Zidovudine resistance mutations at reverse transcriptase codons 215 or 41 were found in two-thirds of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolates obtained at baseline from patients enrolled in an AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) protocol that compared didanosine with continued zidovudine in patients with > or = 16 weeks of previous zidovudine therapy (ACTG 116B/117). The combined presence of mutations at both codons 215 and 41 conferred an increased risk for progression (relative hazard, 1.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-3.26) and an increased risk for death (RH, 5.42; 95% CI, 1.92-15.30) in analyses that controlled for other factors predictive of progression. However, the benefit of switching to didanosine compared with continued zidovudine therapy was independent of the presence of these mutations. Although this information is not helpful in determining when to alter therapy, detection of zidovudine resistance mutations provides prognostic information in patients with advanced HIV disease.


In the field of work psychology there are posed questions and solved problems which concern individual effectiveness and satisfaction in one's occupational activity. Job is many times related with onerousness, the size of which is modified by personal and situational determinants. The current article contains presentation of theoretical and empirical analyses regarding job onerousness characteristic for the situation of managing one's own enterprise. Two aspects of that onerousness have been distinguished: perceived onerousness (job onerousness perception) and onerousness experienced as psychological costs (psychological costs of work). Researches have been made to examine whether these aspects are modified by some other determinants (both personal and situational determinants have been included). The performed analyses have proved that perceived onerousness depends on temporary engagement in job and financial gratification, and psychological costs of work are determined by neuroticism mainly.


Using a method of calculating real exchange rate (RER) misalignment which explicitly incorporates terms of trade shocks and the distinction between tradable and non tradable goods, this paper estimates RER overvaluation in 12 countries of the CFA franc zone before and after the 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc. The results show that prior to the devaluation, the RER was about 30% overvalued on average with sharp differences across the 12 countries. The larger oil producers (Cameroon and Gabon) were the most overvalued, while some of the smaller, landlocked countries (Chad and Burkina Faso) were much less so. The estimates appear to be robust to the choice of base year and the two elasticities of the model. One year after the devaluation, the RER was undervalued in a majority of countries, although the variation across countries remains, with Cameroon and Gabon still substantially overvalued. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.


The present invention describes a method and arrangement for reducing a sequence of initial frames into a reduced set of representative frames by combining the initial frames into a plurality of representative frames, the combining process including generating a distortion measure associated with each representative frame and comparing each distortion measure to a distortion threshold. From these representative frames, a set of mutually exclusive frames is determined to minimize the number of representative frames, whereby each representative frame in the set represents a unique set of contiguous initial frames and has an associated distortion measure which does not exceed the distortion threshold.


Groundwater plays a major role in the hydrological processes driven by climate change and human activities, particularly in upper mountainous basins. The Jinsha River Basin (JRB) is the uppermost region of the Yangtze River and the largest hydropower production region in China. With the construction of artificial cascade reservoirs increasing in this region, the annual and seasonal flows are changing and affecting the water cycles. Here, we first infer the groundwater storage changes (GWSC), accounting for sediment transport in JRB, by combining the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, hydrologic models and in situ data. The results indicate: (1) the average estimation of the GWSC trend, accounting for sediment transport in JRB, is 0.76 ± 0.10 cm/year during the period 2003 to 2015, and the contribution of sediment transport accounts for 15%; (2) precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture change, GWSC, and land water storage changes (LWSC) show clear seasonal cycles; the interannual trends of LWSC and GWSC increase, but P, runoff (R), surface water storage change and SMC decrease, and ET remains basically unchanged; (3) the main contributor to the increase in LWSC in JRB is GWSC, and the increased GWSC may be dominated by human activities, such as cascade damming and climate variations (such as snow and glacier melt due to increased temperatures). This study can provide valuable information regarding JRB in China for understanding GWSC patterns and exploring their implications for regional water management.


INTRODUCTION
Recently, there has been increasing interest in the role of "treatment as prevention" (TasP). Some of the questions regarding TasP strategies arise from the perceived difficulties in achieving and maintaining viral load (VL) suppression over time and the risk of emergence of viral resistance that could compromise future treatment options. This study was conducted to assess these questions in a resource-limited setting.

METHODOLOGY
We performed a retrospective observational study of HIV-infected patients diagnosed in the pre-HAART era on follow-up at a private center from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Socio-demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were extracted from clinical charts. Analyses were performed to test for potential associations of selected variables with current virologic failure or use of third-line drugs.

RESULTS
Of 619 patients on follow-up, 82 (13.2%) were diagnosed in the pre-HAART era. At the time of our study, 79 (96.3%) patients were on HAART, with a median duration of 14 years (IQR 12-15) of therapy, and exposure to mono or dual nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors regimens in 47.8% of cases. Sixty-nine patients (87.3%) had undetectable VL, 37 (46.8%) never presented virologic failure, and 19 (24.1%) experienced only one failure. Thirteen patients (16.5%) were receiving third-line ART regimens, with an average of 2.7-fold more virologic failures than those on first- or second-line regimens (p = 0.007).

CONCLUSIONS
Maintaining viral load suppression over time in resource-limited-settings is feasible.


There are striking differences in the histogenesis of B and T cells. 1) The formation of B lymphocytes seems to be closely associated with that of other blood cells, whereas the formation of T cells is not. 2) In postnatal life, the bone marrow is a mojor site for the formation of B cells, while T cells are produced mainly in the thymus. 3) B cells are formed in a short production pathway, consisting of two or three mitoses, whereas T cells are formed in a long production pathway, consisting of about eight mitoses. 4) The starting point for the short production pathway is a large transitional cell. The long production pathway starts with a reticulum cell, a large lymphoblast or a cell which has been termed "monocytoid". 5) Plasma proteins have ready access to the cells of the short production pathway in bone marrow, but because of the blood-thymus barrier are not as readily accessible to the tissure involved in T cell formation in the long production pathway in the thymus.


Although India no more lives in its villages, the rural population is still sizeable and, more importantly, it reels under the pressure of extreme poverty, pitiable basic amenities, and dearth of livelihood opportunities. Urbanisation and urban growth has captured the attention of government and policy makers especially in the post liberalisation period. However, much needs to be done to improve the conditions of the people living in rural areas. Strengthening of village democracy
was considered as a possible solution to resolving issues at the grass-roots level. This paved way for the historic 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) in 1993 which sought to empower people at the base of India's federal polity. Encouraging people's participation in the process of development, policy making and its implementation was the fundamental objective of this legislation. Twenty- five years have passed since the adoption of the 73rd CAA in 1993 but still much needs to be done. There is an urgent need to transform the rural landscape of India and bring it on a par with its urban counterparts while retaining the
soul of rural life. The case of village Punsari from the Sabharkantha District of the state of Gujarat (India) is unique as it stands out as a smart and model village. All the modern amenities found in an urban area are available in this village. Using descriptive analytical framework, the paper aims to argue that such smart villages are a ray of hope for the rural revitalisation in Indian countryside. Semi-structured interviews with the local leaders, officers, and stakeholders form an important part of the research used to generate insights and conclusions. The
paper argues that grass-roots leadership, community participation, decentralisation of powers to local bodies in rural areas, and financial support in the form of various government schemes can bring far-reaching changes in the rural landscape of India. Punsari represents a classic example as well as an exemplar of concerted efforts of elected leaders, community people, and government support to bring about transformation and make villages smart as well as sustainable.


Recently, regret-based choice models, which postulate that individuals systematically compare attribute values of pairs of alternatives in terms of the amount of regret that may be generated, and then choose the alternative that minimizes their anticipated regret, have attracted the attention of transportation researchers as an alternative to utility-maximizing models. Most studies have assumed that regret depends on attribute differences in objective, physical space. Perception is not taken into account. However, an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence suggests that the relationship between perceived and objective attributes is non-linear. Therefore, in the authors' previous work, the authors explored the predictive performance of random regret minimization models that incorporate the perception of attributes, based on the (generalized) Weber law. In this study, the authors expand their previous work by allowing asymmetric non-linear perception functions. The authors investigate the existence and nature of asymmetry for small and large attribute intensities. The proposed model specifications of the regret choice models are tested using two data sets. Estimation results and out-of-sample validation tests indicate that incorporating asymmetric perception functions of objective attribute differences significantly improves the predictive power of the considered regret-based choice models.


Introduction: Peer-led health coaching is a realistic and sustainable way to support health behaviour change on university campuses. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an effective framework to guide behaviour change conversations in peer health coaching sessions. However, research on the perceptions of peer coaches who provide health coaching using MI is scarce. Objective: The aims of this study were to examine (1) university peer health coaches' experiences as peer educators after participating in the training and implementation of MI; and (2) university peer health coaches' supervision experiences as they learn to use MI for health coaching. Design: Cross-sectional in-depth qualitative study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Setting: Peer health coaching programme in a mid-sized southwestern US university. Method: Five peer health coaches were interviewed about their training, implementation and supervision of using MI in a university health coaching programme. IPA was used to analyse the findings. Results: We identified four main themes: (1) learning MI, (2) using MI, (3) challenges of time and availability and (4) supervision and peer support. Results illustrated the developmental processes peer health coaches perceive as they develop their MI skills. Individual and group supervision supported MI growth and development while also building a sense of community. Conclusion: Apart from challenges in learning and using MI, supervision was an important factor that helped peer health coaches develop. Future research should investigate training methods and supervision strategies to improve the quality of peer health coach programmes.


