The thesis presented here entitled ?Structural and Compositional Properties of Semiconductor Quantom Dots and Nanocrystals? for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is submitted to the University of Manchester by Reza Jalilikashtiban in August 2010. The research carried out here employed analytical and imaging transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy to gain a good understanding of local structure and composition of semiconductor nanocrystals and quantum dots for electronics and optoelectronics applications. One of the world?s most advanced analytical scanning transmission electron microscopes in the field, the Daresbury SuperSTEM, was used to scrutinise the structure and composition of the samples. Three nanostructure systems are investigated in this thesis: 1. Structures consisting of Ge-nanocrystals (NCs) in alumina. Here HRTEM suggests relaxed and twinned smaller NCs grown annealed at lower temperature compared to elongated non-faulty bigger NCs annealed at higher temperature. HRTEM also suggests a polycrystalline structure of the matrix. 2. With regards to the InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QD) the study aims in particular at elucidating QD formation by investigating samples grown with and without growth interrupt (GI). Diffraction contrast TEM shows formation of buried dots in the sample prepared with GI whereas for the sample without GI the immediate growth of GaAs after InAs inhibits diffusion and segregation of In adotoms, and no footprint of buried dots has been observed. HRTEM and HAADF show coherent QDs in the sample with GI and abrupt InAs/GaAs interfaces in the sample without GI. In executing energy electron loss spectroscopy (EELS) and geometric phase analysis (GPA) the distribution of In in InGaAs/GaAs QDs has been obtained in samples grown in the critical thickness regime for quantum dot formation. The highest In percentage achieved in the dots grown with a nominal fraction of 100% was ~70%. EELS shows variations in the In concentration within the QD structure and wetting layer 3. In the case of Er-doped Si-NCs in silica this research tries to provide an understanding of structure, composition and position of excess Si and Er in the silica matrix of materials prepared under different growth conditions and to correlate this information with the PL emission, all with the aim to find preparation routes for optimum optical efficiency for applications of this materials system in silicon photonics. High spatial correlation between Si-NCs, Er and O in the Er and Si co-implanted sample with strong indication of an Er-oxide/Si core-shell structure had been found. The lack of an Er-oxide plasmon indicates, however, that the shell structure and its interface with the SiNCs is highly defective and a likely cause for non-radiative recombination. The sample with similar excess Er and Si concentrations but prepared in a two-stage implantation and annealing process shows a 10 times improvement in the optical emission. Here no spatial correlation between Er and Si-NCs was found in core loss EELS. EELS and HAADF evidenced more highly, near-atomically dispersed Er in the matrix with no formation of a core-shell structure as compared to the co-implanted sample. No footprint of Er-silicide plasmon was observed by low loss valence band EELS investigation in the co-implanted sample.


The article by Jones and colleagues (1) recently published in Integrative Cancer Therapies reported on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by minority and medically underserved oncology patients at one hospital setting in Houston, Texas, USA. They find that cancer patients had very high awareness and interest in various CAM modalities as well as high prevalence of use of CAM. The authors conclude that while CAM use is common among the oncology patients they surveyed it, is not guided by providers and they highlight the importance of patient-provider discussions about CAM.


Abstract In recent years, nano technology has been significantly implemented in geotechnical engineering, especially for soil remediation. Using this technology has improved soil resistance parameters and led to the stabilization of many problematic soils. Clay soils, due to their nature, have a large dispersion on the surface of the earth. The widespread dispersion of these types of soils in the site of structures, describes the necessity of studying and investigating new methods of improving and amending the resistive properties of these soils. This research is a review of the use of nanotechnology for the improvement of soil resistive properties by geotechnical researchers.


A study was carried out to clarify the taxonomy of four Gram-positive, heterotrophic mesophiles isolated from marine lakes in the Republic of Palau. The strains, designated YM3-251(T), YM3-653, YM3-671 and YM11-542(T), formed aerial and substrate mycelia. The cell-wall peptidoglycan contained meso-diaminopimelic acid, glutamic acid and alanine. The G+C content of their genomic DNA was approximately 45 mol%. The major fatty acid was iso-C(15 : 0) and the major isoprenoid quinone was MK-9. The strains formed a distinct group in the 16S rRNA gene tree and shared a range of phenotypic properties that distinguished them from members of related genera in Thermoactinomycetaceae fam. nov. The name proposed to accommodate the new isolates is Mechercharimyces gen. nov., comprising two species based on genotypic and phenotypic criteria, including comparative gyrB and DNA-DNA relatedness data. The names proposed for these taxa are Mechercharimyces mesophilus sp. nov., the type species, and Mechercharimyces asporophorigenens sp. nov., with the type strains YM3-251(T) (=MBIC06230(T)=DSM 44894(T)) and YM11-542(T) (=MBIC06487(T)=DSM 44955(T)), respectively.


BiCoO3 is a PbTiO3 type of perovskite oxide with a giant tetragonal distortion (c/a = 1.27) that shows a pressure-induced transition from tetragonal to orthorhombic phases accompanied by a large volume shrinkage at 3 GPa. In this study, we carried out electron doping of BiCoO3 by substituting Ti4+ for Co3+ in order to destabilize the tetragonal phase and observe a giant negative thermal expansion (NTE) at ambient pressure. BiCo1-xTixO3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.25) was successfully obtained by using high-pressure synthesis. However, the c/a ratio of the tetragonal phase was almost constant against x (≤0.2), and NTE was not observed at any x, suggesting that the tetragonal distortion coupled with high-spin Co3+ is robust against electron doping. In x = 0.25, a metastable orthorhombic phase was obtained by the high-pressure synthetic process, while it partially transformed into a tetragonal phase after annealing at 600 K. The stability of the giant tetragonal phase is strongly connected with the spin state of Co3+.


Ischemic stroke is a complex disease in which environmental and genetic factors make about equal contributions to the etiology. However, knowledge regarding the molecular basis of the genetic influence and the impact of specific lifestyle factors is limited. Hypertension, diabetes, and smoking have been identified as major risk factors, but data for the different ischemic stroke subtypes are incomplete. Potential novel vascular risk factors, such as hemostasis, have mainly been investigated in relation to coronary heart disease, and associations to stroke remain to be established. The aim of the present thesis was therefore to study risk factors for ischemic stroke with focus on genetics, fibrinolysis, and lifestyle.The Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic Stroke (SAHLSIS) was designed for genetic association studies. Six hundred patients with ischemic stroke before the age of 70 years, and 600 matched population controls were recruited. Great emphasize was put on classification of ischemic stroke subtypes, as we hypothesized that their risk factor profiles may differ. Accordingly, we found that the associations for established risk factors differed by subtype. Furthermore, family history of stroke was independently associated with overall ischemic stroke, large vessel disease (LVD), small vessel disease (SVD), and cryptogenic stroke, but not with cardioembolic (CE) stroke. Lifestyle factors were investigated prospectively in a cohort of 7,402 men. After 28 years of follow-up, we found an independent association between increased body mass index and ischemic stroke. Self-perceived psychological stress showed independent association with total stroke (i.e. ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke combined), but no significant association was found when the two stroke types were analyzed separately. Self-perceived psychological stress was further investigated in SAHLSIS. An independent association with overall ischemic stroke, LVD, SVD, cryptogenic stroke, but not with CE stroke was found. The importance of endogenous fibrinolysis was investigated using genetic markers for the expression of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1), i.e. the t-PA -7,351C>T and the PAI-1 -675 4G>5G polymorphism. When analyzed as independent covariates, neither of the two genetic variants showed significant association with ischemic stroke. However, a protective effect for the t-PA CC/PAI-1 4G4G genotype combination (i.e. corresponding to high t-PA and high PAI-1 expression) was observed. We also investigated the pattern of acute t-PA release in a smaller experimental study. Compared to controls, patients with ischemic stroke showed a preserved, but delayed, acute t-PA release.In conclusion, we found distinct differences in risk factor patterns for the ischemic stroke subtypes. This was true for both established and novel risk factors, which highlights the importance of subtype characterization in stroke research. Regarding the fibrinolytic system, we found a protective effect of the t-PA CC/PAI-1 4G4G genotype combination, suggesting a gen-gen interaction and a complex role for t-PA and PAI-1 during brain ischemia.


Southwest Western Australia (SWWA) has experienced a significant drop in winter rainfall during the past three decades, the cause of which is still subject to considerable speculation and debate. This prolonged drought has heavily impacted on water resources in the state, the predicted continuation of which is of major concern to the people of Western Australia. In this paper, the possible influence of sea surface temperature (SST) variability occurring over parts of the Indian Ocean on SWWA rainfall variability is explored. The results of our statistical analyses show that winter rainfall (May to October) in SWWA is lower in years when warm SSTs dominate the southern and tropical western Indian Ocean, compared to years when cool anomalies are present in the same region. In addition, a step change that can be detected in the SST anomalies in the southern and tropical western Indian Ocean occurring around 1970 happens to coincide with a similar sharp reduction in SWWA rainfall. It is suggested that the possible association between the Indian Ocean SST anomalies and observed variability of SWWA rainfall may be utilized, at a minimum, as possible diagnostic tools in the evaluation of global climate model outputs, in this way constraining the uncertainties in their predictions.


abstract:Çadır Höyük, located in the Yozgat Province of the north-central Anatolian plateau, was continuously occupied from the late sixth millennium BCE until at least the thirteenth century CE. This article focuses on the fourth millennium BCE during which the Uruk System in southern Mesopotamia emerged, flourished and then retracted, and the Kura-Araxes culture from Transcaucasia ventured into Anatolia and the Levant. A close investigation of the Çadır settlement reveals a population that embraced the opportunities afforded it through the expanded trade and intercultural connections available during the millennium; the community transitioned into new socioeconomic patterns accompanied by changes in socioreligious and possibly sociopolitical behaviors. The disappearance of such opportunities at the end of the fourth millennium, rather than decimating a village that had come to rely on them, revealed the resilience of the community as it once again reoriented its focus to more local endeavors.


