4 Associate Professor PhD, Department of Psychiatry, IPPD Institute of Psychotherapy and Personal Development, Tirgu-Mures, Romania, email@example.com Abstract: The children with diabetes mellitus have often difficulties regarding school adaptation and integration, generated largely by the special conditions of the disease. On the other hand, how the child succeds in this adaptation, interferes with the management of chronic disease and the quality of his life. An important role for the child with diabetes in school is played by the head teachers.The informations about this disease and the attitude towards the children affected by this disease are important variables in this direction. The objective of our study is improving the teachers knowledge and attitude toward diabetes in children by providing quality information and practical intervention techniques. 86 head teachers from elementary and secondary schools were interviewed regarding their knowledge about diabetes in children, and participated to a formative course about this disease. After their participation in a theoretical and practical training course, their knowledge and their attitude have been improved considerably and the follow-up evaluation (after 3 months) indicated a stability of informations and practical techniques for granting first aid, over time. The conclusion is that formative intervention of teachers is an important step in helping children with diabetes to better school adaptation and, also in improving the quality of their life.


Crystals of both native and mutant Escherichia coli UmuD′ protein were obtained using the hanging drop method. Soaking the native crystals in solutions of heavy metal ions failed to produce good isomorphous derivatives, and selenomethionine substituted wild‐type protein did not crystallize under conditions that gave native crystals. Site‐directed mutagenesis was used to change the penultimate residue, a methionine amino acid, to either a valine or a threonine amino acid. Crystals were subsequently obtained from these mutant proteins with and without selenomethionine Incorporation. Crystals of the native, the mutant, and the selenomethionine Incorporated protein were all similar, crystallizing in the P41212 space group. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Research on the processing of child abuse cases has been dominated by a focus on the preparation of cases for criminal trial. However, police statistics indicate that the large majority of cases (as many as 85 per cent) are terminated, either by the police or the Crown Prosecution Service, before this stage. The police may decide not to charge, and the CPS may decline advise cases or decide not to prosecute. General child sexual abuse studies show that the termination or attrition of cases may have a significant negative effect upon childrens welfare, agency working, and the delivery of justice. This research aims to identify the number and characteristics of child sexual abuse cases that are terminated at each stage of the criminal justice process; and to determine the reasons why cases are terminated and the effects that this has upon children, non-abusing parents/carers, and agency workers. The study will assess the broader implications of attrition for the criminal justice sysytem, and reveal the extent to which, and circumstances in which, attrition should be reduced. A search will be made of records for the 1,000 most recently completed child sexual abuse cases in six police forces across England and Wales. Interviews will be conducted with a police officer and CPS official (where applicable) in a random sample of 200 of these cases. Postal questionnaires will be sent to the social workers responsible for these 200 cases.


Excavations made in connection with the Stillhouse Hollow Dam construction in Bell County, Texas, offered an excellent view of almost complete sections of the floodplain and the two terraces developed in the valley at this point. In the process of work sponsored by the National Park Service,2 these sections were measured and their lithology recorded. A molluscan fauna was recovered from approximately two tons of sediments quarried from a shallow zone near the base of the T-1 terrace. A radio-carbon date from shells higher in the same terrace indicates an age of 4970 ± 2 5 0 B.P., according to the determination of Dr. Meyer Rubin of the U.S. Geological Survey. The tests were run on valves of Tritogonia i·crrucosa (Barnes), Quadrula pustulosa Lea, and Amblcma pcrplicata (Conrad).


Narrative therapy is often misunderstood as offering a counter story to the dominant story and, in the process, rendering a new single account that eliminates the dominant story as an influence in the client's life. Using bilingualism and the literary genre of magical realism as analogies to rethink this practice, the author argues for the importance of holding both stories simultaneously, preserving the relationship between them. Bilingual speakers are able to co-cogitate in two worlds of thought simultaneously, and magical realism authors demonstrate how to expose power differentials by inverting inequalities and undermining authorities. Such skills can be used by narrative therapists to reexamine their work and open new possibilities for clients. The article includes two illustrative therapeutic conversations.


Data are important sources of information and knowledge. To explore a more inclusive means of communicating data, a team composed of seven researchers in the UK from different disciplines conducted a series of workshops: the first to share state of-the-art data visualisation techniques in various disciplines and to identify data visualisation challenges; the second to extract universal principles from good examples of data communication, to identify data visualisation criteria, and to develop a set of strategies for inclusive data communication. On the evidence of the first two workshops, we believe there is currently a great lack of inclusivity in data visualisation. Communicating data using multiple modalities (visual, auditory, haptic…) and understanding users' needs and expectations were proposed as the most important strategies for making data communication more inclusive for different target users. The third workshop will focus on developing and evaluating a methodology for more inclusive data communication with different groups of users (including people with disabilities).


A total of one hundred and Forty-five (145) subjects comprising of 50 homozygous Hemoglobin A subjects (HbAA), 50 heterozygous hemoglobin AS (HbAS) subjects and 45 homozygous hemoglobin S (HbSS) subjects were recruited for this study with a view to ascertain variations in the Hemorheological values possibly associated with the inherited hemoglobin genotype. Some Hemorheological determinants such as whole blood viscosity (WBV) and plasma viscosity (PV) and Plasma Fibrinogen Concentration (PFC) were measured with standard methods. We recorded a relatively unchanged whole blood viscosities in subjects with various hemoglobin genotypes (AA, AS and SS; P>0.05, respectively). Also, there were no significant differences in PV values of HbAA and HbAS while there were significant increases in PV and PFC of HbSS compared with others (P<0.05, respectively). However, relative erythrocyte viscosity (REV) of HbSS became significantly reduced when repeated with saline after replacing plasma with saline (P<0.05, respectively), to ascertain the erythrocytic cellular viscosity. We conclude that increased plasma viscosity coupled with that of PFC in HBSS could be due to plasmatic components and that cellular rheologic properties of the erythrocytes may be dependent on its content of hemoglobin while whole blood viscosities are stable in native blood irrespective of haemoglobin genotypes. Keywords: Hemorheology, Plasma Viscosity, erythrocyte cellular viscosity, hemoglobin genotype


Variation in the rate of anodic oxidation of normal saturated hydro carbons (at current densities of half the maximum value or higher) with the carbon number parallels the variation in the rate of diffusion (in electrochemical equivalents) of the hydrocarbon through the electrolyte. This parallelism, not previously recognized, is consistent with the concept of diffusion-influenced anode eactions. The conditions under which this behavior is expected are presented.