Due to censorship and deplatforming policies on big social media platforms, far-right users have been forced to migrate to other online platforms that provide them with safer spaces for communication. One of these platforms is the Russian social networking site VK. This research investigates the German political environment on VK, which predominantly comprises online groups supporting far-right views. The analysis of users' activity in the online groups showed that VK functions as an alternative platform and is not used for outward-oriented goals. Looking at the activities on VK in terms of the theory of sustainability practices, we claim that one of the most critical functions of VK is archiving content. This practice ensures the preservation of accumulated narratives in the case of complete deplatforming on a mainstream platform. We found that people who use VK for communication form two different thematic clusters: The first focuses on German domestic issues, and the second focuses on transnational conspiracy theories.


This thesis deals with the problem of online visual tracking of multiple humans in an enclosed environment. The focus is to develop techniques to deal with the challenges of varying number of targets, inter-target occlusions and interactions when every target gives rise to multiple measurements (pixels) in every video frame. This thesis contains three different contributions to the research in multi-target tracking.

Firstly, a multiple target tracking algorithm is proposed which focuses on mitigating the inter-target occlusion problem during complex interactions. This is achieved with the help of a particle filter, multiple video cues and a new interaction model. A Markov chain Monte Carlo particle filter (MCMC-PF) is used along with a new interaction model which helps in modeling interactions of multiple targets. This helps to overcome tracking failures due to occlusions. A new weighted Markov chain Monte Carlo (WMCMC) sampling technique is also proposed which assists in achieving a reduced tracking error.
Although effective, to accommodate multiple measurements (pixels) produced by every target, this technique aggregates measurements into features which results in information loss.

In the second contribution, a novel variational Bayesian clustering-based multi-target tracking framework is proposed which can associate multiple measurements to every target without aggregating them into features. It copes with complex inter-target occlusions by maintaining the identity of targets during their close physical interactions and handles efficiently a time-varying number of targets. The proposed multi-target tracking framework consists of background subtraction, clustering, data association and particle filtering. A variational Bayesian clustering technique groups the extracted foreground measurements while an improved feature based joint probabilistic data association filter (JPDAF) is developed to associate clusters of measurements to every target. The data association information is used within the particle filter to track multiple targets. The clustering results are further utilised to estimate the number of targets. The proposed technique improves the tracking accuracy. However, the proposed features based JPDAF technique results in an exponential growth of computational complexity of the overall framework with increase in number of targets.

In the final work, a novel data association technique for multi-target tracking is proposed which more efficiently assigns multiple measurements to every target, with a reduced computational complexity. A belief propagation (BP) based cluster to target association method is proposed which exploits the inter-cluster dependency information. Both location and features of clusters are used to re-identify the targets when they emerge from occlusions.

The proposed techniques are evaluated on benchmark data sets and their performance is compared with state-of-the-art techniques by using, quantitative and global performance measures.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether coronary artery calcification (CAC) is increased in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) because of the presence of hypercalcemia, which has been shown in vitro to promote vascular calcification.

METHODS
Electron beam computed tomography of the coronary arteries was performed on 20 patients with pHPT referred to our endocrinology clinic for evaluation of hypercalcemia. All patients were nonsmokers, with normal renal function, no history of diabetes, and no history of coronary artery disease. CAC in the patients with pHPT was compared with that in population-based control subjects from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Two methods of analysis were used: (1) calculation of the odds ratio of CAC and (2) a nested case-control (1:4) study.

RESULTS
One patient with pHPT had a history of nephrolithiasis; the other 19 patients were asymptomatic. The mean age (+/- SD) of the patients with pHPT was 57.3 +/- 9.1 years, the mean serum calcium concentration was 2.68 +/- 0.18 mmol/L, and the mean intact parathyroid hormone level was 119 +/- 76.5 pg/mL. Of the 20 patients, 14 had CAC scores of zero. The odds ratio for measurable CAC in the presence of pHPT in comparison with that in the MESA control subjects was 0.17, which was not significant. In the matched analysis, the CAC scores for the patients with pHPT did not differ significantly from those for the MESA control subjects (P = 0.25 with use of the Wilcoxon test).

CONCLUSION
We found no evidence for a difference in CAC in patients with pHPT in comparison with the population-based control subjects in this small pilot study.


The paper present a type of nano and manipulators which are based on structure of the magnetic bacterium, which is described. There are presented a theoretical study and analisys of the micromechanic circuit with elastic and damper elements, the micromagnetic circuit ( with micromagnetic specific characteristics) and also the electromechanic analogy aspects of the magnetic bacterium. The authors propose some nano and micromanipulators based on the structure of the chain of magnetic bacterium which include the nano or micro magnetic particles. The calculus, electromechanical modeling and experiments of this nano or microstructure what work and in the fluid medium are presented. There are evidenced the possible aspects on microrobotics and application field.


Research into information overload has been extensive and cross-disciplinary, producing a multitude of suggested causes and posed solutions. I argue that many of the conclusions arrived at by existing research, while laudable in their inventiveness and/or practicality, miss the mark by viewing information overload as a problem that can be understood (or even solved) by purely rational means. Such a perspective lacks a critical understanding in human information usage: much in the same way that economic models dependent on rationality for their explanations or projections fail (often spectacularly, as recent history attests), models that rely too heavily upon the same rational behavior, and not heavily enough upon the interplay of actual social dynamics—power, reputation, norms, and others—in their attempts to explain, project, or address information overload prove bankrupt as well. Furthermore, even research that displays greater awareness of the social context in which overload exists often reveals a similar rationality in its conceptualization. That is, often the same "social" approaches that offer potential advantages (in mitigating information overload) over their "non-social" counterparts paradoxically raise new problems, requiring a reappraisal of overload that takes social issues into account holistically.


Staff performance is a very crucial aspect of librarianship when it comes to provision of library services in any university library. In this context, the role of library staff of any sort is very paramount in satisfying the information needs of their teeming users. Given the nature of work, the degree of stress and the working hours that the human capital of university library have; studying factors that have an impact on their job attitude becomes a necessity for the library management. Performance of such employees is influenced by Job related attitudes like satisfaction, leadership, work commitment and job involvement. Employee performance is the summation of commitment and involvement towards their organization and its value. An employee with positive attitude is well aware about the dynamics of business, can fine tune to organisational environment, leading to a holistic development in the performance and productivity of the entire organization. Keeping these facets as background, this research paper investigates the impact and factors that lead to better productivity of library staff members. An empirical investigation was done to identify the factors that have a bearing on work attitudes and the survey was carried out in the university library. Statistically the information was tested and validated. P test, F test, correlation and regression showed a significant relationship between the attitudes of library staff and performances. This study suggested some human resource development policies in libraries to creating more positive attitude on the staff.


The sort of meanings which suffering is depicted with influence both individual experiences of and social responses to it. In contemporary research, these meanings have been explored via mapping out individual narratives on illness and suffering, and by locating common typologies underlying them. Much less emphasis has been placed on philosophical narratives on suffering and the manner in which they both echo and strengthen culturally common Western meanings concerning human travails. The paper takes its impetus from here and examines three distinct philosophical narratives on suffering presented by Emmanuel Levinas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Simone Weil. Moreover, it investigates the cultural influences behind them, ranging from Homeric tragedies to Medieval Christianity and Holocaust portrayals. The suggestion is that analysing philosophical narratives facilitates moral comparisons between the varieties of cultural meanings given to suffering. This, again, enables one to locate the societal and political consequences that narratives of suffering have on how we approach, for instance, vulnerability and disability.
Keywords: suffering, philosophy, narratives, Levinas, Nietzsche, Weil, vulnerability, disability


Purpose The Hibiscus rosa-sinensis flower is widely used in Brazilian traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes and has shown antifertility activity in female Wistar rats. However, there is no scientific confirmation of its effect on diabetes and pregnancy. The aim of this study was evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of H. rosa-sinensis flowers on maternal-fetal outcome in pregnant rats with diabetes. Methods Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (STZ, 40 mg/kg) in virgin, adult, female Wistar rats. After diabetes induction, the rats were mated. The pregnant rats were distributed into four groups (n minimum = 11 animals/group): non-diabetic, non-diabetic treated, diabetic, and diabetic treated. Oral aqueous extract of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis was administered to rats in the treatment groups during pregnancy. At term pregnancy, maternal reproductive outcomes, fetal parameters, and biochemical parameters were analyzed. Results The non-diabetic treated group showed decreased high density lipoprotein cholesterol, increased atherogenic index (AI) and coronary artery risk index (CRI), and increased preimplantation loss rate compared to the non-diabetic group. Although treatment with H. rosa-sinensis led to no toxicity, it showed deleterious effects on cardiac and reproductive functions. However, the diabetic treated group showed increased maternal and fetal weights, reduced AI and CRI, and reduced preimplantation loss rate compared to the untreated diabetic group. Conclusion Our results demonstrate beneficial effects of this flower only in pregnant rats with diabetes and their offspring. Although these findings cannot be extrapolated to human clinical use, they show that the indiscriminate intake of H. rosa-sinensis may be harmful to healthy individuals and its use should be completely avoided in pregnancy.


