BACKGROUND
The role of antidepressants in suicide prevention is a major public health question. An association was hypothesized between the increase in the use of non-tricyclic antidepressant medications in the United States and the decline in the suicide rate during the years 1985-1999.

METHOD
The relationships between the suicide, antidepressant prescription, unemployment, and alcoholic beverage consumption rates were studied using generalized linear models. Suicide rates by antidepressant overdose were compared in selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

RESULTS
From 1985 to 1999, the suicide rate fell 13.5%, with a greater decline among women, and antidepressant prescription rates increased over 4-fold, with the increase mostly due to SSRIs. Prescription rates for SSRIs and other second-generation antidepressants were both inversely associated with suicide rates (p = .03 and p = .02, respectively). In a multivariable analysis adjusting for unemployment and alcoholic beverage consumption rates, SSRI antidepressant prescription rates remained inversely associated with the national suicide rate (p = .03). Females received twice as many antidepressant prescriptions compared with males. The commonest prescription indication was mood disorders, the condition most often associated with suicide. SSRIs were associated with a lower risk of suicide by antidepressant overdose compared with TCAs.

CONCLUSION
The decline in the national suicide rate (1985-1999) appears to be associated with greater use of non-tricyclic antidepressants. Treatment of a greater proportion of mood disorders with SSRIs and other second-generation non-tricyclic antidepressants may further reduce the suicide rate. Controlled studies of the antisuicidal properties of antidepressants are needed in high-risk depressed patient populations.


Today it seems that the heads of governments may be the last to recognise that they and their ministers have lost the authority over national societies and economies that they used to have. Their command over outcomes is not what it used to be. Politicians everywhere talk as though they have the answers to economic and social problems, as if they really are in charge of their country's destiny. People no longer believe them. Disillusion with national leaders brought down the leaders of the Soviet Union and the states of central Europe. But the disillusion is by no means confined to socialist systems. Popular contempt for ministers and for the head of state has grown in most of the capitalist countries – Italy, Britain, France and the United States are leading examples. Nor is the lack of confidence confined to those in office; opposition parties and their leaders are often no better thought of than those they wish to replace. In the last few years, the cartoonists and the tabloid press have been more bitter, less restrained critics of those in authority in government than at any other time this century. Although there are exceptions – mostly small countries – this seems to be a worldwide phenomenon of the closing years of the twentieth century, more evident in some places than others, but palpable enough to suggest that some common causes lie behind it.


Nowadays, smart home using wireless communication is replacing the wired system which was very messy and difficult to setup. However, the existing wireless smart home system only can cover up to a certain range of area that is limited by the range of wireless module being used. This paper introduces the conceptual understanding and strategy of ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 standard to be deployed in smart home environment. ZigBee technology offers a multi-hop communication capability for data transfer. Multi-hop communication will provide unlimited range of communication for the system as long as there are intermediate nodes that will pass the data from one node to another until it reaches the destination. Prototype systems of home security and automation are built utilizing Zigbee based sensor network to present an insight for its practical implementation in smart home concept.


Panchagavya is an organic formulation made from cow goods. The usage of fermented organic formulations with supportive beneficial microorganisms as foliar nourishment has been come into the picture of modern agriculture for giving rise to good quality non residue protected food. Panchakavya has played a significant role in providing resistance to pests and diseases, resulting in increased overall yields. Panchakavya possess the properties of fertilizers and biopesticides.PanchgavyaTherapy/Chikitsa(Cowpathy) has been proposed as an alternate prophylactic and therapeutic approach for sound livestock and poultry health along with safeguarding human health. Its antimicrobial properties have gained the attention of the medical and veterinary professionals. Panchagavya in appropriate dilutions has been found as promising growth enhancer of micro-organism hence it adds to the soil fertility by avoiding the use of chemical fertilizers, and with marked antifungal properties it can be used as a successful microbiological growth medium as well. Panchagavya at higher dilution are found to be promising source for simple and naturally derived bacteriological media that are less expensive because of additional antifungal effect with growth promotion. The physical parameters of panchakavya such as temperature,pH,moisture content and electrical conductivity. The chemical parameters of panchakavya like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium etc .To analyze and compare the physico-chemical parameters of two different samples.


An adaptive maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme employing a variable scaling factor is presented. An MPPT control loop was constructed analytically and the magnitude variation in the MPPT loop gain according to the operating point of the PV array was identified due to the nonlinear characteristics of the PV array output. To make the crossover frequency of the MPPT loop consistent, the variable scaling factor was determined using an approximate curve-fitted polynomial equation about linear expression of the error. Therefore, a desirable dynamic response and the stability of the MPPT scheme were maintained across the entire MPPT voltage range. The simulation and experimental results obtained from a 3-kW rated prototype demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed MPPT scheme.


Abstract Objectives During microvascular decompression (MVD) of the facial nerve for hemifacial spasm (HFS), an abnormal muscle response can be recorded upon stimulation of the facial nerve, also known as the lateral spread response. This response may vanish after MVD and has been associated with a successful outcome. The purpose of this study was to determine if resolution of lateral spread correlated with the elimination of HFS in a single surgeon's experience. Design and Setting (1) Retrospective analysis of 38 patients undergoing MVD with intraoperative electromyography for HFS. (2) Meta-analysis of studies from the literature. Main Outcome Measure Presence or absence of HFS and any complications. Results Lateral spread response was seen in 36 patients; 20 patients had full resolution. Of these, 15 patients became HFS free, and 5 five patients still had some degree of HFS. Sixteen patients had a persistent lateral spread response despite a technically successful MVD; 11 of these became spasm free, and 5 still suffered from some degree of facial twitching. Analyzing 16 studies reporting a total of 1301 patients, a significant correlation (p < 0.0001) between response cessation and resolution of HFS was found. Conclusion The role of monitoring lateral spread response as a predictor for clinical outcome is limited.


To cover the increasing demand of on-board electrical power and for further reduction of emissions, the conventional auxiliary power unit (APU) shall be replaced by a fuel cell system. The main components are a compressor-turbine unit, a kerosene reformer, and the fuel cell. Polymer exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM-FC) are favoured because of their currently advanced level of development. During in-flight operation, the inlet conditions of the PEM-FC system must be kept constant in order to avoid mechanical and thermal damage of the membrane and to ensure low levels of pressure fluctuations in the reformer section. A centrifugal compressor is chosen for pressurization of the system. The advantages of turbomachinery are low specific weight, high efficiency, and good controllability by inlet guide vanes and/or adjustable diffuser vanes. To drive the compressor, a radial turbine is used so that the air supply system resembles the turbocharger for a combustion engine (Fig. 1). A steady state thermodynamic evaluation of the entire system is carried out to identify an optimal system configuration that covers the large range of pressure, temperature, and humidity of ground operation of the aircraft in various regions on the earth as well as take-off, cruise, and landing. A catalytic combustion chamber is located between the PEM-FC and the radial turbine. In this combustion chamber, the hydrogen which is not used in the fuel cell is used to raise the turbine inlet temperature (TIT) and thus the mechanical power delivered by the turbine. To overcome an additional pressure loss of the reformer section, which occurs in the anode stream, an additional low-pressure-ratio compressor is used. The result is a highly thermally integrated PEM-FC system with three centrifugal turbomachines.© 2006 ASME


Examination of 206 Neolithic and Chalcolithic bifaces from the southern Levant revealed that changes in form during the emergence of agropastoralism correlated with evolving land use practices, but new biface types also expressed altered social identities and perceptions of the environment. Nonfunctional groundstone pre-pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) bifaces seem to have served as social and status symbols, while flaked flint PPNA tranchet axes and chisels were used for carpentry rather than tree-felling. This pattern continued during the following early pre-pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB) period, but a new sharpening method, polishing, was used on a unique flint tranchet ax to strengthen its edge. By the MPPNB and LPPNB, heavier polished flint axes were used to clear forests for fields, grazing lands, wood fuel, and lumber. Sustainable forest management continued until the cumulative effects of tree-felling may have led to landscape degradation at the end of the PPNC. Adzes replace axes as heavy woodworking tools during the pottery Neolithic A (PNA) period, but by the PNB period, once again there are more carpentry tools than tree-felling bifaces. The trend is reversed again during the Chalcolithic, when the demand for fire wood, lumber, and cleared land seems to have increased during a time of emerging socioeconomic complexity.


Food aid program policy is made to overcome poverty problem in Indonesia. This policy always changes year by year to improve the effectiveness of the program. This research aims to determine the effectiveness of Rice for the Prosperous Population Program (Bansos Rastra) and Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) in Sikayu Village, Buayan Sub-district, Kebumen District, Central Java Province with 6T indicators or 6 indicators of accuracy, including accurate on target, accurate on price, accurate on amount, accurate on time, accurate on quality and accurate on administration. The basic method of this research is descriptive method. The location of this research is determined intentionally. Sampling is done by purposive sampling technique. The analysis was carried out using the results criteria approach. The effectiveness of Bansos Rastra program is based on Bansos Rastra General Guidelines 2018, while the effectiveness measurement of BPNT program is based on BPNT General Guidelines 2018. The effectiveness of Bansos Rastra program, which is based on the achievement of the objectives according to Bansos Rastra General Guidelines 2018, is said to be ineffective as there is one out of the four points of purpose which is not achieved, namely the point of aid distribution conducted every month. The effectiveness of BPNT program in Sikayu Village based on the 6T indicator reaches 100% since all indicators have been fulfilled. The effectiveness of BPNT program based on the goals achivement is in accordance with BPNT General Guidelines 2018 which is said to be effective as all objectives have been achieved.