To maintain body weight, metabolic efficiency was promoted during evolution; two candidate genes for body weight regulation are lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNFa). Human fat cells do not synthesize lipid, but rely on LPL-mediated plasma triglyceride hydrolysis. Adipose LPL is elevated in obesity. Following weight loss, LPL is elevated further, suggesting attempts to maintain lipid stores during fasting and to replenish lipid stores during refeeding. Muscle LPL is regulated inversely to adipose LPL. Thus, an increased adipose/muscle LPL ratio would partition dietary lipid into adipose tissue and would explain some of the variability in weight gain when humans are exposed to excess calories. Adipose tissue TNFa expression is increased in obese rodents and humans and may be important in obesity. When insulin-resistant rodents were injected with anti-TNF binding protein, insulin action improved, suggesting a link between insulin resistance and TNF. TNF is expressed at higher levels in muscle cells of insulin-resistant subjects, and TNF may inhibit LPL expression. Overall, TNF may function to make the subject less obese by inhibiting LPL and rendering the animal more insulin resistant. Obesity has many components, both metabolic and behavioral. However, the metabolic changes resulting from LPL and TNF likely played a role in regulating body adipose tissue during much of human evolution and continue to affect human obesity today. J. Nutr. 127: 1917S–1922S, 1997


Biomedical waste management is emerging as a serious topic not only for health care organizations but for the whole world too recently. According to the societies (who form the standards, rules & regulation for BMW Management) each and every health care facility should have a proper management method for their generated waste. The MoEF notified Bio-medical waste and handling rules 1998 in July 1998 and then modify them in 2016. According to these rules every hospital generating Bio-medical waste needs to set a requisite treatment facility nearby to ensure degradation of Bio-medical waste as the untreated Biomedical waste should not be kept beyond 48 hours. In this research we try to elaborate the effects of Biomedical waste and will also propose its on-site treatment techniques in various main hospitals of Ujjain city.


The neuromodulator adenosine regulates immune activation and neuronal survival through specific G-protein-coupled receptors expressed on macrophages and neurons, including the A1 adenosine receptor (A1AR). Here we show that A1AR null (A1AR-/-) mice developed a severe progressive-relapsing form of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) compared with their wild-type (A1AR+/+) littermates. Worsened demyelination, axonal injury, and enhanced activation of microglia/macrophages were observed in A1AR-/- animals. In addition, spinal cords from A1AR-/- mice demonstrated increased proinflammatory gene expression during EAE, whereas anti-inflammatory genes were suppressed compared with A1AR+/+ animals. Macrophages from A1AR-/- animals exhibited increased expression of the proinflammatory genes, interleukin-1β, and matrix metalloproteinase-12 on immune activation when matched with A1AR+/+ control cells. A1AR-/- macrophage-derived soluble factors caused significant oligodendrocyte cytotoxicity compared with wild-type controls. The A1AR was downregulated in microglia in A1AR+/+ mice during EAE accompanied by neuroinflammation, which recapitulated findings in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Caffeine treatment augmented A1AR expression on microglia, with ensuing reduction of EAE severity, which was further enhanced by concomitant treatment with the A1AR agonist, adenosine amine congener. Thus, modulation of neuroinflammation by the A1AR represents a novel mechanism that provides new therapeutic opportunities for MS and other demyelinating diseases.


To assess the humoral immunological responses at the subclass level in shigellosis, specific antibody responses against Shigella dysenteriae 1 lipopolysaccharide (LPS), S. flexneri Y LPS, invasion plasmid-coded protein antigens (Ipa), and Shiga toxin were analyzed. Antibody responses of 41 patients with S. dysenteriae 1 infection (SDIP) and 15 patients with S. flexneri infection (SFIP) were compared with those of controls (n = 40). The levels of total immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, IgM, and albumin in serum and stool samples were analyzed. In addition, total IgA (t-IgA), secretory IgA (s-IgA), and antigen-specific s-IgA in fecal samples were analyzed to evaluate the specificities and magnitudes of the mucosal immune responses. By comparing the relative increases in optical density for each IgG subclass separately, it was determined that the anti-LPS (homologous) response initially increased in the order IgG2 > IgG1 > IgG3 > IgG4 and that this order changed to IgG2 > IgG3 > IgG1 > IgG4 later in the disease. The IgG subclass response against protein antigens initially showed the order IgG1 > IgG3 > IgG2 > IgG4, which changed to IgG3 > IgG1 > IgG2 > IgG4 later in the disease. A significant increase in the proportion of IgA2 among t-IgA compared with that in controls was seen in both SDIP and SFIP, while significant changes in the proportions of IgG1 and IgG2 among t-IgG compared with controls was seen only in SDIP. The anti-LPS IgA2 response was more prominent in SDIP than in SFIP. We found an early peak of antigen-specific s-IgA in fecal samples, with a shorter duration than the corresponding response in serum samples. The simultaneous increase of serum IgA, fecal t-IgA, and s-IgA in SDIP compared with those in SFIP suggests that there is a massive increase in the local IgA production, giving an increase in systemic IgA concomitant with an extensive gut mucosal inflammation leading to an increased loss of albumin, IgG, and IgA with a high ratio of t-IgA to s-IgA.


Following the recent developments in the asset pricing literature of geographic diversification, we abandon classic theories based on information asymmetry and explain the short-run performance of REIT IPOs over history though an investor base mechanism. We analyse the US market and find evidence that issuers are less likely to underprice (or more likely to overprice) when the REIT is more diversified and therefore the investor base is bigger. Even if both types of diversification are significant, geographic diversification shows a stronger impact on initial returns than property-type diversification. Our argument and the deadweight cost theory complement each other as lower deadweight cost associated with the IPO weakens the influence of the geographic diversification on the initial returns of IPOs. Our results are robust to different measures of private market returns and time fixed effects. In the end we show that a Herfindahl index should be preferred as a measure of geographic diversification, which is not the case for property-type diversification.


Over the past two years, the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and its Center on Finance, Law & Policy, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has embarked on an exploration of the Central Bank of the Future. The project convened current and former central bank governors, policymakers, regulators, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, consumer and community organizations, non-profit think tanks, and others for two large, public conferences, three private roundtables, and dozens of small group and one-on-one discussions and interviews. The project also produced an introductory paper, seven working papers, a comprehensive data set cataloging central bank financial inclusion mandates from around the world, and a "What If" blog series. The goal of the project was to explore how central banks could leverage technological advances to foster financial inclusion and to provide recommendations for further work to advance this goal. This paper summarizes many key takeaways from the project and provides a set of recommendations for further research. The paper is divided into five parts. Part I describes how the COVID-19 pandemic underscored existing deficiencies in payment systems around the world and discusses some of the strategies central banks used to respond to the crisis and the impact of those policies on the poor. Part II describes the multiple definitions of "financial inclusion" used by governing bodies around the world and how these competing definitions make it challenging to enact broader global financial inclusion policies. It also provides examples of central banks' attempts to harmonize definitions, with varying degrees of success. Part III provides an overview of how fintech has changed customers' expectations; created new risks; and created new opportunities to provide affordable, accessible, and appropriate financial services to those whose needs have not been met. Part IV delves into the regulatory challenges raised by new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and offers examples of how central banks could modify regulations to address these gaps in regulation. Part V explores some of the key factors involved in creating a global identification system, based upon learning from national identification systems offered by some central banks. This includes a discussion of anti-money laundering (AML) and other risks. Each Part concludes with recommendations for further research. A summary of the recommendations can be found in Appendix A.


Experiments on young rats have shown that diplacin and d-tubocurarine in doses amounting to 1/15-1/20 of LD50 lower the ability of hydrocortisone to interfere with the physical development of the animals. Metamisyl, metacin, gangleron and benzohexonium have no such properties. In adult rats and guinea-pigs, diplacin exerts no effect on the intensity of anti-inflammatory and antiallergic action of the hormonal drug, while d-tubocurarine diminishes the anti-inflammatory effect of the corticosteroid in experimental formalin-induced paw edema and weakens its effect on the immediate type hypersensitivity.


: Five fractions were isolated with the aid of cell electrophoresis in the phycol density gradient from the bone marrow of mice treated with physiological saline (control) and with erythrocytic chalone (experiment). The absolute and the relative distribution of cells in control and experimental fractions differed: the maximal number of cells in control (up to 78%) was revealed in fractions 3--5, and the minimal (up to 22%)--in fractions 1--2. 25 minutes after the action of erythrocytic cheilon there occurred redistribution of the cell material in all the fractions. The number of cells increased 2.6-fold in fraction 1. Analysis of smear "myelograms" from fraction 1 in experiment and control demonstrated that the formed element count in fraction 1 increased on account of the erythrocytic series cells. Among the proliferating erythron cells reduction of electrophoretic mobility proved to be the greatest in proerythroblasts. It is supposed that as a result of interaction between the erythrocytic cheilon and the receptors of the membranes of the proliferating erythron cells there occurred a reduction of their electrical change and changes in the intracellular processes leading to delay of mitoses.


