We report on ≈0.″35 (≈2kpc) resolution observations of the [C ii] and dust continuum emission from five z > 6 quasar host–companion galaxy pairs obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The [C ii] emission is resolved in all galaxies, with physical extents of 3.2–5.4 kpc. The dust continuum is on-average 40% more compact, which results in larger [C ii] deficits in the center of the galaxies. However, the measured [C ii] deficits are fully consistent with those found at lower redshifts. Four of the galaxies show [C ii] velocity fields that are consistent with ordered rotation, while the remaining six galaxies show no clear velocity gradient. All galaxies have high (∼80−200 km s−1) velocity dispersions, consistent with the interpretation that the interstellar medium (ISM) of these high-redshift galaxies is turbulent. By fitting the galaxies with kinematic models, we estimate the dynamical mass of these systems, which ranges between (0.3 − >5.4) × 1010 M⊙. For the three closest-separation galaxy pairs, we observe dust and [C ii] emission from gas in between and surrounding the galaxies, which is an indication that tidal interactions are disturbing the gas in these systems. Although gas exchange in these tidal interactions could power luminous quasars, the existence of quasars in host galaxies without nearby companions suggests that tidal interactions are not the only viable method for fueling their active centers. These observations corroborate the assertion that accreting supermassive black holes do not substantially contribute to the [C ii] and dust continuum emission of the quasar host galaxies, and showcase the diverse ISM properties of galaxies when the universe was less than one billion years old.


True hermaphroditism (TH) refers to individuals who have both unequivocal ovarian tissue and testicular elements regardless of their karyotypes; whereas mixed gonadal dysgenesis (MGD) refers to individuals who usually have a differentiated gonad on one side and a streak gonad or streak testis on the other side. A differential diagnosis between the TH and MGD has important clinical implications for gender assignment and the decision for early gonadectomy; however, variable clinical and histological features frequently lead to the confusion of TH with MGD. We reviewed the clinicopathological features of TH (n = 4) and MGD (n = 6) in young children to identify which morphological features are important for a differential diagnosis between the two conditions. In both conditions, the testicular compartment was composed of immature seminiferous tubules lined by immature Sertoli cells and primitive germ cells; this finding was not helpful for a differential diagnosis. The ovarian compartment in TH cases showed numerous primordial follicles containing primary oocytes with a few primary or antral follicles; however, ovarian compartments in patients with MGD were characterized by primitive sex-cordlike structures with or without germ cell components within the ovarian-type stroma, mimicking gonadoblastomas in two cases and granulosa cell or Sertoli cell tumors in three cases. Hormonal profiles, cytogenetic results, and an internal duct system were not helpful in a differential diagnosis. In conclusion, a differential diagnosis between TH and MGD is largely dependent on the histological features of the gonads. Therefore, examination of all resected or biopsied tissue and the application of strict histological criteria are important.


One major drawback in the production of clean hydrogen from methanol is the formation of carbon monoxide which can subsequently act as a poison in fuel cell applications. Here we report on PdZn/ZnO catalysts developed for the methanol steam reforming reaction which have a high selectivity towards carbon dioxide. The impregnation-based method we employ for synthesising the PdZn/ZnO catalyst involves excess Cl− anion addition to the metal chloride precursors which results in improved mixing of the metals. This subsequently leads to the formation of highly ordered PdZn alloy particles, which are responsible for high catalytic selectivity. This is contrary to the situation found for PdZn/ZnO catalysts prepared by more conventional impregnation techniques (i.e., without the addition of excess Cl− anions), where random alloy PdZn particles were generated which result in a lower selectivity to CO2.


OBJECTIVES
After many years out of the limelight, massage therapy is now experiencing a revival. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate its potential for harm.

METHODS
Computerized literature searches were carried out in four databases. All articles reporting adverse effects of any type of massage therapy were retrieved. Adverse effects relating to massage oil or ice were excluded. No language restrictions were applied. Data were extracted and evaluated according to predefined criteria.

RESULTS
Sixteen case reports of adverse effects and four case series were found. The majority of adverse effects were associated with exotic types of manual massage or massage delivered by laymen, while massage therapists were rarely implicated. The reported adverse events include cerebrovascular accidents, displacement of a ureteral stent, embolization of a kidney, haematoma, leg ulcers, nerve damage, posterior interosseous syndrome, pseudoaneurism, pulmonary embolism, ruptured uterus, strangulation of neck, thyrotoxicosis and various pain syndromes. In the majority of these instances, there can be little doubt about a cause-effect relationship. Serious adverse effects were associated mostly with massage techniques other than 'Swedish' massage.

CONCLUSION
Massage is not entirely risk free. However, serious adverse events are probably true rarities.


The Searcher/ Information Interface Project (SIIP) explores the interface between an information searcher and the sources that the searcher uses in order to gather information. The methodology models most closely the interfaces experienced by an intermediary in searching for information on behalf of a user, and concerns itself with the search for, and the identifica tion of, information where it is necessary to consult secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services, bibliographies and databases. A hypothesis is formulated: dif ferent search intermediaries with similar training and using the same search tools should obtam similar results when conduct ing an information search, and all searchers can be expected to trace and report core documents. The methodology involves making comparisons between the search output of a number of searchers working with the same topics, user profiles and searches. It is shown that there are significant differences between the bibliographies produced by the different searchers. The project proceeds by establishing models for identifying the extent of scatter of references retneved by different searchers.


An automated assembly technique for small optical components has been developed. It concerns components such as, e.g., laser diodes and LEDs, fibers, lenses beamsplitters, polarizers, mirrors, crystals, prisms, diffractive elements or photodiodes. It is based on the flexible 2-dimensional arrangement of a universal tripod holder (10 by 10 by 4 mm) on a planar mounting plate. Its particular mechanical structure allows to align the optical elements on-line and to attach them to the mounting plate in a one step procedure. The different elements are aligned with an accuracy of plus or minus 1 micrometer and attached one after the other. Very good position stability (plus or minus 0.7 micrometer, plus or minus 0.2 mrad) during the attachment procedure has been achieved by laser point welding. They are optically interconnected by free-space propagation of a light beam with diameter of up to 8 millimeters. Mass production has been shown with a collimator as test vehicle. The collimator is composed of two elements (laser diode and collimating lens) and is mounted entirely automatically by two co-working robots. Easy prototyping has been shown with the realization of the optical position sensing system featuring a high precision linear magnetic bearing. Flexibility, simple handling, high packaging density and low cost make this new assembly technique satiable to both mass production and prototyping of small opto electronical devices.


As media companies test and implement newsroom "convergence," growing numbers of journalists are producing content not only for their own employer but also for other media outlets with which that employer has a business relationship. This article, based on case studies in 4 converged news markets, explores journalists' perceptions of normative pressures in this new media environment, particularly in relation to the overarching concept of public service. The findings suggest that although journalists do not see convergence itself as posing significant ethical problems, they do raise concerns related to specific components of public service, including a devotion to accuracy, an avoidance of sensationalism, and independence from economic pressures.


Purpose To determine the efficacy of intravesical hyaluronic acid (HA) instillation in treating patients with refractory interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) and to identify any related factors that influence its therapeutic effect. Methods Thirty-three female IC/PBS patients who demonstrated poor or unsatisfactory responses to previous treatments between December 2010 and October 2012 were enrolled. Despite previous treatments, the enrolled patients had visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores ≥4 and total scores (symptom and bother scores) ≥13 on the pelvic pain and urgency/frequency (PUF) questionnaire and ≥12 on the O'Leary-Sant interstitial cystitis symptoms index (ICSI)/problems index (ICPI). All patients received once weekly intravesical instillations of 40-mg HA diluted in 50-mL saline for 4 weeks. The efficacy of the HA instillation was evaluated by comparing the mean changes in the scores of the VAS and questionnaires from baseline to 4 weeks after treatment. Improvement was defined as a ≥2 decrease in the VAS. Moreover, we investigated the effects of the presence of Hunner's ulcer and previous treatment modalities on the therapeutic outcome of HA instillation. Results The mean age was 57.0±1.8 years (range, 28-75 years). The VAS score significantly decreased from baseline to 4 weeks after treatment (-2.5, P<0.001). The mean changes in the PUF, ICSI, and ICPI from baseline to 4 weeks after the treatment were -3.8 (P<0.001), -2.3 (P<0.001), and -2.7 (P<0.001), respectively. Twenty patients (61%) showed improvements. Previous treatment modalities did not affect the efficacy of HA instillation and the presence of Hunner's ulcer was unrelated to outcomes. No complications were observed. Conclusions These results show that intravesical HA instillation is an effective and safe treatment for patients with refractory IC/PBS. Previous treatment modalities and presence of Hunner's ulcer do not affect the efficacy of HA instillation.


