactive) ad hoc routing protocols, as well as location based routing protocols.


Abstract A perception of insufficient milk supply (PIMS) is associated with early discontinuation of breastfeeding. Ideally, an objective measure of milk supply would either dispel or confirm this perception and provide reassurance or guide professional advice. Clinical signs of sufficient milk intake (steady growth, sufficient elimination, infant alertness and breasts feeling full before breastfeeds and soft after breastfeeds) should provide confidence in milk supply. We surveyed 423 mothers in early lactation who had breastfeeding problems to determine the proportion that had PIMS and to determine if the mothers with PIMS relied on these clinical signs or other perceptions of their infants' behaviour as indications of insufficient milk supply. By 3 weeks after birth, we found that the rate of PIMS among mothers with breastfeeding problems was 44%. Supplementary infant formula was being given to 66% of the infants, so the clinical indications were that milk intake was sufficient, but 74% of the mothers with PIMS cited concerns that their infants did not appear satisfied after breastfeeds. After targeted advice from lactation consultants, mothers with PIMS showed positive changes in their perceptions of their milk supply, underlining the value of professional guidance soon after birth. We conclude that an appearance of infant dissatisfaction is the major cause of PIMS in Western Australia.


Cr(III) ions were adsorbed onto polyacrylamide-grafted rubberwood fibre, and effects of aqueous conditions were evaluated. The adsorbent was prepared via graft copolymerization of acrylamide (Am) onto rubberwood fibre (RWF), using ceric ammonium nitrate as an initiator. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to confirm the formation of PAm-g-RWF. Various variables affecting the adsorption capacity such as the pH of the solution, adsorption time, initial metal ion concentration, and temperature were investigated. The Cr(III) was up to 92% removed by PAm-g-RWF from an initial concentration of 10 mg/L at pH 5.0. Kinetic data fitted very well to a pseudo-second-order rate expression and less well to a pseudo-first-order equation. The equilibrium parameters for adsorption isotherms of the metal ions on the grafted fibre were obtained using Langmuir and Freundlich models, and the Langmuir model was found to be in better correlation with the experimental data with a maximum adsorption capacity of 18.24 mg/g. Thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy change (ΔH°), free energy change (ΔG°), and entropy change (ΔS°) were calculated; the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic.


Hibbert et al.'s relationally reflexive practice framework guided the authors to develop a new sport leadership generative partnership model emphasizing privileging practice and the sport sector as it relates to researching, teaching, and practicing sport leadership. The 2019 North American Society for Sport Management symposium on sport leadership, titled "The Changing Face of Leadership Within Sport: What Does the Future Hold?" acted as a springboard for deep, reflexive conversations among the authors. Through the development of our model, we purposely highlight the process of a relationally reflexive journey making sense of our lived experiences, engaging with learnings from the symposium, and arguing that sport leadership and followership research and teaching ultimately should be about improving the sport sector within specific cultural contexts. We offer critically conscious considerations for privileging and embedding practice as part of sport management teaching, research, and service.


Graph embedding has shown its effectiveness to represent graph information and capture deep relationships in graph data. Most recent graph embedding methods focus on attributed graphs, since they preserve both structure and content information in the network. However, corruption can exist in the graph structure as well as the node content of the graph, and both can lead to inferior embedding results. Unfortunately, few existing graph embedding algorithms have considered the corruption problem, and to the best of our knowledge, none has studied structural corruption in attributed graphs, including missing and redundant edges. This field is difficult for previous methods, mainly due to two challenges: (1) the existence of various corruption causes has made it difficult to recognize corruptions in graphs, and (2) the complexity of graph-structured data has increased the difficulty of handling corruption therein for graph embedding methods. These facts lead us here to propose a novel autoencoder-based graph embedding approach, which is robust against structural corruption. Our idea comes from the recent discovery of memorization effects in deep learning. Namely, deep neural networks prefer to fit clean data first, before they over-fit corrupted data. Specifically, we train two autoencoders simultaneously and let them learn the reliability of the edges in the graph from each other. The two autoencoders would evaluate the edges according to their reconstructed structure and manipulate this by devaluing those distrusted edges to update the structure information. The updated structure would be used further in the next iteration as the ground-truth of its peer-network. Experiments on different versions of real-world graphs show state-of-the-art results and demonstrate the robustness of our model against structural corruption.


This paper attempts to test the validity of the Fisher Hypothesis (FH) in Pakistan by investigating the long-run relationship between interest rate and inflation rate applying cointegration analysis. The FH has serious implications for debtors and creditors in an inflation prone economy since inflationary expectations influence nominal interest rate. Moreover, the effectiveness of monetary policy and efficiency in banking sector has direct bearing on the long-run relationship between nominal interest rate and expected inflation rate. Inflationary expectation has been modeled using adaptive and rational expectation approaches and sensitivity of the result to expectation formation has been compared. The paper finds the long-run relationship between nominal interest rate and inflation rate and accepts the partial Fisher Hypothesis. This result suggests that interest rate does not fully cover or accurately anticipate inflation, which implies that bank deposits deteriorate over time. The result further implies that monetary policy may not be effective in such a situation and households' savings rate may suffer a decline. The acceptance of partial Fisher Hypothesis in case of rational expectation suggests that the rate of interest does not reflect all relevant information and real interest rate does not exhibit random walk behaviour, which is indicative of inefficiency in banking sector. The analysis clearly shows the failure of interest rate as a hedge against inflation and as a predictor of inflation. Therefore, the paper recommends innovation and financial engineering for better alternative especially in banking. The paper also recommends the growth and encouragement of equity market vis-a-vis prevalent debt-biased market. Finally, the paper advocates the complete replacement of traditional credit-based banking by more efficient trade-based banking in Pakistan.


Zoledronic acid is a newly FDA-approved bisphosphonate for the treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy. Although the safety and efficacy of this drug in treating hypercalcemia associated with hyperparathyroidism have not yet been established in clinically controlled trials, its off-label use is not uncommon. We describe a patient with primary hyperparathyroidism treated with zoledronic acid who developed severe postoperative hypocalcemia. A 64-yr-old woman was admitted with severe hypercalcemia. She was treated with rehydration, calcitonin, methylprednisolone, furosemide as well as 4 mg/day of zoledronic acid for two consecutive days. Primary hyperparathyroidism caused by a right inferior parathyroid lesion was diagnosed. While awaiting surgery, she continued furosemide, methylprednisolone and hydration: after one week, serum calcium had fallen to such a low level that a short-term calcium carbonate supplementation was required. Three weeks after admission, the patient underwent selective right inferior parathyroidectomy, followed by reduction of PTH. During the postoperative period the patient presented severe hypocalcemia resistant to the usual treatment. Serum calcium levels returned to normal three months after surgery. The severity of hypocalcemia and the resistance to conventional treatments suggest that the effect of hungry bone syndrome could be worse in patients treated with bisphosphonates in the preoperative phase.


The paper aims at developing insight about whether consumer promotion schemes are helpful in building brand equity or not. Besides advertising, there are other consumer promotional schemes that help companies to develop brand equity and help in building consumer loyalty and avoids consumer switching from one brand to other. There are numbers of consumer promotional schemes that companies use like free gifts, buy one get one free, coupons, lotteries etc. Consumer promotions play a key role in the life cycle of a brand. The role varies according to the stage in the life cycle, market situation and competitive scenario. Promotions can have a significant impact on penetration build for new brands and for stimulating growth in existing brands provided they are anchored on a well defined activation platform that builds brand equity. In this paper, we have analyzed companies that have used various promotional schemes and also whether all these promotional schemes were successful or a failure and reason behind that. The data collected for the research is basically secondary data gathered from websites, books and journals on marketing.


We present research aiming to build tools for the normalization of User-Generated Content (UGC). We argue that processing this type of text requires the revisiting of the initial steps of Natural Language Processing (NLP), since UGC (micro-blog, blog, and, generally, Web 2.0 user generated texts) presents a number of non-standard communicative and linguistic characteristics – often closer to oral and colloquial language than to edited text. We present a corpus of UGC text in Spanish from three different sources: Twitter, consumer reviews and blogs, and describe its main characteristics. We motivate the need for UGC text normalization by analyzing the problems found when processing this type of text through a conventional language processing pipeline, particularly in the tasks of lemmatization and morphosyntactic tagging. Our aim with this paper is to seize the power of already existing spell and grammar correction engines and endow them with automatic normalization capabilities, in order to pave the way for the application of standard NLP tools to typical UGC text. Particularly, we propose a strategy for automatically normalizing UGC by adding a module on top of a pre-existing spell checker that selects the most plausible correction from an unranked list of candidates provided by the spell checker. To build this selector module we train four language models, each one containing a different type of linguistic information in a trade off with its generalization capabilities. Our experiments show that the models trained on truecase and lowercase word forms are more discriminative than the others at selecting the best candidate. We have also experimented with a parametrized combination of the models, both by optimizing directly on the selection task and by doing a linear interpolation of the models. The resulting parametrized combinations obtain results close to the best performing model but do not improve on those results, as measured on the test set. The precision of the selector module in ranking number one the expected correction proposal on the test corpora reaches 82.5% for Twitter text (baseline 57%) and 88% for non-Twitter text (baseline 64%). 2 M. Melero and others


There is currently a lack of published research on the effectiveness of a creative expression (CE) program known as TimeSlips (TS), which has the goal of improving quality of life and social connectedness for individuals in the mid to late stages of dementia. This study focused on measuring the impact of TS on the frequency and type of communicative exchanges and the relationship to social connectedness. A quasi-experimental design was conducted in a single long-term care facility with seven participants in the mid to late stages of dementia. A time-series analysis was used to assess change in communicative output and interactions. Positive communication changes in addition to maintained or improved quality of life were observed. Implementing a creative expression program such as TS for those in the middle to late stages of dementia improves social connectedness and communicative interactions.