ABSTRACTTo characterize the optical behavior of atmospheric particles located above the region of Tizi Ouzou, a micro-LIDAR and a sun/sky-photometer have been used. The analysis of three years of observation has revealed a large variability in the optical properties of the particles present in the atmosphere of this region. The aerosol extinction optical depth (τ) at 500 nm varies from 0.03 to about 2. The Angstrom Exponent (α), in the range 440–870 nm, varies from 0 to 1.8 and is indicating a large variability in size. The combination of micro LIDAR and sun/sky photometer measurements allowed us to determine the vertical profiles of the aerosol extinction coefficient (σext). The vertical profile helps to separate local from transported particles origins. The observation site is located in the city and surrounded by high mountains (2300 m asl). The aerosol optical depth at 500 nm and the Angstrom exponent respectively having the values τ > 0.5 and α < 0.25 indicate the high presence of desert dust particles from Saharan origin. This type of particles is frequently observed for α ranging between 0.25 and 0.35. The analysis of back-trajectories helped to identify the probable origin of air masses affecting the region. Our results show that a routinely operating LIDAR / photometer observing system coupled with back-trajectories analysis is a relevant tool for aerosols monitoring. They show, for the first time, the high temporal variability of aerosols present in the atmosphere of the Tizi Ouzou region.


Background: In the last years, many new treatment options have widened the therapeutic scenario of genitourinary malignancies. Immunotherapy has shown efficacy, especially in the urothelial and renal cell carcinomas, with no particular relevance in prostate cancer. However, despite the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, there is still high morbidity and mortality among these neoplasms. Cancer vaccines represent another way to activate the immune system. We sought to summarize the most recent advances in vaccine therapy for genitourinary malignancies with this review. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Database for clinical trials conducted in the last ten years, focusing on cancer vaccines in the prostate, urothelial and renal cancer. Results: Various therapeutic vaccines, including DNA-based, RNA-based, peptide-based, dendritic cells, viral vectors and modified tumor cells, have been demonstrated to induce specific immune responses in a variable percentage of patients. However, these responses rarely corresponded to significant survival improvements. Conclusions: Further preclinical and clinical studies will improve the knowledge about cancer vaccines in genitourinary malignancies to optimize dosage, select targets with a driver role for tumor development and growth, and finally overcome resistance mechanisms. Combination strategies represent possibly more effective and long-lasting treatments.


Background: With the start of the current century, increased the interest in the role of the adipose tissue derived substances that named adipokines in the inflammatory diseases of the human being including the inflammatory periodontal disease, but scientific evidences were not clearly demonstrate the association between these adipokines and periodontal pathologies.
Materials and Methods: Forty two subjects male only with normal body mass index were selected for the study with an age ranged (30-39 years). Samples were divided into three groups of 14 subjects in each group based on clinical periodontal parameters; clinically healthy gingiva (group I), gingivitis group (group II) and chronic periodontitis patients group (group III), from whom saliva and serum samples were collected for estimating the levels of leptin and resistin using Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA).
Results: The results showed that the serum level of leptin and resistin were significantly higher in chronic periodontitis patient (9.81 ng/ml, 6.55 ng/ml) respectively as compared to gingivitis and healthy control groups (leptin; 8.10 ng/ml,
ng/ml, resistin; 5.85 ng/ml, 5.45 ng/ml) respectively. On the other hand the level of leptin in saliva of patients with chronic periodontitis (0.17 ng/ml) was significantly lower than that of its salivary levels in gingivitis and healthy control groups (0.21 ng/ml, 0.29 ng/ml) respectively. Whereas, salivary resistin levels was significantly higher in chronic periodontitis patient(14.45 ng/ml) when compared to the gingivitis group (11.59 ng/ml) and the health control group (6.43 ng/ml).
Conclusions: Concomitant raise in serum leptin, serum resistin and salivary resistin, while a sensible reduction in salivary leptin with conversion from periodontal health state to periodontal disease state. These finding may draw a suggestion on the role of leptin and resistin in the relation between periodontal disease and the systemic health since the increase in their level were associated with a various systemic pathologies.


How courts and judges in authoritarian regimes decide cases behind closed doors has rarely been studied, but it is critically important in comparative judicial studies. Primarily drawing on the minutes of the adjudication committee in a Chinese court, this article explores its operational patterns and decision-making process. The data suggest that among the criminal cases reviewed by the committee, very few were difficult or significant, but a relatively high percentage of the suggested opinions of the adjudicating judges was modified. In contrast, many civil cases reviewed were difficult to resolve but the committee offered little assistance. Overall the operation and decision-making of the committee were subsumed by the administrative ranking system inside the court and the authority of the court president was enormous. The analysis also demonstrates the limited role of the committee in both promoting legal consistency and resisting external influences. Instead of achieving its declared goals, the committee has degenerated into a device for both individual judges and committee members to shelter responsibility. The findings compel researchers to reevaluate the role of the adjudication committee in Chinese courts, and the relationship between judges and authoritarian regimes.


Two opposing views exist regarding use of fatal versus injury crashes to guide selection of road safety treatment: (1) fatal and injury crashes are equally important in guiding road engineering treatments: (2) fatal crashes should be assigned more weight than injury crashes in determining treatment priorities. Each view is adopted into policy in various countries and programs. To date the debate on which view is correct has been theoretical with proponents arguing that fatal and injury crashes do or do not differ systematically in ways relevant to road design and engineering. For example, it is argued that other factors such as age and frailty of the victims, or safety afforded by their vehicle may determine whether the crash is fatal or injury, not the specific details of the crash or the road. The critical issue is whether fatal crashes predict that other crashes (of the same type at the same location) are more severe than if no fatality has occurred (at that location and crash type). This paper empirically informs this critical debate by testing this the predictive power of fatal versus injury crashes at crash cluster locations in South Australia. Extraordinarily, each view is correct in certain crash circumstances: fatal crashes predict more severe injuries in some circumstances (e.g. sideswipe crashes in <50kmh zone) but not others (e.g. rear-end crashes in <50km/h zone, or right-angle crashes in 70-80kmh zone). These results can be applied to improve use of fatal crashes in selecting and prioritising treatments to improve safety benefits.


Abstract In patients with endometriosis, ectopic endometrial tissues can escape from immune system control and survive in other tissues. The pathophysiology of endometriosis is still not fully understood. In this study, we aimed to clarify the pathophysiology of endometriosis, which is thought to be a benign but infiltrative cancer type, which has many similarities with cancer biology by determining PD-1 expression in patients with endometriosis. In this study, n = 73 cases who underwent surgery or examination at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Medicine and diagnosed as endometriosis in the biopsy material taken with the pre-diagnosis of endometriosis constituted the patient group. The control group consisted of n = 64 healthy subjects without concomitant malignancy or chronic inflammatory disease. Venous whole blood samples were obtained from the study groups. PD-1 and PD-L1 levels were determined by the ELISA method from serum and plasma samples. PD-1 gene expression level was determined by RT-PCR. The PD-1 level was found to be approximately 350 ± 150 ng/L and 45 ± 17 ng/L in endometriosis and control group, respectively. While the PD-L1 level was approximately 760 ± 108 ng/L in the patients, this level was 140 ± 14 ng/L in the controls. According to the RT-PCR results, the expression of the PD-1 gene 10 times higher compared to the controls. Conclusion: The identified increase of PD-1 levels and gene expression in endometriosis groups show that immunotherapy may be used in the treatment of endometriosis.


Benign vascular tumors are common in the head and neck region, but they rarely occur in the external auditory canal. The authors present a case of cavernous hemangioma in a 50-year-old patient admitted to the Clinical Republican Hospital. Computed Tomography and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging revealed the presence of a tumor that almost totally occupied the external auditory canal. The vascular tumor was excised by endaural approach. The external auditory canal regained its original shape.


Objective: This paper tries to devise a new algorithm based on ACO as well as multipath routing in Adhoc Multipath Distance Vector (AOMDV) environment. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Routing is a technique of transmitting data from source node to the destination node. Path breaks frequently in MANET due to the moving nodes. Multipath Routing presents a solution towards this problem, because of the presence of alternative paths. So, communication does not halt. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a newer field of swarm intelligence to tackle optimization problems. Findings: The new algorithm is named A-AOMDV and is compared with other multipath and unipath protocols. Some of the performance metrics are chosen to compare and evaluate the new routing algorithm with traditional algorithms like Throughput, Jitter, Number of packets send, End to End Delay, Packet Lost, Delivery Ratio. Based upon the obtained results, the comparison graphs have also been made while evaluating parameters. The results are very encouraging and the new algorithm has outperformed other algorithms used for the purpose of comparison. Applications: Data communication can take place through alternative paths using efficient multipath routing protocol and easily tackle problems of disconnections during data communication.


A simple method of averaging measurements for different scan positions was used to quantify scan asymmetries in AMSU‐B brightness temperatures for the sensors on the satellites NOAA 15, 16, and 17. The method works particularly well for the sounding channels 18 to 20. The asymmetries are small in most cases. In particular, asymmetries for Channel 18 are below 1.90, −0.53, and 0.49 K for NOAA 15, 16, and 17, respectively. On the other hand, it was found that the instrument on NOAA 15 has significant asymmetries for Channels 19 and 20, which seem to be related to the known radio frequency interference problem for this instrument. The use of the appropriate set of interference correction coefficients significantly reduces the asymmetry.


We consider a model of robust learning in an adversarial environment. The learner gets uncorrupted training data with access to possible corruptions that may be affected by the adversary during testing. The learner's goal is to build a robust classifier that would be tested on future adversarial examples. We use a zero-sum game between the learner and the adversary as our game theoretic framework. The adversary is limited to $k$ possible corruptions for each input. Our model is closely related to the adversarial examples model of Schmidt et al. (2018); Madry et al. (2017).
Our main results consist of generalization bounds for the binary and multi-class classification, as well as the real-valued case (regression). For the binary classification setting, we both tighten the generalization bound of Feige, Mansour, and Schapire (2015), and also are able to handle an infinite hypothesis class $H$. The sample complexity is improved from $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon^4}\log(\frac{|H|}{\delta}))$ to $O(\frac{1}{\epsilon^2}(k\log(k)VC(H)+\log\frac{1}{\delta}))$. Additionally, we extend the algorithm and generalization bound from the binary to the multiclass and real-valued cases. Along the way, we obtain results on fat-shattering dimension and Rademacher complexity of $k$-fold maxima over function classes; these may be of independent interest.
For binary classification, the algorithm of Feige et al. (2015) uses a regret minimization algorithm and an ERM oracle as a blackbox; we adapt it for the multi-class and regression settings. The algorithm provides us with near-optimal policies for the players on a given training sample.