ABSTRACT I present a set of routines in MATLAB for estimating the second‐degree moments of an earthquake's rupture from far‐field body waves. The second moments describe the length, width, duration, and directivity of a rupture. The second‐moments approach is particularly useful when a seismic dataset is dense enough to resolve the primary finite‐source properties but the geodetic data needed for a well‐resolved finite‐fault inversion are not available. In particular for M w  3–6 earthquakes, this approach can be a useful way to estimate rupture area without the assumptions of typical corner‐frequency approaches. The provided software utilizes empirical Green's function deconvolution to isolate the apparent source time function (ASTF) for each station and phase. The spatial variations in the duration of the ASTF are quantified and inverted for the second moments. The inverse problem is solved using MATLAB's convex optimization routines for systems of linear matrix inequalities. An error analysis using the jackknife and bootstrap methods is included. An example M w  4.7 earthquake from the San Jacinto fault is used to demonstrate the method.


This ethnographic study explores how Singaporean middle-class women who have opted out of the traditional labour market to support their children actively redefine their roles and responsibilities. How are investments of time, energy, emotional and economic resources in children's education explained, and what bearing do they have on norms of motherhood? While involved or intensive parenting styles seem to be a global middle-class phenomenon, the ethnographic data suggests that parenting strategies are always embedded in a cultural context, characterized by specific notions of family, childhood, human capital, and intergenerational expectations and obligations. This paper argues that the emphasis on children's educational achievements in Singapore must be understood in relation to a widely accepted narrative of national survival. The idea of human capital as fundamental to both national and individual progress has trickled down and is indeed reproduced in middle-class parenting strategies that focus on children's development and academic achievement. While parental involvement reproduces gendered and social inequalities, the ethnographic data unveils a more complex picture. A common feature of the mothers in this study is their aspiration to continue doing something 'meaningful' in addition to care work, even though they compromise their professional careers to become 'better mothers'. The decision to become a 'mumpreneur', for example, is interpreted as an example of how middle-class mothers construct an alternative professional identity as they carve out the time and flexibility to care for their children. The meaning of mothers' educational work must also be seen in relation to a specific cultural idea of intergenerational expectations and obligations, whereby the reciprocal relationship between parents and children is reified. (Less)


A polycrystalline material is composed of numerous discrete grains, each having a regular, crystalline atomic structure. The elastic properties of the grains are anisotropic and their crystallographic axes are differently oriented. Thus the anisotropic nature of elastic wave propagation in a number of structural materials, such as austenitic stainless steel welds and castings, used in nuclear power plants stems from the details of their grain structures. Columnar grain structure is seen in the austenitic stainless steel welds while the microstructure of cast stainless could vary from randomly oriented equiaxed grains to highly oriented columnar grains. An acoustic wave travelling through such a microscopically inhomogeneous medium suffers scattering and consequently has frequency dependent attenuation and phase velocity that depend on the grain structure. This paper is motivated by the desire to better understand these effects.


Objective There is increasing evidence that adipocytokines may exert proinfl ammatory and destructive effects in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Hence, the authors investigated the relationship between adipocytokines and several features associated with RA (infl ammation, joint destruction and cardiovascular disease), as well as the effect of treatment with a tumour necrosis factor inhibitor or glucocorticoids (GCs) hereupon. Methods Serum levels of adiponectin, leptin, resistin, visfatin, vaspin and lipids were determined in a well-defi ned cohort of patients with RA before and after 16 weeks of adalimumab treatment (adalimumab cohort). The same parameters were analysed in two other cohorts of patients with RA before and after 2 weeks of high-dose prednisolone (high GC cohort) and before and after 22 weeks of treatment with a combination regimen with tapered high-dose prednisolone (COBRA -GC cohort). Radiographs of hands and feet (adalimumab and COBRA-GC cohorts) were assessed at baseline and after treatment. Results Treatment with adalimumab or GC showed opposing effects on vaspin and visfatin levels. Lipid levels improved after several months of adalimumab or GC treatment; in the adalimumab cohort, this was related to reduced visfatin levels, independent of C reactive protein levels. After long-term adalimumab or GC treatment, resistin levels declined, which was associated with a decrease in infl ammation markers. In the adalimumab cohort, baseline resistin levels were predictive of baseline radiological damage, independent of anticitrullinated peptide antibodies status or C reactive protein levels. Conclusion Changes in serum adipocytokine levels were treatment specifi c, further strengthening the role of visfatin and resistin in several disease manifestations of RA.


Sparse matrix computations are ubiquitous in computational science. However, the development of high-performance software for sparse matrix computations is a tedious and error-prone task, for two reasons. First, there is no standard way of storing sparse matrices, since a variety of formats are used to avoid storing zeros, and the best choice for the format is dependent on the problem and the architecture. Second, for most algorithms, it takes a lot of code reorganization to produce an efficient sparse program that is tuned to a particular format. We view the problem of supporting effective development of high-performance sparse matrix codes as one of {\em generic programming}. Generic programming is a discipline of designing and implementing software components which can be used when there is a set of {\em related data structures} supporting a common semantics described by an API or protocol, and a set of {\em common algorithms} that can be formulated in terms of this API. When designing a generic programming system one must address the following fundamental questions: -How do we represent efficient algorithms independently of any particular data-representation scheme? -How do we provide an interface to a diverse set of data-structures? -How do we ``knit'''' together the representation of the algorithms and the representation for the data to obtain an efficient implementation? This dissertation presents a {\em relational algebraic model} for automatically generating efficient sparse codes starting with dense matrix codes and specification of sparse matrix formats. Our techniques are based on viewing arrays as relations and the execution of DOALL loop nests and loops with reductions as evaluation of queries over these relations. Storage formats are specified to the compiler through search and enumeration access methods and their costs. Code restructuring is then formulated as the search for the most efficient plan for the query. The main step in this process is the identification of simultaneous enumeration of data structures (relational joins) and the determination of the best implementations of this enumeration. This software architecture not only provides for a clean design of the compiler, but it also exposes additional opportunities for code optimization and has led us to more general transformation algorithms than previously reported in the literature. We present experimental data that demonstrates that the code generated by our compiler achieves performance competitive with that of hand-written codes for important computational kernels.


This paper shows an application of control theory to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS models. Minimum singular value decomposition is applied to HIV/AIDS models to measure the extent to which the different stages in the progression of HIV/AIDS disease are controllable and, consequently, when best to initiate therapy such that the general objectives of therapy are satisfied. Simulations are used to demonstrate the effect of treatment at various stages. Comparisons are made between mono-class and combination therapies and between when therapy is initiated at the acute infection, asymptomatic and the advanced stages.


Economic theory of executive pay has focused on the design of optimal compensation schemes to align the interests of managers and shareholders. Agency theory has identified several factors by which these interests may differ; including the level of effort exerted by the manager and problems resulting from the unobservabilty of the agent's relevant skills. The design of optimal compensation contracts essentially trades-off between different incentive problems and risk-sharing considerations. This study examined the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance among the commercial banks listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The study considered functional form relationship between the level of executive remuneration and accounting performance measures by using a regression model that relates pay and performance. The findings of the study suggest that accounting measures of performance are not key considerations in determining executive compensation among the large commercial banks in Kenya and that size is a key criteria in determining executive compensation as it was significantly but negatively related to compensation. The negative correlation suggests the capping of executive compensation to ensure maximization of returns to shareholders.

 Key words: Executive compensation, firm performance, agency theory.


Insects show a rich repertoire of goal-directed and adaptive behaviors that are still beyond the capabilities of today's artificial systems. Fast progress in our comprehension of the underlying neural computations make the insect a favorable model system for neurally inspired computing paradigms in autonomous robots. Here, we present a robotic platform designed for implementing and testing spiking neural network control architectures. We demonstrate a neuromorphic realtime approach to sensory processing, reward-based associative plasticity and behavioral control. This is inspired by the biological mechanisms underlying rapid associative learning and the formation of distributed memories in the insect.


Complex integrated control systems are involved in nearly every aspect of offshore drilling, safety, environmental protection and other aspects of vessel operation. Safety, reliability and productivity are expected from high specification control systems such as those found on offshore supply vessels, drilling and production platforms. The ability of a control system to perform as expected is dependent on the underlying software which should be conceptualized, engineered, programmed and verified to provide the required stability and performance. Undetected errors in the software can cause hesitation and doubt for the operator upon execution of subsequent actions, in normal and/or emergency situations. The operator, who should be focused on normal operations, now has to deal with the added complexities and confusion brought about by unexpected software behavior.Traditionally, commissioning and sea trials are periods when there is increased effort to update the functionality of the control systems. Statistics indicate that updates done during traditional commissioning introduces a larger number of unintentional software defects than if the functionality issues were thoroughly vetted during the software development process. During the asset's operational life, vendor software updates on existing systems should be coordinated to maintain or improve safety and productivity.Software development should be managed to uncover issues early in the development process, where effective solutions can be discussed to resolve issues and manage risk using a number of risk mitigation methods. The software development should follow a process wherein participation is garnered from stakeholders and the operational philosophy is documented in a Functional Description or Concept of Operation document. These documents facilitate safety as well as environmental and project risk mitigation.The challenge of the software development process is compounded by the fact that many different suppliers have diverse requirements and inherent limitations which necessitate the development of effective and specific solutions. Verification of software involves utilizing a number of test cases and exercising the software to uncover defects in the code. Testing the integration involves conducting test to verify proper communication and timeliness of the commands and data transfer between the different connected equipment in the integrated control system. Following an internationally recognized process for software development leads to reduced errors in the software, a more predictable control system and thereby, a safer and more productive asset. The methodology summarized in this paper has been created to assist developers, owners and users in software risk mitigation and is built upon industry best practices.© 2012 ASME


We evaluate the top-quark FCNC productions induced by the topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) model at the LHC. These productions proceed, respectively, through the parton-level processes gg -> t (c) over bar, cg -> t, cg -> tg, cg -> tZ, and cg -> t gamma. We show the dependence of the production rates on the relevant TC2 parameters and compare the results with the predictions in the minimal supersymmetric model. We find that for each channel the TC2 model allows for a much larger production rate than the supersymmetric model. All these rare productions in the TC2 model can be enhanced above the 3 sigma sensitivity of the LHC. Since in the minimal supersymmetric model only cg -> t is slightly larger than the corresponding LHC sensitivity, the observation of these processes will favor the TC2 model over the supersymmetric model. In case of unobservation, the LHC can set meaningful constraints on the TC2 parameters.