The hemizona assay (HZA) is a valuable tool to study the binding potential and interaction of spermatozoa with the zona pellucida. Its accuracy strongly depends on the use of equally sized hemizonae. Usually, manipulator‐guided microblades are used for cutting the zona pellucida. Recently, lasers were introduced for precise local thermolysis of the zona. The use of a 1.48 μm diode laser for the generation of hemizonae from human oocytes was investigated. This laser allowed drilling of equally sized hemizonae which were used for hemizona binding assays. It is concluded that the 1.48 μm diode laser system can be applied for the production of hemizonae. The method is easy to perform and offers a fast and efficient access to hemizonae of identical size.


OBJECTIVE
This study has 4 aims. The first is to determine rates of mortality due to suicide and other causes for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and personality-disordered comparison subjects over 24 years of prospective follow-up. The second and third aims are to determine the best predictors of time-to-suicide and time-to-premature death (not due to suicide) in patients with BPD. A final aim is to determine whether mortality rates are impacted by recovery status.

METHODS
A total of 290 adult inpatients meeting rigorous Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and DSM-III-R criteria for BPD and 72 personality-disordered comparison subjects were recruited during inpatient admission at McLean Hospital between June 1992 and December 1995. Participants were followed and reassessed every 2 years, with data collection now entering its 26th year. Participant deaths were tracked over time.

RESULTS
A total of 5.9% of borderline patients and 1.4% of comparison subjects died by suicide. Additionally, 14.0% of borderline patients and 5.5% of comparison subjects died by non-suicide causes. Among borderline patients, number of prior hospitalizations significantly predicted completed suicide (HR = 1.62, P = .037). Sociodemographic factors, physical health indicators, and psychiatric history significantly predicted premature death (not due to suicide) in bivariate analyses (all P values < .05). In multivariate analyses, male sex (HR = 3.56, P = .003) and more prior psychiatric hospitalizations (HR = 2.93, P < .001) significantly predicted premature death. Most borderline patients who died either by suicide (87.5%) or non-suicide-related causes (88%) were not recovered before death.

CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals with BPD are at elevated risk of premature death. Patients who did not achieve recovery were at a disproportionately higher risk of early death than recovered patients.


The experiences of two small farmers in their efforts to employ and retain temporary agricultural workers through the H-2A Program were documented through an illustrative case study. Interviews of the farmers were conducted regarding the measures that they had to take in preparing for, employing, housing, hosting, managing, and financing the workers. These temporary agricultural workers were sought in support of these farmers' continued participation in an initiative to assist small and limited-resource farmers in supplying produce to a major retailer. It was concluded that there are at least four priority areas for employing H-2A workers: planning, applying, maintaining compliance, and financing; and that, small farmers need to be strategic in employing H-2A workers to be profitable.


Microelectronic packaging design issues have been given greater attention mainly because the performance, reliability and cost of semiconductor chips are increasingly dictated by the choice and design of the package. The task of integrating the requirements imposed by different disciplines such as mechanical and thermal issues in an automated design tool, is discussed in this paper. Finite element analysis and nonlinear programming techniques are used in an iterative fashion to progress from an initial design concept to a design that satisfies all design requirements or one that is superior to other design alternatives. Two packaging design examples serve to illustrate the functionalities of the automated design optimization tool. >


In the foreign/second language classroom, assessment tasks are not just created to measure and document students' performance at a given point in time. Effective assessment should be done through activities and tasks that teachers use to gather evidence and provide feedback about how well the students are performing. Therefore, the results of assessment can inspire the students to improve their learning. This paper is a work-in-progress report that describes several phases in the assessment process that were implemented at Language Development Center of UIN Suska Riau. This paper explores the key concepts for planning an assessment that is useful, valid, reliable, practical, and authentic. The application of transparency in assessment is also presented to provide practical guidance in sharing information about assessments before they occur using the Language Development Center's website. Ultimately, it is hoped that increasing transparency provides students of Language Development Center with chance to perform better or improve their learning because they receive a clear explanation of how the skills, vocabulary, and grammar that they are going to learn will be assessed.


In the current study, modified version of the penguins search optimization algorithm (PeSOA) was introduced, and its usage was assessed in the water resources field. In the modified version (MPeSOA), the Gaussian exploration was added to the algorithm. The MPeSOA performance was evaluated in optimal operation of a hypothetical four-reservoir system and Karun-4 reservoir as a real world problem. Also, genetic algorithm (GA) was used as a criterion for evaluating the performance of PeSOA and MPeSOA. The results revealed that in a four-reservoir system problem, the PeSOA performance was much weaker than the GA; but on the other hand, the MPeSOA had better performance than the GA. In the mentioned problem, PeSOA, GA, and MPeSOA reached 78.43, 97.46, and 98.30% of the global optimum, respectively. In the operation of Karun-4 reservoir, although PeSOA performance had less difference with the two other algorithms than four-reservoir problem, its performance was not acceptable. The average values of objective function in this case were equal to 26.49, 23.84, and 21.48 for PeSOA, GA, and MPeSOA, respectively. According to the results obtained in the operation of Karun-4 reservoir, the algorithms including MPeSOA, GA, and PeSOA were situated in ranks one to three in terms of efficiency, respectively.


Abstract:Kenneth Burke's important 1934 essay "My Approach to Communism" is often read as "a commitment to Communism" celebrating the movement. A typescript (recently discovered in the Kenneth Burke Papers) of a speech given by Burke in January, 1934 invites a reconsideration of "My Approach." The speech, delivered to the New York John Reed Club, is concerned with finding a solution to America's contemporary economic and social derangements and is more committed to this search and the desired effects of social change than any specific political system or party. Resituating "My Approach to Communism" as a revised and abridged version of this speech encourages a re-reading of the essay as an extended critique of capitalism and an argument for social conditions that foster cultural stability for art's sake.


Coumarins and flavonoids are heterocyclic molecules that have been associated with beneficial effects on human health, such as reducing the risk of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and brain diseases. These effects are thought to be related to the radical scavenging effect, due to their antioxidant activities, along with other possible mechanisms, such as anti-inflammatory properties and interaction with several enzymes. Over the past two decades, there have been an increasing number of publications on coumarins and flavonoids, which demonstrate the importance of understanding the chemistry behind the antioxidant activities of both natural and synthesized compounds, considering the benefits from their dietary ingestion as well as pharmacological use. This work aims to review the antioxidant effects of coumarin and flavonoid molecules in humans and the structural aspects that contribute to these effects.


In this article, I translate local narratives about one particular event into a reading of a city as a whole. The city concerned is Butembo, a secondary city in the North Kivu province (DRC). The incident relates to the appearance of a foreign flower in the late 1950s. This water hyacinth - named 'Congo ya Sika', which means 'the New Congo'- caused severe damage to the waterways of the Belgian Congo, and the colonial authorities mobilized the population in an effort to eradicate the plague. Pamphlets and posters were spread, with the request to destroy the pictured flower when spotted. People of Butembo reacted in a most particular way to the appearance of these posters in their city, ascribing the Congo ya Sika flower mythical proportions right from the start. In their interpretation, the appearance of the flower was a sign that 'the new Congo' would rise in their town, endowing their place exclusively with a particular force. I scrutinize the myth's origin and analyse its social meaning, in an effort to gain a better understanding of Butembo's society. Throughout my analysis, special attention is paid to (self) representation, and to noise stuck to colonial messages. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Charts Western influence and national development. Beginning with the mid-19th century, when China encountered the West and began to enter the modern age, this encyclopedia offers an overview of the world's largest and most populous nation. The coverage includes not only major political topics, but also surveys the arts, business, literature, education, journalism, and all other major aspects of the nation's social, cultural, and economic life. The encyclopedia also offers significant material on such often neglected subjects as women and minorities, modern drama, Sino-French War, the federalist movement, overseas Chinese, Mongolian independence, and more. Special emphasis throughout is on the dramatic changes that have taken place in the country since the end of World War II. Provides an overview of the modern era. The entries are written by China specialists, who are thoroughly familiar with every aspect of the nation and its peoples. While history predominates, the articles cover all academic fields and include considerable material on recent decades as well as on earlier periods. There are entries on national political leaders and key thinkers, major events and trends in the nation's history, institutions, organizations, and currents of thought that led to the emergence of the modern nation. The encyclopedia's longer essays offer detailed and insightful surveys of censorship, important eras, literary movements, powerful social groups, anti-imperialism campaigns, Five Year Plans, the Sino-Vietnamese War, economic breakthroughs, and other vital topics. The coverage is informed by a thorough exploration of the historical role of Chinese nationalism, a potent force that was shaped by the need to retain national unity and independence under foreign assault.