Abstract This paper presents the results of two-dimensional studies on a range of different catalyst substrates warmed by exhaust from a four-cylinder gasoline engine. Engine speeds investigated were 2000 and 3000 r/min, corresponding to frequencies of 67 and 100 Hz. Of the nine substrates investigated, four were washcoated but non-reactive and four were washcoated and reactive. The ninth substrate was a hybrid sample with its front end inactive and its downstream end active: this is analogous to an aged catalyst. The temperatures at 16 locations within the substrates were measured. All the substrates were warmed by the pulsating exhaust flow from an engine running lean of stoichiometric. Thereactive substratates were warmed through light-off and both substrate temperatures and hydrocarbon conversion were monitored. The latter was measured with very high response time fast flame ionization detectors. Predicted temperatures and conversion were obtained from a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The model was based on the porous medium approach and incorporated a simple chemical scheme for oxidation under lean conditions. Standard values for reaction rate constants were found to be accurate for the lean conditions studied. Comparison was made of measurements of temperature and conversion fraction with predictions, with particular reference to the time taken to achieve light-off. Steady flow CFD predictions were found to be in good overall agreement with engine test data. Pulsing flow CFD predictions were found, however, to improve on the degree of agreement for warm-up of non-reactive samples, but at the expense of increased computation time. The performance of the reactive hybrid sample was accurately predicted by adjustment of the parameter for active area per unit volume, providing the basis for a technique for prediction of performance for aged catalysts.


The progressive wear of cutting tools and other occurrences involved with chatter vibration often pose limiting
factors on the achievable productivity in machining processes. An effective in-process monitoring system for
tool condition therefore offers the unique advantage of relaxing the process parameter constraints and
optimizing the machining production rate. This paper briefly presents a monitoring technique using acoustic
emission (AE) signal in turning. An interpretation method of the AE signal using FFT is explored and attributed
the signal to the tool condition .The tool wear; the chipping and the tool breakdown all have their own effect on
acoustic emission (AE) signal generated during turning. The AE generated from the sources is investigated
based on the energy dissipation principle. Cutting tests were conducted to determine the amplitude relationship
between RMS AE and tool condition using FFT. The result shows that in gradual tool wear, the dominating
frequency range lies between 20 Hz – 260 Hz for the tool-work-material combination used. It is shown that the
FFT is capable to describe the AE signal and it deserves to extract features of the signals.
Key words: Acoustic emission, Fourier transform, Tool condition monitoring.


This study was conducted to analyze CO2 migration from a shallow CO2 release experiment using a continuous soil CO2 flux measurement system. Approximately 1.8 t CO2 was injected from 1 to 30 June 2016 through the point sources with perforated release wells laid at 2.5‐m soil depth. Using LI‐8100A instruments, CO2 concentration, CO2 flux, soil temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure were continuously measured every 30 min at 0, 1.5, 3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 m from the well from 29 May to 4 August 2016. Typically sensors for soil temperature and moisture were installed at 5‐cm depth, and CO2 concentration, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure were measured at the chambers. The CO2 flux was not maximum directly above the release well. Carbon dioxide flux at 6.0 m from the well was similar to the background level. The relationship between CO2 flux and environmental factors, described using a temporal correlation analysis, indicated that CO2 flux was primarily driven by soil temperature and had the inverse correlation with relative humidity and atmospheric pressure. Heavy rainfall inhibited in‐soil CO2 migration by filling the soil pore with water. The anomalously high CO2 flux detected at 1.5 m from the well may have been caused by the associated permeability structure, in which a permeability discrepancy leads to the vertical or horizontal flow of in‐soil CO2. These findings from this shallow CO2 release experiment should be considered as basic information to characterize and model the in‐soil CO2 transport related to CO2 leakage.


Modern society is characterized by multidirectional, complex interacting processes of unification, diversification, globalization and multiculturalism. These processes cause significant changes in the education system. One of them is multicultural education. The relevance of research on various aspects of multicultural education in modern Russia has led to the emergence of multidimensional works. The multicultural orientation is reflected in the Federal educational standards of general education, in the standards of vocational education for bachelors and masters of pedagogical and psychological specialties. The objective of this work is to identify and theoretically substantiate the pedagogical conditions for the effectiveness of the formation of cultural pluralism in young professionals working in schools of a new type. The solution of the stated goal and verification of the proposed assumptions were provided by a set of complementary methods: retrospective, systemic, interviewing, included observation, conversation, testing, questioning, modeling and statistical method. The source of empirical data for this study was the questionnaire of young teachers of new type schools during the International School Teachers Festival in Tatarstan, Russian Federation, as well as the questionnaire of Alabuga International School teachers. As a result of the survey, the questionnaires were analyzed and problems encountered by young teachers were diagnosed. The authors of the article offer a number of recommendations for a more effective crosscultural education for future bachelors, young English language specialists. In their opinion, nursery rhymes, clerihews, which are "linguo-culturems", recreating the historical and cultural context, can serve as a successful material for intercultural education of future teachers. Here are some recommendations of the practical implementation of the nursery rhymes, clerihews in the training of the future teachers which are accompanied with illustrations and necessary notes. Special emphasis should be laid on the role of the pedagogical university in modern society, in the formation of competencies of future teachers and young specialists in the polyethnic region. Polycultural education promotes harmonization of relations between representatives of different civilizations and cultures. The main directions of multicultural education are bilingual education, multicultural education, accompanied by measures against ethnocentrism. The presence of a multicultural environment allows stimulating the interest of learners in new knowledge and at the same time it offers different points of view on the world around us.


Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS) refer to an increasing range of moving platforms upon which multiple sensors and measurement systems have been integrated to provide continuous, three-dimensional positioning and orientation of the platform and simultaneously collected spatial data. In order to increase the uptake of MMS across the industry sectors that can most benefit, the limitations of cost and usability facing current generation MMS need to be addressed. This paper proposes that these limitations can be addressed by integrating research developments in the fields of positioning technologies, spatial cognition modelling and human behavioral studies. Whilst these areas of research have previously been undertaken in relative isolation, it is anticipated that their inherent synergies for MMS as presented in this paper will offer some novel perspectives for developing the next generation of MMS. Specifically, this paper addresses the performance issues associated with the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and low-cost positioning and orientation sensors for MMS. It presents algorithms for integrating the on-board positioning and orientation sensors with the view to making them more robust. Additionally, this paper presents a typical approach drawn from current research in human spatial cognition studies that aims to convert measured data into information and ultimately knowledge for the user. Finally, this paper will outline the next phase of this research that aims to fully integrate these independent research themes to develop the next generation of robust, context aware MMS.


In this paper a composite plate with similar unidirectional fibers is considered. Assuming orthotropic structure, theory of elasticity is used for investigating the stress concentration. Also, complex variable functions are utilized for solving the plane stress problems. Then the effective characteristics of this plate are studied numerically by using ANSYS software. In this research a volume element of fibers in square array is considered. In order to investigate the numerical finite element modeling, the modeling of a quarter unit cell is considered. For determining the elasticity coefficients, stress analysis is performed for considered volume with noting to boundary conditions. Effective elasticity and mechanical properties of composite which polymer epoxy is considered as its matrix, are determined theoretically and also by the proposed method in this paper with finite element method. Finally, the variations of mechanical properties with respect to fiber-volume fraction are studied. © 2016 IAU, Arak Branch.All rights reserved.


The restrictions of a wartime childhood in London and subsequent post-war shortages have done little to enrich Timothy's early youth. But everything changes when Timothy's glamorous older sister, Kath, invites him to spend the summer at Heidelberg. Kath, who left home long ago to work for the American army, introduces her sixteen year-old brother to a lifestyle that is deliriously fast, furious and extravagant. Dazzled by the indulgent habits of the American forces, but at the same time sensitive to the broken spirits of the German community, Timothy will find that his holiday is an unforgettable rite of passage in more ways than one.


Background Globally, the burden of mortality in children, especially in poor developing countries, is alarming and has precipitated concern and calls for concerted efforts in combating such health problems. Examples of diseases that contribute to this burden of mortality include diarrhoea, cough, fever, and the overlap between these illnesses, causing childhood morbidity and mortality. Methods To gain insight into these health issues, we employed the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey Data of Egypt, which recorded details from 10,872 children under five. This data focused on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of household members. We applied a Bayesian multinomial model to assess the area-specific spatial effects and risk factors of co-morbidity of fever, diarrhoea and cough for children under the age of five. Results The results showed that children under 20 months of age were more likely to have the three diseases (OR: 6.8; 95% CI: 4.6–10.2) than children between 20 and 40 months (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.38–3.3). In multivariate Bayesian geo-additive models, the children of mothers who were over 20 years of age were more likely to have only cough (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.9–1.5) and only fever (OR: 1.2; 95% CI: 0.91–1.51) compared with their counterparts. Spatial results showed that the North-eastern region of Egypt has a higher incidence than most of other regions. Conclusions This study showed geographic patterns of Egyptian governorates in the combined prevalence of morbidity among Egyptian children. It is obvious that the Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, and south-eastern Egypt have high rates of diseases and are more affected. Therefore, more attention is needed in these areas.