Objective To determine the impact of concussion on general, fatigue-specific, and headache-specific Health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Design Repeated measures. Setting High school athletic facilities. Patients Two hundred and fifty-nine adolescent athletes who sustained a concussion diagnosed by their athletic trainer (218 males, 41 females, age=15.9±1.2 years, grade=10.0±1.1). Interventions Participants completed the paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), PedsQL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (MFS), and Headache Impact Test (HIT-6) during a preseason baseline (BL) and on days 3 (D3), 10 (D10) and 30 (D30) post-concussion. Main Outcome Measures Dependent variables included: 4 PedsQL subscale scores (physical (PF), emotional (EF), social (SOF), school (SCF) functioning), 3 MFS subscale scores (general (GF), sleep (SLF), cognitive (CF) fatigue), and the HIT-6 total score. Higher scores on the HIT-6 and lower scores on the PedsQL and MFS indicate lower HRQOL. Analyses were conducted using generalised estimating equations with follow-up Bonferroni corrections. Results All omnibus tests were significant (p<0.001). Athletes reported significantly lower HRQOL on D3 than BL for PF (D3=77.8, 95% CI 75.1 to 80.4; BL=92.9, 95% CI 91.4 to 94.4), SCF (D3=78.6, 95% CI 76.3 to 80.8; BL=83.9, 95% CI 81.8 to 86.0), CF(D3=73.2, 95% CI 70.3 to 76.1; BL=82.6, 95% CI 79.9 to 85.1), GF (D3=74.9, 95% CI 72.0 to 77.9; BL=85.1, 95% CI 82.8 to 87.4) and HIT-6 (D3=51.5, 95% CI 50.3 to 52.6; BL=45.4, 95% CI 44.5 to 46.4). All D10 and D30 subscale scores were significantly higher than BL. Conclusions Concussed athletes demonstrated lower general, fatigue-specific, and headache-specific HRQOL in the immediate days post-injury. These findings corroborate reports of the symptoms experienced acutely post-concussion and align with a time when athletes are often restricted from participating in physical and cognitive activities. The effects of concussion on HRQOL appear short-lived, with recovery by 10 days post-injury. Acknowledgements This study was funded by a grant from the National Operating Committee for Standards on Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Competing interests None.


We present a machine learning based method for noise classification using a low-power and inexpensive IoT unit. We use Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients for audio feature extraction and supervised classification algorithms (that is, support vector machine and k-nearest neighbors) for noise classification. We evaluate our approach experimentally with a dataset of about 3000 sound samples grouped in eight sound classes (such as, car horn, jackhammer, or street music). We explore the parameter space of support vector machine and k-nearest neighbors algorithms to estimate the optimal parameter values for classification of sound samples in the dataset under study. We achieve a noise classification accuracy in the range 85% – 100%. Training and testing of our k-nearest neighbors (k = 1) implementation on Raspberry Pi Zero W is less than a second for a dataset with features of more than 3000 sound samples.


In the Croonian Lecture for 1957, Sir Alan Hodgkin described the role of the channels selective for sodium and potassium ions in the conduction of the nervous impulse. An essential feature of these channels is the manner in which the complex kinetics of their opening and closing is controlled by the electric field across the membrane, and the purpose of the present lecture is to consider the advances that have been made in the past 25 years towards an understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. One such advance has been the successful recording, independently of the ionic currents, of the small asymmetry current known as the gating current, that accompanies the conformational changes that take place in the sodium channels. A quantitative analysis of the characteristics of the gating current suggests that activation is brought about by two more or less independent processes operating in parallel, to one of which the slower mechanism of inactivation is coupled sequentially. However, it is clear that a complete picture of the gating system will only be arrived at by combining evidence of this kind with that provided by other new lines of approach such as studies of single ion channels in various tissues by means of fluctuation analysis and the patch-clamping technique, and a reinvestigation of the kinetics of activation of the potassium channels.


Studies show that nitrogen enrichment of the soil decreases plant diversity. From this point ofview, anthropogenic N enrichment is a threat to global plant biodiversity. Roadside verges remained one ofthe high potential of floral diversity. Regularly managed roadside verges could partly replace the grasslandhabitats loss in recent decades. However grassland biodiversity is under the threat of high anthropogenicinput of nitrogen.On the other hand roadside verges have been qualified as a habitat for grassland species in the modernchanging landscape but little comparative knowledge exists on how management regimes affect thepopulation dynamics of such species. Especially, semi-natural grasslands have a long history of grazing andmowing and correspondingly they are one of the most species rich habitats for vascular plants in Europe.Due to the management techniques these habitats tend to be species rich but with increasing nitrogen theirrichness has been threatened. In recent years nitrogen enrichment in the soils has been a big problem for thespecies richness of grassland across Europe.Correspondingly, the present study focuses on an experimental study carried out with fifteen plant speciesoften found in grasslands in Sweden. The species growth and germination with various nitrogen levels havebeen monitored for 16 weeks. This study will reveal the growth and germination responses of the chosenspecies classified by Grime's theory to various nitrogen levels. It will also investigate the consequences ofplant species loss and what conservation measure should be taken for managing the grassland communitiesin Sweden.


Three hundred and sixty eight case histories of pulmonological patients and 127 case histories of other patients were examined retrospectively. Morphohistochemical investigation of the internal ear structure was performed on rabbits treated with different aminoglycoside antibiotics in various doses. Within 15 years (from 1978 to 1992) the incidence of adverse reactions to the antibiotic therapy in the pulmonological patients decreased from 33 to 5 per cent as a result first of all of the observation of the principles of antibiotic therapy by the physicians. Within 1992-1994 there were recorded no classical complications of the antibiotic therapy in the pulmonological patients. The only adverse reaction was the body temperature elevation. In 1994 there was stated the drug fever in 37 patients, 35 of them being treated without observation of the principles of rational antibiotic therapy. The aminoglycosides were used for the treatment of the main and concomitant diseases in 51 and 22 per cent of the patients respectively. Prophylactically the aminoglycosides were used in 12 per cent of the patients. In 15 per cent of the cases the use of the antibiotics was not indicated. The application of the routine methods for the control of the safe use of the aminoglycosides was stated to be unsatisfactory which made it impossible to detect nephrological complications. Nevertheless, changes for the worse were recorded twice as often as those for the better. The development of iatrogenic neuritis of the acoustic nerve to some extent associated with the incorrect regimens of the aminoglycoside therapy was stated in 3.9 per cent of the patients.


The low-carbon ecological planning and green building are continuously explored at home and abroad, and a corresponding index system is formed, but no reasonable relationship between green building and ecological planning is established. This paper concludes a pointcut of planning and an index system combining green building and low-carbon ecology through analysis and research on green building and low-carbon ecological indexes at home and abroad, and based on the urban characteristics and practice experience of Beijing city. In the planning process, this paper considers 20 indexes in four aspects: spatial planning, traffic organization, resource utilization and ecological environment, and the building design process includes 27 indexes in seven aspects, such as building, structure, water supply and drainage, and so on. The indexes in two aspects correspond to each other, and form a complete set of low-carbon ecological and green building index system.


In the mouse blastocyst, epiblast cells are newly formed shortly before implantation. They possess a unique developmental plasticity, termed naive pluripotency. For development to proceed, this naive state must be subsumed by multi-lineage differentiation within 72 h following implantation. In vitro differentiation of naive embryonic stem cells (ESCs) cultured in controlled conditions provides a tractable system to dissect and understand the process of exit from naive pluripotency and entry into lineage specification. Exploitation of this system in recent large-scale RNAi and mutagenesis screens has uncovered multiple new factors and modules that drive or facilitate progression out of the naive state. Notably, these studies show that the transcription factor network that governs the naive state is rapidly dismantled prior to upregulation of lineage specification markers, creating an intermediate state that we term formative pluripotency. Here, we summarize these findings and propose a road map for state transitions in ESC differentiation that reflects the orderly dynamics of epiblast progression in the embryo.