The concept looks good from the outside: Offset the financial challenges of running a traditional dermatology practice by adding fee-for-service aesthetic procedures. However, dermatologists who have done it say that successfully launching or expanding a cosmetic practice requires more than whim. Dermatologists need to weigh the costs, realize the commitment they need to make to these patients and have the time to devote to an aesthetic practice.


Theories about the politics and economics of resource-rich or "rentier" states have been around for almost four decades now (Mahdavy 1970; Beblawi 1987; Chaudhry 1997; Humphreys et al. 2007). Political scientists and economists have argued that rents have a negative impact on levels of democracy (Luciani 1987; Ross 2001), on the quality of institutions (Chaudhry 1997; Isham et al. 2005), and on economic growth (Sachs and Warner 2001). Although much debate has been conducted over these macro-correlations, far less attention has been devoted to the causal mechanisms behind them. There is still no unified theory of rentier states, and the micro-foundations of rentier systems in particular have gone largely unexplored.


Tetanus is a rare disease caused by the exotoxins of Clostridium tetani. Higher mortality rates have been reported among the elderly and in the newborn. In this report of a tetanus case, the treatment and prognosis of contractions resistant to diazepam, midazolam, and atracurium infusion has been evaluated.


Let A = (A, ... ) be a relational structure. Say that A has condensation if there is an F : A^(ω) → A such that for every partial order P, it is forced by P that substructures of P which are closed under F are isomorphic to elements
of the ground model. Condensation holds if every structure in V, the universe of sets, has condensation. This property, isolated by Woodin, captures part of the content of the condensation lemmas for L, K and other "L-like" models. We present a variety of results having to do with condensation in this abstract sense. Section 1 establishes the absoluteness of condensation and some of its
consequences. In particular, we show that if condensation holds in M, then M ╞ GCH and there are no measurable cardinals or precipitous ideals in M. The results of this section are due to Woodin. Section 2 contains a proof
that condensation implies ◊_κ(E) for κ regular and E κ stationary. This is the main result of this thesis. The argument provides a new proof of the key lemma giving GCH. Section 2 also contains some information about the
relationship between condensation and strengthenings of diamond. Section 3 contains partial results having to do with forcing "Cond(A)", some further discussion of the relation between condensation and combinatorial principles
which hold in L, and an argument that Cond(G) fails in V[G], where G is generic for the partial order adding ω_2 cohen subsets of ω_1.


Image-to-Class (I2C) distance firstly proposed in the naive Bayes nearest neighbour (NBNN) classifier has shown its effectiveness in image classification. However, due to the large number of nearest-neighbour search, I2C-based methods are extremely time-consuming, especially with highdimensional local features. In this paper, with the aim to improve and speed up I2C-based methods, we propose a novel discriminative embedding method based on I2C for local feature dimensionality reduction. Our method 1) greatly reduces the computational burden and improves the performance of I2C-based methods after reduction; 2) can well preserve the discriminative ability of local features, thanks to the use of I2C distances; and 3) provides an efficient closed-form solution by formulating the objective function as an eigenvector decomposition problem. We apply the proposed method to action recognition showing that it can significantly improve I2C-based classifiers.


Most tensor problems are NP-hard, and low-rank tensor completion is much more difficult than low-rank matrix completion. In this paper, we propose a time and space-efficient low-rank tensor completion algorithm by using the scaled latent nuclear norm for regularization and the Frank-Wolfe (FW) algorithm for optimization. We show that all the steps can be performed efficiently. In particular,FW's linear subproblem has a closed-form solution which can be obtained from rank-one SVD. By utilizing sparsity of the observed tensor,we only need to maintain sparse tensors and a set of small basis matrices. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more accurate, much faster and more scalable than the state-of-the-art.


In this paper we describe RED-Random Early Detection which is an active queue management algorithm for congestion control. The basic idea of RED is that one should not wait till the buffer is full in order to detect drop packets but start detecting congestion before the buffer overflows. In this paper we present the performance behavior of RED which it posses under different congestion control schemes such as Reno, Vegas, Sack 1, and Fact. It shows that with different TCP congestion control mechanism that RED posses for the queue and the average queue plotation during the transmission on data on the network. Simulations are carried on ns simulator to study the performance RED with TCP mechanism.


Gene delivery into the CNS without tissue destruction is challenging. As neurons are capable of taking up exogenous particulates from the muscles that they innervate, we investigated the feasibility of achieving gene transfer in CNS neurons by peripheral intramuscular injection of plasmid DNA complexed with the cationic polymer polyethylenimine (PEI) in the rat hypoglossal system. Using the luciferase reporter gene driven by a Rous sarcoma virus promoter, transgene expression of up to 4 x 10(6) RLU per brain stem at 20 microg of plasmid DNA was achieved after tongue injection. Using lacZ as a reporter gene, transgene expression in the brain stem was detected in hypoglossal motor neurons, a group of neurons that innervate tongue muscles. The plasmid DNA was detected by PCR analysis in the brain-stem samples, demonstrating that the PEI/DNA complexes had migrated by retrograde axonal transport to neuronal cell bodies in the brain stem after being internalized by nerve terminals in the tongue muscle. Using a therapeutic bcl-2 gene driven by a cytomegalovirus promoter and Western blotting, transgene expression was detectable in the brain stem as early as 18 h after tongue injection and lasted for at least 2 weeks. Two lipid transfection agents, GenePORTER and TransFast, mediated a weak gene expression in the hypoglossal system, but not two polymers, poly-l-lysine and chitosan. The nonviral neuronal gene delivery method established in this study bypasses the blood-brain barrier and suggests a possible therapeutic strategy for noninvasive CNS gene transfer.