BACKGROUND
Colorectal strictures have been considered independent risk factors for neoplasia in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We examined the association between colorectal stricture and subsequent risk of colorectal neoplasia (CRN) in patients with IBD colitis undergoing colonoscopic surveillance.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of patients with IBD colitis enrolled in colonoscopic surveillance for CRN at an academic medical center between 2005 and 2017. Inclusion criteria were IBD involving the colon for ≥8 years (or any duration with primary sclerosing cholangitis [PSC]) undergoing surveillance. Exclusion criteria were advanced CRN (ACRN; colorectal cancer [CRC] or high-grade dysplasia [HGD]) prior to or at enrollment, prior colectomy, or limited (<30%) disease extent or proctitis. Multivariable logistic and Cox regression analysis estimated the association between colorectal stricture on the index colonoscopy and ACRN, CRN (indefinite dysplasia, low-grade dysplasia, HGD, CRC), or colectomy.

RESULTS
Among 789 patients with IBD undergoing CRC surveillance, 72 (9%; 70 with Crohn's colitis) had a colorectal stricture on index colonoscopy. There was no significant difference in the frequency of ACRN or requirement for colectomy between patients with vs without a colorectal stricture (P > .05). Colorectal stricture was not associated with subsequent ACRN (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.41; 95% CI, 0.49-4.07), CRN (aOR, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.51-2.58), or colectomy (aOR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.65-1.84).

CONCLUSIONS
In this analysis of patients with IBD colitis undergoing CRN surveillance, the presence of a colorectal stricture was not independently associated with risk of ACRN or colectomy. Multicenter, prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings, particularly in patients with ulcerative colitis-associated colorectal stricture.


Background Several investigations have shown that volatile anesthetics can reduce ischemic cerebral injury. In these studies, however, neurologic injury was evaluated only after a short recovery period. Recent data suggest that injury caused by ischemia is a dynamic process characterized by continual neuronal loss for a prolonged period. Whether isoflurane-mediated neuroprotection is sustained after a longer recovery period is not known. The current study was conducted to compare the effect of isoflurane on brain injury after short (2-day) and long (14-day) recovery periods in rats subjected to focal ischemia. Methods Fasted Wistar-Kyoto rats were anesthetized with isoflurane and randomly allocated to an awake (n = 36) or an isoflurane (n = 34) group. Animals in both groups were subjected to focal ischemia by filament occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. Pericranial temperature was servocontrolled at 37°C throughout the experiment. In the awake group, isoflurane was discontinued and the animals were allowed to awaken. In the isoflurane group, isoflurane anesthesia was maintained at 1.5 times the minimum alveolar concentration. After 70 min of focal ischemia, the filament was removed. Animals were killed 2 days (awake, n = 18; isoflurane, n = 17) and 14 days (awake, n = 18; isoflurane, n = 17) after ischemia. The volumes of cerebral infarction and selective neuronal necrosis in the animals were determined by image analysis of hematoxylin and eosin–stained coronal brain sections. Results Cortical and subcortical volumes of infarction were significantly less in the isoflurane 2-day group (26 ± 23 mm3 and 17 ± 6 mm3, respectively) than in the awake 2-day group (58 ± 35 mm3, P < 0.01; and 28 ± 12 mm3, P < 0.01, respectively). By contrast, cortical and subcortical volumes of infarction in the awake (41 ± 31 mm3 and 28 ± 16 mm3, respectively) and isoflurane (41 ± 35 mm3 and 19 ± 8 mm3, respectively) 14-day groups were not different (cortex, P = 0.99; subcortex, P = 0.08). The volume of cortical tissue in which selective neuronal necrosis was observed, however, was significantly less in the isoflurane 14-day group (5 ± 4 mm3) than in the awake 14-day group (17 ± 9 mm3, P < 0.01). The total number of necrotic neurons in the region of selective neuronal necrosis was significantly smaller in the isoflurane 14-day group than in the awake 14-day group (P < 0.01). Conclusion Compared with the awake state, isoflurane reduced the extent of infarction assessed 2 days after focal ischemia in rats. At 14 days, however, only selective neuronal necrosis, but not infarction, was reduced by isoflurane. These results suggest that isoflurane delays but does not prevent cerebral infarction caused by focal ischemia. Isoflurane may attenuate the delayed development of selective neuronal necrosis in periinfarct areas in this animal model.


Child perspective is a symbolic narrative strategy that designs multilayered possibilities for meaning in ethnic writing. This book positions Asian American bildungsromane in the context of American writing about children, reading them through the lens of their narrators - the oftentimes dual child/adult perspective - to examine how narrative point of view nuances and shapes issues of personal, ethnic, and national positioning. This approach privileges the authors' narrative choices and engagement with genre, revealing how these critical writerly decisions construct texts that signify on multiple levels, and dialogue productively with other texts. Their interpretation and creative negotiation of the key elements of narrative perspective lead us to uncover aspects which are constitutive of the successful manipulation of narrative voice. The texts analyzed in this study demonstrate the flexibility of this narrative technique, and its usefulness as a critical tool though which important thematic issues - family, race, culture, war, assimilation, and language - may be deployed. Reading the way Asian American texts manipulate child perspective positions these texts within developing critical paradigms and allows the reader to examine the manner in which they influence the development of American literature and the theory that reads it.


Abstract
Citripestis sagittiferella is one of the most harmful pest insects of pomelo in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. In order to utilize sex pheromone as tool for population monitoring by which supplies information for timing control, the sex pheromone of C. sagittiferella was preliminarily identified then tested under field condition. Fruits infected C. sagittiferella larvae were collected from pomelo orchards in Vinh Long and Hau Giang provinces and brought to Can Tho University laboratory for rearing to extract the pheromone. The analysis was conducted by GC-EAD, GC-MS and the double bond position was affirmed by analysis of its DMDS adduct. GC-EAD analysis resulted in three EAG-responses, namely component I (Comp. I), Comp. II and Comp. III. Mass spectra with diagnostic ions at m/z 61, 194 and 192 ([M-60]+ ions) indicated that they were unsaturated 14 carbons (C14) straight chain acetates. Reference to the synthetic standards by both GC-EAD and GC-MS analysis confirmed that the three pheromone components were (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (E11-14:OAc), (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (Z11-14:OAc) and (9Z,11E)-9,11-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9, E11-14:OAc), respectively. Unfortunately, lures prepared from mixtures of synthetic E11-14:OAc, Z11-14:OAc and E9, Z11-14:OAc at several mixing ratios showed no attraction to C. sagittiferella males in field tests.


Ce-Y-palygorskite catalysts were prepared by chemical blending method. The effect of preparation conditions on catalytic performance of Ce-Y-palygorskite catalyst for NO decomposition was investigated in a fixed bed flow reactor. The characteristics of the Ce-Y-palygorskite catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The obtained results provided substantial evidence that the catalysts preparation conditions would have strong effect on the catalytic activity for NO decomposition. The Ce-Y-palygorskite catalyst prepared under the optimal conditions: rare earth content, Ce/Y, pH value of the chemical blending and calcination treatment temperature was 3%, CexY(1-x)(x=0.9), 7 and 350°C, respectively, was identified as the most active catalyst for the NO decomposition, and the denitration rate could be up to 67.3% under the experimental reaction conditions.


Getting an embodied cognitive system to form a mental model of its world is a challenging prospect. Most AI systems leverage domains defined entirely by the system designers--initial objects, relations, operations, and even search control knowledge are often pre-specified. Building autonomous systems that can bootstrap themselves using a minimal domain definition is a critical research objective of Developmental AI. PAM-P2, a domain agnostic cognitive system, builds a world model using an initial set of user specified primitive actions and homeostatic needs. As sensory datasets are received, an ontology is formed and used to derive situations, events, episodes, solutions, problems, and predictions. An overview of the PAM-P2 architecture and knowledge representation is presented.


Abstract. The basic human need is to ensure adequate access to food without any combat, loss of productivity and cognitive impairment in the supply chain. When an individual is limited to proper procurement of food through various determinants there stems sustained hunger which is termed as 'food insecurity'. The study portrays to identify the food insecure zones using indicators which are implemented methodically through remote sensing and artificial intelligence techniques. Madhya Pradesh being a semi arid region faces reduction in the agro ecosystem due to the climatic changes and rainfall impacts which are the key trends for demand of food and production thus resulting in risk of malnutrition and hunger. Tackling food shortage requires addressing both environmental and socio-demographic factors in order to minimize food insecurity. The spatial variation of rainfall over years along with significant land degradation affects the common cultivation pattern among the households. In this study, a neural network approach is employed to identify the zones that ensure less access to food using indicators which mainly focuses on child population below five years, hunger index measuring parameters like child stunted, child wasted, children undernourished, child mortality below five years along with supporting environmental factors such as land use/land cover, NDVI and rainfall prevailing in the study area. The result shows a bleak statistics of villages representing the hunger index score that are categorized into low, serious, alarming and extremely alarming estimating a count of 70, 73, 23 and 7 villages respectively in the entire study area.


Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of inferior turbinate reduction on nasal function. Materials and Methods: A total of 32 patients who underwent septorhinoplasty (SRP) operation were included in the study and assigned into 2 groups as group I who received inferior turbinate reduction during SRP operation consisted of 17 patients and the group II who consisted of 15 patients without inferior turbinate reduction. For 2 groups before and after surgery, visual analogue score and findings of the acoustic rhinometry were recorded both before and after decongestion of the nasal mucosa. Results: Postoperative mean visual analogue scale (VAS) scores revealed a statistically significant reduction compared with preoperative values on right and left side of the nasal cavity, both before and after topical decongestion in group I (P < 0.005). Also in group II, the differences of VAS scores for both sides before and after topical decongestion were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Postoperatively, the increase of the volume measurements at the level of pyriform sinüs (VOL2) value on the right side of the nasal cavity before and after decongestion and volume measurements at the level of the nasal valve (VOL1) values on both sides after topical decongestion were found to be statistically significant in group I. When the VAS scores and acoustic rhinometry measurements of group I and group II patients were compared the difference, for before and after topical decongestion, postoperative mean MCA1 (minimal cross-sectional area at the level of the nasal valve) values for left side and right side of nasal cavity were higher in group I than group II and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.005). Conclusions: As a result, in the SRP operations, turbinoplasty should be implemented by taking into account the function as well as aesthetic concern. Similar results were obtained in other studies that were carried on.


The maximum future projected bioenergy expansion potential, in scenarios limiting warming to 2°C or below, is equivalent to half of present-day croplands. We quantify the impacts of large-scale bioenergy expansion against re/afforestation, which remain elusive, using an integrated human-natural system modeling framework with explicit representation of perennial bioenergy crops. The end-of-century net carbon sequestration due to bioenergy deployment coupled with carbon capture and storage largely depends on fossil fuel displacement types, ranging from 11.4 to 31.2 PgC over the conterminous United States. These net carbon sequestration benefits are inclusive of a 10 PgC carbon release due to land use conversions and a 2.4 PgC loss of additional carbon sink capacity associated with bioenergy-driven deforestation. Moreover, nearly one-fourth of U.S. land areas will suffer severe water stress by 2100 due to either reduced availability or deteriorated quality. These broader impacts of bioenergy expansion should be weighed against the costs and benefits of re/afforestation-based strategies.


This shared task focuses on identifying unusual, previously-unseen entities in the context of emerging discussions. Named entities form the basis of many modern approaches to other tasks (like event clustering and summarization), but recall on them is a real problem in noisy text - even among annotators. This drop tends to be due to novel entities and surface forms. Take for example the tweet "so.. kktny in 30 mins?!" – even human experts find the entity 'kktny' hard to detect and resolve. The goal of this task is to provide a definition of emerging and of rare entities, and based on that, also datasets for detecting these entities. The task as described in this paper evaluated the ability of participating entries to detect and classify novel and emerging named entities in noisy text.


: Recently the management of supply chains tends to be oriented at gaining flexibility to changing market conditions, increasing the value delivered to customers or a reduction in operating costs. Internationally supply chain management is supplemented with a large variety of markets and long distances to come which raises new challenges. To deal with it enterpreneurs need to develop new business models based on knowledge. In leading edge supply chains knowledge management has become one of the most important processes. The aim of the article is to analyze the results of research on knowledge management in international supply chains, which was carried out in 2012. The study involved international supply chains at least partially functioning in Poland. The most crucial task was to observe whether and how approaches to knowledge management differ at different stages of supply chain maturity. Therefore, the results were associated with the evaluation of supply chain maturity level according to Poirier's model. Research results allow to look positively at supply chains at the initial stage of improvement – they already show great awareness and considerable commitment in the field of knowledge management. Knowledge management in supply chains characterized by higher levels of maturity requires development, also in the field of collective knowledge management, which has already become their practice. It is now important to confront these research results with the reality that in recent years has revealed advances in knowledge management methods in supply chains, and to pursue new, inspiring research avenues.


This paper deals with speech emotion analysis within the context of increasing awareness of the wide application potential of affective computing. Unlike most works in the literature which mainly rely on classical frequency and energy based features along with a single global classifier for emotion recognition, we propose in this paper some new harmonic and Zipf based features for better speech emotion characterization in the valence dimension and a multistage classification scheme driven by a dimensional emotion model for better emotional class discrimination. Experimented on the Berlin dataset with 68 features and six emotion states, our approach shows its effectiveness, displaying a 68.60% classification rate and reaching a 71.52% classification rate when a gender classification is first applied. Using the DES dataset with five emotion states, our approach achieves an 81% recognition rate when the best performance in the literature to our knowledge is 76.15% on the same dataset.


The development, and expansion, of "new" Education Studies programmes within the framework of Higher Education Funding Council provision is one that has been subject to a recent and rapid expansion. Furthermore, it appears this expansion is set to continue, as there is buoyant student demand. What, though, is observable in these new Education Studies programmes is the wide variety of provision which has resulted from institutions developing their programme within their own particular historical and geographical contexts. For some writers this lack of clarity over the definition and determination of the range of study risks academic incoherence. This perceived incoherence of subject matter is brought more sharply into focus if one analyses Education Studies programmes, in England, through the lens of graduate employability. Through such an analytical lens it becomes apparent that a continuum of employability claims for Education Studies programmes exists. This paper adds to a growing research base which provides data which enable an analysis of how Education Studies is defined and what employment pathways Education Studies graduates take. The paper outlines the results of a small-scale research study which sought to determine whether it is the case that Education Studies is merely the waiting room for teacher training or is, in actuality, a programme of its own merit that offers students a wide range of future career pathways.


Children with deafness face societal obstacles every day that require navigation of environmental and communication factors. Deaf children raised in hearing families encounter barriers to development in a hearing world that limits their expression of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Child-centered play therapy may provide an opportunity for deaf children to experience a therapeutic relationship that fosters the child's growth and exploration of thoughts, feelings, and emotions in an open and accepting environment. Modifying practices of child-centered play therapy to meet the needs of deaf children using American Sign Language can provide a new opportunity for therapeutic access for these children in a culturally responsive manner.


Rural settlements as geographical landscape are considered as emerging through the interaction between human and environment. In recent years, the process is influenced by factors, and the changes in the physical-space texture are influenced by internal and external forces, developing problems and inadequacies of residents' future living condition in rural settlements. In this regard, cities in geographical areas are excellent centers that have extensive effects on the process of changes in rural space through propagation patterns of habitat and livelihood practices. Amidst these, urban- village housing is formed as a half-way dwelling for optimal use by residents for such positions. Despite the strategies in villages, it require changes in form, physiognomy and is unaffected by the transformation and imitation of urban environment. In this article, the author uses a practical approach and library and field information to analyze the position of urban- village housing as a ring connection between the centers of low rural population and high urban population. In the approach, the resulting changes are caused by time and space process in rural areas, followed by urban lifestyle. The case study selected as an urban village is the City of Hamidia in Yazd.

 Key words: Rural, urban villages, rural housing, rural-urban relation, physical-space changes, Hamidia.


This paper aims to conduct a profound study into the socialization function performed by television. We start from the assumption that television narration has the capacity to provide its audiences with useful frameworks for interpreting the surrounding reality. More specifically, some of its products, although they belong in the realm of fiction, build explanatory interpretations of Spanish society in the present and past. From there our research focuses on the study of the soap opera La Senora (The Lady). This soap opera, under the macro-genre of melodrama, presents a discourse that adapts to the cultural features of its target audience. Its relationship with other texts, as well as its use of emotional and realistic strategies, facilitate its proximity to the audience. The analysis of this text will enable us to identify the semantic keys used by this soap opera to reflect the evolution of Spanish society. This process of change has been presented not only in a sentimental but also in an ideological way.


ABSTRACT
  True Shallot Seed(TSS) is a new agricultural innovation technology as a solution to overcome the problems of shallot production in Indonesia. Many factors influence the successful of TSS production such as climate, availability of pollinator insects, quality of shallot bulbs used and various other technological components in spurring the formation of flowers and true seed yield. Vernalisation is one of the important components in the successful production of TSS. This research aim to observe growth performance and productivity of shallot growing from bulbs and viability of true seed yield based on different vernalisation period. The research consists of two stages, the first phase investigate growth variability and TSS yield by testing 4 treatments with 3 replications. The treatments were: 1) without vernalisation, 2)2 weeks vernalisation period, 3) 4 weeks vernalisation period and 4) 6 weeks vernalisation period.The experiment was conducted in East Lombok - Indonesia from May to November 2016, followed by the second phase from December 2016 to January 2017 by testing the viability of TSS produced from first phase. The results showed that 4 weeks vernalisation period gave the best growth performance as indicated by the fastest flower occurring time, largest flower diameter, and highest number of seed yield. In addition, TSS from 4 weeks vernalisation period showed the highest viability in the field.