The aim of this research is to investigate the Hofstede's cultural values scores among employees in manufacturing company in Central Java and West Java. The framework utilised in this research refers to the Hofstede's national culture framework (Hofstede et al, 2008). There are 7 dimensions of national culture : power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-feminity, uncertainty avoidance, long term-short term orientation, indulgence-restrain, and monumentalism-self effacement.
The sample of this research were employees of manufacturing companies in Central Java and West Java. This research used primary data obtained from questionnaire distribution with the total sample of 120 respondents. The scores were calculated using Value Survey Module (2008) formulas provided by Hofstede.
Data analysis results reveals differences in some cultural values dimensions between employees in Central JAva with employees in WEst JAva. Those dimensions are: individualism-collectivism, masculinity-feminity, uncertainty avoidance, indulgence-restrain and monumentalism-self effacement.
Compared to Hofstede (1980) research, there are differences on the dimensions are: Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance Index.


The paper presents the possibility of using fruit pomace as the management of poor products on sustainable farms. Processing of raw materials in the fruit and vegetable industry involves generation of manufacturing waste, of which pomace that may be processed in different ways, constitutes the highest share. Pomace is most commonly used as fuel in biogas plants, or as feed additives. Despite its high microbial instability, pomace is a great source of numerous bioactive substances.Therefore, it may be used alternatively in the production of granulated fruit and herbal teas.The aim of this paper was to assess the possibility of using fruit pomace in the production of granulated teas with addition of Melissa officinalis. Material used in the study was the agglomeration of dried and fragmented black chokeberry and apple pomace blended with Melissa officinalis. Prepared granules were used to make infusions for which the total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity and sediment amount were determined.


T article analyzes different approaches to the policy of integration of migrants in Spain. The purpose of the article is: to show the experience of integration policy and intercultural dialogue in Spain and to determine the most effective methods for application in the Russian migration policy. The phenomenon of socio-cultural integration of immigrants and intercultural interaction through theoretical and methodological developments of domestic and foreign experts has been considered. Distinctions between the concepts of "adaptation of migrants" and "integration of migrants" have been made. Integration involves the next stage of inclusion after adaptation in the host community. A list of criteria for assessing the processes of integration of immigrants into the host society has been formed, three main groups of criteria have been defined: socio-economic, political, legal and socio-cultural. During the analysis, the author comes to conclusion, that the key direction of the policy of integration of migrants into the host community in Spain is economic integration, which implies the inclusion of migrants in labor relations and is supported by state structures as much as possible. The main directions and effectiveness of the integration policy of Spain have been analyzed. It has been concluded, that the effectiveness depends on the existence of a holistic system of interaction between the Central government, regional and municipal authorities and non-governmental organizations, which greatly simplifies the process of integration of migrants into Spanish society. The article widely uses the results of practical studies of the integration experience of Spain, official reports of the EU supranational bodies on the migration situation in this country, reports on the implementation of specific integration initiatives, as well as the analysis of expert assessments on this issue. The article analyzes the most effective methods of integration of the government of Spain and Spanish public organizations, based on which practical recommendations for Russia are proposed, taking into account the specifics of migration processes.


Direct monitoring of stream water chemistry is an increasingly important tool for securing stream water quality and assessing stream ecological functioning as it relates to overall ecosystem health. Such monitoring is often discontinuous in spatial extent and, thus, needs to be interpolated at unsampled locations if the desired end product is a continuous map of stream water chemistry. Recently there have been major advances in the use and development of geostatistical methods (such as kriging) for interpolating between observations of stream water chemistry within stream networks. This study investigated the influence of distance definition on interpolation of synoptically collected stream water chemistry samples. In particular, we developed a new methodology for adjusting instream distances between stream water chemistry observations such that instream lakes (which are ubiquitous in northern, boreal landscapes) are explicitly accounted for in geostatistical interpolations. The methodology developed was tested using stream chemistry data for five different constituents coming from synoptic sampling campaigns conducted across four boreal Swedish catchments during two distinct seasons. The ability of this new, lake adjusted instream distance (LAID) to produce interpolated maps of stream water chemistry was compared to that of traditional Euclidean distance (ED) and instream distance (ID). The results indicated that using LAIDs in this boreal landscape tended to improve interpolation compared to the other distance definitions considered. The grade of improvement, however, tended to vary between the constituent, watershed and season considered suggesting that the influence of instream lakes on water chemistry is quite variable in this landscape throughout the year.


Solid-state luminescent materials that possess reversible fluorescence changes toward external multistimuli are of immense interest because of their potential applications in data storage and sensors. While the recent developments in this field are mainly focused on the π-conjugated organic molecules. Herein two polymorphic luminescent ionic liquid (IL)-based stimuli-responsive materials were designed by the supramolecular assemblies of an organic-decorated chlorobismuthate anion and a rotationally flexible imidazolium cation, namely, α (1)/β (2)-[Bmmim][BiCl4(2,2'-bpy)] (Bmmim = 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium; 2,2'-bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine). Because of the different conformations of the n-butyl chains on the imidazolium cations, tuning of the supramolecular packing structures as well as luminescent colors for 1 and 2 was realized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Hirshfeld surface analyses disclose that the polymorphism-dependent emission may be attributed to the different weak interactions, especially to the π-π interactions between adjacent [BiCl4(2,2'-bpy)]- anions in two compounds. Additionally, compound 2 could be transformed into 1 spontaneously at ambient conditions, which could be triggered by the moisture in the air. Both of the title compounds could detect NH3 vapor selectively through the luminescence "turn-off" method rapidly and reversibly because of the destruction of intermolecular interactions, indicating their stimuli-responsive property toward NH3.


We explore total scene capture --- recording, modeling, and rerendering a scene under varying appearance such as season and time of day. Starting from Internet photos of a tourist landmark, we apply traditional 3D reconstruction to register the photos and approximate the scene as a point cloud. For each photo, we render the scene points into a deep framebuffer, and train a deep neural network to learn the mapping of these initial renderings to the actual photos. This rerendering network also takes as input a latent appearance vector and a semantic mask indicating the location of transient objects like pedestrians. The model is evaluated on several datasets of publicly available images spanning a broad range of illumination conditions. We create short videos that demonstrate realistic manipulation of the image viewpoint, appearance, and semantic labels. We also compare results to prior work on scene reconstruction from Internet photos.


Article history: Received: June 1, 2016 Received in revised format: November 16, 2016 Accepted: November 29, 2016 Available online: December 3, 2016 Polyester short cut fiber is a textile industry which is rarely explored or researched. This research explains the necessary steps of improvement using Six Sigma method to reduce the nonconforming products in a polyester short cut fiber manufacturing in Indonesia. An increased nonconforming products in the shortcut fiber production process created some quality problems from January to May, 2015. Define, measure, analysis, improve, control (DMAIC) steps were implemented to determine root cause of the problems and to improve production process using statistical approach. The results of Six Sigma improvement has indicated that the process capability was increased from 2.2 to 3.1 sigma, savings $18,394.2 USD per-month. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


subjects. (2) Instability in the fanily was pronounced in only a few cases. (3) Indifference to parents was more prevalent, on the subject's conscious level, than cross-parent fixation. (4) Sixty per cent. of the subjects came from either disrupted or unhappy homes. (5) Seduction was not a prominent factor in the case histories. <6) The homosexual group was as stable as the control group in regard to employment. (7) There was little support for the general contention that all homosexuals are emotionally unreliable and sexually promiscuous; 43 % of the group had maintained a relationship with one partner for periods varying from 5 to 30 years. The females were slightly more stable in their relationships than the males. (8) The homosexual group was more inclined than the control group to activities in the artistic sphere, both in interests and occupation. (9) There was nothing in the appearance or build of 93% of these homosexuals to distinguish them from any " normal " group of people. (10) The males had their first overt homosexual experience at an earlier age (M= 16.9 years) than the females (M =20.24 years). (11) The males were iess emotionally involved than the females in their first homosexual contacts.


We measure the labor-demand effects of two simultaneous forms of technological change—automation of production processes and consolidation of parts. We collect detailed shop-floor data from four semiconductor firms with different levels of automation and consolidation. Using the O*NET survey instrument, we collect novel task data for operator laborers that contains process-step level skill requirements, including operations and control, near vision, and dexterity requirements. We then use an engineering process model to separate the effects of the distinct technological changes on these process tasks and operator skill requirements. Within an occupation, we show that aggregate measures of technological change can mask the opposing skill biases of multiple simultaneous technological changes. In our empirical context, automation polarizes skill demand as routine, codifiable tasks requiring low and medium skills are executed by machines instead of humans, while the remaining and newly created human tasks tend to require low and high skills. Consolidation converges skill demand as formerly divisible low and high skill tasks are transformed into a single indivisible task with medium skill requirements and higher cost of failure.


Learning a foreign language requires mental, emotional and social interaction between teachers and learners. In the process of language learning, learners are as responsible as teachers and they can impose their own attitude toward effective teaching and also can improve teachers' profession. The present study attempts to investigate learners' perceptions and attitudes about effective teaching. The participants of this study are EFL learners from different language institutes in Tabriz who were requested to complete the questionnaire related to their ideas about effective EFL teachers. This questionnaire contains questions about different aspects of effective teacher including relational factors, environmental dynamic, knowledge of language, common standards, performance assessment, and classroom planning. The obtained findings revealed that all of these components are important in effective teaching from EFL learners' point of view.


A Review of:
Conway, Kate. (2011). How prepared are students for postgraduate study? A comparison of the information literacy skills of commencing undergraduate and postgraduate studies students at Curtin University. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(2), 121-135.