Despite initiatives and discussions in many countries to introduce Islamic capital markets, the share of non-banking assets in the global Islamic finance industry remains small. Islamic banking continues to dominate the Islamic finance portfolio with a gigantic 80.9% contribution towards the total Islamic finance assets as at year end 2011. Based on such statistical reality, one may wonder, what are the current growth and development trends of Islamic Capital Markets (ICMs)? To this end, this paper assesses the development, growth and challenges of Islamic Capital Markets in Malaysia, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, and Brunei and critically analyses the fundamental factors that contribute towards the liquidity, volume and trends of the Islamic Capital Markets in these countries. Using Malaysia as a benchmark, this paper provides a comparative analysis on the performance of the various sectors of Islamic capital markets such as equity markets, debt markets, fund management markets, liquidity markets, etc. amongst the four sample countries. In addition, the paper examines the local authorities" initiatives" and future plans for firmly establishing Islamic Capital Markets in their jurisdictions and further recommends potential policies that could be introduced to maximize economic gains and societal welfare from Islamic Capital Markets for the Muslim population in general. Overall, the findings from the paper are expected to attract significant interest from Islamic finance stakeholders, in particular to understand how local authorities and other players could possibly be instrumental in shaping the development of Islamic Capital Markets. Keywords: Islamic capital markets, Islamic finance, Islamic equity, debt and hybrid instruments


OBJECTIVE
The Australian Canadian Osteoarthritis Hand Index (AUSCAN), Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire (MHQ), and the Sequential Occupational Dexterity Assessment (SODA) are assessments of hand function. Investigation of psychometric properties, administration, acceptability, and content of an assessment add strength to the findings of research and treatment. We evaluated the validity and reliability of the AUSCAN, MHQ, and the SODA for assessing disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS
Sixty-two patients with RA completed the AUSCAN (visual analog scale version), the MHQ, and the SODA. Seventeen patients repeated the assessments within one week.

RESULTS
The assessments recorded high variability within the sample of 62 patients with RA. The AUSCAN and MHQ provided patient and context-specific information, while the SODA provided more impairment information that could be readily compared between patients. Seventeen patients were tested twice within 5 days, showing good reliability of all assessments. Unlike the MHQ, AUSCAN and SODA do not provide information about individual hands or hand dominance. The physical function scales of the AUSCAN and the SODA were related (r = 0.81), and the AUSCAN and MHQ pain scales were related (r = 0.68).

CONCLUSION
Clinicians and researchers should decide whether impairment, ability, or handicap outcome is the goal of assessment, and whether bilateral function or the function of one hand is of interest before choosing a hand assessment. The AUSCAN and MHQ are valid and reliable for assessment of hand disability in patients with RA, and they allow the patients to answer questions about their home environment. The SODA is also valid and reliable for assessing disability in a clinical situation that cannot be generalized to the home.


Following deinstitutionalization, inpatient psychiatric services moved from state institutions to general hospitals. Despite the magnitude of these changes, evaluations of the quality of inpatient care environments in general hospitals are limited. This study examined the extent to which organizational factors of the inpatient psychiatric environments are associated with psychiatric nurse burnout. Organizational factors were measured by an instrument endorsed by the National Quality Forum. Robust clustered regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between organizational factors in 67 hospitals and levels of burnout for 353 psychiatric nurses. Lower levels of psychiatric nurse burnout was significantly associated with inpatient environments that had better overall quality work environments, more effective managers, strong nurse-physician relationships, and higher psychiatric nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. These results suggest that adjustments in organizational management of inpatient psychiatric environments could have a positive effect on psychiatric nurses' capacity to sustain safe and effective patient care environments.


Disorders of micturition in 163 patients with a severe trauma of the cervical portion of the spinal cord are analysed. The data obtained concerning the functional condition and afferentation of the urinary bladder and the severity of the developing combined urologic complications (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, vesicoureteral reflux, etc.) are evidence of marked disorders of micturition which are directly dependant on the time elapsed since the injury to the spinal cord had occurred and its severity.


The objective of this thesis is to study the dynamic stability of functionally graded material (FGM) plates under parametric excitation. Third order shear deformation theory is used for the analysis of the plates. The equations of motion have been derived using finite element method in conjunction with Hamilton's principle. The boundaries of stable and unstable regions in the parameter space are determined by using Floquet's theory. FGMs are microscopically inhomogeneous spatial combination of materials, usually made up of ceramic and metal constituents. A steel-alumina FGM plate with steel-rich bottom and alumina reach top is considered for the analysis. The properties of the functionally graded material plates are assumed to vary along the thickness direction, according to a power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents.
The effect of power law index on the critical buckling load, natural frequencies and dynamic stability of plates is determined. In case of FGM plate, an increase of power law index value decreases the natural frequencies. If aspect ratio is increased, the critical buckling load decreases for both uniaxial and biaxial loading cases and it is also observed that increase of power law index value decreases critical buckling load. With increase of the power index there is deteriorating effect on the dynamic stability of the FGM plate.
The influence of temperature rise on the dynamic stability of the FGM plate in thermal environment is investigated. The natural frequencies and dynamic stability behaviour are found to be highly sensitive to the temperature change between the bottom and top surfaces. In high temperature environment the dynamic stability of the plate deteriorates. The effect of foundation stiffness coefficients on the dynamic stability of FGM plates are examined in detail through parametric studies. The frequencies of FGM plate resting on Pasternak foundation increase with the increase of Winkler foundation constant and shear layer constant. The Winkler and shear foundation constants have significant effect on the critical buckling load of FGM plates resting on Pasternak foundation. An increase of these constants increases the critical buckling load of the plate. Increase of Winker foundation constant and shear layer constant improves the dynamic stability of FGM plate. Shear layer constant has got more prominent effect compared to the Winkler foundation constant, on the dynamic stability of FGM plate resting on Pasternak foundation. Parametric investigation is carried out to study thoroughly the effect of the temperature rise, hub radius and rotational speed on the vibration and dynamic stability of rotating plate in
iii
thermal environment. It is observed that the natural frequencies reduce with an increase in temperature rise. The increase in rotational speed and hub radius results in increase of natural frequencies. The increase in temperature leads to reduction in the dynamic stability of plate. Increase in hub radius and rotational speed improves the stability of the rotating plate.
The effects of moisture concentration, temperature rise and power law index on the dynamic stability of FGM plates in hygrothermal environment are investigated. The observations made from the dynamic stability diagrams are: with increase in moisture concentration and temperature the instability of the plate is more probable, the combined effect of moisture and temperature on the dynamic instability of FGM plates is more severe than the effect of individual parameter.
The effect of skew angle on dynamic stability of FGM plate in thermal environment is discussed. The natural frequencies increase with an increase of skew angle. Increase in aspect ratio of FGM skew plate increases its instability. The increase in the value of power law index is found to have enhancing effect on the parametric instability of the skew FGM plate. The increase in skew angle of the plate reduces the chance of dynamic instability of the plate.


The first life of the man who was Lord Peter Wimsey, Bertie Wooster and starred in I'm Alright, Jack! With the death of Ian Carmichael in 2010 one of the last links was lost with the golden age of British cinema. Carmichael starred alongside Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers in the Boulting brothers' classic satirical comedies I'm Alright, Jack! Private's Progress and School for Scoundrels. He summed up, on screen and in life, the kind of Englishman who was beginning to emerge after the war - educated, not necessarily upper class, upwardly mobile and a study in good manners and a sense of fair play - and thus played the straight-man foil to the distracted ravings of his wilder co-stars. Subsequently, he became Bertie Wooster in a highly successful television series based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. He also made the part of Lord Peter Wimsey his own in another long-running adaptation of Dorothy L. Sayers' famous detective novels, and was still acting on television well into his eighties alongside Susan Hampshire in ITV's drama series The Royal.


Our major goal in this book is to better simulate the stress strain curves for tension-compression test by proposing a modification of combined hardening behavior, and then predict fracture and optimize the press formability for applications. At macroscopic level, one of the most popular phenomenological models, the combined hardening model has been implemented into ABAQUS/Explicit and a user subroutine (VUMAT) has been developed. This model was used in order to determine whether peculiarities observed in the experimental results can be predicted. The number of material properties to express the hardening is based on easy testing. A simple method to identify the required parameters is introduced. The capability of the proposed hardening model is demonstrated by three case studies: predict ductile fracture and improve press formability of door hinge, study of Incremental forming for complex shape and its improvement, and case study for magnesium alloy sheet to predict ductile fracture of rotational incremental forming. The proposed model shows more accurate results in the prediction of stress strain curves for all kind of material, as well as the stress and strain distribution. For the ductile fracture prediction, door hinge simulation is done by all the three hardening models and given the best way by using combined hardening model; simulation for incremental sheet metal forming of complex shape is combined of both CAM and FEM then implemented and evaluated from the histories of stress and strain value and ductile fracture value (I) by means of finite element analysis, the prediction and optimization of press formability is implemented for negative incremental sheet forming and then investigate by experiment; To simulate the effect of the large amount of heat generation at elements in the contact area due to friction energy of rotational incremental forming for magnesium alloy sheet, Johnson-Cook model was applied and also compared with equivalent stress-strain curves obtained by tensile test at elevated temperatures. The effect of process parameters e. g tool down-step and tool radius on the ductile fracture value and forming limit curve at fracture (FLCF) were investigated using (FE) simulation results.