Archaeological excavations by the University of Arizona, USA at the site of Lugnano in Teverina, Umbria, Italy have unearthed evidence of an unusual infant cemetery within the confines of a destroyed Roman villa. The cemetery dates to just after the mid-fifth century and contains forty-seven infant burials accompanied by offerings associated with magic practices including puppies with severed heads, a raven talon, a toad and a pot with bones placed upside down. The site showed evidence of an ancient epidemic which has recently been shown, through DNA analysis, to have been Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The uniqueness of this discovery has led the author to draw up a basic primer for excavating what have been termed abnormal cemeteries. This includes special questions which must be asked when considering the stratigraphy, the positioning of the mass burials, the nature of the material culture deposited with and around the burials, the palynological evidence, various aspects of the skeletons themselves including the frequency of neonates and aborted foetuses, the tomb types and their hierarchical arrangement, evidence for ritual practices at the tombsite, the history of the area and parallels with other sites. By compiling a checklist of questions for the archaeologist, it is hoped that future excavators will be able to recognize those abnormal cemeteries which were created as a result of a response to special needs such as an epidemic or mass slaughter.


Recent wave of mass popular dissent reminds us that it is necessary to understand social dynamics also from the perspective of social exclusion. Landauer (1900) inquired how to create alternative community with "the inclusion of the excluded as excluded" (Agamben, 1999). Antisystem movements are the driver of this process, but they suffer from an organisational problem. They refuse vertical structuration as their exclusion itself is the result of overstructured society. So they fail to perform together against the system which hampers their effectiveness in achieving radical goals from the inside. We hypothesise that movements need to resolve the problem by abandoning programmatic similarity as a common denominator of their structuration. It has been observed that movements are usually more radical in their programs than in their operation, or vice versa. Their action-program footprints are inconsistent, unless they link with movements with symmetrical opposite footprints. This strategy of structuration reconstructs their internal consistency in a heterogeneous way that does not imperil their diversity. Three coalitions are obtained: quasi-, semi- and orto-antisystemic. They complement each other in mobilisation and production of autonomous alternatives, and in capacity to defend the boundaries of autonomy. Resolution of the organisational problem is a precondition for the emergence of antisystem structure. Now the initial antisystem conflict between society and the state is decomposed into a conflict between competing structures (system's vs. antisystem's) and between competing agents (interest groups; Marx). Multiplication of previously binary relation between the society and the system changes exclusion mechanisms with emergence of new sociality. Here exclusion is not concerned with dark side of society any more, but establishes itself as a starting point for reasoning about alternative social strategies.


CONTEXT
Cytokine polymorphisms and dietary fat composition may influence the risk of the metabolic syndrome (MetS).

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between lymphotoxin-alpha (LTA), TNF-alpha, and IL-6 gene polymorphisms with MetS risk and investigate whether plasma fatty acid composition, a biomarker of dietary fat intake, modulated these associations.

DESIGN
Polymorphisms (LTA rs915654, TNF-alpha rs1800629, IL-6 rs1800797), biochemical measurements, and plasma fatty acids were determined in the LIPGENE-SU.VI.MAX study of MetS cases and matched controls (n = 1754).

RESULTS
LTA rs915654 minor A allele carriers and TNF-alpha rs1800629 major G allele homozygotes had increased MetS risk [odds ratio (OR) 1.37 (confidence interval [CI] 1.12-1.66), P = 0.002 and OR 1.35 (CI 1.08-1.70), P = 0.009] compared with their TT homozygotes and A allele carriers. Possession of the IL-6 rs1800797 GG genotype by the LTA and TNF-alpha risk genotype carriers further increased risk of the MetS [OR 2.10 (CI 1.19-3.71) P = 0.009], fasting hyperglycemia [OR 2.65 (CI 1.12-6.28), P = 0.027], high systolic blood pressure [OR 1.99 (CI 1.07-3.72), P = 0.03], and abdominal obesity [OR 1.52 (CI 1.01-2.28), P = 0.04]. Plasma polyunsaturated to saturated fat ratio exacerbated these effects; subjects in the lowest 50th percentile had even greater risk of the MetS [OR 4.40 (CI 1.55-12.45), P = 0.005], fasting hyperglycemia, high systolic blood pressure, and abdominal obesity (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
LTA, TNF-alpha, and IL-6 genotype interactions increased MetS risk, which was further exacerbated by a low plasma polyunsaturated to saturated fat exposure, indicating important modulation of genetic risk by dietary fat exposure.


An increased activity of sodium-lithium countertransport (SLC) is a common finding in patients who have essential hypertension. The evidence that a similar dysfunction is shared also by patients with type 1 diabetes and nephropathy has suggested the hypothesis that a predisposition to essential hypertension may be the factor that, along with hyperglycemia, underlies the development of diabetic nephropathy. Despite the initial enthusiasm surrounding the potential use of SLC activity as a marker for the early detection and treatment of individuals who are predisposed to hypertension and diabetic nephropathy, its use has been so far restricted to epidemiologic studies, as specificity and sensitivity of the test are still too low to justify any clinical use. The recent finding, however, that the measurement of kinetic parameters of SLC can significantly increase the power to discriminate among individuals with and without hypertension or diabetic nephropathy could be of help toward a future clinical use of the measurement of this membrane transport. A second major point relates to the possibility that SLC per se might be directly involved in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension and diabetic nephropathy. This case has never been fully tested, as the gene responsible for this membrane transport has been, until recently, unknown. The recent identification of an alternative splicing of the first isoform of Na-H exchange that mediates SLC activity should allow for a rapid comprehension of the role of this transport in the pathophysiology of essential hypertension and diabetic nephropathy.