Surface graphitization is a well known defect that occurs when low carbon steel strip is batch annealed. A small addition of chromium (about 0.04 wt %) can be used to minimize the surface graphitization. However chromium and some other alloy elements, such as manganese used in this class of steel, have higher affinities for oxygen than iron. Therefore it is possible for them to be oxidized during batch annealing in a reducing environment to iron. Selective oxidation of these two elements gives rise to a risk of forming different surface defects that may affect the quality of the tinned surface. The edge defect is characterized as a region of low reflectivity on the tin plate product caused by grain boundary precipitates. A porous tin coating with a dull appearance is produced in the affected areas. Not only are the aesthetical values of the finished tin plate product affected but the corrosion resistance is also reduced. In this investigation surface oxides formed at grain boundary of low carbon steels annealed at 700°C in 5% hydrogen 95% nitrogen atmosphere were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Two different oxide particles (Fe,Mn)O and MnCr2O4 were observed at the grain boundaries with the former five-fold coarser than the latter. It was found at the annealing temperature of 700°C, that the mean particle size of the (Fe,Mn)O depends on the manganese content, while the mean particle size, and distribution of the MnCr2O4 was dependent on chromium, but independent of manganese. The coarse (Fe,Mn)O precipitates pose no potential risks to electrolytic tinning as they will be removed by the pickling operation prior to tinning. Controlling the chromium content of the steel can minimize the potential risks posed by the MnCr2O4 to the quality of electrolytic tinning.


This paper investigates gender representation in grade 6, 7 and 8 English textbooks used in public schools in Punjab. For a comprehensive analysis, both textual contents and pictures were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The findings show that the female character were under-represented and misrepresented. Not even a single chapter was titled after any female character. Even in the text, they were heavily outnumbered, and generally shown in stereotypical and traditional roles. Shockingly, not even a single female character was portrayed positively. They were mostly shown in a neutral way. The same pattern was observed in the pictures. In spite of the fact that national education policies and curriculum frameworks emphasize heavily on gender parity, the textbooks appear to have failed to incorporate it. This study suggests that textbooks should contain gender parity and represent women in a respectful way so that the students may pick those values and inculcate them.


Names are provided for one species of Sporadanthus from the south of Western Australia (S. rivularis), five species of Lepyrodia from the same region (L. curvescens, L. extensa, L. fortunata, L. porterae and L. riparia) and four from eastern Australia (L. imitans, L. cryptica, L. oligocolea and L. verruculosa). These new eastern species have previously all been included within L. scariosa sens. lat. Seed surface patterns assist in characterizing the species. A lectotype, L. scariosa R.Br., is designated for Lepyrodia and a lectotype also designated for L. scariosa. There is evidence suggesting some hybridisation in various combinations of L. scariosa, the species allied to L. scariosa, and L. anarthria.


Scholarship related to the concept of caring within the discipline of nursing has increased exponentially in the last thirty years. A significant body of knowledge has advanced from philosophical and quantitative and qualitative inquiry. Ray conducted one of the first research studies to illuminate the meaning, generate categories, and discover substantive and formal theories of caring in the hospital culture. In this study, comparative data of different social units of persons, professional roles, clinical units, and documents formed the basis from which a classification system and theoretical frames of reference were discovered. A substantive theory of Differential Caring was discovered from the meaning of patterns of caring in different hospital units, and using an Hegelian approach, a formal theory Bureaucratic Caring was synthesized. The future of nursing now depends on how well the nature of the Theory of Bureaucratic Caring is understood and applied in complex healthcare organizations to facilitate improvement in quality of care. See Ray and Turkel''s further research on the study of Bureaucratic Caring Theory in the additional Reference List supplied in this book.


: Three cases of malignant melanoma resembling spindle and epithelioid cell nevus histologically are presented. Lesions having histologic features of spindle and epithelioid cell nevus (Spitz nevus or juvenile melanoma) at or after puberty should be regarded with caution, particularly when they are heavily melanized. Such lesions are in a histologic "gray zone" and may be malignant.


The thesis critically examines the qualitative experiences of Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) amongst a sample of police officers in UAE prior to the formal implementation of this technology. It considers the relevance, strengths and limitations of BWC technology and use in the context of UAE providing a coherent critical theoretical assessment of the use of BWCs in UAE against the extant criminological, sociology of technology and service innovation and learning literature.
The research composes, present and analyses three qualitative datasets; firstly, the results of three-months observation of Abu Dhabi Patrol Officers' use of BWC, secondly the results of 700 hours of critical incidents chosen by criminal investigation officers as illustrating issues relating to the use of BWC and thirdly, the results of thirty-eight interviews with junior and senior police officers selected from the Abu Dhabi force for their familiarity with various aspects of BWC usage.
The thesis reviews all of the previous research on use of BWCs by police concluding that much of this literature is not relevant outside of the US and UK where it was conducted, since police in these countries face legitimacy challenges from minority (often racial groups) which distorts the reasons for introducing BWCs and the use to which they are put. The research further concludes that effective use of the occupational cultures as a lens for understanding innovations such as BWCs is only effective where wider culture and context is also reference. For example, in Abu Dhabi the Arab and Islamic culture and context significantly affects the logic of practice in using BWCs. These two conclusions form the major theoretical contribution of this research.


The time-independent behaviour of SnPb37, SnAg3.5 and SnAg4Cu0.5 has been investigated on flip chip solder joints. The test specimen consisted of two silicon chips (3.3 mm in square) bonded by 4 flip chip joints (one at each corner). The Dresden University Micro Shear Tester has been used for the experiments with this type of specimen. In contrast to similar set-ups, it is actively compensated for its finite stiffness. Therefore, it is able to record force displacement hysteresis with a resolution of better than 1 mN and 20 nm, respectively. Based on these measurements, the parameters of the constitutive equations have been evaluated by FEM analysis. This way, the complex stress state within the sample during the test has been considered precisely providing for high accuracy of the parameter extracted. As a typical application, a three point bending experiment has been simulated by FEM applying different constitutive models for the solder material. Comparing the results, it becomes clear: All the three ingredients, i.e., the elastic, the creep, and the time-independent plastic data, are required in the model. Otherwise it would be incomplete and hence insufficient for assisting in the design of today's electronics packages even with respect to the most frequent load cases.


Platinum nanoparticles were synthesized by a classic polyol process in ethylene glycol. The Pt nanoparticles were loaded on H-ZSM5 and γ-Al2O3 supports by wet impregnation. The as-obtained solid was thermally treated in a two-step procedure to remove the organic residues. Due to their larger particle size than the micropore size of H-ZSM5, the impregnated Pt particles were dispersed on the external surface of the zeolite support. With similar Pt particle size distribution and Pt loading, the Pt/H-ZSM5 and Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts were evaluated for the oxidation of NO and soot. Despite its lower activity for NO oxidation to NO2, the Pt/H-ZSM5 exhibited a much higher activity for soot oxidation in the presence of NO + O2. This abnormal NOx-assisted soot oxidation behaviour of Pt/H-ZSM5 was explained by the promoting effect of the acid sites on the zeolite.


A test program was conducted to determine the effects of specimen thickness variations, side grooves, and crack length variations on the deformation and ductile fracture of A533-B, CI-1 steel at 93°C. The crack extensionswere estimated using the correlation between elastic compliance and crack length. Crack extensions were also estimated using a correlation among crack-opening displacements, load line displacements (δ - V L ), and crack length. The inferred estimates of crack extension were supplemented by some measurements on heat-tinted fracture surfaces. The results suggest that the observation of thickness or side-groove effects on crack-extension resistance curves is dependent on the method of measuring crack extension. The compliance correlation method was less sensitive to crack extension and showed a classical thickness effect: increased crack growth resistance with decreasing thickness, and decreased resistance with the use of side grooves. The δ - V L correlation method was more sensitive to crack extension and showed no effect of thickness or of side grooves on crack growth resistance. The presence of side grooves promoted flat fracture and suppressed shear lips. Specimens without side grooves developed large shear lips.


PurposeIn this paper we seek to provide insight as to how wisdom is, or might be, perceived and enacted in Higher Education contexts. Selected constructs of wisdom derived from The Bhagavad Gita provided a platform from which seven invited College of Education faculty participants considered their own framings of wisdom in the contexts of their own professional and personal lives.Design/methodology/approachThis case study has drawn upon constructs of wisdom proffered by key Indian scholars who share this epistemological stance. A three-stage process was deployed, comprised of an introductory close-ended survey, an open-ended questionnaire to determine personalised insights and semi-structured interviews to clarify and member-check the data.FindingsThe participant academics' reflections offered a convergence on rich potential to pursue wisdom in Education and promote ethics, integrity, skilful action and inclusion. Furthermore, a general concern among the group of seven faculty who participated, was a perceived lack of humility in academia.Research limitations/implicationsA sample of seven participants precludes generalizable findings. Some ambiguities of constructs like "Love of God", "Duty" and "Inner peace" provided space for participants to interrogate their own understandings.Originality/value"Wisdom" in Higher Education has not been an explicit topic of research until relatively recently. Based on the present study, which entailed in-depth written responses to questions that asked faculty respondents about their perceptions of the place and role of "wisdom" in Higher Education settings, we can, however, suggest possible directions for wisdom-focused research in pluricultural Higher Education contexts.


As a new dam type, Hardfill dam has been arisen recently. The suitable geologic condition of t Hardfill dam construction was analyzed based on considering its characteristics in this paper; it was also studied how to choose the reasonable impervious and drainage system to control the dam body and foundation's seepage on a given geologic condition to make sure the safety of the project. On the basis of analyzing the foundation geologic conditions of many common dam types, two kinds of typical Hardfill dam foundation were put forward. The seepage field law of dam foundation was analyzed by dam foundation seepage discharge, uplift pressure and seepage gradient of some typical positions after setting reasonable impervious and drainage measures on the two kinds of dam foundations. It is indicated by the calculation results that the adaptability of Hardfill dam foundation is comparatively nice, and the safety of dam foundation can be ensured if appropriate impervious and drainage measures are adopted.