Dr Marjorie Clifton describes the classification of gaseous and nongaseous constituents of air pollution and then outlines the methods of measuring these. The National Survey embraced 150 towns of all sizes throughout England and Wales and provided data on smoke and sulphur dioxide in relation to climate, topography, industrialization, population density, fuel utilization and urban development. Dr W C Turner discusses the relationship between air pollution and mortality from respiratory conditions, and particularly the incidence of chronic bronchitis. He postulates a theory that such respiratory conditions arise as an allergy to the spores of certain moulds, spore formation being encouraged by the air humidity in Greatv Britain and overcrowded and damp living conditions. He describes the results of a twenty-week study undertaken in 1962–3, showing associations between respiratory disease and levels of air pollution. Dr Stuart Carne undertook a survey in general practice to plot the patterns of respiratory illness in London during the winter of 1962–3. There were two peaks of respiratory illnesses coinciding with the fog at the beginning of December and the freeze-up from the end of December until the beginning of March.


The missions of Women's and Gender Studies programs coincide directly with Dominican values in their commitments to fostering compassion and justice. Just as Dominican clergy during the civil rights movement challenged false notions of biological, cultural, and social difference that contributed to racist practices, Dominican educators today challenge stereotypes of gender that contribute to inequities, violence, and oppression in some of the same ways that Women's and Gender Studies programs do. Though many points of intersection exist among the values of Dominican and Women's and Gender Studies educational programs, four principles are most distinct among their shared goals: a respect for multiple truths, a concern for the Other, an emphasis on building inclusive learning communities, and a commitment to providing a socially useful curriculum.


Executive Summary: More than half of the dust and heavy element enrichment in galaxies originates from the winds and outflows of evolved, low-to-intermediate mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). However, numerous details of the physics of late-stage stellar mass loss remain poorly understood, ranging from the wind launching mechanism(s) to the geometry and timescales of the mass loss. One of the major challenges to understanding AGB winds is that the AGB evolutionary phase is characterized by the interplay between highly complex and dynamic processes, including radial pulsations, shocks, magnetic fields, opacity changes due to dust and molecule formation, and large-scale convective flows. Collectively, these phenomena lead to changes in the observed stellar properties on timescales of days to years. Probing the complex atmospheric physics of AGB stars therefore demands exquisite spatial resolution, coupled with temporal monitoring over both short and long timescales. Observations of the molecular maser lines that arise in the winds and outflows of AGB stars using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) offer one of the most powerful tools available to measure the atmospheric dynamics, physical conditions, and magnetic fields with ultra-high spatial resolution (i.e., tens of μs, corresponding to ∼ 0.002R? at d ≈150 pc), coupled with the ability to track features and phenomena on timescales of days to years. Observational advances in the coming decade will enable contemporaneous observations of an unprecedented number of maser transitions spanning centimeter to submillimeter wavelengths. In evolved stars, observations of masers within the winds and outflows are poised to provide groundbreaking new insights into the atmospheric physics and mass-loss process.


Uncovering Features in Behaviorally Similar Programs Fang-Hsiang Su The detection of similar code can support many software engineering tasks such as program understanding and program classification. Many excellent approaches have been proposed to detect programs having similar syntactic features. However, these approaches are unable to identify programs dynamically or statistically close to each other, which we call behaviorally similar programs. We believe the detection of behaviorally similar programs can enhance or even automate the tasks relevant to program classification. In this thesis, we will discuss our current approaches to identify programs having similar behavioral features in multiple perspectives. We first discuss how to detect programs having similar functionality. While the definition of a program's functionality is undecidable, we use inputs and outputs (I/Os) of programs as the proxy of their functionality. We then use I/Os of programs as a behavioral feature to detect which programs are functionally similar: two programs are functionally similar if they share similar inputs and outputs. This approach has been studied and developed in the C language to detect functionally equivalent programs having equivalent I/Os. Nevertheless, some natural problems in Object Oriented languages, such as input generation and comparisons between application-specific data types, hinder the development of this approach. We propose a new technique, in-vivo detection, which uses existing and meaningful inputs to drive applications systematically and then applies a novel similarity model considering both inputs and outputs of programs, to detect functionally similar programs. We develop the tool, HitoshiIO, based on our in-vivo detection. In the subjects that we study, HitoshiIO correctly detect 68.4% of functionally similar programs, where its false positive rate is only 16.6%. In addition to functional I/Os of programs, we attempt to discover programs having similar execution behavior. Again, the execution behavior of a program can be undecidable, so we use instructions executed at run-time as a behavioral feature of a program. We create DyCLINK, which observes program executions and encodes them in dynamic instruction graphs. A vertex in a dynamic instruction graph is an instruction and an edge is a type of dependency between two instructions. The problem to detect which programs have similar executions can then be reduced to a problem of solving inexact graph isomorphism. We propose a link analysis based algorithm, LinkSub, which vectorizes each dynamic instruction graph by the importance of every instruction, to solve this graph isomorphism problem efficiently. In a K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) based program classification experiment, DyCLINK achieves 90 + % precision. Because HitoshiIO and DyCLINK both rely on dynamic analysis to expose program behavior, they have better capability to locate and search for behaviorally similar programs than traditional static analysis tools. However, they suffer from some common problems of dynamic analysis, such as input generation and run-time overhead. These problems may make our approaches challenging to scale. Thus, we create the system, Macneto, which integrates static analysis with machine topic modeling and deep learning to approximate program behaviors from their binaries without truly executing programs. In our deobfuscation experiments considering two commercial obfuscators that alter lexical information and syntax in programs, Macneto achieves 90 + % precision, where the groundtruth is that the behavior of a program before and after obfuscation should be the same. In this thesis, we offer a more extensive view of similar programs than the traditional definitions. While the traditional definitions of similar programs mostly use static features, such as syntax and lexical information, we propose to leverage the power of dynamic analysis and machine learning models to trace/collect behavioral features of programs. These behavioral features of programs can then apply to detect behaviorally similar programs. We believe the techniques we invented in this thesis to detect behaviorally similar programs can improve the development of software engineering and security applications, such as code search and deobfuscation.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
To define the influence of topical nasopharyngeal anesthesia on genioglossal EMG responsiveness to both negative pressure and basal muscle activity. The effects on airway mechanics (resistance and collapsibility) were also determined.

PARTICIPANTS
18 normal adult subjects (9 males and 9 premenopausal females)

DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS
Genioglossal EMG (GG EMG) was measured with intramuscular electrodes. Basal phasic and tonic GG EMG were defined, in addition to the muscle response to multiple brief applications of negative airway pressure (-10 to 12 cm H2O). Airflow resistance (at 0.2 L/second and peak flow) plus airway collapsibility were also determined. All measurements were completed with and without dense nasopharyngeal anesthesia (lidocaine).

RESULTS
Following nasopharyngeal anesthesia, peak GG EMG response to negative pressure fell from 28.1+/-4.3 (SE) to 19.6+/-3.4% of maximum (p<0.01). This was associated with a significant fall in both peak phasic and tonic GG EMG under basal conditions (phasic: 20.2+/-3.2 to 15.9+/-2.7% of maximum, tonic: 13.9+/-2.5 to 9.8+/-1.8% of maximum). Falling muscle activity led to a trend of rising airflow resistance and increasing airway collapsibility.

CONCLUSIONS
Local, topical receptor mechanisms located in the nasopharynx importantly modulate upper airway dilator muscle activity in humans during normal tidal breathing. Therefore, the mechanisms exist for the airway to respond to local events which would tend to compromise airway patency.


LiCl-doped mesoporous silica MCM-48 with cubic mesostructure, using a dierent doping concentration of LiCl, has been prepared. The LiCl-MCM-48 type materials were characterized employing XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and nitrogen adsorptiondesorption isotherm. We had the humidity sensors on a ceramic substrate with two Ag-Pd interdigital electrodes with ve ngers. The sample with 15 wt% LiCl-doped MCM-48 shows an excellent linearity in the whole humidity range of 11%-97%. It has very good response and recovery time, about 22 and 30 sec, respectively.


China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR), was launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. BRI opens "gateway to opportunities" and establishes a new grand geopolitical strategy for regional development, international economic cooperation and new world order. To foster BRI, China hosted the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in Beijing on 25-27 April 2019. New media tools including dedicated web pages and social media sources were utilised to promote the BRF 2019. Particularly, Twitter was used by government and media organizations to promote and share the proceedings of the event. Topics related to Belt and Road Initiative were trending on social media resulting in a wide reach and engagement. A large number of pertinent tweets appeared with trending hashtags such as #brf2019, #BeltandRoad and #BRI. Major contribution to this tweet activity came from politicians, government officials and media groups. This study analyses the trending hashtags #brf2019 and #BeltandRoad (N=20,727) on Twitter on the occasion of second BRF 2019 to understand the patterns of Twitter data. Specifically, this study attempts (1) to investigate how Twitter was used by media groups to promote the second Belt and Road Forum; (2) to identify top influencers to promote the second Belt and Road Forum; (3) to analyse overall sentiment towards the second Belt and Road Forum. The study follows mixed method for Social Media performance data by combining qualitative content analysis and sentimental analysis of tweets. All the tweets collected were publicly posted and were tracked using Twitter streaming API and Python programming language. For analysis, parameters such as; users, reach, impression, engagement, type of tweet, trending topics, source of tweets and main themes were analysed.