Abstract

Objective – To determine whether there is a difference in the information literacy skills of postgraduate and undergraduate students beginning an information studies program, and to examine the influence of demographic characteristics on information literacy skills.

Design – Online, multiple choice questionnaire to test basic information literacy skills.

Setting – Information studies program at a large university in Western Australia.

Subjects – 64 information studies students who responded to an email invitation to participate in an online questionnaire, a 44% response rate. Of those responding, 23 were undergraduates and 41 were postgraduates.

Methods – Over the course of two semesters, an online survey was administered. In order to measure student performance against established standards, 25 test questions were aligned with the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework (ANZIIL) (Bundy, 2004), an adapted version of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2000). In the first semester that the survey was administered, 9 demographic questions were asked and 11 in the second semester. Participants were invited to respond voluntarily to the questionnaire via email. Results were presented as descriptive statistics, comparing undergraduate and postgraduate student performance. The results were not tested for statistical significance and the author did not control for confounding variables.

Main Results – Postgraduate respondents scored an average of 77% on the test questionnaire, while undergraduates scored an average of 69%. The 25% of respondents who had previous work experience in a library achieved average scores of 79%, in contrast to 69% among those who had not worked in a library. Average scores for undergraduates in the 20-30 age group were 81%, while those in the 30-40 age group averaged 65%. Among both undergraduate and postgraduate students, scores may indicate deficiencies in information literacy skills in several areas, including parsing citations, strategies for locating specific content, and defining an information need.

Conclusion – The study concludes that postgraduate students' information literacy skills may be marginally better than the skills of undergraduates. Age was found to be associated with higher performance among undergraduate students, and a variety of "basic" information literacy skills may elude many respondents. These findings might prompt librarians and instructors to look closely at gaps in information literacy knowledge among students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.


Systemic Candida infections remain a leading cause of nosocomial infections in the United States and worldwide. Many challenges remain in achieving rapid, direct diagnosis of fungal bloodstream infections due to limitations of conventional diagnostic methods that continue to demonstrate poor sensitivity, prolonged culture times that lead to delayed treatment, and detection variability between tests that compromises result reproducibility. Despite advancements in technology, mortality, and cost of care presented by blood stream infection with Candida spp. (candidemia) continues to rise and there is an urgent need for the development of novel methods to accurately detect Candida species present within the blood. This is especially true when patients are infected with drug resistant strains of Candida where accurate and immediate therapeutic treatment is of the importance. This study presents a method of separating fungal cells from lysed blood using inertial forces applied through microfluidics in order to abbreviate the time required to achieve a diagnosis by mitigating the need to grow blood cultures. We found that C. albicans can segregate into a focused stream distinct from white blood cells isolated within the Inertial Fungal Focuser (IFF) after red blood cell lysis. As a result of the focusing process, the collected cells are also concentrated 2.86 times. The same IFF device is applicable to non-albicans species: Candida parapsilosis, Candida glabrata, and Candida tropicalis, providing both isolation from lysed blood and a reduction in solution volume. Thus, the devised platform provides a means to isolate medically significant fungal cells from blood and concentrate the cells for further interrogation.


In order to induce the hydrophobicity and the influence of functional vinyl monomers, vinyl pyridine (VP), vinylpyrolidinone (V2P) and vinylsulphonic acid (VSA) were impregnated into SBA-15 matrix to generate SBA/L nanocomposites and characterized for the adsorption of humic acid (HA) for the first time. The structural order of the SBA/L samples was confirmed by standard physicochemical characterizations (powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), adsorption isotherm, SEM etc.). Considerable adsorption (120-140 mg/g) of HA was observed over basic (SBA/VP and SBA/V2P) nanocomposites compared to the acidic ones. Adsorption parameters like effect of temperature, pH, weight of the adsorbent and time were studied. The possible mechanistic pathway for hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions was also explained. Copyright © 2016 VBRI Press.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different HCl concentrations on gelatin properties extrated from tuna eye's. About 13 kg tuna eye's were taken from PT. Dempo Andalas Samudera, West Sumatera. Tuna eye's was diveded into 3 groups and each group was extracted for its gelatin using HCl solution at different concentrations (4%, 5% and 6%). The extracted gelatins were evaluated for yield, pH, proximate composition and isoelektric point. The yield and pH of the gelatin were 0,28%-0,71% and 3,11-3,89 respectively. The yield and pH of the gelatin increased as the increasing of HCl concentration; and the yield and pH of the gelatin extracted using 4% HCl resulted in the best quality product. Protein, fat, moisture, ash and isoelektric point of the best gelatin were 85,76%; 4,76%; 1,87%; 5,06%; pH 7,5 respectively. Keyword: Gelatin, eye's tuna, HCl Solution.


Knowledge of nature may be common to all of humanity, yet it is written in many tongues. The story of the Tower of Babel is not only an etiology of the multitude of languages, it also suggests that a "confusion of tongues" confounds communication. However, as the contributors to this volume show, translation is always a transformation. This book examines how such transformations generate new knowledge and how translations helped to establish a new science. Situated at the border of the Germanic and Romance languages, home to a highly educated population, the Low Countries fostered multilingualism and became one of the chief sites for translation. (Series: Low Countries Studies on the Circulation of Natural Knowledge - Vol. 3)


With the reelection of President Obama, full enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is all but certain. Part of that legislation is the establishment of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These large networks require a minimum of 5,000 Medicare patients, and will assume the total costs for their care in many cases. Over 140 ACOs are already established with over 130,000 physicians and 2.2 million beneficiaries.1 Much of the broad legislation governing ACOs has yet to be converted to specific regulations, which will vary between states. Because so much of this change has yet to be decided, and large systems will have to rapidly adapt, ACOs may become a sudden order of business for family medicine program directors.

ACOs are a model of shared risk for costs and savings of a defined population. The more patients a network has, the more easily they can spread the costs of expensive care of the relatively few. In the ACO model, hospitals will shift from revenue centers to cost centers. ACOs have the potential to shift systems to embrace wellness rather than reactive illness care. In the future, we may get reports on how much our patients cost the system, rather than how much revenue we generated with our level-4 visits, inpatient billing, and procedures. Many systems will need to increase their primary care workforce as more patients have health coverage, and systems shift their emphasis to outpatient and preventive care.

Insurance and payment reforms are the first 2 steps in health care reform. The third phase is delivery system reform.1 A need to educate those making ACO formation decisions will exist, regarding the value of family medicine residency programs to ACO networks. One of the fundamental objectives of the National Institute of Program Director Development (NIPDD) training is to understand the worth of your program; in the world of ACOs, our 2 principal strengths to promote will be cost-effective care and workforce generation.

To truly provide population health care (rather than just those who come to see us) will require a fundamental shift in perspective for our systems, and most of us as well. Many of us will need to learn new skills; we will need to strongly advocate for resources such as case managers, chronic disease registries, and searchable electronic health records to provide high quality, cost-effective health care to a population. We also need to advocate for payment reforms that truly reflect our value to our systems. If we are not involved in the early formation and leadership of ACOs, we risk maintaining the status quo of huge payment disparities between procedure-based specialists and diverse primary care practices. These disparities discourage future medical students from entering primary care, which eventually will hurt all of our patients.

Residency education about cost-effective care is optimized if the system can provide each resident with clinical quality and cost data on their own panel of patients, rather than having them subsumed under the faculty patient panel. We need to advocate for not just teaching about quality improvement, but doing it in our residency practices.

Family medicine has a long and celebrated history of advocating for our patients. With the formation of ACOs, there is a moral imperative that we advocate for systems that reflect our values as a specialty. In the next few months, many decisions will be made that will affect both process values (the rules that govern decision-making processes such as transparency, accountability, and participation) and content values (clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, justice/equality, and autonomy).2 We all need to ensure that family medicine has a voice at the table, and that we are proud of the end result. After all, the ACOs created in the next few months will be the ones our graduates will be practicing in for the foreseeable future.


Abstract The philosophers of the so-called Kyoto school famously synthesized Zen Buddhist thought and the academic philosophy of 19th and early 20th century Europe in their work. Shizuteru Ueda, one of disciples of Nishitani, developed a model to categorize three different types of Zen discourse. However, in the English language literature "Zen" is frequently essentialized as "mystical" and as at odds with the philosophical project. Such a misconception not only does injustice to the diverse and vibrant traditions of Zen Buddhism, it also belittles the contributions many of their members have made to the philosophical discourse in general. This essay will introduce Ueda's model to present one of way of imagining "Zen philosophy" and to investigate how the project of philosophy in general can be understood from within the Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition. It will argue that since philosophy is not a matter of ideology but one of method, "doing philosophy within the Zen tradition" requires a translation of the Zen idiom. It will further demonstrate how Ueda identifies sources for and methods of philosophy within the Zen Buddhist traditions. The goal of this essay is to better understand the philosophical projects of one member of the Kyoto school, on the one side, and to envision a notion of "philosophy" that is relevant for the age of globalism and multiculturalism, on the other.