There are numerous techniques used to measure strain. Most are only capable of taking
surface measurements. The penetrating nature of X-rays has been used to measure
deformation, and thus strain, but only with radiographic images. Radioscopic techniques
are faster and do not require film processing, but produce less detailed results than
digitised radiographic images. The research covered by this thesis tested radioscopic
images and showed them to be suitable for strain measurement.
The thesis includes details of the design and capabilities of the radioscopic equipment. Pin
cushion distortion is a common feature of radioscopic images, and an automatic method of
identifying, and correcting for the distortion was implemented. [Continues.]


The samples of soil and selected species of vegetables (cowpea leaves, spinach, sweet potato leaves, Ethiopian mustard and Chinese cabbages) were randomly collected from four sites, Idara ya maji, Nkaiti, Mbulungu and Mkwajuni of Minjingu village of Manyara in Tanzania. The samples were analyzed by means of wavelength dispersive x-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) spectrometry to determine the heavy metal concentrations in soils and vegetables of the field study with emphasis on their health risk index (HRI) assessment. The results indicate that soils have concentration range of 142-1547 for Ca, 737-2515 for K, 2396-4748 for Si, 0-121 for P, 0-181 for Mg, 0-36 for S, 0-68 for Na, 561-942 for Al, 121-4748 for Fe, 0-80 for Mn, 0-53 for Sr, 0-37 for Cs and 0-11 for Ni in mg/kg which was above the maximum tolerable limits(MTL). Elements detected in vegetables were in the range of 2123-6122 for Ca, 747-8005 for K, 65-996 for Si, 40-348 for Mg, for Mn, 85-584 for P, 22-705 for S, 0-218 for Na, 70-835 for Fe, 23-286 for Al, 0-98 for Cs, 84-1076 for Cl and 0-13 for Ni in mg/kg. The highest heavy metal retention capability was exhibited in Cowpea leaves, Spinach and Chinese cabbages but sweet potato leaves and Ethiopian mustard has shown lower concentrations. Control site recorded the least concentration values. The HRI values for Sr, Ni and Fe in vegetables exceeded the maximum threshold limits (HRI>1) set by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The findings of this work indicates that soils and vegetables grown, particularly cowpea leaves, spinach and Chinese cabbages were extremely contaminated at levels able to pose detrimental health effects to the consumers. Therefore the consumption of cowpea leaves, spinach and Chinese cabbages should be reduced to the maximum if not abandoned. But limited quantities of Ethiopian mustard and sweet potato leaves can be taken while immediate steps are taken to reduce anthropogenic activities at the polluting site. This situation makes the regular monitoring of the grown vegetables a compulsory act.


Despite our extensive knowledge regarding the biochemical and physiological actions of lithium, we have so far been unsuccessful in linking this information to the clinical actions of lithium in a unified model. It may be that a psychological/behavioural approach may allow us to achieve this objective. The present paper presents an outline of some studies on the behavioural actions of lithium in rats and mice and suggests how the data from such work can lead to a model of lithium action and of manic-depressive disorder couched in terms of information-processing mechanisms. Recent work in manic-depressive patients, using a signal detection task, is also described: the results are broadly confirmatory of the information-processing model of lithium effects.


The aim of this research is to better understand the behaviour of pulsed discharges and electron dynamics for the purpose of tailoring the plasma properties for neutral beam etching (NBE) applications.

A capacitively coupled plasma formed in a research system was used for a study of pulsed tailoring in an electropositive plasma. A combination of high time resolved optical diagnostics, plasma imaging and optical emission spectroscopy, and hairpin probe measurements were used to study the electron density and the energy distribution function during the ignition phase of a repetitively pulsed plasma. Two different waveforms were used to modulate the envelope of the input RF-voltages in order to control the ignition phase, by changing the increase rate of the electron density and evolution of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF). The results of this study indicate that the increase rate of the electron density and the EEDF, during operation, can be influenced and even controlled to some extent by pulse tailoring. Electron densities of the order of 1016 m-3 were obtained, and EEDFs of a highly non-Maxwellian nature were characterised during the ignition phase. Also, the ignition timescales were controlled by applying pulse tailoring from a few microseconds (typically 2 μs) to a few tens of microseconds (80 μs) for the different input waveforms.
An inductively coupled plasma in an industrial plasma etching tool was used to study pulse tailoring in electropositive and electronegative discharges. The same environment was used to create a source to from energetic negative ions which could then be extracted and neutralised. Similar diagnostic techniques, as those used in the research source, in addition to RF-probes were used to characterise the inductive source. Optical emission spectroscopy and electron density measurements showed that the plasmas, almost instantaneously, ignite in the H-mode. The EEDFs were characterised by a Maxwellian distribution with an electron temperature ranging between 1.2 up to 1.6 eV, and electron densities of the order 1018 m-3 were measured, depending on the operating conditions. This source was also used for preliminary NBE studies. Neutralisation efficiencies ranging between 70% and 95% were measured, and etch rates of 25 and 30 nm/min were found.
Finally, a novel technique was developed to monitor in-situ and in real time the plasma-induced damage on thin films, in particular low-k dielectrics. This technique uses wafer tiles to simultaneously measure the plasma properties and plasma-induced damage on the thin films. An analytical model, based on the ion flux probe model, was used to to extract the plasma parameters and mimic the existence of thin on the probe surface, by a resistor and a capacitor connected in parallel. The model managed to extract exact values of a dummy load, while a reasonable fit could not be achieved for thins silicon dioxide films. Initial results showed that, even for a well characterised material of a known permittivity and thickness, the model could not extract absolute resistivity and capacitance. Plasmas surface interactions were deduced to be the main factor for this result, which were not included in the model used in this study. However, plasma-induced damage/changes on low-k thins films by different plasma chemistries, such as argon and hydrogen, were qualitatively measured in real-time. The wafer probe was used to monitor the etch rate of an SF6 plasma for low-k thin films in realtime and in-situ. This technique could also be used to measure the neutralisation efficiency and possibly the etch rates of our NBE source in real time.


It is important to undertake a holistic assessment of the patient who presents with a wound. Karen Ousey and Leanne Cook give an overview of the key responsibilities of the practice nurse


Recent observations in the eastern tropical South Pacific (ETSP) have shown the key role of meso- and submesoscale processes (e.g. eddies) in shaping its hydrographic and biogeochemical properties. Off Peru, elevated primary production from coastal upwelling in combination with sluggish ventilation of subsurface waters fuels a prominent oxygen
minimum zone (OMZ). Given that nitrous oxide (N2O) production–consumption processes in the water column are sensitive to oxygen (O2) concentrations, the ETSP is a region of particular interest to investigate its source–sink dynamics. To date, no detailed surveys linking mesoscale processes and N2O distributions as well as their relevance to nitrogen (N) cycling are available. In this study, we present the first measurements of N2O across three mesoscale eddies (two mode water or anticyclonic and one cyclonic) which were identified, tracked, and sampled during two surveys carried out in the ETSP in November–December 2012. A two-peak structure was observed for N2O, wherein the two maxima coincide with the upper and lower boundaries of the OMZ, indicating active nitrification and partial denitrification. This was further supported by the abundances of the key gene for nitrification, ammonium monooxygenase (amoA), and the gene marker for N2O production during denitrification, nitrite reductase (nirS). Conversely, we found strong N2O depletion
in the core of the OMZ (O2 < 5 μmol/L) to be consistent with nitrite (NO2-) accumulation and low levels of nitrate (NO3-), thus suggesting active denitrification. N2O depletion within the OMZ's core was substantially higher in the centre of mode water eddies, supporting the view that eddy activity enhances N-loss processes off Peru, in particular near the
shelf break where nutrient-rich, productive waters from upwelling are trapped before being transported offshore. Analysis of eddies during their propagation towards the open ocean showed that, in general, "ageing" of mesoscale eddies tends to decrease N2O concentrations through the water column in response to the reduced supply of material to fuel N loss, although the hydrographic variability might also significantly impact the pace of the production–consumption pathways for N2O. Our results evidence the relevance of mode water eddies for N2O distribution, thereby improving our understanding of the N-cycling processes, which are of crucial importance in times of climate change and ocean deoxygenation.


The current study sought to clarify the nature of lexical decision-making information processing, using a lexical decision paradigm during EEG, in 4 groups: pure-ASD; pure-ADHD; pure-anxiety; and neurotypical controls. We also aimed to understand whether there were differences between groups when ASD presents as a comorbid condition (ASD + ADHD). The P100 and the N170 components of the evoked potential (ERPs) were the focus of analyses. Overall, we found larger P100 amplitudes in the right (relative to the left) hemisphere in neurotypical controls. This early ERP component likely reflects pre-linguistic processing (e.g., the sorting of nouns into categories) at a stage before the language-dominant left hemisphere takes over. We also found that those with pure-ADHD had longer P100 latencies than both the pure-anxiety and pure-ASD groups towards all lexical stimuli. The pure-ADHD group also showed smaller amplitudes toward word stimuli than toward pseudowords and nonwords. The ASD + ADHD group had significantly longer latencies towards pseudowords than the pure-ASD group. A unique pattern of ERPs was therefore observed in the comorbid group, which suggests that the two conditions are separate. This finding is in accord with the latest revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).


In this literature review, we examined 30 years of play-literacy inquiry through a quantitative lens in order to identify, assemble and summarize studies of sufficient methodological strength to form a corpus of research that encourages meta-analytic thinking. First, a multi-phase search of the literature was conducting yielding 192 studies that addressed pretend play and early literacy variables. Subsequent screening resulted in a total of 16 studies that met inclusion criteria, constituting a corpus of primary research that quantitatively measured play-literacy relationships in early childhood educational settings serving children ages 3—7. Next, several content analyses were used to describe and organize the corpus as a resource for meta-analytic thinking. The first round of analysis focused on developing a survey matrix that organized the particulars of individual studies into categories of information conducive to a meta-analytic approach. The second round probed for the theory of change used to explain the relations between pretend play interventions and early literacy skills. The third round entailed creating an effect size type matrix. Notably, most of the corpus studies showed modest to large effect sizes on a selected set of dependent variables which points to the potential of meta-analysis for better understanding the practical significance of the play-literacy relationship in promoting the acquisition of early literacy skills.