Rural jails are increasingly contributing to the overall jail population and little is known about how they differ from non-rural jails. This study compares demographic, behavioral health and criminal/legal histories of 3,797 individuals who booked into three rural jails and seven non-rural jails. In addition, the study assessed how jails identify mental illness, which was compared to an objective screening instrument (Kessler-6). Individuals in rural jails were more likely to be white, female, have a history of mental health services, misuse substances, and to recidivate. After controlling for these differences, they had 1.5 times greater odds of having a mental illness but lower odds of being identified by the jails. Individuals in rural jails have more behavioral health needs and other criminogenic risk factor and their needs are less likely to be identified by jail staff, which may result in poor connection to diversion or treatment opportunities.


Maintaining accessibility to and understanding of digital information over time is a complex challenge that often requires contributions and interventions from a variety of individuals and organizations. The processes of preservation planning and evaluation are fundamentally implicit and share similar complexity. Both demand comprehensive knowledge and understanding of every aspect of to-be-preserved content and the contexts within which preservation is undertaken. Consequently, means are required for the identification, documentation and association of those properties of data, representation and management mechanisms that in combination lend value, facilitate interaction and influence the preservation process. These properties may be almost limitless in terms of diversity, but are integral to the establishment of classes of risk exposure, and the planning and deployment of appropriate preservation strategies.

We explore several research objectives within the course of this thesis. Our main objective is the conception of an ontology for risk management of digital collections. Incorporated within this are our aims to survey the contexts within which preservation has been undertaken successfully, the development of an appropriate methodology for risk management, the evaluation of existing preservation evaluation approaches and metrics, the structuring of best practice knowledge and lastly the demonstration of a range of tools that utilise our findings.

We describe a mixed methodology that uses interview and survey, extensive content analysis, practical case study and iterative software and ontology development. We build on a robust foundation, the development of the Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment.

We summarise the extent of the challenge facing the digital preservation community (and by extension users and creators of digital materials from many disciplines and operational contexts) and present the case for a comprehensive and extensible knowledge base of best practice. These challenges are manifested in the scale of data growth, the increasing complexity and the increasing onus on communities with no formal training to offer assurances of data management and sustainability. These collectively imply a challenge that demands an intuitive and adaptable means of evaluating digital preservation efforts. The need for individuals and organisations to validate the legitimacy of their own efforts is particularly prioritised.

We introduce our approach, based on risk management. Risk is an expression of the likelihood of a negative outcome, and an expression of the impact of such an occurrence. We describe how risk management may be considered synonymous with preservation activity, a persistent effort to negate the dangers posed to information availability, usability and sustainability. Risk can be characterised according to associated goals, activities, responsibilities and policies in terms of both their manifestation and mitigation. They have the capacity to be deconstructed into their atomic units and responsibility for their resolution delegated appropriately. We continue to describe how the manifestation of risks typically spans an entire organisational environment, and as the focus of our analysis risk safeguards against omissions that may occur when pursuing functional, departmental or role-based assessment. We discuss the importance of relating risk-factors, through the risks themselves or associated system elements. To do so will yield the preservation best-practice knowledge base that is conspicuously lacking within the international digital preservation community.

We present as research outcomes an encapsulation of preservation practice (and explicitly defined best practice) as a series of case studies, in turn distilled into atomic, related information elements. We conduct our analyses in the formal evaluation of memory institutions in the UK, US and continental Europe. Furthermore we showcase a series of applications that use the fruits of this research as their intellectual foundation. Finally we document our results in a range of technical reports and conference and journal articles.

We present evidence of preservation approaches and infrastructures from a series of case studies conducted in a range of international preservation environments. We then aggregate this into a linked data structure entitled PORRO, an ontology relating preservation repository, object and risk characteristics, intended to support preservation decision making and evaluation. The methodology leading to this ontology is outlined, and lessons are exposed by revisiting legacy studies and exposing the resource and associated applications to evaluation by the digital preservation community.


The unique appeal of an older city lies in its history and diversity--the mix of events, peoples, styles, and circumstances that give a place its special character. As the city of Baltimore celebrates its bicentennial in 1997, its citizens can look with renewed pride and interest to a heritage that includes a colorful history, architectural treasures, diverse ethnic neighborhoods, world-renowned institutions, and a reinvented waterfront that combines tourism and industry. First published in 1980 -- at the height of the city's acclaimed "renaissance" -- Baltimore: The Building of an American City offered a lively, well-illustrated history of the city's growth, development, and challenges. In this expanded bicentennial edition, Sherry H. Olson brings Baltimore's story up to date with a new chapter and new illustrations. Olson describes the "boom and bust" urban development that makes Baltimore's experience typical of urban centers around the world. She also notes the ongoing search for solutions to problems such as poverty, unemployment, racial tension, labor disputes, and the inevitable conflicts between the public and private sectors and urban and suburban interests. This new edition of Baltimore: The Building of an American City helps us understand why the city has always won the hearts of residents and visitors -- and fascinated historians and students of urban development."Discover how and why the city grew as it did... [An] exhaustive book which should be of interest not only to scholars but to all Baltimoreans and in fact to all city dwellers--for the light that Olson throws on the city's past could well help to indicate some of the choices we ought--and ought not--to makefor the future." -- Baltimore Sun"Olson's book is a serious, handsomely designed and produced history. [With] its large format and its many, effectively used black-and-white photographs and illustrations, this book is intended to be read and not just skimmed." -- Washington Post Book World


The aim of this research is to build a Decision Support System (DSS) for scope optimization in large maintenance projects using fuzzy logic concepts. This thesis investigates the maintenance and reliability considerations of industrial systems and builds on basic fuzzy logic strategies to develop an agile and easy-to-use, fuzzy logic DSS for scope definition. The system, once built, is further improved and fine-tuned after examination of the initial results; furthermore, the proposed DSS is contrasted and compared to other systems that use conventional, crisp logic methods that are used to determine the maintenance project scope. The thesis culminates with the evaluation of the system through four illustrative and realistic cases.

