Background Information is needed on bleeding risk factors specific for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) treated with non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (NOACs). We aimed to identify risk factors in a large real-world cohort and to derive a bleeding risk score for patients with AF treated with NOACs. Methods From nationwide registries (the Norwegian Patient Registry and the Norwegian Prescription Database), we identified patients with AF with a first prescription of a NOAC between January 2013 and June 2015. Cox proportional-hazards analysis was used to identify the strongest risk factors for major or clinically relevant non-major (CRNM) bleeding. Based on these, a risk prediction score was derived. Discrimination was assessed with Harrel's C-index. C-indexes for the modified Hypertension, Age, Stroke, Bleeding tendency/predisposition, Labile international normalised ratios, Elderly age, Drugs or alcohol excess (HAS-BLED), the Anticoagulation and Risk Factors in Atrial Fibrillation (ATRIA) and the Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation (ORBIT) scores were also calculated from the same cohort. Results Among 21 248 NOAC-treated patients with a median follow-up time of 183 days, 1257 (5.9%) patients experienced a major or CRNM bleeding. Ten independent risk factors for bleeding were identified, which when included in a risk prediction model achieved a C-index of 0.68 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.70). A simplified score comprising three variables; age, history of bleeding and non-bleeding related hospitalisation within the last 12 months, yielded a c-index of 0.66 (95% CI 0.65 to 0.68). In the same cohort, the modified HAS-BLED, ATRIA and ORBIT scores achieved c-indexes of 0.62 (95% CI 0.60 to 0.63), 0.66 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.67) and 0.66 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.67), respectively. Conclusions Our proposed simplified bleeding score could be a useful clinical tool for quick estimation of risk of bleeding in patients with AF treated with NOACs.


Neurons are born from stem cells, migrate to their final location, form synaptic connections, and terminally differentiate by a process known as neurogenesis. Although this phenomenon is observed in adult organisms across metazoans, most animals lack the ability to repair catastrophic damages to the central nervous system (CNS) caused by injury, disease or aging. By contrast, planarians have the amazing ability to regenerate all tissue types (including the CNS) from a population of pluripotent adult stem cells they maintain throughout their life, making these animals a powerful system to research stem cell-based regeneration in vivo. To investigate how adult stem cells are directed to generate new neurons during CNS regeneration, we examined the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor family in planarians. Many bHLH family members regulate neurogenesis during development and are associated with nervous system diseases, yet their functions in adult stem cells and mature neurons remain unclear. We identified 44 planarian bHLH homologs, determined their tissue-specific expression in the adult animal, and examined their function using RNA interference. These analyses identified nine bHLHs expressed in stem cells and neurons that were required for CNS regeneration, including homologs of Collier/Olfactory- 1/Early B-cell factor (coe), Single-minded (sim), and Hairy enhancer of split (hesl-3). Furthermore, we demonstrated that coe, sim and hesl-3 mRNA were detected in lineage-committed progenitors. Our functional screen revealed that gene silencing of coe results in CNS regeneration defects. COE genes play conserved roles in nervous system development and are associated with CNS diseases; however, the genetic programs downstream of these genes remain largely unknown. By comparing the transcriptome profiles of control and coe-deficient animals, we identified over 900 differentially expressed genes, including 397 downregulated genes enriched for CNS functions. We examined downregulated genes and identified new targets of COE in mature neurons, some of which were required for CNS regeneration. Furthermore, we found novel genes expressed in stem cell progeny that function downstream of COE and were critical for stem cell homeostasis. These findings demonstrate that COE regulates genetic programs essential for CNS homeostasis and regeneration, providing insights into how COE proteins function in the adult nervous system


In this thesis I offer a fresh approach to the historical archaeology of industry, using landscape as a framework for the investigation of a mining settlement. This approach marries the study of the social with the industrial reality of mining towns, acknowledging the role of landscape in framing people's understanding of their everyday world. In particular, I examine how people made – created, constructed and understood – their landscape in the gold mining town of Mount Shamrock, in Queensland, Australia, settled in the second half of the nineteenth century. Landscape as a theoretical perspective provides a means of articulating how people understood the place in which they lived and worked. Although landscape studies have been undertaken in historical archaeology, they have generally not extended to a holistic view that includes the construction and embedding of meaning in landscape. Instead, landscape studies in historical archaeology have tended to limit analyses to the structuring of a landscape, not taking into account the dialectic of creating meaning in and taking meaning from the landscape. Further, in historical archaeology as a whole and in Australia in particular, there is frequently a false dichotomy in the way industrial towns are approached with the separation of industry and settlement. This study examines social influences in the establishment and layout of Mount Shamrock, identifying significant elements in the construction of the physical and social landscape of the residents. I also consider how people created landscapes of meaning and attachment as they settled in the area and how this meaning was embedded in the landscape through movement, narrative and experiences. The influence of technologies on the social landscape the residents constructed and lived in is analysed and conversely social influences on the way mining and processing were carried out. Archaeological survey, historical documentation, maps, photographs and experiential reading were used to examine the remnants of Mount Shamrock. From the analysis of results, I argue that there was a constructed landscape at Mount Shamrock with a degree of structuring, evidenced by spatial arrangement and location of particular features in the landscape. People's social relationships were embedded in landscape, for example with kinship networks represented in the proximity of properties. However, there was also evidence of social mobility within the social landscape of the settlement, the context of Mount Shamrock as a goldmining town, situated in nineteenth-century Queensland facilitating that mobility. Residents initially perceived their landscape as wilderness – quickly transforming the landscape into something they could know and understand. They also regarded the landscape as a resource – they conceptualised it as such, they promoted it that way and they structured it that way – as a mining landscape that was experienced in everyday activity and even through sensory perceptions. The influence of technology on the social hierarchy of Mount Shamrock was clear; technology was integral to how the residents operated and how they perceived the social landscape. Further, analysis also demonstrated the role social influences played in the adoption of particular types of technology. The analysis of the landscapes of Mount Shamrock shows both the applicability of a landscape framework to historical archaeology and the versatility and depth of interpretation that can be gained by considering landscapes as a whole. Further, it is evident that industry and settlement are integrally linked, and all part of a meaningful and engaged landscape. At Mount Shamrock, gold mining was all pervasive in people's perceptions of the landscape, part of the lived experience and it is clear that the 'social' of everyday life was indeed to be found in the 'industrial'.


This chapter provides the fundamental basis for noninvasively tapping into the mind's eye. The EyeTap principle pertains to replacing, in whole or in part, each ray of light that would otherwise pass through the lens of at least one eye of the wearer, with a synthetic ray of light responsive to the output of a processor. Fundamental concepts covered in this chapter include the EyeTap principle; analysis glass, synthesis glass, and the collinearity criterion; effective location of the camera in at least one eye of the wearer; practical embodiments of the EyeTap principle; the laser EyeTap camera; tapping the mind's eye with a computer-controlled laser (replacing each ray of light that would otherwise enter the eye with laser light); the author's fully functional laser EyeTap eyeglasses; infinite depth of focus EyeTap products and devices; and practical solutions for the visually challenged.


Deciding to open the source code of a software product has advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that the firm loses the revenue from the software. The advantage is that the users' network can contribute to the quality of the software code, which increases the demand for the software and for a complementary product. Demand for the complementary product also goes up, because demand for a product increases when the price of its complement decreases, and under open source, the price of the software product drops down to zero. This paper examines the strategic interactions at work here, within a duopoly framework, and tries to determine the circumstances under which it is optimal for a firm to open its code. We find that firms open the source code when there is a competitive software-product market, a less competitive complementary-product market, and when the complementary product is of high quality. Furthermore, it is more profitable for the firm to open the source code if its competitor also does so. When this happens the incentive to open the code can even be higher than in a monopoly situation. More intense competition induces symmetric equilibria in which both firms choose the same strategy.


The 1919 STEEL STRIKE traces its origins back to 1918, when efforts were first made to try and unionize the steel industry. By the summer of 1919, there was a steel union "in every important mill town." When U.S. Steel refused to negotiate with the union, union leaders called for a national strike on 22 Sept. 1919. On that date, 18,000 workers in 16 unions went on strike in Cleveland. Sixteen Cleveland mills were closed; only one operated at full force. That same day 1,500 strikers met at BROOKSIDE PARK to hear union organizers. Nationwide, the strike was 90% effective. In Cleveland, as elsewhere, newspaper coverage focused more on the radical bent of the strike's organizers than on the unwillingness of the employers to negotiate. The PLAIN DEALER editorialized that "It was apparent that the leadership was in the hands of radicals and extremists," and that "the public was left apathetic to the appeals of the strikers." These elements, along with the violence associated with the strike, and the mill's use of strikebreakers, doomed the strike. By mid-October, American Steel and Wire (see U.S. STEEL CORP.) and Otis Steel had plans to reopen. On 17 Oct., two pickets outside of American Steel were shot, reportedly by machine gun fire from inside the plant, as they tried to keep workers from entering the plant. Thereafter, one by one, steel plants began to reopen. Nationally, as well as locally, the strike officially ended on 8 Jan. 1920 with no concessions from U.S. Steel--and public suspicion, if not animosity, toward the union movement. It would be more than a decade before unions made major inroads into unionizing Cleveland's, and the nation's, steel plants.