Using deep wide-field photometry 3 yr data (Y3) from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we present a panoramic study of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The data presented here—a small subset of the full survey—uniformly cover a region of 25 deg2 centered on the galaxy to a depth of g ∼ 23.5. We use these data to study the structural properties of Fornax, overall stellar population, and its member stars in different evolutionary phases. We also search for possible signs of tidal disturbance. Fornax is found to be significantly more spatially extended than what early studies suggested. No statistically significant distortions or signs of tidal disturbances were found down to a surface brightness limit of ∼32.1 mag arcsec−2. However, there are hints of shell-like features located ∼20′–40′ from the center of Fornax that may be stellar debris from past merger events. We also find that intermediate-age and young main-sequence populations show different orientation at the galaxy center and have many substructures. The deep DES Y3 data allow us to characterize the age of those young stellar substructures with great accuracy, both those previously known and those newly identified as possible overdensities in this work, on the basis of their color–magnitude diagram morphology. We find that the youngest overdensities are all found on the eastern side of Fornax, where the Fornax field population itself is slightly younger than in the west. In summary, the high-quality DES Y3 data reveal that Fornax has many rich structures and provide insights into its complex formation history.


The finite models of U-steel support, grid steel frame, hollow steel tube support and concrete filled steel tube support were established, of which mechanical property and influencing factor such as bearing capacity, support effect etc. was analyzed. Comparative analysis of economic benefit was carried out through research of material dosage and support effect index. The contractible joint for concrete filled steel tube was designed, and their mechanical characteristic was analyzed through test. The results show that the supporting performance of concrete filled steel tube support is related to confinement coefficient. Compared with traditional support, the concrete filled steel tube support has high bearing capacity, intensive later strength, good ductility, various standards and well economic benefits, and in conjunction with contractible joint, it is able to implement functions of quantitatively increasing resistance and yielding. Properly designed through optimization analysis on associated effects, the concrete filled steel tube support can meet supporting demand of deep soft rock and joint broken rock.


This work is concerned with the general behaviour of an
internal panel in a column supported multi-bay floor structure, under the influence of various prestressing tendon arrangements. The prestressing effects are studied with the help of a finite element package (PAFEC), representing the prestressing forces by equivalent vertical loads. From a variety of possible spacing arrangements, the distribution of prestressing moments is shown to be most effective in counteracting the moments due to externally
imposed load when the tendons are narrowly banded in the column vicinity.

The effects of tendon arrangement on slab behaviour are
further investigated by means of an experimental programme
comprising three series of ten tests of 1.5m span partially
prestressed panel with typical span to depth ratio, levels of loading, levels of prestress and geometry of tendon profiles.

The models were fixed along the edges to simulate the
continuity of an internal panel in a multi-panel slab system. Post-tensioned tendons were arranged in various patterns, as currently employed in construction practice, to induce either a medium or a low level of prestress in the test panel, conforming to the design recommendations of a number of codes of practice.

Test results indicated that the serviceability behaviour of
the slabs with a low level of prestress was strongly influenced by the tendon distribution and the amount of non-prestressed reinforcement. Slabs with tendons banded closely in the column area exhibited a higher cracking load and were stiffer after cracking.

The flexural strength of the test slabs was found to be
greater than that predicted by yield line theory and the increase was attributed to membrane action. The experimental values of tendon stress at ultimate load and of punching shear were compared with those obtained by various design methods.


Smoking among Aboriginal people is extremely widespread (50 v. 17% of the general population). Aboriginal Health Workers (AHW) are at the vanguard of tackling this problem but many themselves smoke and little is known of their knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding smoking cessation. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with 36 AHW, including 31% current smokers, 31% ex-smokers and 38% non-smokers, to assess their current smoking cessation practices and knowledge of health risks, nicotine dependence, cessation strategies and pharmacotherapies. AHW considered diabetes, alcohol use and heart disease more problematic than smoking among Aboriginal people. Fear of appearing hypocritical stopped many who smoke from discussing smoking cessation with clients but also stopped some non-smoking AHW whose colleagues or family smoked. Cultural concerns about telling others 'what to do' was also a major impediment. Knowledge of the health effects of smoking was good, but knowledge of appropriate advice around cessation pharmacotherapies was suboptimal. AHW trained in smoking cessation were more knowledgeable and active in smoking cessation, but most AHW had received no training, despite being keen to do so. Specific smoking cessation training is sought and appears needed by AHW, particularly in the areas of brief interventions, motivational interviewing, dependence assessment and pharmacotherapies.


: This study was conducted to evaluate the complications occurring during operation and from the time of operation until the follow-up vist at one to eight weeks after operation, for patients sterilized by culdoscopy, colpotomy, laparoscopy, or laparotomy. Surgeons were unable to perform the elected procedure in less than 1 per cent of the patients, independent of the method of approach. With endoscopic techniques, the most common operative difficulty was in obtaining an adequate view of the tubes. Excessive blood loss appeared more frequent with both vaginal techniques. Postoperatively, pelvic infections were more frequent with both the vaginal techniques, while incisional complications were more frequent with both the abdominal techniques. Operative and hospitalization times were significantly shorter, and the proportion of women resuming normal activities within four weeks of sterilization was higher with the endoscopic methods. Laparoscopy appeared to be the preferable procedure. While technical difficulties, operative complications, surgical and hospitalization times, and the time until the patient resumed normal work activities were similar with laparoscopy and culdoscopy; infection of the pelvis was more frequent after culdoscopy.


We have previously reported the high regenerative potential of murine muscle‐derived stem cells (mMDSCs) that are capable of differentiating into multiple mesodermal cell lineages, including myogenic, endothelial, chondrocytic, and osteoblastic cells. Recently, we described a putative human counterpart of mMDSCs, the myogenic endothelial cells (MECs), in adult human skeletal muscle, which efficiently repair/regenerate the injured and dystrophic skeletal muscle as well as the ischemic heart in animal disease models. Nevertheless it remained unclear whether human MECs, at the clonal level, preserve mMDSC‐like chondrogenic and osteogenic potentials and classic stem cell characteristics including high proliferation and resistance to stress. Herein, we demonstrated that MECs, sorted from fresh postnatal human skeletal muscle biopsies, can be grown clonally and exhibit robust resistance to oxidative stress with no tumorigeneity. MEC clones were capable of differentiating into chondrocytes and osteoblasts under inductive conditions in vitro and participated in cartilage and bone formation in vivo. Additionally, adipogenic and angiogenic potentials of clonal MECs (cMECs) were observed. Overall, our study showed that cMECs not only display typical properties of adult stem cells but also exhibit chondrogenic and osteogenic capacities in vitro and in vivo, suggesting their potential applications in articular cartilage and bone repair/regeneration. © 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31:1089–1095, 2013


Universities in Kenya are facing challenges arising from rapid expansion, increased high education demand and competitive pressures. With heightened levels of rivalry, the question of sustaining their performance is critical. Themain objective of this study was to investigate the effect of organizational leadership on performance of universities in Kenya. Organizational leadership was operationalized on the basis ofability to create clear strategies, envisioning corporate priorities, employee empowerment as well as infrastructural and resource support This study adopted a mixed research design consisting of explanatory and cross-sectional survey designs to determine the cause- and- effect of the study variables model incorporating the strategic leadership constructs was examined using multiple linear regression model.The target population of this study was 25 universities comprising of 289 respondents randomly selected from the top and middle level management.A semi- structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data while secondary data was collected using document review and was used to validate the primary data. Using stratified simple sampling method, a sample size of 168 respondents was selected. The response rate was approximately eighty eight percent and was adequate for making research inferences and drawing conclusions. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and this included percentages, frequencies, mean and standard deviations while inferential statistics involved regression analysis. The findings of this study established that organizational leadership has positive and significant influence on university performance in Kenya.This suggests that the quality of leadership traits directly impacts on the extent to which a university attains it goals. The study recommends that for universities in Kenya to sustain their performance, there is need for careful integration of carefully designed leadership strategies.As well as optimal investment in development of leadership skills. Key words: Organizational leadership, Organizational performance, University performance, corporate priorities


As the incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is increasing in the next decades, treatment is a challenge. The past 2 years have seen a number of promising achievements in the management of patients with MPM. Treatment of a symptomatic malignant pleural effusion through indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) may allow for an individualized treatment. Advances in the systemic treatment with targeted agents will undoubtedly gain by the discovery of a driver mutation which may be selectively targeted. In the meantime, the addition of monoclonal antibodies to a standard chemotherapy backbone might result in a modest improvement in outcome in patients selected for the presence of the ligand. New techniques in radiation therapy, pleural intensity-modulated radiotherapy, helical tomography and proton-therapy are exciting advances in multimodality treatment enhancing local control and therefore improving overall survival. The role of surgery remains controversial and should be further explored. Surgical procedures consist of extrapleural pneumonectomy or lung sparing operations like debulking of the parietal and visceral pleura by (extended) pleurectomy/decortication. Where the treatment in multimodality therapy may lead to improved disease-free survival and overall survival, the type of cyto-reductive procedure should be selected on institutional and surgeon's experience. The increase in mesothelioma incidence is matched only by the increasing number of researchers and studies. It is up to the clinicians to support these efforts by stimulating their patients to participate in this clinical research.