In this article, a proof-of-concept study on the use of a hybrid design technique to reduce the number of phase shifters of a beam-scanning reflectarray (RA) is presented. An extended hemispherical lens antenna with feeds inspired by the retrodirective array is developed as a reflecting element, and the hybrid design technique mixes the lenses with the microstrip patch elements to realize a reflecting surface. Compared to the conventional designs that only use microstrip antennas to realize a reflecting surface, given a fixed aperture size the presented design uses 25 percent fewer array elements while shows comparable beam-steering performance. As a result of using fewer elements, the number of required phase shifters or other equivalent components such as RF switches and tunable materials is reduced by 25 percent, which leads to the reduction of the overall antenna system's complexity, cost, and power consumption. To verify the design concept, two passive prototypes with a center frequency at 12.5 GHz were designed and fabricated. The reflecting surface was fabricated by using standard PCB manufacturing and the lenses were fabricated using 3D printing. Good agreement between the simulation and measurement results is obtained. The presented design concept can be extended to the design of RAs operating at different frequency bands including millimetre-wave frequencies with similar radiation performances. The presented design method is not limited to the microstrip patch reflecting elements and can also be applied to the design of the hybrid RAs with different types of reflecting elements.


ABSTRACTBackground: Endometriosis is a chronic disease where the tissue, that the uterus contains,also can be found outside the uterus.The objective of the study was to investigate young women's experience of endometriosisand how they experience the care.Method: Fourteen young adults were asked to participate and eight of them did participate.They were all in the range of age 14-20 and they all had had contact with a unit forendometriosis in Sweden. Semai-structured interview was chosen as the data collectionmethod. An interview guide was used during the interviews. For the analysis aphenomenological method with focus upon experiences was used.Results: The result showed that the young adults' experiences in the daily living containedpain, alienation, tiredness and side effects. Self care and family support was connected to theyoung adults' daily living. The young adults' experiences of the treatment from healthprofessionals partly contained ignorance and blank, but in the specialized care the knowledgeand the understanding of endometriosis were better. There was a struggle to be a young adultin the health care. They felt fear and worries, helplessness, anger, dejection and a security toknow that there is help to get.Conclusion: The experiences of not being heard or seen in the health care were for mostwomen a problem. The knowledge of endometriosis was low among many professionals.The participants experienced that the knowledge was better when they came in touch withspecialized care, but the way to get there was tough and took a long time.Keywords: endometriosis, young adult, experiences, pain


Machine learning approaches to classify malware by family save analysts valuable time during incident response. A key challenge for these approaches is selecting features that are robust against concept drift, which describes the change in malware over time. In this paper, we evaluate a dynamic feature set based on Windows handles (e.g., files, registry keys) for malware family classification. Specifically, we examine the features' vulnerabilities and evaluate their robustness against concept drift. We curated a novel dataset that simulates the manipulations that attackers may invoke on malware samples. We demonstrate improved robustness to concept drift over traditional API call-based features by training machine learning classifiers on malware collected in the wild, and testing the classifiers against samples that underwent manipulations. Further, we investigate time decay due to concept drift using temporally consistent evaluations that do not assume access to newer information. The evaluation shows that our features are robust against malware obfuscation. Furthermore, we empirically demonstrate how malware labeling conventions (malware type or family) can affect results, and make recommendations for dataset construction.


ABSTRACT Salinity is one of the abiotic stresses that lead to an imbalance in the physiological processes of the plants and also affects potato growth and productivity in maınly semi-arid and growing areas. The accumulation of Na+ and Cl- ions in the cells is very toxic can influence all mechanisms and the enzymatic actions of the plants. In vitro screening of plant genotypes for osmotic stress represents a valuable tool as an alternative to field trials and can be applied based on osmotic stress tolerance. The main goal of this study was to reveal variability in salinity stress tolerance of potato varieties using in vitro screening. Stem cuttings consisting of a single node of different varieties were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations of sodium chloride (NaCl) (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM). The differences among the plantlet length, number of branches, number of nodes, number of the leaflet, leaflet width, leaflet length, root length, number of the root, fresh plantlet weight, dry plantlet weight of all varieties were negatively influenced by all NaCl concentrations tested. Microtuberization and stolon growth of the varieties were also completely inhibited at high concentrations (100-150 mM). The Principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to the data matrix (15 morphological characteristics x 12 potato varieties) of the potato varieties. Also, a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to identify the possible nearest and similarity of all morphological characteristics analyzed of the potato varieties. In grouping potato varieties, HCA and PCA results were found to be similar. We can speculate about the responses of morphological similarities of the potato varieties against salt stress. We concluded that Innovator and Kennebec are respectively the most salt-tolerant varieties. Hermes was moderately salt-tolerant and microtuberization capacity of Slaney was also high under salt stress conditions.


We propose the cooperative model of phenotype-driven evolution, in which natural selection operates on a phenotype caused by both genetic and epigenetic factors. The conventional theory of evolutionary synthesis assumes that a phenotypic value (P) is the sum of genotypic value (G) and environmental deviation (E), P=G+E, where E is the fluctuations of the phenotype among individuals in the absence of environmental changes. In contrast, the cooperative model assumes that an evolution is triggered by an environmental change and individuals respond to the change by phenotypic plasticity (epigenetic changes). The phenotypic plasticity, while essentially qualitative, is denoted by a quantitative value F which is modeled as a normal random variable like E, but with a much larger variance. Thus, the fundamental equation of the cooperative model is given as P=G+F where F includes the effect of E. Computer simulations using a genetic algorithm demonstrated that the cooperative model realized much faster evolution than the evolutionary synthesis. This accelerated evolution was found to be due to the cumulative evolution made possible by a ratchet mechanism due to the epigenetic contribution to the phenotypic value. The cooperative model can well account for the phenomenon of genetic assimilation, which, in turn, suggests the mechanism of cumulative selection. The cooperative model may also serve as a theoretical basis to understand various ideas and phenomena of the phenotype-driven evolution such as genetic assimilation, the theory of facilitated phenotypic variation, and epigenetic inheritance over generations.


The haloacetonitriles (HANs) exist in drinking water exclusively as byproducts of disinfection. HANs are found in drinking water more often with higher concentrations. Human exposure occurs through consumption of finished drinking water, oral and dermal contact as well as when showering, swimming and other activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the novel hybrid adsorption/ PBS membrane filtration process used to remove haloacetonitriles from aqueous solution. The efficiency of the PAC adsorbent was also evaluated at different pH, which confirmed efficacy of PAC at pH of 8.A maximum removal of DOC (98.7%) was obtained with 150 mg/L PAC dosage at a solution pH of 8. HANs sorption process followed the pseudo second order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm gave the best correlation of adsorption.


Results of previous studies show that the expression of fibronectin and its cell‐surface fibronectin binding receptor is coregulated in 3‐methylchloranthrene transformation of normal AKR‐2B cells to form AKR‐MCA cells and in N, N,‐dimethylformamide (DMF) induction of differentiation of transformed AKR‐MCA cells (1990, J. Cell. Physiol., 143:445). In this study, we tested the corgulation hypothesis by transfection experiments using an antisense fibronectin expression vector. We determined the effect of antisense fibronectin RNA expression on untransformed AKR‐2B cells, and on the responses of transformed AKR‐MCA cells to DMF treatment. Expression of antisense fibronectin RNA in AKR‐2B cells down‐modulated fibronectin production, reduced adhesion to extracellular fibronectin, and altered cellular morphology Saturation binding and Scatchard analyses using radiolabelled fibronectin revealed a concurrent down‐modulation of cell‐surface fibronectin binding sites, but the binding affinity of the receptor for the ligand was not affected. Immunoblotting and immunostaining revealed down‐modulation of the expression of α5β1 integrins. Expression of antisense fibronectin RNA in AKR‐MCA cells down‐modulated the ability of DMF to restore normal fibronectin production, cell‐surface fibronectin binding receptor, adhesion to extracellular fibronectin, and cellular morphology. These studies show that both fibronectin and its cell‐surface fibronectin binding receptor were tightly regulated during transformation and induction of differentiation in these cells, that the ligand and its cell‐surface fibronectin binding receptor worked together to bring about phenotypic changes, and that fibronectin production regulated the expression of its cell‐surface fibronectin binding receptor. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


A diversity of phenological strategies has been reported for tropical tree species. Defoliation and seasonal dormancy of cambial activity inform us on how trees cope with water stress during the dry season, or maximize the use of resources during the rainy season. Here, we study the matching between leaf phenology (unfolding and shedding) and cambial activity for Prioria balsamifera, a key timber species in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In particular, we (i) evaluated the seasonality of cambial activity and synchrony of phenology among trees in response to climate and (ii) identified the seasonality of leaf phenology and its relation with cambial phenology. The study was conducted in the Luki Man and Biosphere Reserve, located in the Mayombe forest at the southern margin of the Congo Basin. Historic defoliation data were collected every ten days using weekly crown observations whereas recent observations involved time-lapse cameras. Cambial pinning was performed on ten trees during 20 months and radius dendrometers were installed on three trees during 13 months. Tree rings were measured on cores from 13 trees and growth synchrony was evaluated. We found that P. balsamifera defoliates annually with a peak observed at the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season. The new leaves unfolded shortly after shedding of the old leaves. The peak defoliation dates varied across years from September 12 to November 14 and the fraction of number of trees that defoliated at a given time was found to be negatively correlated with annual rainfall and temperature; during the dry season, when precipitation and temperatures are the lowest. Wood formation (radial growth), was found to be highly seasonal, with cambial dormancy occurring during the dry season and growth starting at the beginning of the rainy season. Individual ring-width series did not cross date well. The within species variability of leaf phenology and cambial rhythms provides indication about resistance of the population against climatic changes.