Hepatic radionuclide angiography was performed with Gamma camera, after bolus injection of 740 MBq 99m-Tc-pertechnetate. Hepatic and portal phases (slopes) of the liver time-activity curve were separated at the moment of the maximal left kidney activity, and hepatic perfusion index (HPI) was determined. Decreased (p < 0.01) HPI values were observed in patients with liver cirrhosis with or without oesophageal varices (X + SD) (0.32 +/- 0.19 vs. 0.49 +/- 0.13 respectively) in comparison to the controls (0.68 +/- 0.06). HPI values in these two groups of patients also differ between themselves (p < 0.01). HPI values in patients with haemangiomas (0.64 +/- 0.08) were within normal range, pointing out the missing of haemodynamic alterations in the blood inflow through the portal-hepatic system. On the contrary, in patients with metastases of abdominal carcinomas, HPI was lower (0.40 +/- 0.28, p < 0.05) than in controls and patients with haemangiomas. Hepatic radionuclide angiography is a usefull method in the estimation of relative liver perfusion in patients with portal hypertension and liver tumours.


In this study, a fault diagnosis system is proposed for rolling ball bearing race using wavelet packet transform(WPT) and artificial neural network(ANN)technique. Vibration signal from ball bearings having defects on inner race and outer race is considered and the extraction method of feature vector based on wavelet packet transform with frequency band energy is used. The vibration signal is decomposed into the individual frequency bands. The variations of the signal energy in these bands reflect the different fault locations. Further, the artificial neural network is proposed to develop the diagnostic rules of the data base in the present fault identification system. The experimental work is performed to evaluate the effect of fault diagnosis in a rolling ball bearing platform under different fault conditions. The experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method in fault bearing identification.


In this volume, the author covers profinite groups and their cohomology, Galois cohomology, and local class field theory, and concludes with a treatment of duality. His objective is to present effectively that body of material upon which all modern research in Diophantine geometry and higher arithmetic is based, and to do so in a manner that emphasizes the many interesting lines of inquiry leading from these foundations.


University of Warsaw The present paper was written as a contribution to the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Oriental studies at Vilnius University. The early history of Oriental studies, covering the period 1805–24, is presented on the basis of archival materials from collections kept in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, Vilnius University Library, and Czartoryskis' Library in Krakow. Two basic documents are published here for the first time. In the first quarter of the 19th century, three sequential attempts towards establishing a chair of Oriental studies at Vilnius University were undertaken, each one connected with a particular candidate: Szymon Żukowski (1782–1834), Julius Klaproth (1783–1835), and Jozef Sekowski (1800–1858).


High levels of naturally occurring and carcinogenic radium isotopes have been measured in low-saline and oxic groundwater from the Rum Group of the Disi sandstone aquifer in Jordan. The combined 228Ra and 226Ra activities are up to 2000% higher than international drinking water standards. Analyses of the host sandstone aquifer rocks show 228Ra and 226Ra activities and ratios that are consistent with previous reports of sandstone rocks from different parts of the world. A compilation of previous data in groundwater from worldwide sandstone aquifers shows large variations in Ra activities regardless of the groundwater salinity. On the basis of the distribution of the four Ra isotopes and the ratios of the short- to long-lived Ra isotopes, we postulate that Ra activity in groundwater is controlled by the balance of radioactive decay of parent Th isotopes on aquifer solids, decay of the dissolved radium isotopes, and adsorption of dissolved Ra on solid surfaces. The availability of surface adsorption sites, which depends on the clay content in the aquifer rocks, is therefore an important constraint for Ra activity in sandstone aquifers. These findings raise concerns about the safety of this and similar nonrenewable groundwater reservoirs, exacerbating the already severe water crisis in the Middle East.


The conformation of calf skin collagen at the secondary structure level changed after 60Co-gamma-radiation with doses ranging from 50 to 1,000 Gy in aerated aqueous solutions and in the presence of N2 and N2O. Despiralization of collagen at a dose of 1,000 Gy reached 90% in N2O, 70% in N2, and 60% in the aerated solution. The radiochemical yield of the despiralized collagen molecules was 0.007 mol/100 eV owing to OH(.). The presence of radioprotective agents upon irradiation of collagen solutions diminished considerably the injury to its secondary structure.


Flow through porous, elastically deforming media is present in a variety of natural contexts ranging from large-scale geophysics to cellular biology. In the case of incompressible constituents, the porefluid pressure acts as a Lagrange multiplier to satisfy the resulting constraint on fluid divergence. The resulting system of equations is a possibly non-linear saddle-point problem and difficult to solve numerically, requiring nonlinear implicit solvers or flux-splitting methods. Here, we present a method for the simulation of flow through porous media and its coupled elastic deformation. The pore pressure field is calculated at each time step by correcting trial velocities in a manner similar to Chorin projection methods. We demonstrate the method's second-order convergence in space and time and show its application to phase separating neo-Hookean gels.


In recent years spinal surgery has undergone a drastic change of course, mainly due to the increasing use of minimally invasive and percutaneous techniques for the treatment of lumbar spine degenerative pathology. This has led to the development of techniques more effective (for the pathology) and less invasive (for the patient). Recently the technological progress focused on a very specific vertebral fusion technique: the facet joint fixation. This technique has already been described in past as available with the assistance of autologous bone chips into the facet joint; nowadays it has been brought up to date by the development and use of an implantable device that promotes the bone fusion of the joint complex: the Facet-Wedge®. The employment of this device seems to offer a minimally invasive choice to the standard posterior screws fixation techniques for the treatment of selected cases of lumbar degenerative pathologies. Obviously their application has to be evaluated on the basis of a careful preoperative radiological planning. Up to date there aren't in literature clinical trials about the effective of this device and this technique. The biomechanical meaning of this device, the possibility of implanting in percutaneous technique and in combined instrumentation with anterior cages or different posterior techniques, could reveal that this technique might be an effective and feasible alternative, which needs to be addressed in further studies.


Menopause is an inevitable developmental event that women encounter at an age of 42–54 years. The drop of estrogen levels that accompanies cessation of menstruation is associated with multiple vasomotor, physical, neuropsychological, and sexual symptoms, which may hamper quality of life. This study aimed to examine the severity of psychological symptoms and their correlates among peri- and postmenopausal Emirati women (N = 60, mean age = 54.88 ± 6 years). Participants were interviewed using the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) and attitudes toward menopause scale (ATMS). In four path analysis models, vasomotor symptoms, weight gain, and fatigue had significant direct effects on symptoms of anxiety, depression (only weight gain and fatigue), and psychological distress. Fatigue significantly mediated the effects of vasomotor symptoms and weight gain on symptoms of anxiety, depression (only vasomotor symptoms), psychological distress, and memory problems. These models explained 47.6%, 44.5%, 56.6%, and 29.1% of the variances in anxiety, depression, psychological distress, and memory problems, respectively. Participants with more severe menopausal symptoms expressed more negative attitudes toward menopause though regression analysis revealed that only vasomotor symptoms could significantly contribute to ATMS scores. In conclusion, psychological distress is widespread among menopausal women, and it is associated with vasomotor symptoms, fatigue, and change of body composition (obesity). Psychological symptoms, along with vasomotor symptoms, express a key link to negative attitudes toward menopause. Therefore, interventional strategies that target psychological distress may promote coping with midlife transition and improve mental health among menopausal women.


Northside Drive is a major arterial street in the City of Atlanta. This street is an expansive and underutilized corridor that connects North Atlanta to its downtown core. This proposal intends to analyze this arterial in terms of its morphologies, through the exploration of the static, elastic, campus and resilient tissues present. This will be done through mapping, diagramming, examining current proposals for the arterial, and empirical analysis of the corridor. This data will aid in answering several questions pertaining to the characteristics of the study area, shaping the structure of this paper. These questions will form layers of analysis that reveal the nature of Northside Drive's morphological relationships. First, one needs to understand where is Northside Drive? This component is explained by understanding the street's regional connectivity and scale relative to the city. The next task is to define what it is? This is supported by understanding the implications of its current morphologies and form. Third, one needs to investigate how did it get this way? What were the major events that shaped this space? This story is told through the production of a written and visual timeline illustrating the major moves that created the current Northside Drive. The next step is to understand what the problems are with the corridor and also what are the current studies in this area? Once these questions are synthesized, proposals for change can be made.


A method is described to characterize the scale dependence of cloud chord length using cloud-type classification reported with the 94-GHz CloudSat radar. The cloud length along the CloudSat track is quantified using horizontal and vertical structures of cloud classification separately for each cloud type and for all clouds independent of cloud type. While the individual cloud types do not follow a clear power-law behavior as a function of horizontal or vertical scale, a robust power-law scaling of cloud chord length is observed when cloud type is not considered. The exponent of horizontal length is approximated by β ≈ 1.66 ± 0.00 across two orders of magnitude (~10–1000 km). The exponent of vertical thickness is approximated by β ≈ 2.23 ± 0.03 in excess of one order of magnitude (~1–14 km). These exponents are in agreement with previous studies using numerical models, satellites, dropsondes, and in situ aircraft observations. These differences in horizontal and vertical cloud scaling are consistent with scaling of temperature and horizontal wind in the horizontal dimension and with scaling of buoyancy flux in the vertical dimension. The observed scale dependence should serve as a guide to test and evaluate scale-cognizant climate and weather numerical prediction models.