Without a doubt, linguistic competence represents one of the substantial dimensions of the training process of German language teacher candidates . T his article, therefore, aims to determine first the development phases of the foreign language level of German language teacher candidates of Istanbul University and, second, the level of proficiency in German, a future German teacher is expected to achieve during their studies. To this end, the study makes use of the Goethe Zertifikat C1 examination to determine proficiency in the duration of 4 years. The results of the examinations show that there is no significant difference in the linguistic competence between the beginning and the end of the study period of the prospective teachers. The results also constitute the scientific basis of curricular discussions.


Slip-initiated falls due to insufficient traction are a major contributor to occupational injuries. Footwear interventions have a significant potential to mitigate slipping accidents. Unfortunately, performance of the footwear used in these interventions is variable and there is a paucity of empirical evidence supporting the validity of current methods for assessing footwear traction. Furthermore, footwear traction testing methods are expensive and require expertise, which may limit their use. These limitations may guide footwear designers toward suboptimal footwear and create barriers for safety managers to assess and identify appropriate footwear. The goal of this dissertation was to (1) guide the development of valid traction testing methods and (2) create tread assessment methods that are inexpensive and require minimal expertise. The ability of footwear traction tests under different biomechanical parameters (normal force, shoe-floor angle, and sliding speed) to predict slip outcomes were assessed based on human exposures to slippery surfaces. The combination of 250 N normal force and 17° shoe-floor angle best predicted slip risk during gait experiments. Biomechanical analysis of various shoes during human slipping events were performed to guide shoe traction measurements for additional improvements. The findings revealed that the normal force (26.7 %BW, 179 N), shoe-floor angle (22.1°) and contact time (0.02 s) at slip initiation were significantly different from current footwear traction testing standard methods (400 and 500 N, 7o, 0.10-0.30 s). Thus, current methods may need to utilize lower normal forces, larger shoe-floor angles and shorter contact duration to further improve slip risk prediction by mimicking the shoe dynamics at slip initiation. A tread assessment model was developed to predict footwear traction based on outsole design features. The statistical model predicted 88% of variation in traction using contact area, heel shape, shape factor and material hardness while controlling for the floor surface in the presence of canola oil. Safety practitioners can use this information to select shoes with high slip-resistant performance in cases where footwear traction testing apparatuses are not readily available. The findings from this dissertation may reduce slipping accidents by improving the quality and accessibility of shoe traction assessment methods.


The purpose of this study was to understand factors that make teacher professional development successful and what success might mean in terms of teachers' instructional practices and feelings about change. Specifically, this study focused on the impact of instructional resources on the large‐scale curricular reform of 30 urban physical education teachers. Data were collected through interviews and class observations. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis, member checks, a research team and triangulation. Analysis of these teachers' use of and perspectives toward the instructional resources provided in the professional development process suggested that they experienced significant instructional and emotional outcomes. First, the resources enabled them to improve their instruction by: teaching more content, maximizing student learning opportunities, teaching diverse learners, teaching to development, and increasing classroom safety. Second, they also reported strong positive and negative emotions from the new resources that influenced how they viewed change. On the one hand, the resources were inspirational in helping teachers to: meet students' needs, overcome unsupportive administrators, impress parents, and preserve salaries. On the other hand, resources also led to anxiety and concerns about utilization, storage, maintenance, and preserving relationships. Implications centre on better understanding professional development for teachers.


This article has been developed based on a systematic review of research studies conducted in the last 10 years on family-based childcare systems and a rapid review of research and assessments conducted in 2020 to explore the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on adoption and foster care in India. The study explains child vulnerabilities with a focus on challenges to adoption and foster care before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings depict that India is home to a large number of vulnerable children who have been living with hardships, and the COVID-19 pandemic has put them at a higher risk of adversity. There has been a significant focus on family-based childcare systems, such as adoption and foster care, instead of institutionalisation to provide a safe environment to children in need of care and protection. However, the study shows that the adoption rate has been sharply decreasing in the country due to low social acceptance, unawareness and delays in the adoption process. The study also identifies challenges facing foster care, in terms of lack of financial support to foster parents, lack of an appropriate monitoring system and lack of a social integration plan for children who age out of the system. The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures have further interrupted the process of adoption and foster care and placed several roadblocks in providing a safety net to a large number of children in the country. The article provides viable recommendations that may help make adoption and foster care effective in the country amid the COVID-19 crisis.


In Part I of this three-part report, various aspects of the electronic structure of pristine and acceptor-impurity-incorporated perfect-crystal SrTiO3 were investigated. An embedded-cluster approach was used to perform first-principles, self-consistent-field calculations. Within the framework of the local-density functional approximation, one-electron equations were evaluated using a discrete variational method to study pristine titanium- and strontium-centered clusters of perfect-crystal SrTiO3. Clusters with a single acceptor impurity substitution at the central titanium site also were considered. However, the relaxation of the atomic structure resulting from the incorporation of these single impurities were not considered in the calculations. Calculations involved determination of the densities of states and spin densities of states of the cluster atoms near the Fermi energy. Mulliken charge populations of atomic orbitals, valence of individual atoms, and nature of bonds between the atoms also were determined. Spatial distribution of charge density and spin density of valence band orbitals, which were included in the variational space, were determined for pristine and impurity-centered clusters. The influence of impurity substitution at a titanium site on the local electronic structure was evaluated in terms of the variations in the densities of states and in the spatial distribution of charge densities. The role of local charge transfer and impurity-induced changes in Mulliken populations also were investigated in connection with the electronic activity of SrTiO3. Possible mechanisms of electrical conductivity were studied. Cluster calculations revealed a mixed ionic-covalent nature of the Ti-O bond and purely ionic nature of the Sr-O bond for the perfect-crystal geometry of SrTiO3. The optical bandgap and the densities of states calculated using the cluster method were in good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental investigations. The methodology correctly predicted the acceptor nature and the trends therein of the transition-metal impurities at the titanium sites. For pristine and impurity-incorporated clusters, the densities of states, the charge- and spin-density distributions, and the Mulliken charge population consistently converged to the same results, providing information regarding the electronic behavior of the SrTiO3.


This paper describes new methods applied to the problem of target identification in complex maritime scenes. The algorithm described here automatically identifies rigid objects moving in a maritime scene. The methods for target identification proposed here are based on the change in statistical descriptors of image segments and on axis projections of the difference image. Results from this stage of processing are passed to a decision maker which determines the resulting regions of interest in the image. Different sequences of maritime scenes were passed to the algorithm and results show that it was capable of identifying most of the rigid objects moving in the scenes despite the variation of the scenes.


The effect of selected environmental stressors (pH, temperature, Ultra Violet exposure, PAH and heavy metals) on important physiological activities of mangrove bacteria was assessed. Cellulose degradation and phosphate solubilisation are two such important physiological activities mainly regulated by mangrove bacteria. Cellulase is a crucial enzyme required for converting waste cellulosic materials into foods and cleans the lignocellulosic waste present in the environment. Along with cellulases, phosphatases are also physiologically necessary enzymes required for maintaining environmental balance. Phosphatases are essential enzymes required for degradation of toxic agricultural waste containing organophosphates, like parathion, paraoxon, diazinon, coumaphos, and Malathion etc. For analysing the effects of environmental stressors on phosphatase and cellulose activity, a previously isolated bacterial culture designated as NE3B02 from Bhitarkanika mangrove, Odisha, India (stored as glycerol stock at -80°C) was screened for phosphate solubilisation and cellulose degradation potential. The mangrove bacterium efficiently solubilizes phosphate and utilizes cellulose at normal environmental conditions [pH=7, temperature (25°C to 37°C)]. Any alterations in environmental conditions interfere with phosphatase and cellulase production ability. The phosphate solubilisation activity of isolate increased with decrease in pH (from pH 7.4 to 7.1). Similarly the cellulose utilization ability of isolate NE3B02 also increased with decrease in pH (pH 7.4–pH 7.1). With increased temperature and time of UV exposure (short UV rays) the phosphate solubilisation and cellulose utilization potential of the isolate decreases significantly. PAH pollutant significantly elevates phosphate solubilisation and cellulose utilization ability of NE3B02. Heavy metal cadmium declines the activities of phosphatase and cellulose, whereas the phosphatase and cellulose activities were completely inhibited in the presence of heavy metal lead. The conclusions were drawn on the basis of calculation of solubilisation index for phosphatase activity and diameter of cellulose clearance zone was considered for cellulose activity.