Aim We designed an electronic software that will assist a wide range of healthcare professionals to implement the major aspects of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines both within the primary care and hospital settings in the management of ADHD in children/adolescents. Methods The software is based on Microsoft windows application and it provides information about important components of the NICE ADHD guideline including diagnosis, differential diagnosis, psychosocial, pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of ADHD and transition planning to adult ADHD services. Data recorded for each patient includes a unique number, name, address, date of birth, gender, family doctor, school, school doctor/nurse, co-morbidities, and list of medications and dates of renewed prescriptions. The database application was piloted in a regional tertiary community hospital department. Results The software also incorporates a specialist database for patients with ADHD with the ability to support service planning, monitoring and evaluation; facilitating epidemiological research (figure 1). It offers facilities for auditing patients' records with analysis according to post code, city of residence, current medications and types of co-morbidities. The database supports clinical care of each patient by recording the profile of their difficulties including co-morbidities. It supports service planning by providing reports on patients according to location, current medications and prescribers. It improves service provision by tracking the documentation of renewed prescriptions for each patient. 100% of the medical secretaries described the software as either 'easy' or 'very easy' to use and 'useful' or 'very useful' (6/6). The medical staff also expressed similarly high level of satisfaction with the software application. Abstract G39 Figure 1 Showing one of the screenviews of the database application. Conclusion The ADHD software should be an important part of a comprehensive ADHD service. It aids implementation of various aspects of the recent ADHD clinical guideline and incorporates a specialist database for patients with ADHD. The software supports service planning, monitoring and evaluation; facilitating epidemiological research; clinical audit and planning of individual patient care.


AACR Annual Meeting-- Apr 12-16, 2008; San Diego, CA

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Human malignant glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) develops as the resultof stepwise accumulations of multiple genetic alterations. The PI3K/PTEN-AKT/mTOR signaling pathway plays a critical role in oncogenesis due to the loss of tumor suppressor PTEN. The downstream signaling kinase, mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR), controls cell survival, growth, and motility through two distinct multiprotein complexes, mTORC1 (a mammalian counterpart of TORC1) and mTORC2 (a mammalian counterpart of TORC2). Rapamycin (RAPA), an mTOR inhibitor, and its analogs are considered potential candidates for the treatment of GBM. We hypothesize that the contribution of the two complexes are interdependent, resulting in uncontrolled GBM growth and dissemination while providing a molecular basis for therapeutic intervention. The interplay of mTORC1 and mTORC2 was studied in cell lines LN18, U87, and U373. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated activated AKT (pAKT) expression in 55% of GBMs. The cells were treated with one of the following, RAPA, LY 294002 (LY), PDGF-BB, or fibronectin (FN), alone or in combination. Levels of phosphorylated AKT, p70S6K, S6K, STAT3, and RhoA, downstream components in the PI3K/PTEN pathway, were assessed by immunoblotting. Treatment with RAPA noticeably reduced activation of AKT at Ser473 by 61% and 72% at 1 and 3 h, respectively, and demonstrated enhanced activation from the baseline thereafter. Pre-treatment with RAPA or LY diminished PDGF-BB or FN stimulation of p70S6K at Thr389. RAPA treatment resulted in sustained suppression of phospho-S6K at Ser 235/236 through a 24h period. A combined treatment with RAPA and LY completely blocked the activation of S6K. Cell survival and growth by PDGF or FN was achieved via the modulation of STAT3; either RAPA or LY alone inhibit this induction, while combined treatment totally abolished PDGF-BB or FN induced phosphorylation of STAT3. Timed treatment with RAPA altered activation of RhoA, a downstream component of the mTORC 2 complex. Cellular motility was determined using radial monolayer cell migration and proliferation was assessed by MTT assay. Cell growth was suppressed 76% and 32% by treatment with LY and RAPA, respectively. Also, pre-treatment with LY plus RAPA reduced PDGF-BB induced cell proliferation. GBM cell migration was reduced by LY treatment but not by RAPA. The results of this study indicate that mTORC1 RAPA-dependent S6K phosphorylation regulates cell proliferation. Activation of mTORC2 is decreased initially but activated by prolonged RAPA treatment, which inhibits downstream S6K that acts as a negative feedback modulator of IRS-1, in turn promoting upstream pAKT signaling. Thus, combining PI3K/AKT and mTORC2 inhibitors in conjunction with RAPA treatment may provide novel targets for GBM therapy.


A 60-year-old woman with clinical features of desquamative gingivitis had a history of painful, blistering gingival lesions for more than 2 years. There were no other accompanying mucosal or skin lesions. Clinical examination revealed erythematous and edematous gingiva with ulcerated areas and evidence of intact and ruptured bullae. White plaquelike lesions were also noted. Gingival manipulation caused epithelial desquamation. Light microscopic examination of biopsy specimens from the perilesional gingival tissue showed separation of the oral gingival epithelium and connective tissue at the margin of the collapsed bulla. A moderately intense inflammatory infiltrate was present in the connective tissue. Direct immunofluorescent microscopy revealed a continuous linear deposition of immunoglobulin G and C3 at the basement membrane zone. On the basis of clinical, histopathologic, and immunofluorescent findings, the diagnosis of mucous membrane pemphigoid was made.


The robot manipulator calibration process utilizes model or modeless techniques. In modeless method, the compensation of position error is to move the end-effector of robot to a target position in the workspace, and to find the position error of the target position by using an estimation method based on the errors of neighboring points around the target position. In this paper, both traditional and newly developed soft computing techniques used to estimate position error of robot manipulators are investigated. After an introduction, the paper presents four methods for manipulator position error estimation. These include two commonly used analytical techniques, bilinear and cubic spline, and two soft computing based techniques, fuzzy logic and neural network. A range of simulation experiment is made using three common used error models. Various aspects of each method, including accuracy, complexity, and limitation are investigated. A comparison is made to demonstrate the advantages and drawback of each method.


Introduction Increased attention has recently been focused on health record systems as a result of accreditation programs, a growing emphasis on patient safety, and the increase in lawsuits involving allegations of malpractice. Health-care professionals frequently express dissatisfaction with the health record systems and complain that the data included are neither informative nor useful for clinical decision making. This article reviews the main objectives of a hospital health record system, with emphasis on its roles in communication and exchange among clinicians, patient safety, and continuity of care, and asks whether current systems have responded to the recent changes in the Italian health-care system. Discussion If health records are to meet the expectations of all health professionals, the overall information need must be carefully analyzed, a common data set must be created, and essential specialist contributions must be defined. Working with health-care professionals, the hospital management should define how clinical information is to be displayed and organized, identify a functionally optimal layout, define the characteristics of ongoing patient assessment in terms of who will be responsible for these activities and how often they will be performed. Internet technology can facilitate data retrieval and meet the general requirements of a paper-based health record system, but it must also ensure focus on clinical information, business continuity, integrity, security, and privacy. Conclusions The current health records system needs to be thoroughly revised to increase its accessibility, streamline the work of health-care professionals who consult it, and render it more useful for clinical decision making—a challenging task that will require the active involvement of the many professional classes involved.


Fourteen patients, aged from 5 to 14 years, with syndrome of electrical status epilepticus during slow sleep (ESESS) have been studied. The absence of epileptic attacks was observed in 21.5% of patients and diagnosis was established by a combination of continuous diffuse epileptiform activity with marked cognitive disturbances. In 78.5% patients, epileptic attacks presented as follows: pharyngeal and oral, hemicephalgia (100% patients with attacks), hemiclonic (18%), atypical absences (27%), negative myoclonus (18%), automotor (18%), focal adverse with vomiting (18%), secondary generalized (36%). Drugs of choice were valproate (depakine) and topamax in patients with attacks; suxilep and frisium in the absence of attacks and in case of continuous diffuse epileptiform activity on the sleep EEG. Two variants have been singled out by the character of ESESS syndrome. The first one, a "symptom variant", was featured by mostly hemiclonic, secondary generalized and automotor epileptic attacks, presence of continuous regional or lateral, less frequent diffuse epileptiform activity, detected by the local structural lesions in MRI, marked cognitive disturbances persisting after stopping of the attacks. The second ("idiopathic") variant is characterized by normal development of children before attack manifestation, appearance of mostly "rolandic" attacks, atypical absences and negative myoclonus, presence of exclusively continuous diffuse epileptiform activity in the phase of slow sleep, standard MRI results (moderate cortical subatrophy in single cases), cessation or substantial decrease of cognitive disturbances after attack stopping. It is emphasized that prognosis of ESESS syndrome should be considered separately with regard to attacks and cognitive disturbances. A prognosis for attacks is always favorable. Cognitive disturbances despite the therapy can persist for a long time.