This paper is trying to make a valid criticism of the third chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution about the Church Lumen Gentium on the basis of the presentation of biblical-historical sketches of the Early Church, which is primarily based on the exegetical research of individual experts and also on Kung's theological interpretation of the development of the Church's Council teachings. The Church, fundamentally regarded as the mystery, sacrament, and community of God's people, in the chapter on hierarchy is well placed within the institutional frameworks, and they cannot provide sufficient space for freedom, as it was manifested in the first centuries of Christianity. From the time of Constantine the Great and the later alliance of the Church and the state, bipolarity among Christ's believers takes place in the fraternal community of Christians, and it still exists today, although the last Council has clearly pointed out the same dignity of every member of God's people. Therefore, after the analysis presented in the first two chapters of this paper, in conclusion we pointed to the possible options for different ways of conception of church communities.


Many musical genres and styles are characterized by distinct representative rhythmic patterns. In most automatic genre classification systems global statistical features based on timbral dynamics such as Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) are utilized but so far rhythmic information has not so effectively been used. In order to extract bar-long unit rhythmic patterns for a music collection we propose a clustering method based on one-pass dynamic programming and k-means clustering. After extracting the fundamental rhythmic patterns for each style/genre a pattern occurrence histogram is calculated and used as a feature vector for supervised learning. Experimental results show that the automatically calculated rhythmic pattern information can be used to effectively classify musical genre/style and improve upon current approaches based on timbral features.


Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been behind disruptive innovations in every industry. Based on AI techniques, large amounts of data can be converted into actionable insights and predictions. Manufacturers have frequently faced different kinds of challenges, such as unexpected machinery failures or defective product deliveries. Still, the adoption of AI techniques is expected to improve operational efficiency, enable the launch of new products, customize product designs, and plan future financial actions. Recently, manufacturers have been using AI techniques to improve the quality of their products, achieve greater speed and visibility across supply chains, and optimize inventory management.
 Given that the attention and interest in AI techniques has been growing rapidly, it is time that the current state of the art of their practical applications be presented. The main aim of this special issue is to bring together the latest AI research and practical case studies of AI techniques in production engineering.
 This special issue features 10 papers related to not only operation automation but also sophisticated skill transfer in manufacturers. Their subjects cover various advancements, such as failure diagnosis, product estimation, process planning, operation planning, and workpiece fixturing in the area of machining. Moreover, the authors boldly strive to apply AI technologies even to complex systems in manufacturing fields such as laser-assisted incremental forming, injection molded direct joining, and parts assembling.
 We thank the authors for their interesting papers submitted for this special issue, and we are sure that both general readers and specialists will find the information the authors provide both interesting and informative. Moreover, we deeply appreciate the reviewers for their incisive efforts. Without these contributions, this special issue would not have been possible. We truly hope that this special issue triggers further research on AI techniques in production engineering.


This study aimed to assess the effect of cold application on trapezius muscles on fibromyalgia (FM). This randomised, controlled study was conducted at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation outpatient clinic of a university hospital, in 42 people who had been diagnosed with FM. The participants were randomly divided into intervention (n=22) and control (n=20) groups. Cold application was applied to the trapezius muscles of the participants in the intervention group for 10 minutes. The pain levels of the participants in both the intervention and the control groups were evaluated every day for a period of 1 week. A questionnaire, the visual analogue scale and Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) were used to collect data. The mean pain scores of the participants in the intervention group were measured before cold application, 30 minutes after application, and on Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, and these scores differed significantly (p<0.001). Function, impact, symptoms and total FIQR scores decreased significantly after cold application in the intervention group (p<0.001). The pain levels of the people with FM, which were measured 30 minutes after they received cold application on the trapezius muscle and on Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 post-application, decreased significantly. Their symptoms also decreased significantly and their functions, impact and general health status improved compared to the control group.


This paper explores disability rights activism as a form of collective political participation. This type of organised civil society has been and continues to be vital in promoting and implementing social and political change in European societies. However, little is known about its structures and resources, activities and effects. First, this paper discusses different typologies of disability rights activism and proposes an own attempt of systematising different forms of disability rights activism. By comparing various, rationalist as well as constructivist, theoretical approaches, this article develops an integrated framework for analysing disability organisations by drawing on approaches that consider the interrelations between structure and agency. Second, applying new social movement theory, we explore identity politics and models of disability as identity frames of disability rights activism. Both aspects relate to the pivotal question of how the interests of persons with disabilities are represented in disability politics. Finally, based on documentary analysis of primary data and structured national reports findings of a comparative analysis from a sample of nine European countries (Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom) are offered. There is evidence that the principle of self-representation—which is a crucial demand of the disability rights movement—has resulted in different practices at the level of national disability assemblies. Keywords: disability rights movement, disability studies, self-help groups, participation, civil society, new social movements


The process of removing noise from the original image is still a demanding problem for researchers. There have been several algorithms and each has its assumptions, merits, and demerits. The prime focus of this paper is related to the pre processing of an image before it can be used in applications. The pre processing is done by de-noising of images. In order to achieve these de-noising algorithms, filtering approach and wavelet based approach are used and performs their comparative study. Different noises such as Gaussian noise, salt and pepper noise, speckle noise are used. The wavelet based approach has been proved to be the best in de-noising images corrupted with Gaussian noise, salt and pepper noise and speckle noise A quantitative measure of comparison is provided by the parameters like Peak signal to noise ratio, Root mean square error, Entropy and Correlation of the image.


The synthesis of boron difluoride complexes of a series of curcuminoid derivatives containing various donor end groups is described. Time-dependent (TD)-DFT calculations confirm the charge-transfer character of the second lowest-energy transition band and ascribe the lowest energy band to a "cyanine-like" transition. Photophysical studies reveal that tuning the donor strength of the end groups allows covering a broad spectral range, from the visible to the NIR region, of the UV–visible absorption and fluorescence spectra. Two-photon-excited fluorescence and Z-scan techniques prove that an increase in the donor strength or in the rigidity of the backbone results in a considerable increase in the two-photon cross section, reaching 5000 GM, with predominant two-photon absorption from the S0–S2 charge-transfer transition. Direct comparisons with the hemicurcuminoid derivatives show that the two-photon active band for the curcuminoid derivatives has the same intramolecular charge-transfer character and therefore arises from a dipolar structure. Overall, this structure–relationship study allows the optimization of the two-photon brightness (i.e. , 400–900 GM) with one dye that emits in the NIR region of the spectrum. In addition, these dyes demonstrate high intracellular uptake efficiency in Cos7 cells with emission in the visible region, which is further improved by using porous silica nanoparticles as dye vehicles for the imaging of two mammalian carcinoma cells type based on NIR fluorescence emission.


The aim of this study was to apply SWOT analysis on traditional skimmed milk chain around Greater Cairo which considered as one of the main dairy markets in Egypt. This study was carried out in El-Reka village located in south of Greater Cairo, (Giza governorate), nearby Beni Suef governorate. SWOT analysis was applied including food safety aspect and value chain analysis to raise the major advantages and constraints of the traditional sector. This study was based on regular field visits, interviews, and analysis of milk samples. Main stakeholders of the chain were farmers, owners of milk collection points, owners of milk collection centers, and owners of dairy processing units. SWOT analysis allowed highlighting the major role of the social network to explain the flexibility and adaptability of this sector to the major constraints in link with international competitiveness and national constraints, mainly on the limitation of land access. Other weaknesses concerned high feedstuffs prices on markets, and lack of public services, in terms of milk quality control and herd management at farm level. The high dynamic of the traditional sector was identified, particularly at milk collection points in terms of quantity of collected milk and milk price. However, the social network opens interesting opportunities to develop efficient and flexible services.These elements could help decision makers and developers to prioritize sustainable development activities in link with global agenda of the agricultural sector and increasing demand for dairy products in Egypt. Selling skimmed milk is the most attractive scenario for small farmers that led to a fast growing of skimmed milk collection compared with whole milk. The traditional skimmed milk chain showed high ability to adopt quality control protocols based on market signals and milk processing units' standards.Governmental and non-governmental activities could propose new policies to protect the traditional actors along the chain. Specific dairy quality control programs should be developed along the chain. Therefore, dairy sector regulations and rules should be reviewed to make balance along the chain and to set fair pricing system and guarantee food safety for all consumers in local villages and cities markets.


Objective Conventional radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy (RHL) for early-stage cervical cancer is associated with significant bladder, anorectal, and sexual dysfunction. Nerve-sparing modification of RHL (NS-RHL) has been developed with the aim to reduce surgical treatment-related morbidity. Postoperative radiation therapy (RT) is offered to patients with unfavorable prognostic features to improve local control. The aim of the study was to assess self-reported morbidity of various types of treatment in cervical cancer patients. Methods Self-reported symptoms were prospectively assessed before and 1 and 2 years after treatment by the Dutch Gynaecologic Leiden Questionnaire. Results Included were 229 women (123 NS-RHL and 106 conventional RHL). Ninety-four (41%) received RT. Up to 2 years (response rate, 81%), women reported significantly more bowel, bladder, and sexual symptoms compared with the pretreatment situation. No significant difference was found between the conventional RHL and NS-RHL with the exception of the unexpected finding that a smaller percentage in the NS-RHL group (34% vs 68%) complained about numbness of the labia and/ or thigh. Radiation therapy had a negative impact on diarrhea, urine incontinence, lymphedema, and sexual symptoms (especially a narrow/short vagina). Conclusions In the current longitudinal cohort study, treatment for early-stage cervical cancer was associated with worse subjective bladder, anorectal, and sexual functioning, irrespective of the surgical procedure used. Postoperative RT resulted in a significant deterioration of these functions. The results have to be interpreted with caution in view of the study design and method used.