Automated furrow irrigation systems have been successfully installed and operated on 160 ha of furrow irrigation, on three farms located across the Burdekin sugarcane growing region. The once labour intensive manual irrigation management has been transformed by allowing growers to control, schedule and monitor the behaviour of the pumps, pipeline and valves remotely from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

Significant reductions of energy, water, labour and travel associated with irrigation management were seen across all three, large-scale demonstration sites. Reduced labour and travel was seen at each site, with one site registering an annual saving of at least 11,000 km travel. At two of the sites, reduced water usage of around 10% of annual usage was obtained and corresponded to a direct saving in water costs; and for one of these sites, the reduced water usage directly results in a reduced energy cost, while for the other, offers the potential to sell the saved water on the open market. Irrigation events can be scheduled to occur when they are required or to suit off peak electricity tariffs rather than when they suit labour availability.

All three farmers recognised the quality of life improvements, and notably their ability to have more time for their family and improved sleeping habits.

While assessing improvements to off-site impacts was not part of the project, they are expected as a direct result of the reduction in excess irrigation flowing through to a reduction of irrigation-induced run-off and/or deep drainage and the dissolved agri-chemicals it may contain.


Decentralisation, or devolving authority to the third tier of government to prioritise specific policy reforms and manage their implementation, is argued to lead to pro-poor development for a number of reasons: local bureaucrats can better gauge the local needs, be responsive to community demands, and, due to physical proximity, can be more easily held accountable by community members. In the education sector, devolving authority to district government has thus been seen as critical to introducing reforms aimed at increasing access and improving learning outcomes. Based on fieldwork with district-level education bureaucracies, schools, and communities in two districts in the state of West Java in Indonesia, this article shows that decentralisation has indeed led to community-responsive policy-development in Indonesia. The district-level education bureaucracies in both districts did appear to prioritise community preferences when choosing to prioritise specific educational reforms from among many introduced by the national government. However, the optimality of these preferences could be questioned. The prioritised policies are reflective of cultural and religious values or immediate employment considerations of the communities in the two districts, rather than being explicitly focused on improving learning outcomes: the urban district prioritised degree completion, while the rural district prioritised moral education. These preferences might appear sub-optimal if the preference is for education bureaucracies to focus directly on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes. Yet, taking into account the socio-economic context of each district, it becomes easy to see the logic dictating these preferences: the communities and the district government officials are consciously prioritising those education policies for which they foresee direct payoffs. Since improving learning outcomes requires long-term commitment, it appears rational to focus on policies promising more immediate gains, especially when they aim, indirectly and implicitly, to improve actual learning outcomes. Thus, more effective community mobilisation campaigns can be developed if the donor agencies funding them recognise that it is not necessarily the lack of information but the nature of the local incentive structures that shapes communities' expectations of education. Overall, decentralisation is leading to more context-specific educational policy prioritisation in Indonesia, resulting in the possibility of significant district-level variation in outcomes. Further, looking at the school-level variation in each district, the paper shows that public schools ranked as high performing had students from more privileged socio-economic backgrounds and were catering for communities that had more financial resources to support activities in the school, compared with schools ranked as low performing. Thus, there is a gap to bridge within public schools and not just between public and private schools.


Ten replication-competent endogenous avian leukosis viruses (ALVs) with subgroup E specificity were isolated from six commercial chicken lines of mixed breed. All the ALVs isolated belonged to a variant class of endogenous viruses with a major group-specific antigen, p27, identical in size to that of exogenous viruses and different from the p27 degrees of endogenous viruses isolated from White Leghorn chickens. It was possible to infect chickens exogenously with endogenous viruses (containing p27) and with Rous-associated virus type 0 (containing p27 degrees) but infection was non-productive. Congenital transmission and shedding did not occur in chickens infected with endogenous viruses containing p27 degrees or in chickens infected with endogenous viruses containing p27. Restriction of endogenous virus replication in some tissues (heart, spleen and meconia) of viraemic chickens was observed suggesting that exogenous infection of chickens with endogenous viruses differs from an infection with exogenous ALVs.


The recommendation for universal screening of all pregnant women for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is based on data from publicly funded hospitals. We retrospectively reviewed screening results of 2,696 mothers who delivered between May 1989 and April 1990. Our population was 85% privately funded. Screening for HBsAg was positive in 0.07%, negative in 80.4% and not done in 19.6%. All positive screens would have been identified by screening only patients with recognized risk factors. We conclude that the sensitivity of identifiable risk factors to detect HBsAg carriers may be high in some populations. We speculate that universal screening in these populations is not cost efficient.


SUMMARY: In simple chemically defined media all of 15 bacteria failed to grow in the complete absence of magnesium. The concentration of magnesium for maximum growth was dependent upon the Gram reaction of the individual species examined, the magnesium requirements of the Gram-positive organisms being some ten times greater than the requirements of the Gram-negative organisms. In contrast to the observations made in more complex media (peptone water), normal cell division occurred in chemically defined media containing suboptimal amounts of magnesium. It is suggested that magnesium is involved in the synthesis of bacterial protoplasm as well as cell division and, in simple chemically defined media, the synthetic reactions require the higher magnesium concentration.


Abstract : RY FOR Normal Stress Measurements in Slits and Capillaries.Technical summary rept.,Davies,J. M. ;Walters,K. ;MRC-TSR-1384DA-31-124-ARO(D)-462*Rheology, *Shear stresses, *Capillaries, Partial differential equations, Elastic properties, Polymers, Melting, Pressure gradientsIt is argued that existing experimental results for slits and capillaries are consistent with those obtained by other means in as much as they indicate a second normal stress difference which is negative and smaller than the first normal stress difference. Existing interpretations of these experimantal results which predict a large positive second normal stress difference are in error because they assume that the centreline pressure at the exit of the capillary is zero. (Author)


Elevated serum and tissue bilirubin concentrations that occur in pathological conditions such as cholestasis, jaundice, and other liver diseases are known to stimulate cytotoxic responses. In preliminary studies, we noted that bilirubin seemed to cause apoptosis in murine hepatoma Hepa 1c1c7 wild-type (WT) cells. Consequently, we investigated apoptosis caused by bilirubin in WT, mutant C12 [aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR)-deficient], and C4 (AHR nuclear translocator-deficient) Hepa 1c1c7 cells. Three independent measures of apoptosis were used to quantify the effects of exogenous bilirubin (0, 1, 10, 25, 50, or 100 microM). Caspase-3 activity and cytochrome c release from mitochondria increased at 3 h post-treatment, before increased caspase-8 activity at 6 h, and nuclear condensation by 24 h after treatment with bilirubin. No differences in whole-cell lipid peroxidation were observed between the cell types; however, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was greater in WT cells than C12 or C4 cells 3 h after bilirubin exposure. Pretreatment of cells for 1 h with 1 or 10 microM alpha-naphthoflavone, an AHR antagonist, before bilirubin exposure resulted in decreased caspase-3 activity at 6 h and nuclear condensation at 24 h in WT cells. These results indicate that bilirubin, a potential AHR ligand, causes apoptosis in murine Hepa 1c1c7 WT cells by a mechanism(s) partially involving the AHR, disruption of membrane integrity, and increased intracellular ROS production.


Objectives: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adolescents and children is rapidly becoming one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. NAFLD varies from simple fatty liver to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with possible fibrosis. Several studies suggest that oxidative stress plays a central role in several metabolic abnormalities and cellular damage that characterize NAFLD. We investigated whether transition metals and their related proteins were related to NAFLD symptoms and their underlying processes. Methods: We measured copper, iron, ceruloplasmin (Cp) concentration and activity, transferrin (Tf), ferroxidase activity, and ferritin, and we calculated Tf saturation and Cp to Tf ratio (Cp/Tf) as an index of the activity of the antioxidant Cp-Tf system in 100 children with biopsy-proven NAFLD. Pediatric patients were grouped by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease score (NAS) ≥ 5 (30 subjects) and NAS < 5 (70). Results: Cp distinguished children with NAS ≥ 5 from those with NAS < 5 with an accuracy of 82%. Specifically, a receiver operator characteristics curve showed that a cutoff of 28.6 mg/dL separated NAS ≥ 5 from NAS < 5 with a specificity of 92% and a sensitivity of 76%. The Cp/Tf ratio, as well as copper concentration and Cp activity, decreased in the NAS ≥ 5 group, pointing out an imbalance in metal regulation. Either copper or Cp concentrations were lower in subjects having ballooning. Conclusions: Serum antioxidant capacity owing to Cp failure is strongly associated with NAFLD-related damage. Further studies are, however, required to clarify the role of Cp in NAFLD pathogenesis and to evaluate its potential application as diagnostic marker.


The adaptability of the grape cultivars to the biotic and abiotic environment is one of the decisive factors for their suitability to be grown in organic culture conditions. The correct identification of highly suitable cultivars reduces the risks of important yield losses in difficult climatic years. The studies performed took into account the climatic factors evolution in the period of 2011-2013 as compared to the average values recorded for the 10-year period 1991-2010. The purpose was to identify some grape cultivars with suitable yields and genetic resistance to these changes to be grown in this region with organic viticulture technologies. Our studies show that the eco-pedo-climatic factors recorded during the last years were more favourable for the organic vine growing than in the past. Among the cultivars that proved to be suitable for the organic viticulture in Murfatlar, displaying high or moderate resistance to pests, drought and frost, are 'Cristina', 'Columna', 'Mamaia', 'Cabernet Sauvignon', 'Feteasca neagra' and 'Riesling italian'.