Fuzzy Logic was selected as the foundation of our approach as it provides an answer about the need to maintain an item based on a group of criteria. These reliability-based criteria are: the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), the Criticality of the item, its Reliability, the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), the Total Operation Cost (TOC) and the Value of the equipment. The combination of these criteria using fuzzy logic techniques enables the proposed DSS to extract meaningful results on the necessity to maintain an item and hence, assists decision makers to shape the maintenance project scope. The results are presented both as numbers as well as classes and are visually supported by 3D plots.

The comparison of the proposed system with other traditional approaches of the problem, adds robustness to the DSS and helps fine-tune fuzzy decision rules and parameters of the system. The comparison is rich, as it compares results for thirty (30) pragmatic cases, using data obtained from the industry. It is shown, that our DSS generates trustworthy, comparable results, and for certain cases, even more improved ones, thus justifying its use in industrial, large-scale environments.
Our analysis and approach gives important insight on maintenance techniques and sheds new light on alternative scope definition and optimization approaches. The exposed results may well lead to efficient planning of maintenance, especially in complex industrial projects, without being affected by the large data size.


The ribosomal preparations of S. sonnei and some other bacterial species were obtained by the method of differential centrifugation, and the specificity of their protective action was studied in the keratoconjunctivitis test on guinea pigs. The ribosomal preparations were introduced parenterally in a single injection, and their protective action was determined two weeks later by the challenge of the animals with S. sonnei virulent strain and the subsequent calculation of the efficiency index (EI) by the formula: EI = C-V/C X 100, where C and V are the percentage of resistant eyes in the control and vaccinated groups of the animals respectively. For the ribosomal preparation obtained from a homologous avirulent strain this index was equal to 58%, while for the heterologous ribosomes obtained from Escherichia coli, Salmonella minnesota and S. flexneri in was close to zero. The ribosomal preparations obtained from S. sonnei R-strain which had no surface or cytoplasmic O-antigen also proved to be ineffective in rendering protection against local Shigella infection. The results of this investigation are compared with the data obtained by other authors, and the analysis of these results leads to the conclusion that the O-specific component is the indispensable factor of the protective activity of many ribosomal vaccines and its molecular properties require further study. The possible role of other components of the ribosomal vaccine is also discussed.


In recent years many SHM approaches based on elastic waves that are generated and sensed by surface-bonded piezoelectric patches have been developed. Some of those utilize wave propagation phenomena; others use changes in the electromechanical impedance to detect structural damage. The capability of most approaches strongly depends on adequate choice of SHM system parameters like excitation signals and actuator/sensor types and positions. For this reason there is a growing interest in efficient and accurate simulation tools to shorten time and cost of the necessary tedious pretests. To detect small damage generally high frequency excitation signals have to be used. Because of this a very dense finite element mesh is required for an accurate simulation. As a consequence a conventional finite element simulation becomes computationally inefficient. A new approach that seems to be more promising is the time domain spectral element method. This contribution presents the theoretical background and some results of numerical calculations of the propagation of waves. The simulation is performed using the spectral element method (SEM), which leads to a diagonal mass matrix. Besides a significant saving of memory this leads to a crucial reduction of complexity of the time integration algorithm for the wave propagation calculation. A new approach to simulate the E/M impedance using time domain spectral elements is shown. An example demonstrates a good correlation of simulation and measurement data, so that the proposed simulation methodology seems to be a promising tool to make impedance based SHM systems more efficient, especially regarding the necessary parameter studies.


Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a primary health concern among people who use drugs (PWUDs). Homeless PWUDs that constitute a key population for HCV transmission remain underrepresented in many surveys. Objectives: We performed a proactive street outreach to evaluate HCV infection prevalence among homeless PWUDs in Tel Aviv, identify risk factors associated with HCV infection, awareness of disease status and linkage to care rate. Results: Thirty-eight percent of approached PWUD were willing to participate in the study. Out of 53 subjects who got tested for anti HCV by rapid test, 29 (54.72%) had a positive result, 20 of 29 anti-HCV positive (69%) patients had positive HCV PCR. Risk factors were investigated using structured questionnaires. Heroin use was reported significantly more frequently in the HCV-positive group (P = .05, CI 95%), whereas other established risk factors did not reach significance in our cohort. While 21 of 29 (72%) HCV-positive participants were aware of their condition, only 4 of 21 (19%) received treatment in the past, and 2 of 4 (50%) failed to achieve treatment goals, as assessed by HCV PCR. Conclusions: Our data indicate a high prevalence of HCV infection among homeless PWUDs. Importantly, despite relatively high awareness of HCV status in this population, we found strikingly low access to care. These findings motivate novel interventional approaches targeted at improving patient access, and compliance among homeless PWUDs, in an effort to reduce HCV transmission.