It is known that modeling uncertainties and astrophysical foregrounds can potentially introduce appreciable bias in the deduced values of cosmological parameters. While it is commonly assumed that these uncertainties will be accounted for to a sufficient level of precision, the level of bias has not been properly quantified in most cases of interest. We show that the requirement that the bias in derived values of cosmological parameters does not surpass nominal statistical error, translates into a maximal level of overall error $O(N^{-1/2})$ on $|\Delta P(k)|/P(k)$ and $|\Delta C_{l}|/C_{l}$, where $P(k)$, $C_{l}$, and $N$ are the matter power spectrum, angular power spectrum, and number of (independent Fourier) modes at a given scale $l$ or $k$ probed by the cosmological survey, respectively. This required level has important consequences on the precision with which cosmological parameters are hoped to be determined by future surveys: In virtually all ongoing and near future surveys $N$ typically falls in the range $10^{6}-10^{9}$, implying that the required overall theoretical modeling and numerical precision is already very high. Future redshifted-21-cm observations, projected to sample $\sim 10^{14}$ modes, will require knowledge of the matter power spectrum to a fantastic $10^{-7}$ precision level. We conclude that realizing the expected potential of future cosmological surveys, which aim at detecting $10^{6}-10^{14}$ modes, sets the formidable challenge of reducing the overall level of uncertainty to $10^{-3}-10^{-7}$.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a widely used tool in neuroscience to detect neurally evoked responses, e.g. the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal. Typically, BOLD fMRI has millimeter spatial resolution and temporal resolution of one to few seconds. To study the sub-millimeter structures and activity of the cortical gray matter, the field needs an fMRI method with high spatial and temporal resolution. Line-scanning fMRI achieves very high spatial resolution and high sampling rate, at the cost of a sacrifice in volume coverage. Here, we present a human line-scanning implementation on a 7T MRI system. First, we investigate the quality of the saturation pulses that suppress MR signal outside the line. Second, we established the best coil combination for reconstruction. Finally, we applied the line-scanning method in the occipital lobe during a visual stimulation task, showing BOLD responses along cortical depth, every 250 µm with a 200 ms repetition time (TR). We found a good correspondence of t-statistics values with 2D gradient-echo echo planar imaging (GE-EPI) BOLD fMRI data with the same temporal resolution and voxel volume (R = 0.6 ± 0.2). In summary, we demonstrate the feasibility of line-scanning in humans and this opens line-scanning fMRI for applications in cognitive and clinical neuroscience.


3D video services constitute the next step in multimedia services, as they give the chance of more natural visualisation and provide a sense of "being there". A lot of research effort has been put towards to realising 3D video services, especially in the context of stereoscopic video. 3D multi-view video is a step beyond stereoscopic video, creating much wider scene navigation range and improved user interaction, despite the higher source data size. With the aid of the extracted scene geometry and depth information, any arbitrary viewpoint can be reconstructed. The level of research in multi-view video is not as mature as the level of research in stereoscopic video, although there is a lot of ongoing work towards the realisation of practical multi-view video based 3D video applications. This thesis addresses compression and quality assessment related aspects of 3D multi-view video, for reduced bandwidth usage and more reliable evaluation of perceived quality. In the first part of the thesis, efficient compression algorithms for multi-view video with depth information that take into account several constraints are studied. These include the ease of viewpoint scalability and fast viewpoint random access. To be standards conformant, the proposed methods are implemented on the multi-view codec standard. The second part of the thesis studies processing and block based coding approaches for depth map video sequences, taking into account their special characteristics and effects on the 3D scene reconstruction process. Some state-of-the-art compression approaches, like reduced resolution coding, are extended to exploit scene texture and geometry information for improved performance. The last part of the thesis is devoted to the quality assessment problem for synthesized camera viewpoints, a core element of multi-view based free-viewpoint video applications. Depth based rendering related aspects are exploited to quantify the objective quality of synthesized scenes in an improved way, by extending the state-of-the-art 2D video quality assessment tools.


We discuss two new methods of recovery of sparse signals from noisy observation based on -minimization. While they are closely related to the well-known techniques such as Lasso and Dantzig Selector, these estimators come with efficiently verifiable guaranties of performance. By optimizing these bounds with respect to the method parameters we are able to construct the estimators which possess better statistical properties than the commonly used ones. We link our performance estimations to the well known results of Compressive Sensing and justify our proposed approach with an oracle inequality which links the properties of the recovery algorithms and the best estimation performance when the signal support is known. We also show how the estimates can be computed using the Non-Euclidean Basis Pursuit algorithm.


The New York Association of Early Childhood and Infant Psychologists (NYAECIP) is a professional organization, which was created in 1997. Prior to the creation of this professional organization, a number of New York City psychologists interested in infant and early childhood psychological issues were brought together by Barbara Mowder, Pace University-New York City, to begin discussing the need for a professional group. These early discussions, which occurred in 1996, led to a number of psychologists (e.g., Donna Abel, Vincent Alfonso, Gilbert Foley, Allison Jeffer, Carol Korn, Carol Lidz, Barbara Mowder, Yvonne Rafferty, Roslyn Ross, Flo Rubinson, Nancee Santandreu, Jay Silverstein, Mark Sossin, Melissa Tarnofsky, and Linda Zaintz) meeting at Pace University-New York City. The group agreed that psychological practice with young children and their families is distinctive from practice with older children. Further, this group posited that the distinctive knowledge base, assessment requirements, competencies and underlying values associated with service delivery to young children are unique. The early NYAECIP participants also maintained that new developments in developmental research, interventions, and pediatric and educational policy demand continuous attention from psychologists to contribute to and remain current in this dynamic area. Therefore, the participants decided to create a group that would address issues associated with this specialty within psychology. Ultimately, in 1997, this group of early childhood and infant psychologists approved by-laws for a new professional organization specifically developed to meet the needs of infant and early childhood psychologists in the New York City area--NYAECIP. There are many organizations throughout New York State through which members address psychological issues related to young children, but these organizations do so within specific divisions or through time-limited task forces (e.g. New York State Psychological Association, New York Association of School Psychologists, Zero to Three). We know of no professional group that welcomes psychologists with varied training to address solely the burgeoning specialization of infants and young children. With this dearth in mind, the specific purposes of this organization were clearly outlined and appear in the organization's by- laws, including: (a) providing a vehicle for networking within early childhood and infant psychology; fostering research, meetings, writing, and interactions among those interested in early childhood and infant psychology; (b) establishing an identity for early childhood and infant psychology in the New York metropolitan area; (c) working toward the establishment of early childhood and infant psychology as a recognized specialty within our own profession (e.g., APA); (d) acting as a voice for early childhood and infant psychology (e.g., developing policy statements, writing white papers, and advocating for young children, parents, and early childhood and infant psychology); (e) acting as an information and communication vehicle for those interested in early childhood and infant psychology developments, issues, research, and training; and (f) assisting in the development of internship sites for students to develop expertise in early childhood and infant psychology. During the Spring of NYAECIP's first year, members raised a number of concerns pertaining to early childhood and infant psychology which might be addressed by the group at future meetings, in focus/working groups, or in some other way pertinent to the goals of the organization. The topics raised at the initial meeting, held at Pace University-New York City, included curriculum issues, assessment issues, research issues, treatment issues, and legislative issues. Following adoption of the by-laws, the first NYAECIP meeting was held. The first elected officers were Barbara Mowder as President, Gilbert Foley as President-Elect, Nancee Santandreu as Secretary, Florence Rubinson as Treasurer, and Jay Silverstein as Member-at-Large. …


The rise in the human population means that the demand for meat will soon be so high that it will impose severe burdens on the environment. Alternatives such as insect-based products are needed for food provision and to protect the environment. Insect-based food products are not regularly consumed by westerners, owing to a lack of knowledge about the existence of such products and the environmental impact of meat production. Food neophobia, which is a reluctance to eat new foods, a lack of familiarity and perceived lower sensory properties as well as a lack of exposure to insect-based products are further reasons for the unpopularity. The theory of reasoned action states that people's beliefs influence their attitudes, and attitudes together with social norms influence their behavioural intentions. This theory provides the conceptual framework of the current study. The aim was to investigate whether information about sensory properties, and social influence – or an interaction between these two variables – could successfully change participants' beliefs and attitudes about insect-based products. If these factors affected the participants' intention to consume or not consume the products were also examined.


This report describes the effect of tofogliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i), on cardiac function and its related parameters including ketone bodies (acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). One case received and two cases discontinued tofogliflozin. Changes of cardiometabolic parameters were compared at 3 months. A 65-year-old patient with decreased heart function received tofogliflozin 20 mg/day. Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), functional shortening (%FS), or acetoacetate/beta-hydroxybutyrate levels were increased. A 68-year-old patient with normal heart function discontinued tofogliflozin 20 mg/day. EF, %FS or acetoacetate/beta-hydroxybutyrate levels were decreased. A 60-year-old patient with slightly decreased heart function discontinued tofogliflozin. No changes of EF, %FS, or acetoacetate/beta-hydroxybutyrate levels were noted. Taken together, these results suggest that ketone bodies and the heart function appear to be related (concomitant changes by tofogliflozin) and that tofogliflozin might have effects on cardiac function through modulating ketone bodies. J Endocrinol Metab. 2017;7(3):94-97 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem396e


This paper presents a quarterly structural model of the Israeli economy which delineates the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy during the years 1989-1999 and allows to evaluate the short run consequences of various exogenous shocks on both the nominal and the real sectors of the economy. The main endogenous variables of the model are the business sector output gap, the real exchange rate, the inflation rate, the Bank of Israel (BoI) short-term nominal interest rate and the rate of change of the business sector nominal wages. The estimated model is stable and exhibits to a large extent the expected properties in response to supply and demand shocks. The model specification and the estimation results give rise to a nominal transmission channel and a real activity transmission channel of the monetary policy to prices. Unlike large and relatively closed economies in which monetary policy affects prices through its effect on economic activity, in the case of Israel, the evolution of prices is affected first, through the nominal exchange rate channel, and only at a later stage is their effect felt on economic activity. The estimation results of the BoI nominal interest rate equation suggest a decreasing weight of short run economic activity in the interest rate evolution and a rising output and inflation volatility over time following supply side shocks.