Background Continued post-elimination monitoring is required to ensure sustainability of zero transmission of human African trypanosomosis (HAT) and to avoid re-emergence caused by potential remaining Trypanosoma brucei gambiense reservoirs (animal and/or human). Until now, no tool is able to attest or validate elimination. Increasingly, the serological immune trypanolysis test is being implemented in the decision algorithms to characterise parasitological unconfirmed CATT or RDT seropositive subjects. Therefore, we wanted to assess further the high specificity of immune trypanolysis. Methods We first tested samples from domestic animals from a tsetse-infested area in Ethiopia, a country where no T. b. gambiense exists, but where bovine trypanosomosis is prevalent. Then, we tested cattle and human samples from the south-west of Burkina Faso, a historical focus of gambiense HAT that still shelters tsetse flies populations and animal trypanosomosis. Lastly, we were interested in testing human samples from active foci in Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea. Results Our results showed zero trypanolysis-positive animals from Ethiopia while in the historical HAT foci in Burkina Faso, 4.89% (14/286) of cattle were trypanolysis-positive. In humans, zero samples over 729 were trypanolysis-positive in Burkina Faso, while the percentage of positives was 3.77% (44/1166) in Guinea, including 7 new cases diagnosed during the sampling and 1.3% in Côte d'Ivoire (8/598). Conclusions Considering results from this study, we think that trypanolysis test, confirmed to be a very specific test in human, can be a tool able to certify HAT elimination in a given area. It also suggests that the risk of the reintroduction of T. b. gambiense in Burkina Faso is real, especially in the south-west which shelters a high density of tsetse populations, in addition to the possible presence of T. b. gambiense in domestic animals. However, further studies on the specificity of the trypanolysis test regarding T. b. gambiense in animals should be conducted.


Radially graded - refractive index (GRIN) rod lenses have a number of advantages over conventional lenses in manipulating and processing the optical signals in optical fiber communication systems(1). In order to have a device using GRIN rod lenses, design requirements are varied in nature. A system containing one or more than one radial grin lenses or a combination of radial and axial GRIN dements is designed. The next step is to devdop the required GRIN elements with desired material properties. Finally, the system is optimised as a compromise between the ideal and real available GRIN elements. Ion exchange technique is the most widely used method to devdop GRIN profile in glass due to its simple instrumentation and ease of control. We have devdoped a novel method to predict the GRIN profile for a given set of experimental conditions (2). This method helps us in devdoping different types of GRIN profiles in the glass rods with minimum number of experimentation. After the glass rods have gone through the process of ion exchange, refractive index profile are measured in a set - up devdoped by us (3,4). In this paper, we present the development of radial GRIN rod lenses with a diameter of 1 to 2 mm. These GRIN rod lenses can be used for coupling of laser light source to the optical fiber.


Perhaps, the Javan Rhino (Rhmocerossondaicus) is the most endangered species among large animals in the world. Only two population of ~t are known in the world: one in Indonesia and another in l'ietnam. None exists in the zoos. The Javan Rh~no's captivityis an alternative conse~vation effort to ensure their existence In the world. But it is imperative to give a correct immobilization, stable preparation such as in the natural forest. and also disease monitoring. Medication and preventive medicine for the Javan Rhino are vely important. Some diseases which have been encountered in the zoos are a.0.: helminthiasis. endocarditls, coliform d~arrhea. hepat~ts biliari. abscesses and slun lacerations can result in septicaemia. The sources of diseases In captivity can be some kinds of foods and water, animal keepers, equipment, contaminated place, rats and mice, birds and insects.


Suicide victims frequently have contact with health care professionals in the months before death. The primary aims of this pilot psychological autopsy study were to determine the feasibility of undertaking a full study and to describe the characteristics of the last health care professional contacts with suicide victims aged > 34 years. We interviewed the informants of 52 suicides. Interviews were obtained from 37 health care professionals who had contact with 28 of the suicides during the 3 months before death. The primary reasons for the last contact with the health care professional were mental health (62%), physical health (22%), and social (14%). 87% of health care professional contacts occurred within 1 month of death. Symptoms of depression were noted in 49% of health care professional contacts. Consensus psychological autopsy diagnoses of depression were made in 64% of suicide victims. Overall suicide risk was assessed by 38% of health care professionals during their last contact. This was more likely to occur when the deceased presented as depressed, was aged < 60 years or seen by a psychiatrist. None was assessed to be suicidal. The family informants regarded nine of the suicide victims to have been suicidal before death but informed a health care professional in only one third of the cases. Critical information that might have altered the management is not often accessed from family members.


A research guide for students of "Fundamentals of Global Energy Business" and "Electric Utilities Fundamentals and Future" (MOOCs from the University of Colorado Denver)


Psittacine beak and feather disease syndrome was diagnosed in an adult sulfur-crested cockatoo with a history of chronic, progressive feather loss and beak necrosis. A definitive diagnosis was made on the basis of clinical signs and the observation of intracytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusions in involved feather follicular epithelium. Psittacine beak and feather disease syndrome develops in a variety of psittacine species and usually has a progressive and irreversible clinical course. Symmetric feather loss with replacement by severely dystrophic plumage is the salient clinical finding. Beak elongation and breakage also may be found. Treatment of diseased birds remains palliative and consists of a controlled environment, balanced nutrition, antibiotics, and autogenous vaccines. Avian practitioners should include psittacine beak and feather disease syndrome as a potential cause for pathologic feather loss in caged birds.


Residents' groups have been in existence in New Zealand for almost 150 years yet very little is known about them. The collection of residents', ratepayers' and progressive associations, community councils, neighbourhood committees and the like make up a part of the community governance sector that numbers over a thousand-strong. These groups are featured prominently in our news media, are active in local government affairs and expend many thousands of volunteer hours every year in their work in communities… but what exactly is that work? From the literature we see these groups can be a source of local community knowledge (Kass et al., 2009), a platform for political activity (Deegan, 2002), critical of government (Fullerton, 2005) or help maintain government transparency and accountability (Mcclymont and O'Hare, 2008). They are sometimes part of the establishment too (Wai, 2008) and are often heard promoting the interests of local people (Slater, 2004). Residents' groups can be set up to represent the interests of a specific demographic group (Seng, 2007) or focus on protecting or promoting a sense of place (Kushner and Siegel, 2003) or physical environment (Savova, 2009). Some groups undertake charitable activities (Turkstra, 2008) or even act in a negative manner that can impact on the community (Horton, 1996). This research examines 582 New Zealand organisations to derive a set of purposes that residents' groups perform and ascertains how their purposes differ between geo-social and political locality and over three distinct eras of community development. The thesis also examines the relationship between residents' groups and councillors, council officers, district health board members and civil defence and seeks to uncover if the level of engagement (if any) has an affect on their overall raison d'etre. The research concludes with a typology of New Zealand residents' groups along with the key purposes of each type.


The complex interactions between diet, intestinal mucosa and intestinal microbiota affect health status in livestock and poultry. Various approaches have been tried to exploit this relationship for achieving maximum health benefits and supplementation of prebiotics constitutes one of them. Now a days prebiotics have become news mainly as an alternative to probiotics, which are difficult to handle in foodstuffs, but whose benefits to gut health are well established. Commercially available prebiotics are mostly inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides, mannan-oligosaccharides, galacto-oligosaccharides, transgalacto-oligosaccharides, lactulose and oligochitosan, etc. Prebiotics selectively stimulate the growth of Bifidobacterium sp., Lactobacillus sp. and certain butyrate producing bacteria and suppress the growth of toxogenic Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, Streptococcus sp., peptococci, bacilli, Staphylococcus sp., Salmonella enteritidis, Campylobacter sp., bacteriodaeceae, pseudomonad, yeast and mould. Dietary supplementation of prebiotics improve a plethora of gut health attributes like hindgut fermentation, gut mucosal integrity, lipid and glucose homeostasis, mineral bio-availability and immune response in livestock and poultry owing to which many feed and pharma industries have been established. Their inclusion in diet can also suppress boar taint, control faecal odour, prevent colon cancer and reduce infestation of several parasites such as Ascaris sp., Trichuris sp. and Oesophagostomum dentatum. Their satietogenic effect results from decline in ghrelin secretion which in turn regulates body weight gain in obese animals. Prebiotics may eventually replace the role of antibiotics as growth stimulants in fishery, poultry and animal husbandry sectors. Because of all these multitude of benefits, inclusion of prebiotics in basal diet should be taken into consideration while preparing formula feed for livestock and poultry.