Bus priority in various forms has become an important application in towns and cities around the world, as Local Authorities seek to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their transport systems by promoting the use of public transport with its high passenger carrying capability. Segregating buses from general traffic, using busways, bus lanes, etc is increasingly being supplemented with priority at traffic signals, where signal timings respond to the approach of a bus to give it priority signalling through the junction. This was first trialled in UK on a significant scale in the 1980's in an area of south east London containing isolated traffic signals operating under the UK's 'D-system' of Vehicle Actuation (VA). There followed a period of some 20 years where equivalent priority strategies were developed, tested and implemented in the more difficult environment of Urban Traffic Control. These strategies have kept pace with the significant advances in technologies over this period, such as in detection, communications, processing and optimisation. However, this has not been the case with bus priority at isolated VA junctions, where strategies developed in London some 30 years ago still prevail – and even in large cities a significant number of signal controlled junctions operate in this way. This then suggested a research gap which has been taken up in this research – the exploration and development of new strategies for bus priority at isolated VA junctions. Taking existing strategies as the 'base case', their effectiveness was first explored through theoretical and mathematical analysis. This led to the first new output from this research – more comprehensive predictive equations for bus priority benefits (delay savings) than existed, covering a range of operational conditions. The limitations of the mathematical approach were identified, so research then progressed to the development of microscopic simulation modelling (VISSIM) for junction modelling and for exploring new strategies. This involved four variants of junction design and scenarios reflecting differences in levels of congestion, bus flows, signal timings, etc. New and improved strategies were then developed through modelling, including (i) re-optimising parameter values for the existing priority methods, (ii) improved bus detector locations taking advantage of new Automatic Vehicle Location technologies and (iii) new strategies for bus priority, including a 'stronger' strategy termed 'always green bus' and 'differential priority', where the level of priority given to a bus depended on its performance (eg regularity) at that time. Strategies were also developed to minimise the impacts on general traffic through various forms of compensation, with total person delay then being used as an evaluation criterion. The research has concluded with a series of recommendations for improved implementation of bus priority at isolated VA controlled junctions, taking advantage of the new technologies which are widely available and used within most bus fleets in the UK.


Motion-compensated PET of awake animals has the potential to greatly improve translational neurological investigations by enabling brain function to be studied during learning tasks and complex behaviors. Previously we have demonstrated the feasibility of performing motion-compensated brain PET on rodents, obtaining the necessary head motion data using marker-based techniques. However, markerless motion tracking would simplify animal experiments and potentially provide more accurate pose estimates over a greater range of motion. Previously we have described a markerless stereo motion tracking system and associated algorithms and validated the approach in phantoms. In this work we performed a pilot study to demonstrate motion-compensated 18F_FDG brain imaging in an awake, unrestrained rat using head pose measurements obtained from the markerless tracking system. Motion compensation clearly worked, resulting in easily identifiable structures in the head. However, it was also obvious that considerable residual error remained after correction. Post analysis of the motion estimates indicated that the residual error was the result of occasional spurious pose estimates, most likely caused by features on non-rigid parts of the head contributing to the pose estimation. Moreover, the line-of-response rebinning used for motion correction resulted in a large proportion of lost events, leading to noisy and inconsistent projection data. The latter is avoided by using a direct list mode reconstruction. In summary, markerless tracking continues to show promise for motion-compensated imaging of awake animals, but further optimization is required to match the accuracy and consistency of marker-based tracking.


Based on transient analysis,stress value and values of principal stress of slope can be got at each time. Then based on partial failure discriminance, the only slip plane can be got to some initial point. Thirdly, based on sweden slice method, formula of the safety coefficient of the slope's stability can be as objective function, through artificial fish-swarm algorithm, slip plane can be established. Finally, through analyzing the safety coefficient of the slope's stability and initial point in each time, the structure reliability of slope stability and failure probability can be got. Finally, this method is verified by an example, which proved that the method is feasible and available.


Hybrid systems play an important role in the modeling of complex systems since they take into account the interaction between both continuous dynamics and discrete events. Complex systems are subject to changes in the dynamics due to several factors such as nonlinearities, changes in the parameters, disturbances, faults, discrete events and controller actions among others. These facts lead to the need to develop a diagnostic system for hybrid systems improving the diagnostic precision. Hybrid systems allow to combine the classic fault detection and isolation approaches and a diagnoser based on discrete event models. Hence, a design methodology and implementation architecture for diagnosers in the
framework of hybrid systems is proposed.
The design methodology is based on the hybrid automaton model that represents the system behavior by means of the interaction of continuous dynamics and discrete events. The architecture is composed of modules which carry out mode recognition and diagnostic tasks interacting each other, since the diagnosis module adapts accordingly to the current hybrid system mode. The mode recognition task involves detecting and identifying a mode change by determining the set of residuals that are consistent with the current hybrid system mode. On the other hand, the diagnostic task involves detecting and isolating two type of faults: structural and non-structural faults. In the first case, structural faults are represented by a dynamic model as in the case of nominal modes. Hence they are identified by consistency checking through the set of
residuals. In the second case, non-structural faults do not change the structure of the model, therefore, they are identified by a proper residual pattern. %the set of of residuals that can explain this inconsistency.
Discernibility is the main property used in hybrid systems diagnosis. Through the concept of discernibility it is possible to predict whether modes changes (faulty or nominal) in the hybrid model can be detected and isolated properly. This concept can be applied in practice, evaluating a set of mathematical properties derived from residual expressions, which can be obtained from input-output models or parity space equations. General properties are derived to evaluate the discernibility between modes in the hybrid automaton model.
The diagnoser is built through propagation algorithms developed for discrete models represented by automata. The automaton employed to build the diagnoser for a hybrid system is named behaviour automaton. It gathers all information provided by discernibility properties between modes and observable events in the system, increasing the system diagnosability. % in the system.
Diagnosis for hybrid systems can be divided in two stages: offline and online. Moreover, it can be carried out twofold: in a non-incremental and an incremental form. In the non-incremental form, algorithms are executed taking into account global models, unlike incremental form that leads to building the useful parts of the diagnoser, only developing the branches that are needed to explain the occurrence of incoming events. The resulting diagnoser adapts to the system operational life and it is much less demanding in terms of memory storage than building the full diagnoser offline. The methodology is validated by the application to a case study based on a representative part of the Barcelona sewer network by means of a tool
implemented in Matlab.