Several studies have proposed that the microbiological quality of the air in operating theatres be indirectly evaluated by means of particle counting, a technique derived from industrial clean-room technology standards, using airborne particle concentration as an index of microbial contamination. However, the relationship between particle counting and microbiological sampling has rarely been evaluated and demonstrated in operating theatres. The aim of the present study was to determine whether particle counting could predict microbiological contamination of the air in an operating theatre during 95 surgical arthroplasty procedures. This investigation was carried out over a period of three months in 2010 in an orthopedic operating theatre devoted exclusively to prosthetic surgery. During each procedure, the bacterial contamination of the air was determined by means of active sampling; at the same time, airborne particulate contamination was assessed throughout the entire procedure. On considering the total number of surgical operations, the mean value of the total bacterial load in the center of the operating theatre proved to be 35 CFU/m3; the mean particle count was 4,194,569 no./m3 for particles of diameter ≥0.5 µm and 13,519 no./m3 for particles of diameter ≥5 µm. No significant differences emerged between the median values of the airborne microbial load recorded during the two types of procedure monitored. Particulates with a diameter of ≥0.5 µm were detected in statistically higher concentrations (p<0.001) during knee-replacement procedures. By contrast, particulates with a diameter of ≥5 µm displayed a statistically higher concentration during hip-replacement procedures (p<0.05). The results did not reveal any statistically significant correlation between microbial loads and particle counts for either of the particle diameters considered (≥0.5 µm and ≥5 µm). Consequently, microbiological monitoring remains the most suitable method of evaluating the quality of air in operating theatres.


Purpose- The main aim of this study was to develop the pharmacokinetic model for the colorectal cancer's complex 166Ho-DOTA-Bevacizumab in normal and tumoral rats to analyze of behavior as a new composition for diagnosing and treatment. The use of compartmental analysis allows a mathematical separation of tissues and organs to determine the concentration of activity in each fraction of interest. Biodistribution studies are expensive and difficult to carry out in humans, but such data can be obtained easily in rodents and rat. Methods- We have developed a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for scaling up activity concentration in each organ versus time. The mathematical model uses physiological parameters including organ volumes, blood flow rates, and vascular permeability. The compartments (organs) are connected anatomically. This allows the use of scale-up techniques to predict the new complex distribution in humans in each organ. Results- The concentration of the new complex was measured in various organs at the different times. The behavior of the complex (166Ho-DOTA-Bevacizumab) was modeled as a function of time in various organs. These data was diagrammed as a time function in the separated graph for each organ between 2-96 hours after injection. Conclusion- The variation of integrated uptake in organs is described with summationof 6-9 exponential terms and it approximated experimental data with 1-2 %precision. As shown in the diagram the mathematical model and biodistribution data in an experiment has a good joint and coincidence and it is a good sign to save time and cost in the next other researches.


This study focuses on television (TV)'s seduction of selected Metro Manila voters into electing TV personalities. It explores the influence of TV and other factors on the electorate's voting behavior. Citing the senatorial and mayoral elections of May 2001 as cases, the study interviewed121 households and eight personalities from media and the academe. Using the Agenda-Setting and Limited Effects Theories, the study reveals that TV could have been a powerful tool in shaping voters' behavior. The influencing factors include length of TV exposure and image packaging of candidates. However, there are other qualifications like educational attainment, past accomplishments, and good reputation that voters consider in a candidate. Hence, to emerge victorious in elections, a candidate needs much more than mere presence in TV programs. The study also indicates that certain personalities deliberately use TV in anticipation of elections. This explains the incessant campaign or electioneering embedded in so-called "service programs," "talk shows," "infomercials," and other TV projects – months before the election season begins. This also affirms the notion that an extended and prolonged TV exposure enhances name-recall in voters – a possible winning edge for politicians.


In the present study, anionic lipid/peptide/DNA (LPD) complexes consisting of pH-sensitive liposome and protamine were introduced as the carriers targeting RAW 264.7 cell line, which had been reported to be difficult for transfection. The LPD complexes were physically characterized. The pH sensitivities and sizes of liposomes were investigated. The zeta potentials of LPD complexes altered significantly with the addition of protamine sulfate and anionic liposomes. It was demonstrated that the carriers produced an increase in the stability of plasmid DNA against DNase I. The TEM showed that the size distribution of LPD complexes was irregular. In the in vitro transfection, the efficiency of LPD complexes was higher than that of Lipofectamine 2000 and protamine/DNA complexes, but lower than that of electroporation. A possible mechanism for the internalization of plasmid DNA mediated by the anionic LPD complexes was also proposed. With a high safety certificated by MTT assay, LPD complexes prepared in this study might be potentially employed as a macrophage gene therapy.


The use of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) hydrogels combined with chitosan as a vascular tissue substitute for in vitro vascular cell culture studies was investigated. Hydrogels possess many characteristics that can be controlled and adjusted during the fabrication processes, such as tissue-like elasticity, mechanical strength and permeability. In order to develop a material with appropriate inherent material properties that may be used to fabricate a bioartificial vessel with appropriate structural properties, arterial wall mechanics were investigated. A three layer finite element model, incorporating the effects of circumferential and longitudinal residual stresses, was developed to identify the effect of vessel geometry, constitutive properties and residual stresses on the structural response of an arterial segment.

Chitosan was blended to the hydrogel to enhance cell adhesion and growth. The effect of fabrication parameters on the mechanical and morphological characterisation of the PVA-chitosan blended hydrogels was determined using uniaxial extension tests, bi-axial inflation tests, opening angle observations and scanning electron microscopy. PVA-chitosan hydrogel vessels were constructed, and the compliance was measured and compared with numerical predictions.

In vitro experiments have been conducted to investigate vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cell adhesion and growth to PVA-chitosan hydrogel surfaces. The structure and composition of the cultured cells on the PVA-chitosan hydrogel surfaces was studied using immunocytochemistry techniques. Cellular proliferation and viability under static and shear culture conditions have been explored using fluorescent activated cell sorter analysis.

The finite element analysis results showed that the constitutive properties had a significant affect on the overall structural response of the artery wall. The mechanical and morphological studies established that the PVA-chitosan blended hydrogel membranes could be fabricated with similar properties to porcine aortic tissue. The findings of the biological experiments demonstrated that vascular cells adhered to the PVA-chitosan membranes and exhibited comparable proliferation and apoptosis characteristics to control samples. The results described increase understanding of PVA-chitosan blended hydrogel membranes specifically with regard to the development of bioartificial vessels for use in in vitro vascular bioreactors.


: The topography of the activity of succinate dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase, monoaminoxidase and esterase was studied in the arc of the aorta of the monkey, dog, cat, rabbit, rat. It was established that terminal portions of baroreceptors were accumulators of the activity of enzymes of the succinoxidase system connected with the mitochondria of a nervous component of sensory endings and the activity of cholinesterase localized in the zone of terminal branches of the baroreceptors fibres in the underlying specialized tissue. The activity of monoaminoxidase was found in the cytoplasm of Schwann cells of the baroreceptor fibres. No specific esterase was revealed in the baroceptors of the aorta arc of the animals in question. The enzymic organization of the cat's aorta baroreceptors is different from that of the other animals.


Objective: Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and excited oxygen intermediates. IAA causes renal dysfunction, hypoglycemia, and myotonia. The first aim of the study is to investigate the possible indirect effect of the plant growth hormone IAA on some renal enzyme activities such as hexokinase (HK), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) of second cross offsprings of the second cross maternal mice (Mus musculus) that are given IAA. The second aim was to investigate the possible direct effect of IAA on the same renal enzymes in second cross maternal mice. Method: Female mice was divided into two groups: IAA administered group and ethanol control group. Two chemicals used were applied intraperitoneally. IAA was administrated to maternal mice as a 1/40 dilution of 300 mg/kg body weights in 3-day intervals. Ethanol was administrated in the controls. Spectrophotometric methods were used to determine the activities of enzymes in the kidney of the second cross-maternal mice and their offsprings. Results: In the second cross-maternal mice, the activities of LDH, MDH, and G6PD were higher in IAA administrated animals than in controls. 6PGD and HK showed  decreases in IAA study group compared to control group. In the offsprings of the second cross maternal mice, the activities of G6PD, HK, and MDH enzymes were decreased, and 6PGD and LDH enzymes were increased in IAA group compared to control group. Even so differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion:  The results obtained suggested that metabolic enzymes studied were not affected from IAA toxicity. This may be due to low dose of IAA. Key words: IAA, metabolic enzymes,  mus musculus, kidney.


This paper documents the impact of national transparency regimes on corporate capital structure in 14 European countries. After controlling for relevant firm, industry, and national variables, we find that owner-manager agency cost-reducing transparency such as higher levels of analysts following is associated with lower corporate debt levels. In contrast, transparency that reduces owner-creditor agency costs that helps creditors control business risks (and creditors-to-owners wealth transfers), such as disclosure timeliness, institutional trading activities, and enforcement of anti-insider trading laws, are associated with higher corporate debt levels. Among other transparency measures, levels of financial and governance disclosures are negatively associated with debt ratios and higher levels of audit intensity and accounting disclosures are positively associated with debt ratios. Further, transparency factors are more important for large firms and for firms in services and high technology.