Plant tissue culture is a technique used for in vitro regeneration of plants. It relies on maintaining plant cells in aseptic conditions on a suitable nutrient medium. The culture can be sustained as a mass of undifferentiated cells for an extended period of time or regenerated into whole plants. Plant tissue culture techniques are also central to innovative areas of applied plant science, including plant biotechnology and agriculture. This review paper outlines the work done on Stevia rebaudiana, a herbaceous perennial plant of the Asteraceae family. It is gaining lot of importance for the production of diterpene glycosides which are non-nutritive, non-toxic, high-potency sweeteners, and may substitute sucrose as well as other synthetic sweeteners, being 300 times sweeter than sucrose. The taxonomy, botanical description of the plant, its distribution and uses, are discussed in this paper. Various tissue culture methods to get mass propagation of S. rebaudiana are reviewed.

 Key words: Stevia rebaudiana, asteraceae, tissue culture.


Rapid economic growth in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, south China, has resulted in severe pollution of the natural eco-environment since the reform and opening up. Of various sources for eco-environmental deterioration, the negative impact of environmental pollutants is a global concern. Large amounts of research on environmental pollution in the PRD have been accumulated, which allows us to conduct a fairly comprehensive assessment of the environment state of the PRD. This review examines environmental pollutions (e.g., heavy metals, organics) mainly in water, air, and soil. The general information of these pollutions on current levels, possible causes, and potential effects in PRD were reviewed. The study found that heavy metals had an increasing trend in PRD in recent decades, especially for Cr. The sediments in coastal wetlands were significantly contaminated by Cd, Zn, and Ni. The levels of DDTs in various environmental media are of great concern. The discharge of industrial effluents and domestic sewage seemed to cause nutrient and heavy metal pollution in environmental media. Atmospheric emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants have caused profound environmental and health implications. Growing public concern over the potential accumulation of heavy metals in soils could be owing to rapid urban and industrial development.


This article explores links between discourses of masculinity and criminality in the narratives of non-criminal Russian men. Based on the analysis of biographical interviews with Russian men residing in Samara, this study examines different ways in which some of these men draw on criminal ideology or street lads' hierarchies to construct their masculine identities and reveals the complex relations between masculinity, homosexuality and criminality in the post-Soviet Russian context. My data and personal life experience in Russia both suggest that appropriation of criminal or semi-criminal discourse as a resource for making masculinity among my respondents is not accidental and cannot be explained solely by their class and sociocultural backgrounds. I argue that contemporary masculinities in Russia are not only informed by criminal quasi-law (poniatiia) and rather similar 'lads' rules' (patsanskie pravila), but are also in a state of complex power relations with criminal values and hierarchies. This article demonstrates that acceptance and internalization of criminal culture norms in the post-Soviet context acquired a disciplinary character, and allows for the construction of hegemonic masculinity – a specific type of masculinity, which legitimates hierarchical gender relations.


Research about primary school teachers' understanding of the meaning and implications of science and technology as a learning area has revealed considerable confusion about these terms, both in their professional sense and concerning their roles in education and economic development. Many countries established science and technology in their school curriculum to help pupils develop scientific and technological literacy but programme structures and emphasis have tended to differ. Malawi also attempted to achieve the goals for a scientifically and technologically literate citizenry through the introduction of an integrated science and technology as a single learning area in schools. While the need for scientifically and technologically literate citizens is governments' strategic goal, teachers' understanding of science and technology has implications on their teaching practices and ultimately on student learning. This paper reports on a study that aimed at identifying the teachers' conceptualisation of science and technology and their teaching practices. The study was implemented using a qualitative paradigm in order to develop a holistic understanding of the situation in the schools and it was undertaken in two primary schools in Blantyre. Schools participating in the study were identified through convenient sampling and involved 8 science and technology teachers for standards 5-8 from each of the two schools. Data generation for the study involved classroom observations, group discussions and teachers completing an open ended questionnaire. The data generated were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed the teachers' gaps in content knowledge about scientific and technological concepts arising from their lack of understanding of the differences between science and technology. The teachers' perceptions and practices were also compounded by the nature of the science and technology curriculum and the teachers' lack of induction when the subject was being introduced. The study recommends redefining the assumptions of the science and technology curriculum. It also suggests providing interventions to help teachers' develop appropriate conceptualisation of science and technology as this has implications on their choices of what to teach and how to teach it.

 Key words: Science and technology, scientific literacy, technological literacy, teaching practices, curriculum change.


Monte Carlo simulation was used to examine the on-farm economics from adoption of Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) on four representative Alberta cropping farms. Adoption of shelterbelts, buffer strips, residue management, and the addition of annual and perennial forages, field peas, and oats in crop rotations were included as BMPs that contribute positively to Ecological Goods and Services production from agriculture. Results suggest positive on-farm benefits associated with perennial forage and field pea BMPs. Conversely, BMPs that reduce availability of land for cropping activities, such as shelterbelts and buffer strips, and BMPs that do not increase revenues, such as oats and annual forages in rotation, are costly to producers. The results presented and discussed in this report have important policy implications. Policy mechanisms that incorporate positive mechanisms may improve adoption of BMPs that are costly to producers, while extension mechanisms, such as information programs, may improve the adoption of economically feasible BMPs.


A group of scientists. An object buried under the ice. A terrifying fight for survival. When a group of scientific researchers, isolated in Antarctica, stumble across an alien spaceship buried in the ice it seems like an incredible opportunity. The alien pilot can just be seen - a shadowy figure frozen just a short depth into the ice. It looks as though he survived the crash only to be flash-frozen on the Antarctic plateau. The team fight the frozen conditions to free the ship from the ice - with disastrous consequences - and rescue the alien. As they transport the corpse, one of their greatest finds, out on the ice back to their camp, several scientists begin to experience extraordinary, vivid and unsettling dreams. They're dismissed as the product of stress and the harsh conditions ...but the nightmare is only beginning.


The problem of interconnecting nets with multi-port terminals in VLSI circuits is a direct generalization of the Group Steiner Problem (GSP). The GSP is a combinatorial optimization problem which arises in the routing phase of VLSI circuit design. This problem has been intractable, making it impractical to be used in real-world VLSI applications. This paper presents our work on designing and implementing a parallel approximation algorithm for the GSP based off an existing heuristic on a distributed architecture. Our implementation uses the CUDA-aware MPI approach to compute the approximate minimum-cost Group Steiner tree for several industry-standard VLSI graphs. Our implementation achieves up to 103x speedup compared to the best known serial work for the same graph. We present the speedup results for graphs up to 3k vertices. We also investigate some performance bottleneck issues by analyzing and interpreting the program performance data.


Li2MnO3 is an important parent component in lithium- and manganese-rich layered oxides (LMRs), which are one of the promising positive electrode materials for next-generation lithium ion rechargeable batteries. Here, we report the layered-to-spinel phase transformation in Li2MnO3 during the initial charging process to characterise its unique delithiation behaviour, which gives an insight into the relationship between the structure, superior capacities and degradation of LMR electrodes. The atomic-scale observation using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques suggests that the structural transformation occurs in a biphasic manner within a single particle. The formed phase has a Li-defect spinel structure, indicating that the delithiation leads to Mn migration from the transition-metal layer to the Li layer, accompanied by some oxygen release. This layered-to-spinel phase transformation is an essential bulk process in the initial activation of Li2MnO3. During the lithiation in the 1st discharge, the Mn remigration occurs and the layered structure is again formed with significant disordering. During the multiple cycles, the defect spinel structure is stabilised and becomes more oxygen-deficient with a lower Mn valency. As a consequence, the amount of inserted Li decreases, which corresponds to the capacity and voltage fading observed in Li2MnO3 and LMRs.


17 Since its first measurement 20 years ago by the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), the water (H2O) mole fraction in Titan's stratosphere remains uncertain due to large differences between the determinations from available measurements. More particularly, the recent measurements made from the Herschel observatory (PACS and HIFI) estimated the H2O mole fraction to be 0.023 ppb at 12.1 mbar. A mixing ratio of 0.14 ppb at 10.7 mbar was, however, retrieved from nadir spatially-resolved observations of Cassini/CIRS. At the same pressure level (10.7 mbar), this makes a difference of a factor of 5.5 between PACS and CIRS measurements, and this has notably prevented current models from fully constraining the oxygen flux flowing into Titan's atmosphere. In this work, we try to understand the differences between Preprint submitted to Icarus March 30, 2018 the H2O mole fractions estimated from Herschel/PACS and Cassini/CIRS observations. The strategy for this is to 1) analyse recent disc-averaged observations of CIRS to investigate if the observation geometry could explain the previous observed differences, and 2) (re)analyse the three types of observation with the same retrieval scheme to assess if previous differences in retrieval codes/methodology could be responsible for the previous discrepancies. With this analysis, we show that using the same retrieval method better reconcile the previous measurements of these instruments. However, the addition of the disc-averaged CIRS observations, instead of confirming the consistency between the different datasets, reveals discrepancies between one of the CIRS disc-averaged set of observations and PACS measurements. This raises new questions regarding the possibility of latitudinal variations of H2O, which could be triggered by seasonal changes of the meridional circulation. As it has already been shown for nitriles and hydrocarbons, this circulation could potentially impact the latitudinal distribution of H2O through the subsidence or upwelling of air rich in H2O. The possible influence of spatial/time variations of the OH/H2O input flux in Titan's atmosphere is also discussed. The analysis of more observations will be needed in future work to address the questions arising from this work and to improve the understanding of the sources of H2O in Titan's atmosphere.