This volume brings together the best of contemporary critical analysis of EU-China relations, offered here by an international team of policy analysts, academics and practitioners. The fifteen chapters assembled in this book represent a wide-ranging investigation of the development and framework of EU-China relations and its wider geo-political context. This includes an examination of key areas of concern, such as human rights, economic cooperation, energy security, sports, maritime safety and media policy. Many aspects of EU-China relations covered in this title have, until now, not been available for systematic scrutiny by a wider public. Importantly, this collection presents an examination of the significance of China's relations with selected global partners – such as the US, Russia, India and Central Asia – for the further evolution of Sino-EU interaction. It should be read by anyone interested in EU foreign policies, the future of China-EU strategic partnership, China's place in the world, and the development of a multi-polar world order.


Previous studies have reported an association between verbal abuse in early childhood and structural and functional alterations in the young adult brain, supporting the existence of critical periods in human brain development. In addition, exposure to verbal abuse in early childhood is strongly correlated with lifetime psychiatric illness. Resilience is defined as the ability to avoid the negative psychological, biological, and social consequences of stress that impair psychological and physical homeostasis and is used to cope with these psychiatric diseases. We attempted to explain the mediatable present function of resilience and its associations with several psychiatric disorders, with verbal abuse exposure in early childhood and with the present value of the readily measurable and conceptually connected generative Bayesian model parameter. Thirty-six subjects performed a cross-modal associative learning task requiring them to learn the predictive strength of auditory cues and predict a subsequent visual stimulus. The probability of the association changed across each trial block. Subjects' responses were modeled as a hierarchical Bayesian belief-updating process using a hierarchical Gaussian filter (HGF) with three levels, a Sutton K1 model, and a Rescorla–Wagner model. Subjects completed the Korean version of the Verbal Abuse Questionnaire (VAQ) for segmented periods (aged 0 to 6, 7 to 12, and 13 to 18 years), and their positive self-appraisal was estimated using the Resilience Appraisal Scale (RAS). Random-effects Bayesian model selection identified HGF as the best model. Of the VAQ values for specific periods, only preschool VAQ scores were negatively correlated with RAS scores. The tonic volatility parameter, ω2, of HGF showed a negative relationship with RAS emotion coping scores. The linear regression model explained 18.3% of the variance of emotion coping appraisal with ω2 and preschool VAQ scores. Based on the results obtained from young adults, decrease in emotion coping appraisal can be explained by an increase in the number of experiences of verbal abuse in early childhood and the increased tendency to update beliefs about the cue–outcome associative probability in a volatile environment.


In this paper, the opacity of plasma in local thermodynamic equilibrium condition was investigated numerically. The plasma was assumed to be produced by interaction of high power pulse laser with carbon and aluminum. Spectrally resolved opacities under different plasma temperature and density conditions were calculated and radiative absorption due to three absorption mechanisms; inverse bremsstrahlung, photo-ionization, and line absorption in plasmas was studied numerically. The purpose of this study is to calculate the values of absorption for inverse bremsstrahlung and photo-ionization processes for aluminum and carbon plasmas and to compare them for those of cold matter. In this investigation, the influences of density and temperature on plasma absorption were evaluated. The calculation results show that the opacity strength strongly depends on the plasma temperature and density.


In this paper I defend the view that counterfactual thinking depends on our causal representation of the world, and in this sense, I argue that causal and counterfactual reasoning are tightly linked. I offer some criticisms and experimental evidence against Mandel's judgement dissociation theory (Mandel, 2003b), which claims functional independence between the process of causal selection and counterfactual reasoning in the context of causal selection. In the experiments described, I manipulated some elements of the semantics of the task to show the cases in which dissociation between causal and counterfactual reasoning does not occur. In Experiment 1, the level of description of the target event is manipulated in a list generation and rating task. Experiment 2 replicates Experiment 1 findings using an alternative coding system, whereas Experiment 3 does the same using an alternative answer format. The results of the experiments support the picture of causal understanding proposed by the causal mental models.


OBJECTIVE
To determine associations between age, sex, or medical treatment and prevalence and severity of gastric ulceration in Standardbred racehorses in training.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

ANIMALS
224 Standardbred racehorses in training.

PROCEDURE
Gastroscopy was performed on each horse, and mucosal ulceration was graded from 0 (normal mucosa, no lesions) to 3 (extensive, often coalescing, lesions with areas of deep ulceration). Associations between age, sex, or treatment and prevalence and severity of ulcers were evaluated.

RESULTS
Prevalence of gastric ulceration was 87%. Although there was little association between age and prevalence of ulcers, there was an association between age and severity of ulcers. Most 2-year-old horses (57.7%) had an ulcer score of 0 or 1. In all other age groups, most (58% to 82.61%) of horses had an ulcer score of 2 or 3. Although overall prevalence of ulceration was comparable among sex groups, the relative risk for gastric ulceration increased with age in castrated males, whereas it decreased in females and sexually intact males.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Gastric ulceration is common in Standardbred horses in race training. Severity is higher in horses > or = 3 years of age than in 2-year-old horses. Relative risk for ulceration increases with age in castrated males.


The search for new drugs and treatment approaches is of particular importance for glioblastomas (GBMs), as with other types of malignant gliomas, as they are lethal without the available medical care. Current anticancer cocktails have failed to prolong survival beyond 1 year, in part owing to the natural resistance of GBM cells and to the toxic side effects of the available drugs. In many organisms, cell death can be induced by cytolysins, which are proteins that can form pores in biological membranes. Perhaps by facilitating drugs to enter into the cytosol, cytolysins might be used to increase the efficacy of conventional anticancer agents. Here, the cytotoxicity of two sea anemone pore-forming cytolysins, toxin Bc2, and equinatoxin (EqTx-II) were investigated. Toxin Bc2 and EqTx-II were cytotoxic against human U87 and A172 GBM cell lines either wild type or p53 mutant, a tumor suppressor frequently mutated in malignant gliomas. Moreover, noncytotoxic concentrations of Bc2 or EqTx-II potentiated the cytotoxicity induced by low dose concentrations of all classical chemotherapeutics agents tested: cytosine arabinoside, doxorubicin, and vincristine. In comparison with the cytotoxicity induced by each of these classical anticancer drugs alone, 10–300-fold less of the therapeutic drug was needed when combined with the cytolysins. These results are promising, since lower concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs could reduce the adverse effects of chemotherapy.


With the growing needs for and the benefits of sharing resources and information among different organizations, an interoperation framework that automatically integrates policies to facilitate such cross-domain sharing in a secure way is becoming increasingly important. To avoid security breaches, such policies must enforce the policy constraints of the individual domains. Such constraints may include temporal constraints that limit the times when the users can access the resources, and separation of duty (SoD) constraints. Existing interoperation solutions do not address such cross-domain temporal access control and SoDs requirements. In this paper, we propose a role-based framework to facilitate secure interoperation among multiple domains by ensuring the enforcement of temporal and SoD constraints of individual domains. To support interoperation, we do not modify the internal policies, as most of the current approaches do. We present experimental results to demonstrate our proposed framework is effective and easily realizable.


Clustering in education is important in identifying groups of objects in order to find linked patterns of correlations in educational datasets. As such, MOOCs provide a rich source of educational datasets which enable a wide selection of options to carry out clustering and an opportunity for cohort analyses. In this experience paper, five research studies on clustering in MOOCs are reviewed, drawing out several reasonings, methods, and students' clusters that reflect certain kinds of learning behaviours. The collection of the varied clusters shows that each study identifies and defines clusters according to distinctive engagement patterns. Implications and a summary are provided at the end of the paper.


In some supply chains, materials are ordered periodically according to local information. This paper investigates how to improve the performance of such a supply chain. Specifically, we consider a serial inventory system in which each stage implements a local reorder interval policy, i.e., each stage orders up to a local base-stock level according to a fixed-interval schedule. A fixed cost is incurred for placing an order. Two improvement strategies are considered: 1) expanding the information flow by acquiring real-time demand information; and 2) accelerating the material flow via flexible deliveries. The first strategy leads to an reorder interval policy with full information; the second strategy leads to an reorder point policy with local information. Both policies have been studied in the literature. Thus, to assess the benefit of these strategies, we analyze the local reorder interval policy. We develop a bottom-up recursion to evaluate the system cost and provide a method to obtain the optimal policy. A numerical study shows the following: Increasing the flexibility of deliveries lowers costs more than does expanding information flow; the fixed order costs and the system lead times are key drivers that determine the effectiveness of these improvement strategies. In addition, we find that using optimal batch sizes in the reorder point policy and demand rate to infer reorder intervals may lead to significant cost inefficiency.