The two most important atmospheric transmission bands in the infrared occur at 3–5μm and 8–12μm respectively. For a given infrared detector a common question that continues to be asked is, of the two spectral bands, which, if any, gives the better performance? While seemly an innocent enough question, the literature attests it has not been without controversy. Conflicting and often contradictory results have been given that tend to reflect the predilections of the proponent rather than any sort of measured consideration based on technical factors likely to affect performance. In this study an analysis designed to assess the relative merits of infrared detectors operating in the 3–5μm and 8–12μm spectral bands based on the recently defined figure of merit known as the detected thermal contrast is undertaken. The detected thermal contrast attempts to describe the overall performance of the sequence of events from the initial emission of thermal radiation at the surface of a target to the final measurable output signal seen in the detecting instrument. Under ideal limiting conditions typical of those found for many industrial and scientific applications, by considering targets whose spectral emissivities vary as a function of both wavelength and temperature, exact expressions based on the recently introduced polylogarithmic formulation of the problem are developed for both thermal and quantum detectors. It is found the 3–5μm waveband for either detector type gives better performance while differences between the two types of detectors is not as significant as one might initially expect. The work not only extends upon a number of approximate schemes that have been proposed and developed in the past where target emissivities as a function of the temperature have been used, it also challenges a number of previously reported results.


Background Electronic health records systems facilitate reconciliation of patients' medicines. However, chronic medicines prescribed by hospital physicians and dispensed only at hospitals such as HIV treatments, are not yet recorded in primary care records and sometimes the dose and frequency are not correctly recorded in patients' medical histories when they enter hospital. Purpose To describe and analyse the discrepancies in HIV chronic treatments prescribed by hospital practitioners at admission to hospital. Materials and Methods From June to October 2012, data of patients admitted with antiretroviral medicines were collected. HIV patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases Service or treated chronically in other hospitals were excluded. The pharmacist compared the computerised prescriptions at admission with the current HIV treatment recorded in the pharmacy chronic prescriptions dispensed programme (Farhos). In the event of discrepancies the pharmacist informed the physician/nurse and corrected the order. Non-justified discrepancies were notified and classified as reconciliation errors. Results 68 patients' treatments were analysed (Average age: 46 years. 44 men, 24 women). 49 patients were admitted to the emergency ward (E) and 19 to other wards (O). The average HIV drugs per patient were 2.2. In 17 patients (25%) the treatment was not correct (22.5% of E and 31.5% of O). 23 discrepancies were found in 150 medicines (0.33 per patient). 12 of these were associated with darunavir (41.6% of darunavir treatments were wrong). Classified by reconciliation errors: dose/frequency incorrect (16), omission (5), wrong drug (2). Conclusions Incorrect prescriptions at admission of chronic hospital medicines such as HIV treatments cause a great number of reconciliation errors. Complex regimes, such as those including darunavir, facilitate prescription errors. Until HIV medicines are recorded in patients' primary care records or recording is complete in hospital medical histories, the pharmacy data and pharmacist interventions are needed to guarantee the correct treatment. Due to the results, HIV stock drugs were removed from the Emergency Service. No conflict of interest.


Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a promising candidate gene for susceptibility to psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. DISC1 appears to be involved in neurogenesis, neuronal migration, axon/dendrite formation and synapse formation; during these processes, DISC1 acts as a scaffold protein by interacting with various partners. However, the lack of Disc1 knockout mice and a well-characterized antibody to DISC1 has made it difficult to determine the exact role of DISC1 in vivo. In this study, we generated mice lacking exons 2 and 3 of the Disc1 gene and prepared specific antibodies to the N- and C-termini of DISC1. The Disc1 mutant mice are viable and fertile, and no gross phenotypes, such as disorganization of the brain's cytoarchitecture, were observed. Western blot analysis revealed that the DISC1-specific antibodies recognize a protein with an apparent molecular mass of ~100 kDa in brain extracts from wild-type mice but not in brain extracts from DISC1 mutant mice. Immunochemical studies demonstrated that DISC1 is mainly localized to the vicinity of the Golgi apparatus in hippocampal neurons and astrocytes. A deficiency of full-length Disc1 induced a threshold shift in the induction of long-term potentiation in the dentate gyrus. The Disc1 mutant mice displayed abnormal emotional behavior as assessed by the elevated plus-maze and cliff-avoidance tests, thereby suggesting that a deficiency of full-length DISC1 may result in lower anxiety and/or higher impulsivity. Based on these results, we suggest that full-length Disc1-deficient mice and DISC1-specific antibodies are powerful tools for dissecting the pathophysiological functions of DISC1.


Somatostatin and cortistatin are neuromodulators with divergent expression patterns and biological roles. Whereas expression and function of genes encoding somatostatin (PSS1) and the related peptide cortistatin (PSS2) have been studied in detail for the central nervous system (CNS) and immune system, relatively little is known about their expression patterns in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). We compare the expression patterns of PSS1 and PSS2 in chicken embryos. At E14, PSS1 is higher in the CNS versus PNS, whereas PSS2 is higher in the PNS. During early development, PSS1 is transiently expressed in lumbar sympathetic ganglia and is detectable at low levels throughout the development of dorsal root and ciliary ganglia. In contrast, PSS2 expression increases as development progresses in sympathetic and dorsal root ganglia, whereas levels in ciliary ganglia by E8 are more than 100‐fold higher than in sympathetic ganglia. Activin, which induces somatostatin‐like immunoreactivity in ciliary ganglion neurons in vivo and in vitro, controls PSS2 expression by stabilizing PSS2 but not PSS1 mRNA. We conclude that much of the somatostatin‐like immunoreactivity in the developing avian peripheral nervous system is actually cortistatin, the PSS2 product, as opposed to true somatostatin, which is the PSS1 product. The identification of PSS2 as the predominantly expressed somatostatin gene family member in avian autonomic neurons provides a molecular basis for further functional and pharmacological studies. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:839–850, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Agri-food cooperatives develop a relevant socio-economic role for their members providing several services or improving their countervailing power on the market. Furthermore, they act as a vehicle in the rural development of the area in which they are located. They are closely linked to their environments, from a social, economic and geographical standpoint. Moreover, in a globalization context, cooperatives have adopted new collaboration alternatives in order to gain market power and improve their competitive standards. From an internal perspective, cooperatives face to several challenges due to their internal governance but they overcome their limitations through new strategies or new cooperative organizational models.
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the agri-food cooperatives' performance from financial, economic and inter-organizational perspectives. With this aim, we apply different methodologies examining diverse settings. We shed additional light on the understanding of cooperatives behaviour in agri-food markets refining their weakness and boosting their strengths. In the light of the foregoing, the specific objectives of this dissertation are developed in three specific empirical applications. In the first analysis, we focus on the financial dimension of the cooperative comparing, from a dynamic perspective, the financial behaviour for cooperatives and investor-owned firms. The second study examines the economic elements determining of agri-food cooperatives' productivity growth, giving special relevance to spatial factors: firms' location and interactions among peer companies. The third empirical analysis studies the role played by alliances between first- and second-level agri-food cooperatives on their productivity growth and their components.
This thesis contributes to the current literature in different aspects finding some promising results for the development of future research in this field. Our financial study determine that despite cooperatives operate under different management strategies from investor-owned firms, their financial behaviour is similar among them with some differences caused by the particularities in cooperatives. From an economic analysis, we determine the relevance of the geographical location and interactions among neighbouring companies in the productivity growth of agri-food companies. Finally, this thesis also supports the impact generated between Spanish agri-food first- and second-level cooperatives in their productivity standards.
Previous findings are valuable contributions to be considered in the design of policies directed to improve the results in agri-food firms.

http://repositorio.bib.upct.es/dspace/


Dynamic multiobjective optimisation deals with multiobjective problems whose objective functions, search spaces, or constraints are time-varying during the optimisation process. Due to wide presence in real-world applications, dynamic multiobjective problems (DMOPs) have been increasingly studied in recent years. Whilst most studies concentrated on DMOPs with only two objectives, there is little work on more objectives. This paper presents an empirical investigation of evolutionary algorithms for three-objective dynamic problems. Experimental studies show that all the evolutionary algorithms tested in this paper encounter performance degradedness to some extent. Amongst these algorithms, the multipopulation based change handling mechanism is generally more robust for a larger number of objectives, but has difficulty in deal with time-varying deceptive characteristics.


Background Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is twice the UK average with emergency admission rate 175% higher in Knowsley Primary Care Trust (PCT). A primary care nurse led COPD service was initially operational from 08:00 to 10:00, thereafter telephone advice was available overnight for management of patients with exacerbation of COPD. This was later commissioned by the PCT to provide a 24 h, 365 days face-to-face rapid response contact assessment at home or in the Accident and Emergency department. The Nurses were contracted to assess the patients within 2 h of the contact. Following this, staffing levels needed to be considerably increased. This development led to an increased burden on the COPD service. Aim To assess the cost-effectiveness of the this new service provision as contracted to direct further commissioning and planning within the restricted budget. Methods A database of patients with confirmed diagnosis of COPD was setup. The database included 3500 patients. They were provided with contact numbers in an event of exacerbation. Activity was monitored over 24 h from September 2009 to July 2010 (10 month's duration). Data were analysed using Excel. Results 399 contacts made over the study period. The majority of the first contacts (18%) were on Mondays during the day hours. Another 17% first contacts were made over the weekends. 62 patients (15%) made contact overnight from 23:00 to 08:00 over the 10 months duration. Only 17 home visits were required and 45 patients reviewed in A&E. Of the patients reviewed in A&E only five were suitable for supported discharge. Conclusion Overnight face-to-face COPD nurse led service was not found to be cost-effective. This provides valuable information to inform the COPD national strategy consultation in development for further services.