This article is the first to classify the phenomenon of trapped modes initiation in elastic systems with mass–spring inclusions. Necessary and sufficient conditions for low‐ and high‐frequency trapped modes were found. It is shown then that in elastic systems (beams, plates, shells) which are bounded by a continuous spectrum displaced from 0 and have mass inclusions, a discrete spectrum of natural frequencies occurs before the first boundary frequency. Trapping modes of oscillation corresponding to those frequencies possess a particularly pronounced local character in the inclusions region. The discrete spectrum displacement to the continuous spectrum axis and initiation of high‐frequency trapped modes are accompanied by a phenomenon of traveling waves damping (antiresonance).


Analysis of a 30,000 s X-ray observation of the A3266 galaxy cluster with the ACIS on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has produced several new insights into the cluster merger. The intracluster medium has a nonmonotonically decreasing radial abundance profile. We argue that the most plausible origin for the abundance enhancement is unmixed, high-abundance subcluster gas from the merger. The enrichment consists of two stages: off-center deposition of a higher abundance material during a subcluster merger followed by a strong, localized intracluster wind that acts to drive out the light elements, producing the observed abundance enhancement. The wind is needed to account for both an increase in the heavy-element abundance and the lack of an enhancement in the gas density. Dynamical evidence for the wind includes (1) a large-scale, low surface brightness feature perpendicular to the merger axis that appears to be an asymmetric pattern of gas flow to the northwest, away from the center of the main cluster; (2) compressed gas in the opposite direction (toward the cluster center); and (3) the fact that the hottest regions visible in the temperature map coincide with the proposed merger geometry and the resultant gas flow. The Chandra data for the central region of the main cluster show a slightly cooler, filamentary region that is centered on the central cD galaxy and is aligned with the merger axis directly linking the dynamical state of the cD to the merger. Overall, the high spectral/spatial resolution Chandra observations support our earlier hypothesis that we are viewing a minor merger in the plane of the sky.


Abstract This paper reports an exploratory study of a Native Speaker Teacher (NST) of Mandarin Chinese and a Primary Languages Teacher (PLT) teaching Chinese to English pre-service primary school teachers, and is particularly focused on the use of target language (TL) by these two co-teachers. Although some studies of TL use have compared the use of target language by native and non-native speakers teaching individually, there are no studies which examine target language use in a native and non-native co-teaching situation, or relate this to the background experience of the teachers. The data collected in this study included observations of planning meetings between both teachers, observations of the teaching of the program, and interviews with both teachers. This paper focuses upon the use of target language by the Chinese Native speaker teacher (NST) and the English Primary Languages Teacher (PLT) and the ways in which this changed and developed across the teaching sessions, as well as the relationship between their TL use, background and beliefs about language teaching in the program. Findings of this study show that, even in a co-teaching situation, target language use by the native speaker teacher and the primary languages teacher differed substantially in terms of their practices of and their beliefs about use of target language, and both were influenced by their own cultures of learning. The results also suggest that working together changed the teaching behavior of both teachers and enabled them to reflect critically on their prior assumptions.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
In the last 7 years, changes in five genes [SLC20A2, PDGFRB, PDGFB, XPR1, and MYORG] have been implicated in the pathogenesis of primary familial brain calcification (PFBC), allowing for genetic delineation of this phenotypically complex neurodegenerative disorder. This review explores how the ensuing plethora of reported PFBC patients and their disease-causing variants improved our understanding of disease, pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, and penetrance.

RECENT FINDINGS
In PFBC patients, pathogenic changes have been most frequently described in SLC20A2, accounting for approximately the same number of patients as the variants in the other four PFBC genes combined. There is no appreciable relationship between any combination of the following three variables: the type of disease-causing change, the pattern or extent of calcifications, and the presence or nature of clinical manifestation in PFBC patients. Nevertheless, elucidation of underlying genetic factors provided important recent insights into the pathogenic mechanisms of PFBC, which collectively point toward a compromised neurovascular unit.

SUMMARY
The ongoing clinical and molecular research increases our understanding of PFBC facilitating diagnosis and identifying potential therapeutic targets for this multifaceted and likely underdiagnosed condition.


Unhealthy diets contribute substantially to the worldwide burden of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and diabetes. Globally, non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of death, and numbers are still rising, which makes healthy diets a global priority. In Nutrition Research, two fields are particularly relevant for formulating healthier diets: dietary assessment, which assesses food and nutrient intake in order to investigate the relation between diet and disease, and dietary advice, which translates food and nutrient recommendations into realistic food choices. Both fields face complex decision problems: which foods to include in dietary assessment or advice in order to pursue the multiple objectives of the researcher or fulfil the requirements of the consumer. This thesis connects the disciplines of Nutrition Research and Operations Research in order to contribute to formulating healthier diets. In the context of dietary assessment, the thesis proposes a MILP model for the selection of food items for food frequency questionnaires (a crucial tool in dietary assessment) that speeds up the selection process and increases standardisation, transparency, and reproducibility. An extension of this model gives rise to a 0-1 fractional programming problem with more than 200 fractional terms, of which in every feasible solution only a subset is actually defined. The thesis shows how this problem can be reformulated in order to eliminate the undefined fractional terms. The resulting MILP model can solved with standard software. In the context of dietary advice, the thesis proposes a diet model in which food and nutrient requirements are formulated via fuzzy sets. With this model, the impact of various achievement functions is demonstrated. The preference structures modelled via these achievement functions represent various ways in which multiple nutritional characteristics of a diet can be aggregated into an overall indicator for diet quality. Furthermore, for Operations Research the thesis provides new insights into a novel preference structure from literature, that combines equity and utilitarianism in a single model. Finally, the thesis presents conclusions of the research and a general discussion, which discusses, amongst others, the main modelling choices encountered when using MODM methods for optimising diet quality. Summarising, this thesis explores the use of MODM approaches to improve decision-making for dietary assessment and advice. It provides opportunities for better decision-making in research on dietary assessment and advice, and it contributes to model building and solving in Operations Research. Considering the added value for Nutrition Research and the new models and solutions generated, we conclude that the combination of both fields has resulted in synergy between Nutrition Research and Operations Research.


Brown recently proposed that the ''good genes'' that females pursue when choosing mates may be individual heterozygosity because more heterozygous mates sire offspring with higher fitness. Further, because heterozygosity might enhance developmental stability, males with more heterozygosity are recognized by the reduced fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of their bilaterally paired traits. We used a point sample of 67 male red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) to test two predictions of this hypothesis: (1) males with more heterozygosity have higher fitness, and (2) males with more heterozygosity have lower FA. We identified 7 polymorphic loci from an initial screening of 16 enzymes; 32 individuals were completely homozygous, and 35 individuals were heterozygous at at least 1 locus. Larger and older males realized higher mating success in this population, but neither size nor age was related to heterozygosity. Heterozygous males were not in better condition than homozygous males, nor were they less infected by hematozoa, lice, or mites. Among 1-year old males, epaulet length did not differ between homozygotes and heterozygotes, but among older males, heterozygotes did have longer epaulets. Homozygotes and heterozygotes did not differ in their mean FA scores for nine individual characters. Although the two groups of males did differ in composite FA, heterozygous males were less symmetrical. Interestingly, this difference was attributable to a single allele at the PGM-3 locus. Combined with previous results showing that FA was generally unrelated to male health, viability, parental care, social dominance, or mating success, the present results indicate that Brown's hypothesis does not explain mate choice or male quality in this population of red-winged blackbirds.


Cloud computing is a rising technology which provider an assortment of opportunities for online distribution of resources or services. The most effective advantage of using cloud computing is higher availability of services with less cost and simple scalability. While the storage space of shared data on remote servers is not a new development, current development of cloud computing validates a more careful look at its actual consequences involving privacy and confidentiality issues. As users no longer actually possess the storage of their data, traditional cryptographic primitives for the purpose of data protection cannot be directly accepted. In particular, simply downloading all the data for its integrity confirmation is not a realistic explanation due to the expensiveness in I/O and transmission cost across the network. Besides, it is often not enough to detect the data corruption only when contacting the data, as it does not offer users correctness assurance for those un-accessed information and might be too late to recover the data loss or damage. To fully make sure the data integrity and save the cloud users' calculation resources as well as online burden, it is of critical importance to allow public auditing service for cloud data, so that users may choice to an independent third party auditor (TPA) to audit the contract out data when needed. The TPA, who has expertise and abilities that users do not, can occasionally check the honesty of all the data stored in the cloud on behalf of the users, which provides a much more better and reasonable way for the users to ensure their storage rightness in the cloud. In a word, allowing public auditing services will play an important role for this emerging cloud market to become fully recognized; where users will need ways to evaluate risk and gain hope in the cloud.