In this essay, Professor Van Alstine addresses the power of federal courts to develop the law within the scope of a treaty. In response to an earlier essay by Professor John Yoo in this Review, Professor Van Alstine first challenges the assertion that the President has the sole constitutional power to interpret all treaties. He argues that for those treaties that create directly enforceable domestic law, the Supremacy Clause and the judicial power of Article III of the Constitution allocate final authority over interpretation and application to the federal courts. Professor Van Alstine contends that the closest formal and functional analog for such self-executing treaties is Article I legislation. As a result, in parallel with established law with regard to statutory delegations, there is no constitutional infirmity in a deliberate and circumscribed delegation of common law powers by the constitutional treaty-lawmakers (the President with a supermajority of the Senate). Respect for the important role of the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs may justify calibrated deference to the reasonable interpretive views of the President. Professor Van Alstine nonetheless explains that this respect does not displace the core judicial responsibility to interpret those treaties that create domestically enforceable rights nor invalidate a properly circumscribed delegation of an authority to develop the law within their scope.


Abstract: Study of historical and fresh collections from the Longmyndian Supergroup sheds new light on Ediacaran microbial communities and taphonomy. First reported by Salter in 1856, and noted by Darwin in the Origin of Species in 1859, a range of macroscopic bedding plane markings are already well known from the Longmyndian supergroup. Here we report filamentous and sphaeromorph microfossils, variously preserved as carbonaceous films, by aluminosilicate permineralization and as bedding plane impressions. This supports a long-suspected link between wrinkle markings and microbes, and draws further attention to our hypothesis for a taphonomic bias towards high-quality soft tissue preservation in the Ediacaran Period.


Recent work shows how to use local spatio-temporal features to learn models of realistic human actions from video. However, existing methods typically rely on a predefined spatial binning of the local descriptors to impose spatial information beyond a pure "bag-of-words" model, and thus may fail to capture the most informative space-time relationships. We propose to learn the shapes of space-time feature neighborhoods that are most discriminative for a given action category. Given a set of training videos, our method first extracts local motion and appearance features, quantizes them to a visual vocabulary, and then forms candidate neighborhoods consisting of the words associated with nearby points and their orientation with respect to the central interest point. Rather than dictate a particular scaling of the spatial and temporal dimensions to determine which points are near, we show how to learn the class-specific distance functions that form the most informative configurations. Descriptors for these variable-sized neighborhoods are then recursively mapped to higher-level vocabularies, producing a hierarchy of space-time configurations at successively broader scales. Our approach yields state-of-theart performance on the UCF Sports and KTH datasets.


The use of adaptive optics in extremely large telescopes brings new challenges, one of which is the treatment of images from Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensors. When using this type of sensor in conjunction with laser guide stars to sample the pupils of telescopes with diameters of more than 30 m, it is necessary to compute the centroid of elongated spots, whose elongation angle and aspect ratio are changing across the telescope pupil. Existing techniques, such as the matched filter technique, have been considered as the best ways to compute the centroid of elongated spots, but these are not good at coping with the effect of a variation in the sodium profile. In this paper, we propose a new technique using artificial neural networks. This technique takes advantage of the neural network's ability to cope with changing conditions, and it outperforms existing techniques in this context. We have developed comprehensive simulations to explore this technique and we compare it with existing algorithms.


Estimation of incremental sheet forming force is required in order to design dedicated equipment, utilize adapted machinery or develop online process control strategies. In the present work, forces on Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF) of variable wall angle geometry were studied under different bending conditions. The effect of several process parameters was analyzed. The results demonstrated that the maximum forming force increases with the tool diameter and the step down while for higher spindle speeds the forming force decreases. The last effect is due to the higher friction between the tool and the blank when using a fixed spindle speed, which causes an increase of the forming temperature. The forming force evolution, which varies with the bending conditions, could be used as an indicator to prevent the sheet failure.


Although stages of change and adoption of innovation dynamics have been examined for adult populations, comparable research for adolescents is limited. Applying a change instrument grounded in Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to an adolescent population, this study investigates perceptions of 45 middle school students who used thin client portable computers in a one-to-one program at home and at school for 3 years.
A mixed methodology design identified which of the 7 stages of concern students passed through and why some students adopted the innovation more readily than others. The Change Facilitator Stages of Concern Questionnaire, a modified version of CBAM, was used to collect quantitative data from students at the beginning and at the end of 6th grade. Qualitative interviews from 8 purposively selected students, their parents, and their teachers supplemented the survey data in the final year of the program.
To guide this study, three questions were investigated: (1) What stages of concern were evident? (2) To what extent can variation in these stages of concern be explained by select demographic measures? (3) Based on the qualitative interviews, how do select students describe their adoption?
Three distinct adoption pathways emerged in both the population and the sample. In Pathway 1, progressions occurred from lower to higher stages; in Pathway 2, no change between Pre- and Posttests; and in Pathway 3, backwards movement occurred through the stages. Unexpectedly, only 5 of the 7 stages of change were high stage scores.
Regression analysis also revealed two significant findings: first, in the posttest analysis, the dependent variable (free lunch) suggested that poverty levels may influence a slower progression through CBAM stages; and second, there was a significant difference in pre- and posttest second high stage scores for the dependent variable (gender), suggesting that adolescent males gained nearly two more stages of change than did females.
This study appears to be the first adaptation of the Change Facilitator Stages of Concern for adolescents. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence explained that adolescent pathways differ fundamentally from those of adults.


Many studies that examine the impact of renewable energy installations on avoided carbon-dioxide utilize national, regional or state averages to determine the predicted carbon-dioxide offset. The approach of this computational study was to implement a dispatching strategy in order to determine precisely which electrical facilities would be avoided due to the installation of renewable energy technologies. This study focused on a single geographic location for renewable technology installation, San Antonio, Texas. The results indicate an important difference between calculating avoided carbon-dioxide when using simple average rates of carbon-dioxide emissions and a dispatching strategy that accounts for the specific electrical plants used to meet electrical demands. The avoided carbon-dioxide due to renewable energy technologies is overestimated when using national, regional and state averages. This occurs because these averages include the carbon-dioxide emission factors of electrical generating assets that are not likely to be displaced by the renewable technology installation. The study also provides a comparison of two specific renewable energy technologies: photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines. The results suggest that investment in PV is more cost effective for the San Antonio location. While the results are only applicable to this location, the methodology is useful for evaluating renewable technologies at any location.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


BACKGROUND
Although Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infections (SAB/GNB) cause substantial morbidity, little is known regarding patient perceptions' of their impact on quality of life (QOL). Guidance for assessing QOL and disease-specific measures are lacking. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study to gain an in-depth understanding of patients' experiences with SAB/GNB and concept elicitation phase to inform a patient-reported QOL outcome measure.

METHODS
Prospective one-time, in-depth, semi-structured, individual, qualitative telephone interview 6-8 weeks following bloodstream infection with either SAB or GNB. Patients were enrolled in an institutional registry (tertiary academic medical center) for SAB or GNB. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded. Directed content analysis identified a priori and emergent themes. Theme matrix techniques were used to facilitate analysis and presentation.

RESULTS
Interviews were completed with 30 SAB and 31 GNB patients. Most patients were at or near the end of intravenous antibiotic treatment when interviewed. We identified 3 primary high-level concepts: impact on QOL domains, time as a critical index, and sources of variability across patients. Across both types of bloodstream infection, the QOL domains most impacted were physical and functional, which was particularly evident among SAB patients.

CONCLUSION
SAB/GNB impact QOL among survivors. In particular, SAB had major impacts on multiple QOL domains. A combination of existing, generic measures that are purposefully selected and disease-specific items, if necessary, could best capture these impacts. Engaging patients as stakeholders and obtaining their feedback is crucial to conducting patient-centered clinical trials and providing patient-centered care.


OBJECTIVES
Baseline characteristics of the population enrolled in the ISSO study, designed to evaluate the incidence of vertebral and non-vertebral fractures in Italian patients with severe osteoporosis treated according to clinical practice over 24 months observation.

METHODS
Prospective observational study in 783 post-menopausal women and men entering 18-month treatment with teriparatide in a community setting at 57 centres in Italy. Characterisation included demographics, fracture risk factors, bone mineral density, fracture status, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) measured by the European Quality of Life Questionnaire, EQ-5D, and back pain assessed by VAS.

RESULTS
Most patients were elderly women (90.5%), mean age±SD was 72.9±8.8 years. Nearly all (91.3%) had experienced ≥ 1 vertebral fracture (mean±SD, 3.6±2.2 per patient), 37.5% had ≥ 1 non-vertebral fracture (mean±SD, 1.4±0.7 per patient). Nearly all patients were suffering from back pain (94.9%), which had significantly restricted their daily activities (51.7%) and had likely or very likely been caused by vertebral fractures (29.2% and 55.8%, respectively). Mean EuroQoL EQ-5D index value was 0.58±0.25 and VAS score 49.2±23.6. Non-vertebral fractures, back pain and multiple vertebral fractures were associated with lower HRQoL (EuroQoL-5D Index both p<0.001, EQ-5D VAS score p=0.025 and p<0.016, respectively). Many patients were physically inactive (81.1%). One third (34.7%) of population had co-morbidities and 60.5% were on chronic concomitant treatments. Few subjects reported a maternal history of osteoporosis (15.5%), regular consumption of alcohol (13.3%) or were current smokers (11.5%). Nearly two-thirds (71.5%) had already been treated for osteoporosis, mainly with bisphosphonates. Calcium and vitamin D supplements were taken by 13% and 15.5% of the total population, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
At enrollment, the population of ISSO study mostly consisted in aging women, who had osteoporosis with high fracture risk, poor HRQoL and suffered from significant back pain. Most of them had already been treated by bisphosphonates but without calcium and vitamin D supplements. Back pain, as well as non-vertebral and multiple vertebral fractures, were associated with lower HRQoL.