In recent years, the concept of 'frontier' has become an important analytical device to discuss resource-making in connection with state formation, procurement of labour, environmental destruction, transformation of landscapes, and climate change. Current rapidly shifting frontier situations suggest that the frontier becomes a useful concept in connection with territorialization, since frontiers, as open or liminal areas, give rise to efforts to map, regulate, expand, and extract in them. We propose that frontiers are spatial, temporal, and relational situations that involve territorial processes that qualify landscapes and relations between humans and other beings, such as plants, animals, and so forth. In this special issue, the authors focus on different aspects and qualities of frontier making, namely questions about territorialization, the spatio-temporal dynamics of frontiers, and the possibilities of life under frontier conditions in the Indonesian Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Finnish Lapland, and the Brazilian Amazon. In all these areas, large-scale resource extraction and struggle over different tenure regimes are on-going. The various cases show that natural resources are not generic, they are specific natural elements that are revalued as commodities and resources that can be extracted in frontier situations. The articles of this special issue show that these nature elements, beings, and lives bear a great significance on different ways frontier dynamics and territorializing processes unfold in specific locations. The papers argue that these transformative processes lend specific qualities to socionatural relationships and limits to possibilities of life.


One of the main current challenges in itemset mining is to discover a small set of high-quality itemsets. In this paper we propose a new and general approach for measuring the quality of itemsets. The method is solidly founded in Bayesian statistics and decreases monotonically, allowing for efficient discovery of all interesting itemsets. The measure is defined by connecting statistical models and collections of itemsets. This allows us to score individual itemsets with the probability of them occuring in random models built on the data. As a concrete example of this framework we use exponential models. This class of models possesses many desirable properties. Most importantly, Occam's razor in Bayesian model selection provides a defence for the pattern explosion. As general exponential models are infeasible in practice, we use decomposable models; a large sub-class for which the measure is solvable. For the actual computation of the score we sample models from the posterior distribution using an MCMC approach. Experimentation on our method demonstrates the measure works in practice and results in interpretable and insightful itemsets for both synthetic and real-world data.


The effect of xymedon on Ca2+ currents in entorhinal cortex LIII pyramidal neurons was studied using brain slices from 10-17-day old rats, which were analyzed by means of the infrared video assisted whole cell patch clamp recording. The sample slices were superfused with artificial cerebrospinal fluid containing tetrodotoxin, 4-aminopyridine, and tetraethylammonium for the blocking of Na+ and K+ channels, respectively. Xymedone was added to artificial cerebrospinal fluid and to all extracellular solutions. The slices were exposed to different concentrations of xymedone for 3 hours followed by patch-clamp recordings. Control recordings were run with the vehicle. Xymedone in a concentration of 0.01 mM decreased the maximum voltage-dependent Ca2+ current amplitude by 39.8 %, while 1 mM of xymedone inhibited the Ca2+ currents almost completely. The obtained data showed for the first time that xymedone exhibits a calcium channel blocker activity in neurons. Possible neuroprotective mechanisms of xymedone are discussed.


Altogether 352 categorized female athletes participated in the research; most of them were in the age of 18 to 21 years. With the purpose to determining interests and attitudes of top athletes in education system, a specially designed questionnaire was prepared for this study. Categorized athletes are excellent students and very successful in coordinating their sports and school obligations. Mostly they speak one or two foreign languages, they are familiar with today's information and communication technologies, and they have interest to use this knowledge in their formal education. The athletes' success serves an important social function in our society, and when it comes to their career it is in the national interest to support them in education with programmes that allow athletes to be more flexible in their studies. In contribution to that, an interest and need to make new education programmes for entrepreneurship has been determined. With the purpose to establish the new E-study for athletes we have made the proposal of the Operational activities model. This model have to be implemented in the process of creating new educational distance learning program that particularly suites to meet the needs of athletes and other special educational groups who cannot be involve in regular academic process.


Ramzi Abdul ghafoor Abood AL-Agele Department of Anatomy and Histology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Diyala, Iraq Accepted: 17 / 7 / 2012 Summary The present study is preliminary investigate of the kidney gross morphology and some histological observations was studied in golden eagle (Aquila Chrysaetus). The anatomical descriptions of the kidneys had revealed a paired kidney and ureters were protrude, flattened and extra-peritoneal organs. The kidney tissue is transverse by major nerve trunks and blood vessels, securing the kidneys tightly in place. Each kidney consists of three lobes: cranial, middle and caudal lobes. The cranial lobe was the largest and wider than the other two lobes and the caudal lobe was appeared similar to middle lobe but little smaller than it. There is no line of demarcation between cortex and medulla as in mammals. The glomerulus consisted of a tightly packed central core of mesangial cells, surrounded by capillary loops. The cytoplasm of the proximal convoluted tubules cells contains condensing vesicles and a large apically situated nucleus. The distal convoluted tubules and collecting ducts were distinguished on a topographical basis revealed that varied slightly in their reactions with PAS stain and appeared as vacuoles or look like vesicles contains secretion from lining epithelial cells of distal convoluted and collecting tubules which appeared diffused in cross section. The cells of distal convoluted tubules and collecting tubules possessed vesicles with a clearly defined coated outer membrane and some had small blebs invaginated membrane. However in this study found vesicles or vacuoles in the lumen of collecting tubules revealed the secreting cells had margins that were often incompletely membrane –bound and continuous with the apical cell margin as if discharging their contents to the tubular lumen.


Twenty-two strains of bifidobacteria from the feces of chickens, rats, and rabbits, and from sewage, formed a single deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) homology group displaying complete homology with Bifidobacterium longum subsp. animalis Mitsuoka biotype a strain R 101-8 (=ATCC 25527). The DNA relatedness of this group of strains to the known species of the genus Bifidobacterium ranged from 5 to 40%. Therefore, we propose that B. longum Reuter subsp. animalis Mitsuoka biotype a should be elevated to species rank as Bifidobacterium animalis (Mitsuoka) comb. nov. The type strain is ATCC 25527. Also, a small number of strains isolated from sewage are suggested as probably being distinctive bifidobacteria and are placed in two new groups designated "minimum" and "subtile" The reference strains for these groups are F392 (=ATCC 27538) and F395 (=ATCC 27537), respectively.


c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is a multi-functional protein involved in a diverse array of context-dependent processes, including apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, adhesion, and differentiation. It is integral to several signalling cascades, notably downstream of non-canonical Wnt and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathways. As such, it is a key regulator of cellular behaviour and patterning during embryonic development across the animal kingdom. The cephalochordate amphioxus is an invertebrate chordate model system straddling the invertebrate to vertebrate transition and is thus ideally suited for comparative studies of morphogenesis. However, next to nothing is known about JNK signalling or cellular processes in this lineage. Pharmacological inhibition of JNK signalling using SP600125 during embryonic development arrests gastrula invagination and causes convergence extension-like defects in axial elongation, particularly of the notochord. Pharynx formation and anterior oral mesoderm derivatives like the preoral pit are also affected. This is accompanied by tissue-specific transcriptional changes, including reduced expression of six3/6 and wnt2 in the notochord, and ectopic wnt11 in neurulating embryos treated at late gastrula stages. Cellular delamination results in accumulation of cells in the gut cavity and a dorsal fin-like protrusion, followed by secondary Caspase-3-mediated apoptosis of polarity-deficient cells, a phenotype only partly rescued by co-culture with the pan-Caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-fmk. Ectopic activation of extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) signalling in the neighbours of extruded notochord and neural cells, possibly due to altered adhesive and tensile properties, as well as defects in cellular migration, may explain some phenotypes caused by JNK inhibition. Overall, this study supports conserved functions of JNK signalling in mediating the complex balance between cell survival, apoptosis, differentiation, and cell fate specification during cephalochordate morphogenesis.


This paper presents the outcomes of a restoration project started from 2009 and finalized in 2011 at the Pīr-i Hamza Sabzpūsh tomb of Abarqū, central Iran. The project comprised of analytical studies and restoration works on the architectural decorations consisting of wall paintings and polychrome stuccoworks. Micro-Raman spectroscopy (μ-Raman) and micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) micro-analysis were used to compare the chemical and mineralogical composition of the pigments used in the wall paintings and the stuccoworks of the mihrab . The results showed that atacamite, huntite and ultramarine were green, white and blue pigments used on both wall paintings and the stuccoworks of the mihrab . Furthermore, while red lead was used as red pigment on the mihrab , the red pigment of the wall paintings was identified to be red hematite. Apart from the difference between the red pigments used on the mihrab and the wall paintings, the different trace elements associated with other paints established different sources of supplying pigments used in the decorations. It is also shown that red lead was partially blackened likely due to the action of air pollutants. Moreover, an omitted part of an inscription of the mihrab was discovered during restoration works that contributed to re-date the stuccoworks to the second half of the 12th century. Finally, rejecting the current assumptions, which attribute the wall paintings to the 14 th century, it was proved that the wall paintings were the first decorations of the tomb created prior to the second half of the 12 th century. The current work contains also a corrigendum to our previous study published on the decorations of the tomb.