In air transport network management, in addition to defining the performance behavior of the system's components, identification of their interaction dynamics is a delicate issue in both strategic and tactical decision-making process so as to decide which elements of the system are "controlled" and how. This paper introduces a novel delay propagation model utilizing epidemic spreading process, which enables the definition of novel performance indicators and interaction rates of the elements of the air transportation network. In order to understand the behavior of the delay propagation over the network at different levels, we have constructed two different data-driven epidemic models approximating the dynamics of the system: (a) flight-based epidemic model and (b) airport-based epidemic model. The flight-based epidemic model utilizing SIS epidemic model focuses on the individual flights where each flight can be in susceptible or infected states. The airport-centric epidemic model, in addition to the flight-to-flight interactions, allows us to define the collective behavior of the airports, which are modeled as metapopulations. In network model construction, we have utilized historical flight-track data of Europe and performed analysis for certain days involving certain disturbances. Through this effort, we have validated the proposed delay propagation models under disruptive events.


This article aims to analyze the agenda of the reform of the Brazilian State adopting an exploratory and normative perspective, observing the models of public management arising from the Brazilian historical experience. The country's experience enables thinking about the institutional history of construction of public administration, highlighting the changes and the challenges posed in state-building processes. In addition, the article discusses the relationship between public administration and democracy, in view of the concept of democratic governance. Finally, the article analyze what we name "silent change in Brazil", highlighting the uncoordinated way the process of change incrementally takes place, imposing challenges to the governance of the construction process in the Brazilian public sector and challenges in updating the agenda of reform.


The biodiversity of mushrooms in Lagos State, Nigeria was studied using modern biotechnological method of DNA sequence analyses. Sixteen mushrooms were collected in Lagos State for 12 months. The mushrooms collected include: Agaricus campestris, Coprinus comatus, Daldinia concetrica, Ganoderma adspersum, Ganoderma applanatum, Ganoderma lucidum, Mycena haematopus, Mycena sp., Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus tuber-regium, Polyporus sp., Polyporus squamosus, Polyporus sulphureus, Trametes versicolor, Xylaria polymorpha, and Xylaria sp. Subsequently, eight different pure mushroom mycelia were isolated using potato dextrose agar medium (PDA) from sterile tissues of A. campestris, C. comatus, G. lucidum, P. ostreatus, P. tuber-regium, P. sulphureus, X. polymorpha, and Xylaria sp. A mycelia spawn of each of the isolated mushrooms was made and kept in duplicates for DNA sequence analyses. The DNA sequence analyses of each of the eight mushroom mycelia pure isolates were carried out. No similarity was observed when a BLAST query of the mushroom DNA sequences was carried out to determine the similarity with the GenBank database previous submissions. The sequences were then submitted to the GenBank database for reference purpose. Comprehensive description given by the GenBank provides a detailed, reliable and accurate identification than visual characteristics and phenotypic properties of the mushrooms.


The evolution of animal colouration is importantly driven by sexual selection operating on traits used to transmit information to rivals and potential mates, which therefore, have major impacts on fitness. Reflectance spectrometry has become a standard colour-measuring tool, especially after the discovery of tetrachromacy in birds and their ability to detect UV. Birds' plumage patterns may be invisible to humans, necessitating a reliable and objective way of assessing colouration not dependent on human vision. Plumage colouration measurements can be taken directly on live birds in the field or in the lab (e.g. on collected feathers). Therefore, it is essential to determine which sampling method yields more repeatable and reliable measures, and which of the available quantitative approaches best assess the repeatability of these measures. Using a spectrophotometer, we measured melanin-based colouration in barn swallows' (Hirundo rustica) plumage. We assessed the repeatability of measures obtained with both traditional sampling methods separately to quantitatively determine their reliability. We used the ANOVA-based method for calculating the repeatability of measurements from two years separately, and the GLMM-based method to calculate overall adjusted repeatabilities for both years. We repeated the assessment for the whole reflectance spectrum range and only the human-visible part, to assess the influence of the UV component on the reliabilities of sampling methodologies. Our results reveal very high repeatability for lab measurements and a lower, still moderate to high repeatability, for field measurements. Both increased when limited to only the human-visible part, for all plumage patches except the throat, where we observed the opposite trend. Repeatability between sampling methods was quite low including the whole spectrum, but moderate including only the human-visible part. Our results suggest higher reliability for measurements in the lab and higher power and accuracy of the GLMM-based method. They also suggest UV reflectance differences amongst different plumage patches.


Abstract. The topic of this paper is the description and analysis of technologies for generating a geometric basis for BIM. The main element is an analysis of the capabilities of mobile laser scanning and the outputs of this method compared to other methods. The selected interior space was measured by different technologies, laser scanning, classical geodetic using total station, and manual measurement. The main device tested was the ZEB-REVO. It is a handheld mobile laser scanner, carried by an operator. It has a range of 40 m, with the accuracy in measured lengths is 1–3cm per 10 m depending on the type of surface. The scanning speed is 43,000 points per second. The device is equipped with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and uses SLAM technology for trajectory definition. The device does not have a camera in the simplest configuration and the operator cannot monitor the scanning status. Nevertheless, measurement with this scanner is very simple. The instrument is mainly used for surveying construction objects, but it can be advantageously used for documentation of underground spaces or in e.g., forestry for defining DBH or volume of stockpiles. This device is not equipped with a GNSS unit, and the typical scanning time is 20–30 min without model deformation. Accuracy and output analysis was performed for all technologies used. The results are presented in tables and show the suitability of PLS (personal laser scanner) in general.


Tephroseris longifolia subsp. moravica is an endemic endangered taxon of European importance. Within the nine recently known populations it occurs in very specific site conditions of ecotone habitats. In our contribution, we try to quantify its realized niche with regard to the measured components of its biotic and abiotic environment. The main aim was to assess the importance of spatial environmental variation on taxon occurrence and performance and to relate the obtained ecological information to data on taxon abundance and demography. Possible reasons of taxon rarity are discussed, too. Comparison of plot pairs indicated that plots containing the taxon had deeper soil and higher soil Na and Mg contents than plots without it. They also contained higher number of species, especially forbs. Several soil parameters were positively correlated with taxon size and density while light parameters played minor role. Negative correlations between cover of vascular plants, especially grasses and taxon size and density suggest its reduced competitive ability. Vascular plant-based ecological indicator values were set for light (6), temperature (5), continentality (4), moisture (5), soil reaction (7) and nutrients (5). The studied sites differed in topography, soil characteristics (pH, soil Na, K, Ca, P and NH4) and cover of herb litter. Size of taxon populations was negatively related to their finite rate of increase which varied between 1.25 and 2.04 and was most sensitive to demographic parameters related to growth. We conclude, that the studied taxon is not strictly stenotopic as the ranges of several environmental variables were rather wide. We suppose, that the narrow limits of recent taxon occurrence are consequences of its low competitive ability and demographic processes related to germination and seedling establishment. The differing requirements of its ontogenetic stages (seedlings and generative individuals) may define the final limits of its small-scale distribution.


Introduction Shot peening is widely used in automobile and aerospace industries to improve fatigue properties of metallic materials. Shot peening results in: (1) Surface compressive residual stresses beneficial to fatigue resistance by preventing crack initiation and delaying crack propagation; (2) Surface plastic deformation which results in dislocation at the surface; (3) Surface hardening which increases local yield strength and therefore increases the resistance for further plastic deformation from mechanical loading; (4) Surface roughness which acts as stress concentrator and produces crack initiation. The compressive residual stress is one of the key factor for fatigue life improvement. However, residual stresses may relax during fatigue loading and therefore greatly reduce the benefit of shot peening. McClung [1] provided a broad and extensive literature review of the stability of residual stress. The redistribution and relaxation of residual stresses under static mechanical loading, cyclic loading, thermal exposure and crack extension have been investigated. Prevéy [2] revealed a strong dependence of the amount of relaxation on the degree of the cold working induced during surface treatment. Cold work is cumulative and increases with the intensity and coverage of shot peening. Conventional shot peening produces 10% to 50% cold work. In addition, different shot type may introduce different cold work and the depth of cold work increases with the increase of intensity [3].


Is the New Strategy a Success ? C V H Rao HOW far has the new strategy for increasing agricultural production sue- ceeded? The strategy comprises systematic encouragement of the use of high-yielding varieties of rice and other seeds and extension of the areas under them, concentration on intensive district agricultural development programme or the package approach, development of minor irrigation in areas out of the range of major irrigation projects, introduction of multiple cropping and measures of soil conservation.


Although the consensus view for the Brazilian project finance market is positive, significant challenges remain to be overcome before the sector can reach its true potential. As an inflation-fighting measure, the Real Plan of 1994 prohibits some contractual structures that normally would be used to deal with a mismatch between local currency revenues and dollar-denominated obligations. There are also capital registration requirements and limitations on the establishment of offshore or dollar-denominated accounts, granting of security interests to lenders, offshore pledges of shares, and dividend remittances. The key to an efficient deal execution today is in understanding the details of these limitations and tailoring each individual transaction to work within them.