Binding of a set of three isomeric guests (1,2-, 1,3- and 1,4-dicyanobenzene, abbreviated DCB) inside an octanuclear cubic coordination cage host H (bearing different external substitutents according to solvent used) has been studied in water/dmso (98 : 2) and CD2Cl2. These guests have essentially identical molecular surfaces, volumes and external functional groups to interact with the cage interior surface; but they differ in polarity with dipole moments of ca. 7, 4 and 0 Debye respectively. In CD2Cl2 guest binding is weak but we observe a clear correlation of binding free energy with guest polarity, with 1,4-DCB showing no detectable binding by NMR spectroscopy but 1,2-DCB having −ΔG = 9 kJ mol−1. In water (containing 2% dmso to solubilise the guests) we see the same trend but all binding free energies are much higher due to an additional hydrophobic contribution to binding, with −ΔG varying from 16 kJ mol−1 for 1,4-DCB to 22 kJ mol−1 for 1,4-DCB: again we see an increase associated with guest polarity but the increase in −ΔG per Debye of dipole moment is around half what we observe in CD2Cl2 which we ascribe to the fact the more polar guests will be better solvated in the aqueous solvent. A van't Hoff analysis by variable-temperature NMR showed that the improvement in guest binding in water/dmso is entropy-driven, which suggests that the key factor is not direct electrostatic interactions between a polar guest and the cage surface, but the variation in guest desolvation across the series, with the more polar (and hence more highly solvated) guests having a greater favourable entropy change on desolvation.


Article history: Received January 15 2017 Received in Revised Format April 1 2017 Accepted April 27 2017 Available online April 28 2017 The present work deals with some machinability studies on tool wear and surface roughness, in finish hard turning of AISI D2 steel using PCBN, Mixed ceramic and coated carbide inserts. The machining experiments are conducted based on the response surface methodology (RSM). Combined effects of three cutting parameters viz., cutting speed, cutting time and tool hardness on the two performance outputs (i.e. VB and Ra), are explored employing the analysis of variance (ANOVA).The relationship(s) between input variables and the response parameters are determined using a quadratic regression model. The results show that the tool wear was influenced principally by the cutting time and in the second level by the cutting tool hardness. On the other hand, cutting time was the dominant factor affecting workpiece surface roughness followed by cutting speed. Finally, the multiple response optimizations of tool wear and surface roughness were carried out using the desirability function approach (DFA). © 2018 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved


Objective This systematic review aimed to evaluate the ability of risk tools to predict the future episodes of suicide/self-harm in adolescents. Design Systematic review. Data sources MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched from inception to 3 March 2018. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Cohort studies, case–control studies and randomised controlled trials of adolescents aged 10–25 who had undergone risk assessment in a clinical setting following an episode of self-harm were included. Data extraction and synthesis Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed risk of bias. Data were grouped by tool and narrative synthesis undertaken, with studies appraised using a checklist combining the QUIPS (Quality In Prognosis Studies) and QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) tools. Results Of the 17 137 articles initially identified, 11 studies evaluating 10 separate tools were included. The studies varied in setting, population and outcome measure. The majority of the studies were rated as having an unclear risk of bias, and meta-analysis was not possible due to high variability between studies. The ability of the tools to correctly identify those adolescents going on to make a self-harm/suicide attempt ranged from 27% (95% CI 10.7% to 50.2%) to 95.8% (95% CI 78.9% to 99.9%). A variety of metrics were provided for 1–10 points increases in various tools, for example, odds and HRs. Conclusions This systematic review is the first to explore the use of assessment tools in adolescents. The predictive ability of these tools varies greatly. No single tool is suitable for predicting a higher risk of suicide or self-harm in adolescent populations. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017058686


In the late nineteenth century American civil and structural engineers initiated a critique of architects that centered on their apparent inability to create a single style befitting the modern age. For many engineers, architecture had become anachronistic. Conversely, they asserted that their progressive, technological production was unquestionably modern. By the early twentieth century some architects looked to engineering for a path beyond the apparent impasse of eclecticism. They believed that their profession would regain its relevance if it could bridge the schism between architecture and engineering. One of the great building programs of the era, the bridge was elevated as the site and the metaphor for the reunification of architecture and engineering. From 1920 to 1927, Paul Cret served as the architect for the Delaware River Bridge in Philadelphia, the longest suspension bridge in the world when completed. Through his designs for this bridge, he asked what weight bridges were summoned to support when privileged as the point of professional reunion. In contrast to unification construed as total fusion, Cret asserted that bridging simultaneously generates connection and emphasizes separation. Acknowledging both aspects of bridging, Cret sought a form of collaboration that would preserve the limit between architecture and engineering. Our consciousness of limits, he insisted, separates us from other life forms and tragically renders us human. With his collaborative design for the Delaware River Bridge, Cret endeavored to stage this tragedy.


Over-allocation of irrigation water has led to widespread environmental degradation in the Murray-Darling Basin, prompting discussions of the water efficiency performance of irrigated industries, particularly cotton. There is increasing pressure for irrigators to adopt water efficient practices in line with ecologically sustainable principles, especially with current drought conditions. However, there is great uncertainty surrounding the available measures to improve irrigation efficiency from both ecological and economic standpoints. An integrated biophysical and economic modelling approach is used to determine the optimal allocation of water, irrigation system, source of water, and crop pattern, subject to various environmental and resource targets. Spatially referenced data are used to provide realistic results that are directly applicable to the case study basin in northern New South Wales (NSW). The results can assist in policy design and its implementation to achieve environmental objectives at least cost.


This study aims to determine the effect of entrepreneurship education, financial literacy, on entrepreneurship skills. This study applied the survey method with the causal approach. With the population of 128 students of Economics and Accounting Education, Faculty of Economics, the State University of Jakarta with a sample of 97 respondents with random sampling technique. Data obtained from the questionnaire and conducted the path analysis to determine the effect between variables. The result showed that entrepreneurship education directly and positively affects the financial literacy of 63%, financial literacy directly and positively influence entrepreneurship skills of 9.3%, and entrepreneurship education directly and positively affect the entrepreneurship skills of 28%, with influence in indirect and positive through the literacy of the money of 65%. Based on research this model can be a frame of reference in improving students' entrepreneurship skills in universities.


Multi-camera 3D object detection blossoms in recent years and most of state-of-the-art methods are built up on the bird' s-eye- view (BEV) representations. Albeit remarkable performance, these works suffer from low efficiency. Typically, knowledge distillation can be used for model compression. However, due to unclear 3D geometry reasoning, expert features usually contain some noisy and confusing areas. In this work, we investigate on how to distill the knowledge from an imperfect expert. We propose FD3D, a Focal Distiller for 3D object detection. Specifically, a set of queries are leveraged to locate the instance-level areas for masked feature generation, to intensify feature representation ability in these areas. Moreover, these queries search out the representative fine-grained positions for refined distillation. We verify the effectiveness of our method by applying it to two popular detection models, BEVFormer and DETR3D. The results demonstrate that our method achieves improvements of 4.07 and 3.17 points respectively in terms of NDS metric on nuScenes benchmark. Code is hosted at https://github.com/OpenPerceptionX/BEVPerception-Survey-Recipe.


The literature on the internationalisation of firms has paid little attention to SMEs. SME-oriented studies are predominantly descriptive or illustrating theoretical arguments, and those dealing with services are mostly confined to specific industries. The paper aims at correcting some of these deficiencies. To this end, we start with characterising the international activities of Swiss-based firms with special emphasis on differences by size and sector. The pattern we find for SMEs is broadly in line with theory and (the somewhat fragmentary) empirical evidence. The main part of our contribution is devoted to identifying econometrically, based on firm-level data, the factors determining international activities of SMEs. The analysis confirms Dunning's "OwnerhipLocation-Internalisation" paradigm, with ownership-specific advantages being the main drivers, irrespective of firm size, sector and internationalisation strategy (in terms of business functions transferred abroad). However, we also find important differences by firm size: Location-specific advantages foster international activities only in case of SMEs; internalising advantages are relevant primarily for large firms; application-oriented knowledge and foreign experience are particularly relevant ownership-specific advantages in case of SMEs, whereas R&D is an ownership advantage of prime importance for large firms. Both the descriptive and the explicative analysis imply that international and domestic activities are complements. JEL codes: F20, F21, F23 Dr. Heinz Hollenstein Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Institute for Business Cycle Research Weinbergstrasse 35 CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland Phone: +41-1 / 632 53 29 Fax: +41-1 / 632 10 42 e-mail: email@example.com


albumin concentration but also by the hydrogen ion concentration. Ionisation of calcium is greater in acidotic than alkalotic conditions. A clinical manifestation of this is the rarity of tetany in chronic renal failure even in the presence of very low serum calcium concentrations because of the prevailing metabolic acidosis. None of the formulae used by Dr Conceicao's group for the derived values of ionised calcium concentration makes any allowance for variations in the hydrogen ion concentration. In practice, in the narrow physiological range of hydrogen ion concentration this can probably be discounted. Thus in both the group of normal subjects and in those on maintenance haemodialysis no significant difference was found between the directly measured and the derived values of serum ionised calcium concentration. In a group of patients with chronic renal failure treated conservatively many will presumably have metabolic acidosis; one would therefore predict the derived values of serum ionised calcium to be an underestimate, as was indeed found. Direct measurement of the serum ionised calcium concentration is not widely available. Formulae for computing the value from the total serum calcium and the serum albumin are useful provided that one remembers that the result will be accurate only in the physiological range of hydrogen ion concentration. It would, of course, be of great benefit if a nomogram could be produced which corrected not only for the serum albumin but also for the hydrogen ion concentration. This would certainly be a more economic solution than the provision of directly measured serum ionised calcium estimations as a routine hospital laboratory service. BARRY MONK


This article presents a review of the effects of adverse conditions (ACs) on the perceptual, linguistic, cognitive, and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying speech recognition. The review starts with a classification of ACs based on their origin: Degradation at the source (production of a noncanonical signal), degradation during signal transmission (interfering signal or medium-induced impoverishment of the target signal), receiver limitations (peripheral, linguistic, cognitive). This is followed by a parallel, yet orthogonal classification of ACs based on the locus of their effect: Perceptual processes, mental representations, attention, and memory functions. We then review the added value that ACs provide for theories of speech recognition, with a focus on fundamental themes in psycholinguistics: Content and format of lexical representations, time-course of lexical access, word segmentation, feed-back in speech perception and recognition, lexical-semantic integration, interface between the speech system and general cognition, neuroanatomical organisation of speech processing. We conclude by advocating an approach to speech recognition that includes rather than neutralises complex listening environments and individual differences.