Banks are required to issue quarterly disclosure statements covering a wide range of ?nancial and prudential data. The rules under which registered banks are required to make these disclosures are set out in Orders in Council. These Orders in Council have recently been republished with a number of amendments, relating to the disclosure of information about insurance business, rating-contingent limits on exposures to connected persons, credit rating information in respect of large credit exposures, and additional New Zealand balance sheet information by banks that are branches of overseas banks. There are also some miscellaneous amendments to improve the effectiveness of existing disclosure requirements. This article describes the amendments and the reasons for them.


PURPOSE
To describe the natural history of nonmetastatic prostate cancer and rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) despite androgen deprivation therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The 201 patients in this report were the placebo control group from an aborted randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of zoledronic acid on time to first bone metastasis in men with prostate cancer, no bone metastases, and rising PSA despite androgen deprivation therapy. Relationships between baseline covariates and clinical outcomes were assessed by Cox proportional hazard analyses. Covariates in the model were baseline PSA, Gleason sum, history of bilateral orchiectomies, regional lymph node metastases at diagnosis, prior prostatectomy, time from androgen deprivation therapy to random assignment, time from diagnosis to random assignment, and PSA velocity.

RESULTS
At 2 years, 33% of patients had developed bone metastases. Median bone metastasis-free survival was 30 months. Median time to first bone metastases and overall survival were not reached. Baseline PSA level greater than 10 ng/mL (relative risk, 3.18; 95% CI, 1.74 to 5.80; P < .001) and PSA velocity (4.34 for each 0.01 increase in PSA velocity; 95% CI, 2.30 to 8.21; P < .001) independently predicted shorter time to first bone metastasis. Baseline PSA and PSA velocity also independently predicted overall survival and metastasis-free survival. Other covariates did not consistently predict clinical outcomes.

CONCLUSION
Men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer and rising PSA despite androgen deprivation therapy have a relatively indolent natural history. Baseline PSA and PSA velocity independently predict time to first bone metastasis and survival.


Climate change affects forest ecosystems, impacting timber production and eco-services. Conversely, sustainable forest management has been identified as a means to help mitigate carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change, while also maximizing multiuse benefits through close-to-nature silviculture. In this study, a life cycle assessment was performed on forest harvesting operations at three research sites to provide real-world understanding of the selected environmental impacts associated with harvesting systems typical of Germany: motor-manual (chainsaw and forest tractor), semi-mechanized (single-grip harvester, chainsaw, and forwarder), and fully-mechanized (single-grip harvester and forwarder). Environmental impact categories assessed included greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter emissions, and non-renewable energy consumption. Results from the three research sites were estimated on a machine basis. The semi-mechanized system resulted in the lowest environmental impact, the majority of which was attributed to felling and processing operations. Next, the environmental impacts were estimated for a complete rotation period and compared amongst the different harvesting systems. According to results, semi-mechanized harvesting systems had the lowest impact over the full rotation period as well as for thinning treatments when compared to motor-manual and fully-mechanized systems. The fully-mechanized system performed the best for final felling treatments. Considering variability between the research sites as well as the system boundary assessed, a diversified approach to harvesting operations may be considered, integrating semi-mechanized and fully-mechanized systems for different treatments throughout the rotation period.


Stiff-Person syndrome (SPS) is a rare and disabling disorder characterized by continuous motor unit activity causing severe rigidity and episodic spasms in axial and limb muscles. It deteriorates the quality of life and causes a serious burden in the patient's life. It is frequently associated with other autoimmune diseases such as diabetes mellitus. Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin, anti-anxiety drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-convulsants will improve symptoms, but will not cure the disorder. Therapeutic plasma exchange is an alternative treatment for the patients resistant to other treatment options. Here, we report a patient with SPS treated in intensive care unit and underwent therapeutic plasma exchange.


Introduction: In July 2001 (Martian year 25), Mars was enshrouded by a thick veil of dust which lasted for several months and obscured the observation of its surface to spacecraft cameras and ground-based telescopes. The emergence and rapid evolution (within a few days) of multiple, isolated, regional dust storms which eventually attained planetary scale extent were observed by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft using high resolution camera images and the thermal profiles and dust opacity measurements pro-vided by the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) [1, 2].
We have applied a technique used in Terrestrial meteorology (sequential data assimilation, [3]) to ob-tain a complete, four-dimensional evolution of all the atmospheric variables during the period of this planet-encircling dust storm, even those which were not di-rectly observed by the MGS satellite, such as surface pressure and winds. We assimilated TES nadir-pointing thermal profiles and total dust opacities in a global circulation model of the Martian atmosphere, developed jointly by the University of Oxford and the Open University in the United Kingdom, with the col-laboration of the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dyna-mique in Paris (UK-MGCM) [4, 5, 6].


We utilize clinical records of successive visits by children to pediatric clinics in Indianapolis to estimate the effects on their body mass of environmental changes near their homes. We compare results for fixed-residence children with those for cross-sectional data. Our environmental factors are fast food restaurants, supermarkets, parks, trails, and violent crimes, and 13 types of recreational amenities derived from the interpretation of annual aerial photographs. We looked for responses to these factors changing within buffers of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mile. We found that cross-sectional estimates are quite different from the Fixed Effects estimates of the impacts of amenities locating near a child. In cross section nearby fast food restaurants were associated with higher BMI and supermarkets with lower BMI. These results were reversed in the FE estimates. The recreational amenities that appear to lower children's BMI were fitness areas, kickball diamonds, and volleyball courts. We estimated that locating these amenities near their homes could reduce the weight of an overweight eight-year old boy by 3 to 6 pounds.


Abstract. The recent trend towards open data and open science as well as a demand for holistic and interdisciplinary research requires platforms that allow the distribution and exchange of research data, including geographic information. While the requirements and benefits of data exchange are widely discussed, there are few proposals on how to implement data platforms that not only permit the exchange of research data among researchers, but also permit to distribute research results and data to the interest public. We elaborate what points are important for implementing a (geographic) data repository and propose then to adopt the concept of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) as a solution for the implementation of research data repositories. We present as a case study the geographic data and document repository of the Chilean research Centre on Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS), the CEDEUS Observatory. Besides the infrastructure to host and distribute data, communication tools are an important component of such a data repository service. For this case study we analyse which things have worked well and which things have not worked well based on the experiences collected during three years of operation. We close with some recommendations for the implementation of data repositories for research.


This paper proposes a novel PWM strategy to improve efficiency and increase voltage transfer ratio of three-phase isolated boost dc/dc converter. With the proposed PWM strategy, one turn-off switching of each bridge switch is eliminated to reduce switching losses and RMS current of the bridge is lowered, so that the switches' conduction losses are reduced. Transformer copper loss is minimized due to the reduced RMS current of the transformer's each winding. Therefore, total losses are minimized and the efficiency of the converter is improved. In addition, the effective leakage inductance of the transformer is reduced by 25% compared with the conventional PWM strategy, which results in an increase of the output voltage at the same duty ratio. 500 W prototype converter is built and its experimental results are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed PWM strategy.


Abstract This paper reviews experimental nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and computational molecular dynamics (MD) investigations of the structural and dynamical behavior of cations, anions, H2O, and CO2 on the surfaces and in the interlayer galleries of layer-structure minerals and their composites with polymers and natural organic matter (NOM). The interaction among mineral surfaces, chargebalancing cations or anions, H2O, CO2, and NOM are dominated by Coulombic, H-bond, and van der Waals interactions leading to statically and dynamically disordered systems and molecular-scale processes with characteristic room-temperature frequencies varying from at least as small as 102 to >1012 Hz. NMR spectroscopy provides local structural information about such systems through the chemical shift and quadrupolar interactions and dynamical information at frequencies from the subkilohertz to gigahertz ranges through the T1 and T2 relaxation rates and line shape analysis. It is often difficult to associate a specific structure or dynamical process to a given NMR observation, however, and computational molecular modeling is often effective in providing a much more detailed picture in this regard. The examples discussed here illustrate these capabilities of combining experimental NMR and computational modeling in mineralogically and geochemically important systems, including clay minerals and layered double hydroxides.


This study examined the relationship between psychological well-being, perceived social support and health perception in older adults. The participants were 250 males and females with mean age of 71 years, from Concepcion (Chile). The results showed that psychological well-being had a higher relationship with perceived social support than with health perception, that males reported higher psychological well-being and better health perception than females, and that married participants reported higher psychological wellbeing and higher perceived social support than participants without a partner. Diverse explanatory factors for obtained results are proposed.