ABSTRACT Cadmium pollution is a serious world-wide problem affecting the human health and the environmental quality. Phytoremediation, the use of green plants to remove, sequester or detoxify pollutants offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to engineering-based methods for remediation. The T2 generations of the ScMTII gene bearing transgenic and non-transgenic tobacco plants were grown hydroponically in Hoagland nutrition solution containing 0, 5 and 10 mg/L Cd in controlled growth room to determine their ability to uptake and accumulate Cd within the shoots and roots. There were no significant shoot and root dry weight differences between transgenic and non-transgenic tobacco plants. The ScMTII gene bearing transgenic tobacco plant accumulated 19.8% higher Cd than the non-transgenic tobacco plant in the above ground parts of the plant during the two weeks exposure period in hydroponic culture. In non-transgenic plant, however, Cd is accumulated mainly in the roots. The results of current study indicate that the use of the ScMTII gene bearing transgenic tobacco plant for Cd phytoremediation is limited. Further studies are needed to test the effectiveness of the ScMTII gene for phytoextraction of other heavy metal ions.


Polymeric fibers with nanometer-scale diameters are produced by electrospinning method. When the electrical forces at the surface of a polymer solution or melt overcome the surface tension, then electrospinning occurs and nanofibers are made. Polyethylene oxide(PEO) have been electrospun in our laboratory. Electrospun PEO fibers are observed by scanning electron microscopy or transmission electron microscopy. In this study, the average diameter of the electrospun fibers decreases with decreasing PEO concentration and increasing electric field strength. The optimal conditions for pruducing uniform PEO 100 nm fibers are the 10 wt% PEO concentration at a voltage 25 to 30 kV and a distance of 10 cm from tip to collector.


This study aims at investigating the effects of creative drama education on auditory reasoning and processing skills of children attending nursery classes. Pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used in the study. The research sample consisted of a total of 30 children, of whom 15 were in the experimental group and 15 were in the control group. After the administration of the pretest, the children in the experimental group were given Creative Drama education for 12 weeks in sessions of 45 minutes twice a week. "Auditory Reasoning and Processing Skills Test", which was developed by Gardner (1993) and adapted by Erbay (2009) to Turkish children aged 6, was used as the data collection tool. The data obtained were analyzed by using SPSS 15.00. Research findings indicated that creative drama education improved children's auditory reasoning and processing skills and that this improvement was permanent. Although improvement was also observed in the skills of the control group children, it was concluded that this improvement was statistically insignificant.


This study aims to explore the role of GABAB receptors in the development of deprivation myopia (DM), lens-induced myopia (LIM) and lens-induced hyperopia (LIH). Chicks were intravitreally injected with 25 µg baclofen (GABABR agonist) in one eye and saline into the fellow eye. Choroidal thickness (ChT) was measured via OCT before and 2, 4, 6, 8, 24 h after injection. ChT decreased strongly at 6 and 8 h after baclofen injection and returned back to baseline level after 24 h. Moreover, chicks were monocularly treated with translucent diffusers, −7D or +7D lenses and randomly assigned to baclofen or saline treatment. DM chicks were injected daily into both eyes, while LIM and LIH chicks were monocularly injected into the lens-wearing eyes, for 4 days. Refractive error, axial length and ChT were measured before and after treatment. Dopamine and its metabolites were analyzed via HPLC. Baclofen significantly reduced the myopic shift and eye growth in DM and LIM eyes. However, it did not change ChT compared to respective saline-injected eyes. On the other hand, baclofen inhibited the hyperopic shift and choroidal thickening in LIH eyes. All the baclofen-injected eyes showed significantly lower vitreal DOPAC content. Since GABA is an inhibitory ubiquitous neurotransmitter, interfering with its signaling affects spatial retinal processing and therefore refractive error development with both diffusers and lenses.


In this work, an innovative 3-D symmetric micro-supercapacitor based on polypyrrole (PPy) coated silicon nanotree (SiNTr) hybrid electrodes has been fabricated. First, SiNTrs were grown on silicon substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and then via an electrochemical method, the conducting polymer coating was deposited onto the surface of SiNTr electrodes. This study illustrates the excellent electrochemical performance of a hybrid micro-supercapacitor device using the synergistic combination of both PPy as the electroactive pseudo-capacitive material and branched SiNWs as the electric double layer capacitive material in the presence of an aprotic ionic liquid (N-methyl-N-propylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide; PYR 13 TFSI) as the electrolyte. The hybrid device exhibited a specific capacitance as high as ∼14 mF cm-2 and an energy density value of ∼15 mJ cm-2 at a wide cell voltage of 1.5 V using a high current density of 1 mA cm-2. Furthermore, a remarkable cycling stability after thousands of galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles with a loss of approximately 30% was obtained. The results reported in this investigation demonstrated that PPy coated SiNTr-based micro-supercapacitors exhibit the best performances among hybrid micro-supercapacitors made of silicon nanowire electrodes grown by CVD in terms of specific capacitance and energy density.


The performance of collaborative beamforming is analyzed using the theory of random arrays. The statistical average and distribution of the beampattern of randomly generated phased arrays is derived in the framework of wireless ad hoc sensor networks. Each sensor node is assumed to have a single isotropic antenna and nodes in the cluster collaboratively transmit the signal such that the signal in the target direction is coherently added in the far-field region. It is shown that with N sensor nodes uniformly distributed over a disk, the directivity can approach N, provided that the nodes are located sparsely enough. The distribution of the maximum sidelobe peak is also studied. With the application to ad hoc networks in mind, two scenarios (closed-loop and open-loop) are considered. Associated with these scenarios, the effects of phase jitter and location estimation errors on the average beampattern are also analyzed.


Large language models (LLMs) have shown excellent performance on various tasks, but the astronomical model size raises the hardware barrier for serving (memory size) and slows down token generation (memory bandwidth). In this paper, we propose Activation-aware Weight Quantization (AWQ), a hardware-friendly approach for LLM low-bit weight-only quantization. Our method is based on the observation that weights are not equally important: protecting only 1% of salient weights can greatly reduce quantization error. We then propose to search for the optimal per-channel scaling that protects the salient weights by observing the activation, not weights. AWQ does not rely on any backpropagation or reconstruction, so it can well preserve LLMs' generalization ability on different domains and modalities, without overfitting to the calibration set. AWQ outperforms existing work on various language modeling and domain-specific benchmarks. Thanks to better generalization, it achieves excellent quantization performance for instruction-tuned LMs and, for the first time, multi-modal LMs. Alongside AWQ, we implement an efficient and flexible inference framework tailored for LLMs on the edge, offering more than 3x speedup over the Huggingface FP16 implementation on both desktop and mobile GPUs. It also democratizes the deployment of the 70B Llama-2 model on mobile GPU (NVIDIA Jetson Orin 64GB).


We have sought to address the question of clonal variation of TCR within a human T leukemia cell line, HPB-ALL. To do so, a panel of anti-idiotypic antibodies was produced and the cell line examined for variants. We isolated both spontaneous idiotype and receptor-negative variants without applying mutagens or any selective pressure other than sorting the cells. These sorted and cloned populations are all clonally related to each other as shown by their beta-TCR locus gene rearrangements. The idiotype variants have alpha-chains which are differentially glycosylated, but they have the same size core protein after treatment with peptide N-glycosidase F to remove their carbohydrate side chains. This probably accounts for their idiotypic difference, since the antibody that distinguishes them appears dependent upon glycosylation for its binding, as shown by immunoprecipitation in the presence versus the absence of tunicamycin, which inhibits glycosylation from occurring. The idiotype variants differed from one another in variable region sequences by only a single amino acid substitution in the beta-chain, which is likely not important for the idiotypic difference. The receptor-negative variant produces both alpha- and beta-mRNA and cytoplasmic protein for TCR, but fails to transport this protein to the cell surface. We conclude that idiotype and receptor-negative variants of a T cell clone can occur in the absence of appreciable somatic mutation.


Stochastic Shortest Path problems (SSPs) can be efficiently dealt with by the Real-Time Dynamic Programming algorithm (RTDP). Yet, RTDP requires that a goal state is always reachable, what can be checked easily for a certain SSP, and with a more complex algorithm for an uncertain SSP, i.e. where only a possible interval is known for each transition probability. This paper makes a simplified description of these two processes, and demonstrates how the time consuming uncertain analysis can be dramatically speeded up. The main improvement still needed is to turn to a symbolic analysis in order to avoid a complete state-space enumeration.


One of the most important input providers for data stream management systems (DSMSs) is a sensor network. Such a network can have query functionality offered as a sensor network query processor (SNQP). Then some of the data stream operators can be executed in the DSMS as well as in the SNQP. This paper addresses the problem of finding the optimal solution. It shows first steps like the moving of operators and the modification of the epoch duration. The primary goal is to prolong the lifetime of the sensor network. A QoS-based goal function is introduced, and the optimization process is explained. It has been implemented with Borealis and TinyDB. Some preliminary results from the ongoing evaluation are given.


The paper presents a rapid speaker-normalization technique based on neural network spectral mapping. The neural network is used as a front-end of a continuous speech recognition system (speaker-dependent, HMM-based) to normalize the input acoustic data from a new speaker. The spectral difference between speakers can be reduced using a limited amount of new acoustic data (40 phonetically rich sentences). Recognition error of phone units from the acoustic-phonetic continuous speech corpus APASCI is decreased with an adaptability ratio of 25%. We used local basis networks of elliptical Gaussian kernels, with recursive allocation of units and on-line optimization of parameters (GRAN model). For this application, the model included a linear term. The results compare favorably with multivariate linear mapping based on constrained orthonormal transformations.