OBJECTIVE To study the effects of a low dose of ω-3 fatty acids on platelet function and other cardiovascular risk factors in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellus (NIDDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We performed a randomized, prospective, double-blind, controlled study of a low dose of ω-3 fatty acids (2.5 g/day) in 20 ambulatory subjects with NIDDM. Subjects ingested five 1-g fish oil capsules each containing 0.5 g ω-3 fatty acids or five 1-g safflower oil capsules per day for 6 weeks followed by a 6-week washout period. RESULTS Nine subjects completed the study in each group. Both groups exhibited moderate control of glucose levels; modest elevations in baseline total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG) levels; and normal blood pressure values. In the fish oil group, plasma ω-3 fatty acid levels increased significantly. Fish oil significantly reduced the slope of the dose-response curves for collagen-induced platelet aggregation to one-third the value observed with safflower oil. No difference was observed in collageninduced production of thromboxane A2 (TXA2, measured as the stable derivative TXB2), or in adenosine-5'-diphosphate- (ADP) induced platelet aggregation or TXA2 generation. Patients with high initial collagen-induced platelet TXA2 production showed a significantly larger drop after fish oil than safflower oil. Fish oil significantly reduced TG levels by 44 mg/dl and decreased upright systolic blood pressure (sBP) by 8 mmHg compared with safflower oil. Fish oil caused a significant but small increase in HbA1c (0.56%) and total cholesterol (20 mg/dl) but had no effect on fasting glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL-cholesterol levels. CONCLUSIONS Small doses of fish oil inhibit platelet aggregation and TXA2 production, reduce upright sBP and TG levels, and have only a small effect on glucose and cholesterol levels in patients with moderately controlled NIDDM. Small quantities of ω-3 fatty acids or dietary fish are safe and potentially beneficial in NIDDM patients.


The purpose of this article is to analyse the influence of social class on nutrition knowledge and food preferences among Chinese urban adults with an emphasis on the middle class. The empirical investigations conducted as part of this research are based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey for 2009. First, we propose a multidimensional definition of social class that combines income, occupation and education to highlight the heterogeneity of the Chinese middle class. We identify four distinct groups: the elderly and inactive middle class, the old middle class, the lower middle class and the new middle class. In a second step, we assess the influence of social class on nutrition knowledge and food preference indices. Our results show that adults belonging to the elderly and inactive middle class and to the new middle class have better nutrition knowledge and healthier food preferences than their poorer counterparts.


Mn (II), Co (II), Ni (II), Pd (II) and Pt (II) complexes having the general composition M(L)2Cl2 [ where L = p-Vanillin thiosemicarbazone, M= Mn (II), Co (II), Ni (II), Pd (II) and Pt (II) have been synthesized. All these compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR and electronic spectral studies. On the basis of spectral studies, an octahedral geometry has been assigned for Mn (II) and Co (II) complexes whereas square planar geometry have been assigned for Ni (II), Pd (II) and Pt (II) complexes. The free ligand and its metal complexes have been tested in vitro against a number of microorganisms in order to assess their antimicrobial properties. The antimicrobial data reveals that the metal complexes act as more active antibacterial agents than the uncomplexed ligand from which they are derived.


The aim of the present thesis was to further disentangle the effect of plant species richness, composition and food plant quality on generalist insect herbivore performance in a combination of laboratory and field studies. Moreover, the effects of parental and early feeding experiences were analyzed. Finally, theoretical considerations about indirect effects of abiotic conditions on insect herbivore performance and the importance to combine knowledge of field and nutritional ecology integrate the current and other work into a review. The meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus served as study organism for this thesis because its diet includes both, grasses and legumes. Furthermore, it is one of the most abundant grasshopper species in diverse meadow habitats throughout Europe. The studies have been conducted on or with food plants of meadows along a plant species diversity gradient within the biodiversity experiment BIOLOG (BIOLogical diversity and Global change funded by the BMBF 2000 -2010), located at the border between Thuringia and Bavaria in the mid of Germany.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 3 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Ergonomics analyses the relationship between the human body and the objects we use and the spaces where we live and work in order to optimise movements and avoid unnatural postures that could be harmful to our health. An Indian woman spends on an average 5-6 hours in her kitchen which may amount to approximately one fourth of her life span. In the traditional Indian kitchen, due to unawareness of ergonomics women's usually performed the various kitchen activities works was usually in a prolonged squatting posture and sitting on patra or pihri which used to pose a number of health hazards. Since sitting requires the muscles to hold the trunk, neck and shoulders in a fixed position and a fixed working position squeezes the blood vessels in the muscles reducing the blood supply to the working muscles just when they need it the most. An insufficient blood supply accelerates fatigue and makes the muscles prone to injury. Such problems can be minimized the stress and fartique on part of workers through with the use of ergonomics which can increased the work effectiveness in kitchen. Keeping in view of these rational in mind the study was conducted in Muzaffarpur District of Bihar State. The main purpose of this study research is to know the coefficient of Correlation between Socio-physiological profile and working posture of rural and urban women. The analysis of results indicated that in rural area age of (0.236)* respondent's occupation (0.255)* type of family (0.235)* etc were founds to be negatively significant at 5% level of probability and type of kitchen (0.208)*, was founds to be significant at 5% level of whereas anthropometric measurement i.e. heart rate (0.447)* was calculate to be negatively significant at 5% level. While in urban area independent variable i.e. Age (0.217)*, Type of family (-0.267)*, size of kitchen (0.352)* etc. came to be negatively significant at 5% level and anthropometric measurement of respondents i.e. height (0.596)** was found to be highly significant at 1% level of probability. Finally it was observed that height was found to be the most important anthropometric dimension which affects in ease of cooking activity to be performed by the women. K e y w o r d s Sociophysiological profile, Working posture, Rural and urban women Accepted: 15 February 2020 Available Online: 10 March 2020 Article Info Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(3): 2077-2082

https://www.ijcmas.com/9-3-2020/Nikhat Parveen, et al.pdf


Nigeria had a booming agricultural industry and prominent world market shares in many of its commodities at independence. With the continuous decline in these, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) has been floated to promote twelve commodities in production along their value chains. Various innovations and expected benefits feature in the programme. The cultivation methods and other activities within the nodes of the value chains do not however specify green growth strategy promoted by green fiscal reform policies. This implies the shortchanging of green growth strategy in the national development process and so the compromising of sustainability. This paper valued the environmental services loss resulting from deforestation associated with "slash and burn" arable crop expansion and the benefits of "green grabbing" - the deliberate appropriation of nature in the ATA. The profitability of food crop production with and without green fiscal reform policies integration was also assessed. Sampling procedures that included the stratified, simple random and purposive sampling were used at various stages depending on the objective. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire. The analytical tools adopted were the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) of the referendum type, on-day site travel cost method and the budgetary analysis. Results showed that 66.37% forest land use changes occurred in a seven year periods for arable food crops expansion. The environmental services loss as depicted by the Willingness To Pay (WTP) was averagely N0.60billion/year. The stock recreation value derived from "green grabbing" for the same period with 5% of the Nigerian population of 150 million visiting the Obudu Mountain Resort (OMR) for recreational purposes considered was N4.41 x 1012 million. The recreation use benefits of the OMR based on the Marshalian consumer surplus computation was slightly higher for the same period. Profitability in food crop production without green fiscal reforms was higher as compared to when it was considered. This will encourage the food crop farmers to engage in actions that are inimical to environmental sustainability in the ATA. Sustainability of farming livelihood is therefore more likely to be ensured with green fiscal reform policy instruments integrated into the ATA. The ATA therefore cannot be sustainable under the current "business as usual" practice of "slash and burn" agriculture. The need to integrate green fiscal reform policies into the agenda therefore is urgent. Keywords: Sustainability, deforestation, green growth, value chain analysis, green fiscal reform, Willingness To Pay, Marshalian consumer surplus.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the differences in physician satisfaction associated with open- versus closed-model practice settings and to evaluate changes in physician satisfaction between 1986 and 1997. Open-model practices refer to those in which physicians accept patients from multiple health plans and insurers (i.e., do not have an exclusive arrangement with any single health plan). Closed-model practices refer to those wherein physicians have an exclusive relationship with a single health plan (i.e., staff- or group-model HMO).