Background Caregivers play a pivotal role in providing care for mentally ill patients. Increase in caregiver burden can make them vulnerable to mental illness themselves. Aims We assessed the severity of burden of care and its association with depression, anxiety and quality of life among caregivers of patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and schizophrenia. Methods This was an observational, cross-sectional, single-centred study of 50 consecutive caregivers of patients with AUD and schizophrenia. Participants were recruited from the psychiatry outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital between January and June 2017. The caregivers were further assessed by demographic details, Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale for assessment of depression and anxiety, Zarit Burden Interview for assessment of caregiver burden and WHO Quality Of Life-BREF for assessment of quality of life. Statistical data were analysed using GraphPad InStat V.3.06 (California). Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to identify the predictors of caregiver burden. Results Burden of care experienced by caregivers of patients with AUD is as high as that of caregivers of patients with schizophrenia (U=1142.5, p=0.46). Caregivers experiencing high burden of care are likely to have symptoms of anxiety (U=22, p<0.001), depression (U=32, p<0.001) and poor quality of life (U=84.5, p<0.001). Female caregivers are likely to experience higher burden of care (U=819.5, p=0.006). For caregivers of patients with schizophrenia, anxiety, environmental health, socioeconomic status and patients' occupation can predict burden of care, while for caregivers of patients with AUD, depression and environmental health can predict burden of care. Conclusion Our study suggests that caregivers of patients with AUD experience burden of care as high as that of caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Caregivers with high burden of care are more likely to have depression, anxiety and poor quality of life. Trial registration number CTRI/2017/03/008224.


The noise radiated from ships in the ocean contains information about their machinery, being normally used for detection and identification purposes. In this work we use a neural classifier to identify the radiated noise received by a hydrophone that was far from the ship. The classification is performed in the frequency domain using a feedforward neural network, which is trained using the backpropagation algorithm. It is shown that the use of an averaged spectral information during the production phase improves significantly the efficiency of the classifier, when it is compared to a neural classifier that processes frequency domain data obtained from individual acquisition windows.


Metric learning has been shown to significantly improve the accuracy of k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classification. In problems involving thousands of features, distance learning algorithms cannot be used due to overfitting and high computational complexity. In such cases, previous work has relied on a two-step solution: first apply dimensionality reduction methods to the data, and then learn a metric in the resulting low-dimensional subspace. In this paper we show that better classification performance can be achieved by unifying the objectives of dimensionality reduction and metric learning. We propose a method that solves for the low-dimensional projection of the inputs, which minimizes a metric objective aimed at separating points in different classes by a large margin. This projection is defined by a significantly smaller number of parameters than metrics learned in input space, and thus our optimization reduces the risks of overfitting. Theory and results are presented for both a linear as well as a kernelized version of the algorithm. Overall, we achieve classification rates similar, and in several cases superior, to those of support vector machines.


A procedure for generating different versions of a musical piece based on the properties of a chaotic system—most notably, sensitive dependence on the initial condition—will be described and demonstrated. The procedure uses the Lorenz equations to set up a musical chaotic system. The chaotic system is embedded in a computer program that enables the composer to select which musical attributes (such as melodic line or dynamic level) will be affected by the chaotic trajectory. Mutations of the original work can be heard as well as revisions where many of the musical elements intrinsic to the piece, e.g., rhythm or timbre, remain intact. The composer is able to interact with the program to select various versions and change them, if desired. Musical examples will be played so that listeners can hear the source piece and its concomitant transformations, each of which is initiated by the musical chaotic space. Yet the compositional character of the revised versions remains within the artist's domain of style, e...


Phytoplankton play a central role in marine ecosystems by yielding ca. 50% (~ 50 Gt C/year) of the global primary production (Longhurst et al. 1995, Field et al. 1998). By their central role at the base of the food web these communities shape biogeochemical cycles, carbon export from the euphotic zone to the deep ocean and energy fl uxes through food web networks (Finkel et al. 2010, van de Waal 2010). Whilst in coastal areas, microphytobenthos, macroalgae and halophytes also contribute in carbon fi xation (Kromkamp et al. 2006, Connell and Russell 2010), in the open ocean, phytoplankton constitute the only source of primary production to sustain pelagic food webs (Falkowsky and Oliver 2007, Chavez et al. 2011). In fact, phytoplankton blooms are an essential condition for fi sheries and for the benthic-pelagic coupling in coastal systems (Legendre 1990). These rising biomass events mainly occur in response to changes in light and nutrients driven by the seasonal cycles of radiation, temperature and water column stability; while the end phase has been ascribed to nutrient depletion and zooplankton grazing pressure (Sommer et al. 2012). Spring blooms are


The Mediterranean Sea produces a salty, dense outflow that is strongly modified by entrainment as it first begins to descend the continental slope in the eastern Gulf of Cadiz. The current accelerates to 1.3 meters per second, which raises the internal Froude number above 1, and is intensely turbulent through its full thickness. The outflow loses about half of its density anomaly and roughly doubles its volume transport as it entrains less saline North Atlantic Central water. Within 100 kilometers downstream, the current is turned by the Coriolis force until it flows nearly parallel to topography in a damped geostrophic balance. The mixed Mediterranean outflow continues westward, slowly descending the continental slope until it becomes neutrally buoyant in the thermocline where it becomes an important water mass.