The area of what is now the Ukraine has been the arena of large-scale demographic processes that may have left their traces in the contemporary gene pool of Ukrainians. In this study, we present new mitochondrial DNA data for 607 Ukrainians (hypervariable segment I sequences and coding region polymorphisms). To study the maternal affinities of Ukrainians at the level of separate mitochondrial haplotypes, we apply an original technique, the haplotype co-occurrence analysis. About 20% of the Ukrainian maternal gene pool is represented by lineages highly specific to Ukrainians, but is scarcely found in other populations. About 9% of Ukrainian mtDNA lineages are typical for peoples of the Volga region. We also identified minor gene pool strata (1.6-3.3%), each of which is common in Lithuanians, Estonians, Saami, Nenets, Cornish, and the populations of the North Caucasus.


Online games have attracted numerous customers and brought stable revenues to game providers. However, some customers frequently switch to other games, and thus, it is important to identify which customers are likely loyal customers. The literature has identified openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion as predictors for loyalty in online games (Teng, Huang, Jeng, Chou, & Hu, 2008). However, the three broad traits contain multiple facets. Thus research addressing the three broad traits may mix the influences of multiple facets. Thus this study investigates the influences of personality facets on online game customer skill, challenge, flow experience, and loyalty. The sample comprised 994 online gamers. This study employed structural equation modeling for analysis, and found that (1) ideas and achievement striving are positively related to skill, (2) achievement striving, competence, and excitement-seeking are positively related to challenge, (3) gregariousness is positively related to interdependence, (4) fantasy, skill, challenge, and interdependence are positively related to customer likelihood of experiencing flow, and (5) experienced flow is positively related to customer loyalty. The study findings suggest managers improve gamer skill and challenge when gamers are in their early stages in online games, boosting their likelihood of experiencing flow and thus building their loyalty. Managers are also suggested to target individuals who are high in personality facets such as ideas, achievement striving, competence, excitementseeking, to effectively build a loyal customer base. Educators are also suggested to notice students who are high in those personality facets, because these students may continuously play online games when they begin to play.


Supercritical heat transfer correlations are obtained under the certain experimental conditions.The experimental parameters and its application scope is different under different experimental conditions, such as pressure, mass flow density, heat flux, tube diameter, temperature and so on. Supercritical heat transfer correlations are generally chosen in line with the correlation experimental conditions. However, some parameters are calculated under some conditions, under which we can not achieve good results, and at the same time it is prone to increase the deviation. We can choose the best experimental correlation of different experimental conditions based on the fuzzy nearness principles. The existent similarity degree mathematical model is limitated when calculating some similarity parameters.Using new mathematical calculation model resolves this problem, and we can get better experimental correlation for different supercritical heat transfer conditions with the relational selection.


Clustering is often used to discover structure in data. Clustering systems differ in the objective function used to evaluate clustering quality and the control strategy used to search the space of clusterings. In general, a search strategy cannot both (1) consistently construct clusterings of high quality and (2) be computationally inexpensive. However, we can partition the search so that a system inexpensively constructs 'tentative' clusterings for initial examination, followed by iterative optimization, which continues to search in background for improved clusterings. This paper evaluates hierarchical redistribution, which appears to be a novel optimization strategy in the clustering literature. A final component of search prunes tree-structured clusterings, thus simplifying them for analysis. In particular, resampling is used to significantly simplify hierarchical clusterings.


Author(s): Beaubien, Jacquie | Advisor(s): Anderson-Levitt, Kathryn; Ramirez, Gerardo | Abstract: This study used document analysis and basic qualitative research methods to compile an evidence-based compendium of links to online, open-access resources that can help educators learn strategies for fostering belonging and a growth mindset in their classrooms—two social psychological factors known to improve academic equity, engagement, and achievement. The literature provides guidance for five general teaching principles that can foster belonging and a growth mindset; however, previously there was no consolidated set of evidence-based resources to guide educators on how to implement these principles in different grade levels and content areas. A wide range of relevant online resources exist, but many have limitations such as being difficult to find, mislabeled, or not linked to research evidence. The original goal of collecting 30 resources was exceeded; in total, 83 videos, text materials, podcasts, blogs, and vlogs (blogs with embedded videos) of teachers modeling strategies or concisely describing how they enact a strategy were collected. These are modeled across a wide range of grade levels, content areas, school types, and ethnically diverse contexts. Despite this success, important gaps were identified such as resources for: Growth Mindset Language in high school and college contexts; Effective Feedback in college contexts; any resources for science content areas; and key Teacher Caring strategies that may be especially important for improving teacher-student trust in contexts where stereotype threat may be activated (e.g. between white teachers and students of color, or between male science or math teachers and female students). Because resources for college contexts were the most limited, community college faculty (n=9) were interviewed to learn about their perceptions of opportunities and challenges when modifying a strategy that is modeled in a different grade level, subject area, or school context. All participants expressed excitement about the compendium and provided valuable insights on conceptual and logistical considerations for translating the strategy in the reviewed resources for use in their own contexts.


A new inorganic hole transporting layer, a sputtering made LiCoO2 film, was developed and used in an inverted perovskite solar cell (PSC) and sub-module (PSM). The LiCoO2 film prepared by RF magnetron sputtering is composed of nano-sized particles and a superhydrophilic surface after treating it with UV–ozone, and therefore can be wetted evenly with a (MAI + PbI2)/(DMF + DMSO) precursor solution. By applying chlorobenzene as an anti-solvent, a very dense film with big perovskite grains was formed. After depositing the C60 electron transporting layer, BCP hole blocking layer and Ag electrode, the best perovskite solar cell achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19% with negligible current hysteresis. The high-efficiency cell is stable up to 90 °C in the inert atmosphere without encapsulation, and the PCE only decreases by 2% when the cell was heated at 100 °C for 30 minutes. When the cell was heated at 100 °C for 5 days, the PCE decreases by only 40%; nevertheless, under the same heating conditions, the efficiency of the PSC based on the PEDOT:PSS HTL is lost totally. The superhydrophilic surface of LiCoO2 made the even wetting of the large surface area with the perovskite precursor solution possible. Therefore the perovskite solar sub-module with an active area of 25.2 cm2 (on a 10 cm × 10 cm substrate) can be fabricated to achieve a power conversion efficiency of 16% which was further verified to be 15%. The high-efficiency sub-module based on the LiCoO2 HTL also shows good thermal stability, and ca. 10% of the efficiency was lost by heating at 100 °C for 30 minutes. The development of new inorganic hole transporting layers for large area, thermally stable and highly efficient perovskite solar sub-modules closes the gap for their near-future market exploitation.


Exhumation of high- and ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks in collisional orogens may be explained by upward extrusion of these rocks, erosion of their overburden, or extensional thinning of the overburden. Some high-pressure terranes, such as the Adula nappe in the Central Alps, fit none of these scenarios. We propose an additional way in which part of the overburden may be removed: it may sink off into the deeper mantle (slab extraction). Structural and metamorphic relationships in and around the Adula nappe indicate that the emplacement of this Alpine high- to ultrahigh-pressure nappe (to 3.2 GPa) in a pile of lower-pressure nappes resulted from the interaction of two subduction zones that accommodated the closure of two ocean basins, ultimately leading to the extraction of the intervening slab. In terms of mechanics, the cause of the exhumation is, in this case, not the buoyancy of the high-pressure rocks, but the negative buoyancy of the extracted slab.


Intrauterine sensitization has been reported in animal and clinical studies. One study suggests that the amniotic fluid (AF) IgE level might be useful in predicting infant allergy. We followed for 1 year 83 newborns on whom we had 78 samples of AF, 82 of cord serum (CS), and 83 of maternal serum (MS). All infants were delivered by C-section at term. Amniotic fluid samples were aspirated through the exposed myometrium. Sanguineous specimens were excluded. Amniotic fluid, CS, and MS were tested for total IgE level and IgE RAST to three foods: cow's milk, egg white, and peanut. Data on family medical history, feeding history, and allergy symptoms were collected for 12 months. By 1 year 23% had probable allergy: recurrent wheezing = 8, food related G.I. symptoms = 7, and atopic dermatitis = 4. Allergy in formula-fed infants occurred more often than in those breast-fed for greater than 6 months. IgE in AF was greater than or equal to 0.5 IU/mL in 21/78 (27%); range = 0.5 to 5.9 and geometric mean = 0.76. No correlation was noted between AF total IgE and the appearance of allergy. RAST was equivocally positive in 1.2% AF. Cord serum total IgE was greater than or equal to 0.5 IU/mL in 6/82 (7%); range = 0.5 to 2.6 and geometric mean = 0.72. Allergy appeared in 67% of infants with CS total IgE greater than or equal to 0.5 IU/mL. RAST was negative in all CS samples. In this limited series, AF IgE did not seem to have predictive value of allergy in infancy.


A technique is proposed that can be used to predict the cup-to-disc ratio from a single optic fundus image and determine which image features have the highest contribution to a specific ophthalmologist's measured cup-to-disc ratio. The procedure starts with image pre-processing. The main step of the procedure is feature extraction where image features related to pixel intensities are found. These features are used to train three different classifiers: neural networks, support vector machines, and sparse representation classifiers. The classifiers are tested and evaluated to see how accurately they can predict the cup-to-disc ratio. The best obtained results are in the 70-75% success range. Finally, feature ranking is performed using the methods of chi square and information gain on a combined feature vector using measured cup-to-disc ratios from each ophthalmologist to determine the importance and contribution of each feature to that ophthalmologist.