DESIGN
Two cross-sectional surveys of physicians; one conducted in 1986 (Medical Outcomes Study) and one conducted in 1997 (Study of Primary Care Performance in Massachusetts).

SETTING
Primary care practices in Massachusetts.

PARTICIPANTS
General internists and family practitioners in Massachusetts.

MEASUREMENTS
Seven measures of physician satisfaction, including satisfaction with quality of care, the potential to achieve professional goals, time spent with individual patients, total earnings from practice, degree of personal autonomy, leisure time, and incentives for high quality.

RESULTS
Physicians in open- versus closed-model practices differed significantly in several aspects of their professional satisfaction. In 1997, open-model physicians were less satisfied than closed-model physicians with their total earnings, leisure time, and incentives for high quality. Open-model physicians reported significantly more difficulty with authorization procedures and reported more denials for care. Overall, physicians in 1997 were less satisfied in every aspect of their professional life than 1986 physicians. Differences were significant in three areas: time spent with individual patients, autonomy, and leisure time (P < or =.05). Among open-model physicians, satisfaction with autonomy and time with individual patients were significantly lower in 1997 than 1986 (P < or =.01). Among closed-model physicians, satisfaction with total earnings and with potential to achieve professional goals were significantly lower in 1997 than in 1986 (P < or =.01).

CONCLUSIONS
This study finds that the state of physician satisfaction in Massachusetts is extremely low, with the majority of physicians dissatisfied with the amount of time they have with individual patients, their leisure time, and their incentives for high quality. Satisfaction with most areas of practice declined significantly between 1986 and 1997. Open-model physicians were less satisfied than closed-model physicians in most aspects of practices.


Ovarian cysts are a frequent cause of subfertility in humans and animals. However, the precise effects of follicular cysts, luteinised follicular cysts and luteal cysts on the microarchitecture of the tubes are still unknown. Using the bovine as a model, the aim of this study was to analyse the effects of ovarian cysts on the functional morphology of the oviduct. For this purpose, fallopian tubes obtained from cows with and without ovarian cysts were investigated using stereomicroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) and live cell imaging. Our studies revealed that cysts occurred on the right ovary in 67% of cows. Stereomicroscopy revealed enlarged primary folds in cows with ovarian cysts as compared to control cows in diestrus. In the tubal epithelium of cows with ovarian cysts the percentage of secretory cells as well as the synthesis of acidic mucopolysaccharides and glycoproteins was significantly increased as compared to controls {A NOVA, p<O.OS and p<O.OOl, respectively). As seen by TEM, the oviductal secretory cells of cows with ovarian cysts contained dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum as well as large amounts of electron dense secretory granules and heterolysosomes. Live cell imaging proved that the interaction between the oviduct and oocyte-cumuluscomplex, as well as the formation of the sperm reservoir, was similar to that seen in healthy control cows. Particle transport speed, which is an indicator for oocyte and embryo transport speed, was significantly lowered in the ipsilateral ampulla of cows with luteal cysts (MannWhitney, p<O.OS). Our results imply that the occurrence of ovarian cysts is correlated with reduced transport efficiency which may result in compromised gamete and embryo survival. Thus, innovative therapeutic strategies for treatment of ovarian cysts do not only require successful induction of ovulation and fertilisation, but also optimisation of nutrition and transport of the early embryo in the oviduct.


STUDY OBJECTIVE (1) To review the pattern of published world age-standardised registration rates for myeloma (ICD8 and ICD9 203) for the five Scottish regional cancer registries between 1973-77 and 1983-87. (2) To review the patterns of world age-standardised incidence and survival for myeloma in Grampian region over the time period 1960-89. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of cancer registration data and linked mortality data. SETTING The five Scottish regional cancer registries (East, North, North East, South East and West Scotland). PATIENTS Incidence: a total of 405 patients with myeloma resident in Grampian region (153 diagnosed between 1960-69, 252 diagnosed between 1980-89 inclusive). Survival: a total of 420 patients with myeloma treated in Grampian hospitals between 1968 and 1987 inclusive. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS On average, the world age-standardised registration rates for the five regional registries increased from 2.8 to 3.1 cases per 100,000 in males and from 1.8 to 2.4 per 100,000 in females between 1973-77 and 1983-87. No clearcut pattern in the trends for individual registries was evident for males but, in general, an increasing trend in female rates was observed for the registries with the lowest rates initially, whilst those with the highest initial rates increased only slightly or even fell. After age and sex standardisation, the annual incidence of myeloma in NE Scotland has increased by 20 per cent between 1960-69 and 1980-89, from 2.4 to 2.9 cases per 100,000 population per year with a disproportionate increase in older patients. Between the two time periods female rates remained stable or increased over all age groups while male rates fell for ages under 69 years and rose for ages above this, a pattern which was reflected in changes in the male:female ratio. The five year survival rate for all ages (14%) has not improved since 1968-72 similar to overall Scottish figures. In NE Scotland, younger patients appear to fare better, and older patients worse, compared with the overall Scottish experience. CONCLUSIONS The increase in myeloma incidence may be due to a combination of improved ascertainment, especially in the elderly and a possible true increase in incidence in females, suggestive of increased exposure to an aetiological agent in the past. A formal year birth cohort analysis is required to confirm this finding. The overall prognosis for myeloma remains poor, especially for elderly patients and efforts to elucidate the aetiology must continue.


Recent research suggests that the blood clotting cascade and events during formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) are not disconnected processes. In a Perspective,
 Carmeliet
 discusses new findings in mouse embryos lacking the thrombin receptor PAR1 that support an intimate connection between blood clotting and angiogenesis (
 Griffin
 et al.).


Pickett K. M., Carpenter J. M. & Dejean A. 2009. — "Basal" but not primitive: the nest of Apoica arborea de Saussure, 1854 (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae). Zoosystema 31 (4): 945-948. ABSTRACT The first nest of Apoica arborea ever collected is reported. Characteristics of the unusual nest design are discussed relative to other members of the genus Apoica and other epiponine genera. The characteristics of its nest architecture are a mosaic of primitive and derived features for the Polistinae, and thus the nest design is not properly interpreted as the primitive condition from which other swarm-founding wasp nest designs are derived. The frequent conflation of "basal" and primitive is discussed.


Loading, unloading, and reloading of rough surface contacts are common for most friction pairs. However, usually, only loading characteristic is concerned in the modeling of the cyclic loading problem. In this paper, a comprehensive mathematical model of mixed lubrication was developed for the lubricated friction pairs under cyclic loading. The metal contact was calculated by an improved asperity contact model of elastic–plastic with the loading, unloading, and reloading characteristics in consideration. The developed model was applied to the ring/liner conjunction, as its contact problem was the typical cyclic loading problem. Different from the previous studies, assuming the "virgin" topography of the rough surface, the current one accounts for the plastic deformation of surface asperities, occurring during the first few cycles and leading to the significant roughness modification. It appears that considering the reloading characteristics is necessary, whether it is a Gaussian surface contact or a non-Gaussian surface contact.


The aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the obstacles to effective sexuality education in rural Lesotho schools and offer some suggestions that could facilitate positive change in the current status of sexuality education. The call for education as a 'vaccine' against new HIV infections places teachers at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic, and thus it is imperative to understand how they experience teaching about sexuality. Findings in the present study derive from data generated through a research project that sought to explore women teachers' experiences of teaching sexuality education in rural schools in Lesotho. Twelve women teachers' narratives are used to examine the obstacles to effective sexuality education in rural contexts. The study highlights the role of gender dynamics and culture in the effectiveness of school-based sexuality education. The paper argues for a more concerted effort and collaboration between curriculum developers and education stakeholders such that the Lesotho sexuality education curriculum is more context-specific and relevant to the communities it serves, so that it can achieve the desired goals of, amongst other things, reducing the transmission of HIV.


The prevention program for eradicating illicit abuse and circulation of drugs by the national narcotics agency in 7 (seven) Private Universities in the special capital region of Jakarta has shown consistency with performance indicators supporting efforts to eradicate drug abuse. The purpose of this study is to improve satisfaction (strategic satisfaction) as a strategic step taken to increase trust in students in the special capital region of Jakarta. And the need to improve integrated marketing communications (IMCs), perception service quality and image. The research method used is descriptive survey and explanatory survey. The type of investigation in this study is causality, which is the type of investigation which states that there is a correlation between the independent variables namely IMC, service quality and image on satisfaction and its implications for trust in students based on causal relationships. While verification research is to test hypotheses through data collection in the field. The results of data analysis with statistical tests state that IMC, perception service quality and image together have a positive and significant effect on satisfaction with a joint contribution of 72%.