By identifying the succinct attributes of design, the abstract concept of buildability can be expressed in a more defined and tangible way for its improvements. In this research, factor analysis is used to expound the data obtained from a questionnaire survey on buildability attributes. Results show the first three out of nine key buildability factors for building designs are (i) allowing economic use of contractor resources, (ii) enabling design requirements to be easily visualized and coordinated by site staff, and (iii) enabling contractors to develop and adopt alternative construction details. Discriminant analysis has been used to identify significant differences amongst the respondent groups. At the project level, the findings give designers a better understanding of factors affecting the buildability of their outputs, thus enabling design solutions leading to more efficient and safe construction. At the industry level, the identified factors can contribute to sustainable development through the red...


The development of cognitive and academic abilities can be understood as part of a larger ecological system. One mechanism said to promote the development of these abilities is scaffolding, a process characterised by contingent response, and cognitive and emotional support, aimed at promoting autonomy. In a diverse sub-sample of 400 mother-child dyads from the Families, Children and Child Care study, maternal scaffolding-related behaviours were recorded during semi-structured play interactions when children were 10 months.
Employing the Process-Person-Context-Time model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), the study aims were threefold: (1) to test whether mothers' show behaviours akin to the central dimensions of scaffolding during play interactions with infants, (2) to address individual differences in maternal scaffolding behaviours, and (3) to explore the relevance of these behaviours for child cognitive abilities in the preschool years, and academic attainment at age 11 years.
Maternal behaviours reflecting the main dimensions of scaffolding were explained by an overarching construct labelled 'scaffolding-like behaviours'. Child (play maturity at 10 months), mother (age, personality, ethnicity, first language and education) and context (family size and neighbourhood adversity) characteristics, explained unique variations in these behaviours. After taking person and context characteristics into consideration, these behaviours predicted children's non-verbal ability but not verbal ability at 51 months, an association moderated by maternal levels of education. Non-verbal ability mediated the effects of maternal scaffolding-like behaviours on child English and maths academic attainment at age 11 years.
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Studying a large and diverse English sample, the current study made the following contributions: it elucidated some of the mechanisms by which individual differences in scaffolding occur, and illustrated that alongside proximal and distal contextual factors, maternal behaviours in the first year continue to be relevant to child intellectual development.


Recent expansion of oil palm agriculture has resulted in loss of forest habitat and forest‐dependent species. However, large numbers of species—particularly insects—can persist within plantations. This study focuses on Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies): a charismatic indicator taxon and a potentially valuable pest control agent. We surveyed adult Odonata populations biannually over three years within an industrial oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. We assessed the effects of rainfall (including an El Niño Southern Oscillation‐associated drought), the role of roadside ditches, and the importance of understory vegetation on Odonata populations. To assess the impacts of vegetation, we took advantage of a long‐term vegetation management experiment that is part of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function in Tropical Agriculture (BEFTA) Programme. We found 41 Odonata species, and communities varied between plantation core and roadside edge microhabitats, and between seasons. Abundance was significantly related to rainfall levels four months before surveys, probably indicating the importance of high water levels in roadside ditches for successful larval development. We found no significant effect of the BEFTA understory vegetation treatments on Odonata abundance, and only limited effects on community composition, suggesting that local understory vegetation structure plays a relatively unimportant role in determining communities. Our findings highlight that there are large numbers of Odonata species present within oil palm plantations and suggest that their abundance could potentially be increased by maintaining or establishing waterbodies. As Odonata are predators, this could bring pest control benefits, in addition to enhancing biodiversity within intensive agricultural landscapes.


In this paper, we explore building planar trans-mission line from carbon nanotube (CNT) networks. We are successful in fabricating the transmission line and verifying the feasibility of potential planar transmission lines where carbon nanotube networks replace the metallic lines. The experimental realization and the two-port microwave measurements enabled us to extract accurately the fundamental parameters of the proposed transmission line. The frequency-dependent phase velocity char-acteristics show clearly its dramatic reduction compared to speed of light in vacuum. The complex permittivity of CNT networks is also reported in our work.


In the field of mobile robotics, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is an algorithmic approach to the computational problem of creating and updating a map of an environment while simultaneously keeping track of where the robot is within the environment. Applications of a SLAM algorithm are important for autonomous mobile systems to traverse an environment while avoiding obstacles and accurately achieving designated goal destinations. This paper presents the design of a SLAM-driven controller for a semi-autonomous omnidirectional mobile robot. Input to the system comes from a Brain Computer Interface in the form of simple driving commands or a goal destination as decided by the user. Due to latency issues of reacting and responding in real time, the system must safely navigate following the last given commands until it runs out of free space, reaches a goal designation, or receives a new command. The robotic system utilizes a three-wheeled robot kit with an upgraded sensor system. The Intel RealSense Depth Camera D435 and two lidar sensors are utilized to construct a full 360° field of view. The SLAM algorithm and system controllers are developed using the Robot Operating System (ROS). The controllers are developed and tested within Gazebo, which is a physics simulation engine utilized for rapid prototyping. Testing was performed to validate controller performance when given varying commands as well as performing long distance path planning and obstacle avoidance. The system was often capable of achieving its goal destinations with a small error of around 3% or less though the error was found to increase with the more commands the system processed.


With rapid modernization and transformation of living environment, gated and guarded communities have mushroomed over the past year. It is contribute to the spatial transformation in a very significant way. It shows a great influence on urban development and social integration at the local level. Security and safety are the main reason that affluent buyer's decision to reside in this luxury and sense of wealthy housing scheme behind the fences and walls.  Although security and safety have always been one of the most appealing features of gated and guarded communities, studies showed that there is no significant difference of crime rates in between gated and guarded communities and non-gated neighborhoods. This research aims to indicate the understanding level of gated and guarded community buyers and to identify the safety level of the gated and guarded community scheme with the provided security measures. Thus, questionnaires and interviews were conducted among the residents of the gated residential and developers to further discuss about the issues from different perspectives. This research discovered that gated and guarded community scheme in Malaysia is not effective enough in providing a safer living environment where crimes cases still occur. The condition of safety and security of gated and guarded communities as security was regarded as one of the most significant factors for staying in a gated and guarded community. Diverse effort and sophisticated security instruments must be added to improve the safety level of gated and guarded community scheme. Keywords : Gated and Guarded Communities; Planning Guidelines; Safety Level; Security Measures; Safety Components JEL Classification:  M0


Emotional intelligence currently growing attention and earn a spot in the form of psychological studies. Emotional intelligence was detected can influence the employee commitment in an organization. The theoretical solutions are simply not able to unlock the psychological issues in organizations because it is closely linked to affective, cognitive and human behavior in public sector. In this study, the issues in the workplace are referring to emotional intelligence, self-esteem and commitment of employees. The specific purpose of this study was to test the impact of emotional intelligence among employees whether it able or unable to influence a commitment to the organization through employee self-esteem factor. A total of 196 civil servants in the Local Authority (LA) have been selected as respondents. Measurement tools that are used in the data lump is Emotion Intelligence Self-Description Inventory (EISDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Employee Commitment Survey Revised Version (ECS).The data was then analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The findings show that emotional intelligence and four dimensions of emotional intelligence have a direct impact on organizational commitment. In fact, the emotional intelligence and dimensions also has an indirect effect on organizational commitment when self-esteem as mediator factor is controlled. Employee self-esteem later found to function as a partly mediator that affecting the relationship between overall emotional intelligence and four dimensions of emotional intelligence with organizational commitment. The most important findings are found emotional intelligence dimension among employees are able to become more relevant with the increasing availability of commitment of employee when there was the element of self-esteem as a mediator factor.


Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is a method in which tools are passed through a natural orifice to the surgical site. This removes the need for external incisions, which can allow patients to recover more quickly without any visible abdominal scarring. This surgical method also has several limitations including limited space, complex lumen geography, and difficult visualization [1]. To address these problems, researchers have developed various tools, including endoscope-based robots [2], and insertable bimanual robots [3]. However, some of the aforementioned constraints/limitations remain, and consideration of accessories for use with these tools remains relevant. Our lab designed a multifunctional NOTES robot, which consists of a snakelike linkage driven by cables that are attached to motors in an external housing to navigate through the lumen geometry; it also includes a bimanual end effector with interchangeable tool tips [4]. This paper introduces the design of an adjustable table mount to address the limitations related to transluminal insertion. It provides four passive degrees of freedom (DOFs) to grossly place the robot, and enables the robot to be fixed on surgical tables with different sizes. Benchtop testing on a surgical table with a patient mannequin demonstrates its functionality.


: The present condition of a now 18-year-old boy with congenital erythropoetic porphyria is reported. The case had been first described 15 years ago in this journal (Heilmeyer, L., et al.: Dtsch. med. Wschr.88 [1963], 2449). Physical and mental development has been normal. He has been on a maintenance dose of beta-carotene, 50 mg daily, for the last four years except during the winter months. This has allowed him to be in the open air in normal clothing. At the same time, the improvement in light tolerance has enable him to pursue normally the work of a biology laboratory technician. The genetic features are such that neither marriage nor children need be advised against.