• Greek Cypriot education remains largely oriented towards promoting standard language ideologies and only accepts Standard Greek as the language of teaching and learning.

• Cypriot Greek, the students' home variety, is still seen as an obstacle to academic achievement by teachers and educational authorities.

• Cypriot Greek needs to be integrated into policies and practices of teaching and learning both in Cyprus and in the UK's Greek Cypriot community.

• This will:
o hone pupils' awareness of different varieties;
o foster the development of their critical literacy;
o facilitate the acquisition of Standard Greek;
o counter negative perceptions, stereotypes and feelings of inferiority associated with the use of Cypriot Greek; and,
o aid in the maintenance and intergenerational transmission of Cypriot Greek as a heritage and community language in the UK.

• Teachers and learning activities should promote and cultivate:
o awareness and respect of the different varieties spoken in class, Cypriot Greek and Standard Greek; and,
o awareness of vocabulary and grammar in the contexts of use of the two varieties and their social meanings.

•This approach will ultimately change the way we view language and literacy learning.


Models of human driving behavior have long been used for prediction in autonomous vehicles, but recently have also started being used to create non-playable characters for driving simulations. While such models are in many respects realistic, they tend to suffer from unacceptably high rates of driving infractions, such as collisions or off-road driving, particularly when deployed in map locations with road geometries dissimilar to the training dataset. In this paper we present a novel method for fine-tuning a foundation model of human driving behavior to novel locations where human demonstrations are not available which reduces the incidence of such infractions. The method relies on inference in the foundation model to generate infraction-free trajectories as well as additional penalties applied when fine-tuning the amortized inference behavioral model. We demonstrate this "titration" technique using the ITRA foundation behavior model trained on the INTERACTION dataset when trans-ferring to CARLA map locations. We demonstrate a 76-86% reduction in infraction rate and provide evidence that further gains are possible with more computation or better inference algorithms. used. The method we develop is model-agnostic.


The leading source for toxicologic emergencies -- revised and updated! A Doody's Core Title ESSENTIAL PURCHASE! 4 STAR DOODY'S REVIEW! "This is an excellent resource for poison control centers, toxicologists, and healthcare practitioners for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of poisonings as a result of exposure to a wide variety of industrial, therapeutic, illicit, and environmental chemicals."--Doody's Review Service With each bestselling edition, Poisoning & Drug Overdose has helped poison control staff, medical toxicologists, and emergency physicians respond to drug-related emergencies and chemical exposures. The new edition of this exceptional, at-a-glance guide offers the latest advice needed for the effective diagnosis and treatment of poisoning and drug overdose. The Fifth Edition features: Critical insights into timely topics such as biological warfare agents and the newest antidotes Updated information on industrial chemicals, including the most recent regulatory exposure limits Expanded information, including special pregnancy considerations Easy-to-read text and tables containing specific drug dosage information Detailed table summarizing current toxicity and workplace exposure guidelines for more than 500 industrial chemicals Extensive cross-referencing Comprehensive index featuring generic, chemical, and brand names for many drugs and commercial products


This paper presents a cost and performance measurement system that integrates the Activity-based Costing (ABC) method with the Economic Value Added value-based financial performance measure. This ABC-and-EVA system is an engineering management tool that helps to successfully manage cost and capital. It allows enterprise leaders to create shareholder value through cost structure improvement. In the ABC-and-Eva system, the cost of activities does not only include the rate of the consumption of resources, as it does in a traditional ABC system, but also capital demand. The steps for implementation of the proposed system are illustrated. A comparison is made between a traditional ABC system and an ABC-and-EVA system by examining the cost for each activity at the first stage. Then an adjustment to the income statement and the balance sheet is shown using the Economic Value Added approach. This information is then transformed into transparent capital charges using a newly developed method called Activity-Capital Dependence (ACD) Analysis. Changes to the end-product costs as a result of adding these capital charges to the activity costs are shown. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible changes to corporate strategies and business performance when this ABC-and-EVA system is implemented in a the company.


The BRACS (the biometric radiographic analysis of the craniofacial skeleton) is a mathematically originated method for diagnosing malocclusion and planning orthodontic treatment. In the conventional cephalometrics, the measurements are to be made in an unstable reference frame without any definable direction or coordinate system. When using the BRACS, the natural reference structures can be replaced by an artificial stable reference system. The procedure is introduced in this paper.


Coastal archaeological sites are threatened by a host of environmental change processes, including sea level rise, land subsidence, and shoreline erosion. The rates at which these processes have been occurring are increasing, exacerbated by climate change, and are expected to increase even more rapidly in the future. This will cause further loss of archaeological sites and with them, the loss of our knowledge of how coastal inhabitants lived and interacted with their landscape. My research assesses the vulnerability of prehistoric and Contact period Native American sites situated around Indian Field Creek in Virginia. This area saw multiple prehistoric occupations, culminating in the protohistoric village of Kiskiak, which was part of the Powhatan chiefdom at the time of European contact. Recent archaeological excavations and the careful study of shell middens found in this area have added to our knowledge of how the Kiskiak people dwelled within this landscape and interacted with their environment. However, field observations have revealed that these midden deposits are actively being eroded. My research takes into consideration a variety of environmental and cultural variables to determine which sites in this area are most at risk from the natural environment and which would be the greatest loss to our understanding of the past if they were washed away from the archaeological record. The results of this research presented here provide guidance for environmental and cultural managers to best preserve the archaeological record and our knowledge of the native people of this region.


Covers the study of the occurrence, analytical methodology, and polyphenol complexation in food. Examines the effects of phenolic compounds on the flavor, taste, color, texture, and nutritional quality of food. Together with Phenolic Compounds and Their Effects on Health II, the volumes represent the most up-to-date studies of the antioxidative and anticarcinogenic activities of phenolic compounds in food.


Purpose: The majority of a company's improvement comes when the right workers with the right skills, behaviors and capacities are deployed appropriately throughout a company. This paper considers a workforce scheduling model including human aspects such as skills, training, workers' personalities, workers' breaks and workers' fatigue and recovery levels. This model helps to minimize the hiring, firing, training and overtime costs, minimize the number of fired workers with high performance, minimize the break time and minimize the average worker's fatigue level. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, a multi objective mixed integer programming model is developed to determine the amount of hiring, firing, training and overtime for each worker type. Findings: The results indicate that the worker differences should be considered in workforce scheduling to generate realistic plans with minimum costs. This paper also investigates the effects of human fatigue and recovery on the performance of the production systems. Research limitations/implications: In this research, there are some assumptions that might affect the accuracy of the model such as the assumption of certainty of the demand in each period, and the linearity function of Fatigue accumulation and recovery curves. These assumptions can be relaxed in future work. Originality/value : In this research, a new model for integrating workers' differences with workforce scheduling is proposed. To the authors' knowledge, it is the first time to study the effects of different important human factors such as human personality, skills and fatigue and recovery in the workforce scheduling process. This research shows that considering both technical and human factors together can reduce the costs in manufacturing systems and ensure the safety of the workers.


This 23-page document is the result of the testing of soil samples from various places in the town of Abra Pampa. Each page is signed by Oscar Minolli. Under his name are the words, in Spanish, "Biochemist MP 2229" and "Specialist in Environmental Engineering." Each page seems to represent a particular soil sample from a particular spot in the town. Samples were taken from 22 places, both on the surface, and at a depth of 40 centimeters. Two of the samples were from the mud and straw roof of buildings. The locations are described in terms of the street or intersection as well as the geographical coordinates. The first page of the document is a summary of the results. The summary page makes reference to Decree 5980, annex V regarding soil quality.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
Preliminary evidence suggests that the risk of Long COVID is higher among people with pre-existing medical conditions. Based on its proven adjuvant role in immunity, habitual sleep duration may alter the risk for developing Long COVID. The objective of this study was to determine whether the odds of Long COVID are higher amongst those with pre-existing medical conditions, and whether the strength of this association varies by habitual sleep duration.

METHODS
Using data from 13,461 respondents from 16 countries who participated in the 2021 survey based International COVID Sleep Study II (ICOSS II), we studied the associations between habitual sleep duration, pre-existing medical conditions, and Long COVID.

RESULTS
Of 2,508 individuals who had COVID-19, 61% reported at least one Long COVID symptom. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of having Long COVID was 1.8-fold higher for average-length sleepers (6-9h/night) with pre-existing medical conditions compared to those without pre-existing medical conditions [aOR 1.84 (1.18-2.90), P=0.008]. The risk of Long COVID was 3-fold higher for short sleepers with pre-existing medical conditions [aOR 2.95 (1.04-8.4), P=0.043] and not significantly higher for long sleepers with pre-existing conditions [aOR 2.11 (0.93-4.77), P=0.073] compared to average-length sleepers without pre-existing conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
Habitual short nighttime sleep duration exacerbated the risk of Long COVID in individuals with pre-existing conditions. Restoring nighttime sleep to average duration represents a potentially modifiable behavioral factor to lower the odds of Long COVID for at-risk patients.


Abstract Word boxes and word sorts are two word study phonics approaches that involve teaching phonemic awareness, making letter-sound associations, and teaching spelling through the use of well-established behavioral principles. In the current study, the effectiveness of word boxes and word sorts was examined through the use of a multiple baseline design across students. Participants had mild mental retardation and ranged in age from 9 years, 5 months to 10 years, 6 months. Findings revealed that word boxes and word sort phonic procedures increased students' word identification and spelling skills. The results are discussed in terms of how the format for these two instructional procedures facilitates opportunities to respond for teaching consonant-vowel-consonant patterned words.