Quality of leadership and well-being of any nation is dependent on the quality of its education. The humanistic and existentialists see education as the development of the whole being and the advancement of his/her environment and culture. The yardstick for this development is the extent to which the corollaries satisfy the socio-cultural and economic needs of individuals and the community. Nigeria as a nation is aptly endowed with all the resources needed to make her education system achieve the desired objectives. But the absent of effectiveness and efficiency in the utilization of these resources have been the bane of the country's educational development since independence. Being the bedrock of the country's economic development, the expected impetus is bedeviled by countless problems from corruption, absence of stake, commitment and the political-will despite successive government that has ruled the country. The paper attempts to demonstrate the relevance of resource-based theory to educational reform in Nigeria and subsequently recommends that educational reform must be innovative and participatory and include the true experts i.e. the school administrators and teachers who have endured the bumps and bruises of the system, worked with almost nothing and yet, have not left the system. The process must be backed by political will to ensure adequate funding, efficient administration and policy implementation.


Since the 19th century, with the expansion and industrialization of extractive industries, maritime jurisdictions have shifted from chiefly open-access to a regime regulated by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This thesis examines fishing access agreements, i.e., legal tools that allow one country to fish in the waters of another one following mutually-agreed terms. The emphasis is on the particular fisheries access agreements funded by EU-taxpayers, and the aim is to test the common belief that their economic, social, and environmental provisions have improved over time vis-a-vis the host countries. To date, only little has been published on this topic, and thus this examination of their provisions is of paramount importance for the policy realm. Chapters 1 and 2 challenge the legal ground of such agreements, which rests on the questionable notion of fisheries 'surplus' that must be made available to other countries according to UNCLOS. Flaws in the estimation of surplus are noted: in most cases, the surplus cannot be calculated due to inaccurate catch estimates, and ceding a potential surplus to foreign countries results in hard-to-justify decreases in domestic catches. Chapter 3 argues that since their inception, the level at which these agreements have been subsidized remained extremely high (around 75%); the remainder (paid by fleets' operators) represented only a small fraction of their gross revenue, highlighting a potential imbalance in allocation of benefits. Finally, Chapter 4 demonstrates that despite advances in most social and environmental provisions, the one regarding the supervision of foreign vessels by observers (arguably the most critical provision of all) has declined. These results beg the question: how legitimate are such access agreements? While they are lauded for their transparency, they appear to remain mostly beneficial to European interests and poorly monitored. Also, due to the fishing expansion occurring in host countries and ongoing international trade reforms, one can only wonder whether such historical 'pay-fish-and-go' agreements still ought to continue.


Objective: Predictors of action-control profiles are useful targets for health behaviour change interventions, but action-control research has not focused on fruit consumption and has not yet included need for affect and need for cognition, despite the demonstrated usefulness of these variables in a broad range of research. The role of these variables for fruit consumption action control was explored. Design: Prospective data was collected with self-administered questionnaires. Setting: University. Method: Undergraduate students (n = 109; mean age = 22.63 (SD = 2.67), 78% female) who were recruited using announcements at the university completed measures of need for affect and cognition and theory of planned behaviour items that were used as independent variables. Self-reported fruit consumption one month later was the dependent variable. Data were analyzed using bivariate correlations, discriminant function analysis and analysis of variance. Results: Affective attitude, cognitive attitude and perceived behavioural control (PBC) were significantly correlated with the discriminant function. Successful intenders had significantly higher scores on PBC than unsuccessful intenders; intenders had significantly higher scores on attitude measures and PBC. Additionally, high-affect unsuccessful intenders had higher scores on affective attitudes measures than high-affect unsuccessful nonintenders. Conclusion: Cognitive attitude, affective attitude, and PBC are relevant intervention targets to increase motivation to consume sufficient fruits. Further, the promotion of controllability of fruit consumption should minimize the intention–fruit consumption gap. These effects occur relatively independent of need for affect and cognition.


ABSTRACT Background: Although most adolescents successfully manage the transition between childhood and adulthood, the speed and magnitude of these changes may exceed the coping abilities of a significant number of young people. For vocational students, additional responsibilities arise during the vocational school transition and the need to balance academic and job-related requirements. An expanding body of literature suggests that adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of psychiatric diseases and as such, the need to develop an adequate coping repertoire is receiving increasing attention globally. The growing awareness of long-term consequences of stress has led governments to instill school-based resilience promotion programs. For instance, the new physical education (PE) curriculum of vocational (vocational education and training (VET)) students in Switzerland addresses stress management, because stress-related diseases at the workplace have become commonplace among young professionals. Purpose: Our aim was to develop, implement and evaluate a PE-based coping training (EPHECT) for VET students. Therefore, we adapted components of extant field-tested coping training programs and tailored them to the unique needs of VET students. To facilitate the standardization of the program, each teacher received a teaching manual. Moreover, drawing upon experiential learning theory, we introduced the contents of the coping training in PE class through practical, movement-based exercises in PE. Students also received a workbook for use at home. Participants and research design: In this cluster randomized controlled trial, eight classes from a Swiss vocational school participated (N = 131, Mage = 16.22 ± 1.12, 35% females). Two trained PE teachers implemented the program with students in the intervention group (IG = 67) for three months, while students in the other four classes maintained regular PE (CG = 64) to comprise the control group. To evaluate the coping training, all participants completed several self-report psychological questionnaires (assessing stress, coping and sleep) at baseline and follow-up. IG students completed further questions with regard to intervention fidelity at follow-up. Data analysis: To evaluate possible effects of the coping training on stress, coping and sleep, a 2 × 2 repeated-measures analysis of variance design was executed with time (pre vs. post) and group (IG vs. CG) as within- and between-subject factors. Findings: Over time, IG students significantly increased their adaptive coping compared to CG students, while stress and sleep remained relatively stable for both. Regularly completing one's homework reinforced this effect because it was significantly associated with students' reflection and compliance. Conclusion: A complete and accurate implementation of a PE-based coping training can make a positive contribution to the development of adaptive coping skills among adolescents attending vocational schools. This PE-based program allows students to experience their responses to stress directly and offers opportunities to experiment with different coping strategies. Adaptive coping skills are vital for successful stress management and the prevention of stress-related disorders across the work domain and in everyday life.


Per- and polyfluorinated organic compounds (PFC) in air were determined in samples taken at two sites in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, over a period of 14 months. PUF/XAD-2/PUF cartridges and glass fiber filters were applied for the collection of airborne PFC. A set of volatile, neutral PFCs such as fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOH) or perfluorinated sulfonamides and ionic, nonvolatile PFC like perfluorinated carboxylates and sulfonates were determined using GC-MS and HPLC-MS/MS. Backward trajectory analysis was performed to elucidate the origin of the air mass parcels sampled. PFCs were predominantly detected in the gas phase. A fluctuating baseline presenting north German background levels and singular events of high concentrations were characteristic for the time series of all analytes and both locations. The origin of sampled air was the driving parameter influencing the PFC levels. Elevated PFC concentrations occurred in air arriving from industrialized and populated regions west and southwest of Hamburg. Maximum individual PFC concentrations reached 600 pg m(-3) (8:2 FTOH) in the gas phase and 13 pg m(-3) (perfluorooctane sulfonate) in the particle phase. The class of FTOH clearly dominated the gas-phase substance spectrum. The compound that was detected in highest concentrations was 8:2 FTOH. Individual gas-phase PFC concentrations were higher in summer than in winter. Temperature-dependent emissions of volatile and semi-volatile PFCs from diffuse sources to the gas phase are presumed to be responsible for this observation.


Some theoretical concepts of globalisation and citizenship are discussed in the article as well as changing role of citizenship education in transforming Lithuanian Society. The author points out that many problems in contemporary Lithuanian society arise from the fact that the relationship between individuals and the state is changing fundamentally. The state should broaden "positive" choices and support an individual by ensuring principles of equality in basic human rights and access to opportunities. On the other hand, an individual has to take the responsibility for his/her own life becoming a decisive factor in choosing personal life style and in building up civic community. In this respect, it is expected that Citizenship Education would lay an important role in educating competence and attitudes towards own responsibilities, in educating mental and practical skills for positive civic participation. Current status and new approaches of citizenship education in Lithuania are presented in the light of international developments. The article concludes that changing role of citizenship education has significant implications for professional development of teachers and for the national teacher training system as a whole.


A key promise of software architecture research is that better software systems can result from modeling their important aspects throughout development. Choosing which system aspects to model and how to evaluate them are two decisions that frame software architecture research. Part of the software architecture community, primarily from academia, has focused on analytic evaluation of architectural descriptions. Another part of the community, primarily from industry, has chosen to model a wide range of issues that arise in software development, with a family of models that span and relate the issues. One problem that neither community has adequately addressed to date is round-trip software engineering: consistently refining a high-level model of a software system into a lower-level model (forward engineering) and abstracting a lowlevel model into a higher-level one (reverse engineering). This paper investigates the possibility of using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), an object-oriented design language, to that end. The paper assesses UML's suitability for modeling architectural concepts and provides a framework for identifying and resolving mismatches within and across different UML views, both at the same level of abstraction and across levels of abstraction. Finally, the paper briefly discusses our current tool support for round-trip software engineering.