Objectives: To investigate the relationship between the
 related risk factors of children with cerebral palsy in hip and
 brain and provide guidance for the implementation of early
 intervention.
Methods: We recruited 198 children with cerebral palsy
 aged 1-12 years old from five rehabilitation institutions in
 Anhui Province. Chi-square test was used to analyze the
 relationship between gender, birthplace, head imaging
 features, hip joint imaging features, limb disability types and
 dyskinesia types.
Results: The abnormal hip joint imaging rate of children
 born in township hospitals is slightly higher than that born
 in county-level hospitals (29.6%:27%), but no statistical
 difference was found (x2=0.132, P=0.717). There was
 statistical difference between the different types of
 dyskinesia and hip joint imaging features(x2=8.136,
 P=0.043). There was no statistical difference between the
 different types of limb disability and hip joint imaging
 features (x2=1.252, P=0.535). There was no significant
 difference between different genders and hip joint imaging
 features (x2=0.502, P=0.479). The head imaging abnormality
 rate of children born in township hospitals is slightly higher
 than that born in county-level hospitals (73.8%68.6%), but
 no statistical difference was found (x2=0.537, P=0.464).
 There was significant difference between head imaging
 features and dyskinesia types (P=0.004).
Conclusion: We need to be highly vigilant for the hip joint
 abnormality in children with dystonia and mixed type
 cerebral palsy. Early intervention guidance should be
 strengthened for children with cerebral palsy born in
 township level hospitals.


To improve students' skill, writing is the most challenging skill to be developed. The reason is that besides helping the students to develop their skill, this activity also helps them to express themselves. This paper depicts how paraphrasing is very helpful to interpret students' writing. Syntactic units, used tenses and meanings will indeed change once the writings were paraphrased. The objectives of this research are to reveal the inappropriate structure of syntactic units, to show what types of sentences the students often make, and to show how paraphrasing can help to infer the message. The methodology of this research is descriptive qualitative research. In addition, theories of linguistics are also included. This includes theory of Syntax to describe syntactic units and tenses and theory of Semantics to describe theories of meaning and how paraphrasing works. The theories of general linguistics, grammar and writing are also provided to support the theories of Syntax and Semantics. The results of this research are concerned with how the message is received in the end. The message written in the students' essay is not clear because of the improper structure of syntactic units and use of incorrect of tenses. The students tend to use simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences with a few mistakes in their writing. In addition, they tend to create unnecessary phrases. The last point is that this research shows how paraphrase works to attain complete meaning of a sentence. Keywords—Paraphrase, meanings, syntactic units and tenses.


Braze Pressure Welding (BPW) with high frequency induction heating is a newly developed pressure welding technique using interlayer metals for welding the general steel pipes for pipe arrangement in buildings. BPW enables to make joints by solid-state welding in air using a flux sheet which is also developed for this technique. In this method, the interlayer metal is expected to play the primary role in making high performance joints. At a joining temperature, the melted interlayer removes contaminations from the joining surfaces of the base metals. Then the liquid filler is discharged from the joining interface by the joining pressure, and forms fillets at the gaps around the joint. In this stage, the joining pressure is relatively small, so the welding deformation can be restrained to a minimum. The fillets have the effects both on relaxing the stress concentration at the joint and on increasing the joining area, which contribute to the strengthening of the joint. Thus, the high quality pipe joining without the dispersion in joint properties due to welder's skill can be performed. In this report, the concept and merits of BPW are explained, and the results of the investigation on the cleaning effect of the interlayer metal and the effects of fillet formation on strengthening the joint are discussed. The practical application of BPW in Japan is also introduced.


The concentration of alpha 2HS-glycoprotein (alpha 2HS-GP), as measured by the single radial immunodiffusion technique in the sera of 52 patients with various renal diseases and varying degrees of proteinuria, was found to be significantly reduced (P less than 0.001) when compared to the control values. Out of the 52 patients examined, 34 were found to excrete alpha 2HS-GP in urine with no correlation between the serum and urine levels of this protein. Although there is a statistically significant correlation between the clearances of albumin and alpha 2HS-GP, in only six patients were the clearances of alpha 2HS-GP within +/- 25% of albumin clearance. Twelve had higher, and 16 had lower, relative clearances of alpha 2HS-GP. The relative clearance of alpha 2HS-GP had no relation to the serum levels of alpha 2HS-GP, but correlated with the degree of proteinuria and the type of histological lesion in the kidney. In conclusion, there is a quantitative reduction of serum alpha 2HS-GP in patients with renal diseases. It appears that the degree of proteinuria and the type of renal lesion influences its selective handling by the kidneys.


This paper examines a number of commonly used theories and constructs applied to the investigation of the entrepreneur (at the individual level). For each of these theories, an existing measure is selected and assessed on its applicability to the study of entrepreneurship education, reflecting on past research and an empirical investigation in the entrepreneurship education context.
Focusing on trait theory, self-efficacy, intentionality and passion, a measure for each construct was investigated by administering it on a sample of students (n=367) taking an entrepreneurship education module. Aspects of the reliability, validity, internal consistency and factor structure of each test were examined using SPSS and MPlus statistical analyses. The findings allow for a direct comparison to be made of the measures in a controlled environment.
Theoretically there is a justification for applying each assessment approach to entrepreneurship education. Based on past research it was noted that trait theory has often been criticised for inconsistent empirical findings. This was echoed in our study as empirical analysis supported the use of the entrepreneurial intentionality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy measures, yet the trait measure, the General Enterprise Tendency (GET) test displayed worrisome reliability and structural validities and would not be recommended for future research without significant revision. The measure used to examine entrepreneurial passion was stable in the context, and furthermore suggested that this construct may offer valuable insight about the mindset of students undertaking entrepreneurship education in future.
Limitations of the study include use of a mainly homogenous sample with no control group. The measures for analysis were selected as they were intended for entrepreneurship research and have since been applied to entrepreneurship education. The measures are not reflective of respective theory as a whole. Different and many theories could have been selected, as well as alternative measurement instruments. The measures could have been integrated together into a more complex analysis, however the intended purpose was to examine them in parallel.
There have been repeated calls to systematise the assessment of entrepreneurship education, to converge existing knowledge and research. It is hoped that this paper provides educators with an overview and empirical insight regarding theories and measures to adopt for future research and assessment approaches.


Over the last decade, public-private partnerships between states and a variety of non-state actors have proliferated as vehicles for functional co-operation at the global level. In parallel, there has been an emerging trend to accord such partnerships the privileges and immunities normally reserved for intergovernmental organizations ("IO-type privileges and immunities"). After identifying the legal and normative issues associated with this trend, this article argues that IO-type privileges and immunities should be restricted to entities that are clearly established under and governed by international law, and that any approach to IO-type privileges and immunities as a uniform package deal, regardless of the precise functional requirements of the global public-private partnership and its different categories of staff, or the specific conditions in the relevant national jurisdiction where a given privilege or immunity is sought, should be avoided.


This paper presents a descriptive study based on an online simulator of computer skills for primary school teachers in northwest Mexico. It was developed in order to serve as a research instrument in a funded project by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and Centro Regional de Formación Docente e Investigación Educativa del Estado de Sonora (CRFDIES). The system was developed in a Web environment so that would be answered by anyone connected to the Internet. It comprises 50 tasks organized by the following categories: word processor (13 activities), spreadsheet (15 activities), presentations (16 activities), file management (2 activities) and web browser (4 activities). It was followed a descriptive study based on analyses of categories. Results showed that the category with the higher difficulties was the one about spreadsheet tasks, where there were completed only an average of 67.9 activities on the online simulator.


Modeling the damage of brittle materials is of great importance considering a variety of structural components. Prominent examples are high strength engineering ceramics. The present work is concerned with silicon nitride, a material with increasing relevance in industrial applications. In the sense of a hierarchical model structure, effective properties of micromechanical simulations were applied to macroscopic, phenomenological damage models for monotonous and cyclic loading. In the following, both models are introduced and the application of the cyclic damage model to a four point bending test is discussed. (© 2015 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


This study examines how the risk-taking motives of top managers drives risk-taking in IT implementations. We use the risk incentives provided in managerial compensation to capture top managers' risk-taking motives, and develop measures of aggressive IT implementation to capture strategic risk-taking in IT. Our analysis provides empirical evidence that managerial risk incentives drive aggressive IT implementations. We also consider how firm diversification may influence the relationship between managerial risk incentives and aggressive IT implementations. Our findings suggest that the relationship between managerial risk incentives and aggressive IT implementations is stronger in focal firms' secondary business areas than in their primary business areas. The implication is that diversification provides risk-seeking managers more opportunities for IT risk-taking and allows them to reallocate their risk-taking initiatives in the business areas that are less familiar to them.


Background/Aim: Cannabinoids are widely used in the management of pain, nausea and cachexia in cancer patients. However, there has been no objective clinical evidence of any anticancer activity yet. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of pharmaceutical-grade synthetic cannabidiol on a range of cancer patients. Patients and Methods: We analysed the data routinely collected, as part of our treatment program, in 119 cancer patients over a four-year period. Results: Clinical responses were seen in 92% of the 119 cases with solid tumours including a reduction in circulating tumour cells in many cases and in other cases, a reduction in tumour size, as shown by repeat scans. No side-effects of any kind were observed when using pharmaceutical grade synthetic cannabidiol. Conclusion: Pharmaceutical-grade synthetic cannabidiol is a candidate for treating breast cancer and glioma patients.