The present paper extents the existing literature providing a theoretically consistent framework for measuring input-specific technical efficiency in damage control inputs within a stochastic production frontier model. The theoretical framework for modeling damage control agents is based on Fox and Weersink (1995) model specification that allows for increasing returns on damage control inputs. The empirical model accounts veterinary expenses as the damage control input and it is applied on a panel data set of sheep farms in Greece during the 1989-92 period. The results suggest that sheep farms in Greece are using inefficiently immunization and antibiotics in their flock as their average technical efficiency level was 72.82%. On the other hand, technical efficiency in conventional factors of production was found to be considerably higher on the average, 91.32%. Finally, our results indicate that farms that are technical efficient in the use of conventional inputs are also technical efficient in the use of damage control agents.


Alkylnitrilium derivatives of nido-carborane 10-RCN-7,8-C2B9H11 (R = Me, Et) have been prepared by the reaction of the parent anion [7,8-C2B9H12]− with mercury(II) chloride in mixtures of the corresponding nitriles and benzene. Hydrolysis of 10-EtCN-7,8-C2B9H11 resulted in iminol 10-EtC(OH)HN-7,8-C2B9H11 which on treatment with a base gave the corresponding amide 10-EtC(O)HN-7,8-C2B9H11. The reactions of 10-EtCN-7,8-C2B9H11 with alcohols and thiols were found to give stable imidates and thioimidates 10-EtC(XR)HN-7,8-C2B9H11 (X = O, R = Me, Et, iPr, Bu; X = S, R = Et, Bu, Hx) as mixtures of E- and Z-isomers that were successfully separated by column chromatography. The crystal molecular structures of E-10-EtC(OR)HN-7,8-C2B9H11 (R = Et, i-Pr, Bu) and Z-10-EtC(SEt)HN-7,8-C2B9H11 were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction.


Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create share, exchange and comment contents among themselves in virtual communities and networks. Social media or "social networking" has almost become part of our daily lives and being tossed around over the past few years. It is like any other media such as newspaper, radio and television but it is far more than just about sharing information and ideas. Social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Blogs have facilitated creation and exchange of ideas so quickly and widely than the conventional media. This paper shows the choices, communication, feeling comfort, time saving and effects of social media among the people. Keywords—Media, Choice, Effect.


The inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate receptor (InsP3R) mediates Ca2+ release from intracellular stores in response to generation of second messenger InsP3. InsP3R was biochemically purified and cloned, and functional properties of native InsP3-gated Ca2+ channels were extensively studied. However, further studies of InsP3R are obstructed by the lack of a convenient functional assay of expressed InsP3R activity. To establish a functional assay of recombinant InsP3R activity, transient heterologous expression of neuronal rat InsP3R cDNA (InsP3R-I, SI− SII+ splice variant) in HEK-293 cells was combined with the planar lipid bilayer reconstitution experiments. Recombinant InsP3R retained specific InsP3 binding properties (K d = 60 nM InsP3) and were specifically recognized by anti–InsP3R-I rabbit polyclonal antibody. Density of expressed InsP3R-I was at least 20-fold above endogenous InsP3R background and only 2–3-fold lower than InsP3R density in rat cerebellar microsomes. When incorporated into planar lipid bilayers, the recombinant InsP3R formed a functional InsP3-gated Ca2+ channel with 80 pS conductance using 50 mM Ba2+ as a current carrier. Mean open time of recombinant InsP3-gated channels was 3.0 ms; closed dwell time distribution was double exponential and characterized by short (18 ms) and long (130 ms) time constants. Overall, gating and conductance properties of recombinant neuronal rat InsP3R-I were very similar to properties of native rat cerebellar InsP3R recorded in identical experimental conditions. Recombinant InsP3R also retained bell-shaped dependence on cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and allosteric modulation by ATP, similar to native cerebellar InsP3R. The following conclusions are drawn from these results. (a) Rat neuronal InsP3R-I cDNA encodes a protein that is either sufficient to produce InsP3-gated channel with functional properties identical to the properties of native rat cerebellar InsP3R, or it is able to form a functional InsP3-gated channel by forming a complex with proteins endogenously expressed in HEK-293 cells. (b) Successful functional expression of InsP3R in a heterologous expression system provides an opportunity for future detailed structure–function characterization of this vital protein.


Chagos Bank is a region of thick crust in the central Indian Ocean where a concentration of seismicity indicates that extension is ongoing. We have modeled bathymetry and gravity data to show that the crust-mantle boundary shallows near a seabed trough, consistent with a total extension of ~15 km over a zone ;50 km broad. This estimate is consistent with 5–10 m.y. of deformation at the present rate of relative India-Capricorn motion; the ~15 km of extension is toward the lower limit of the total extension expected from magnetic anomaly reconstructions, but would be accumulated in 1–3 m.y. in a regime having the present-day seismicity. We attribute the localization of seismicity beneath Chagos Bank to a weak rheology caused by its thick crust.


Despite reporting an overall normal life, survivors of heritable retinoblastoma face numerous physical and psychosocial issues. In particular, reproductive decision‐making is often complex and difficult. This study aims to examine survivors' reflections on passing on heritable retinoblastoma to their children, how survivors approach their reproductive choices, and how the healthcare system can optimize counseling and support. Semi‐structured interviews with Danish adult survivors of heritable retinoblastoma were qualitatively analyzed to explore their experiences. Participants were recruited from the Retinoblastoma Survivorship Clinic, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Thematic data analysis was conducted followed by a condensing process specifically for the subthemes relating to reproductive choices. A common subtheme for all participants was a strong wish to avoid passing on retinoblastoma to their children. The participants emphasized the various medical, practical, emotional, and moral issues impacting their final reproductive choice in the process of family planning to conceive a child unaffected by retinoblastoma. Some had no option other than to conceive naturally and hope for an unaffected baby; while others weighed the pros and cons of choosing natural conception with prenatal testing and then considering termination of pregnancy (in case of an affected fetus) versus choosing fertility treatment with preimplantation genetic testing to achieve an unaffected pregnancy. Several participants underlined the complexity of their decisions, and also expressed feelings of guilt, both toward their affected child, and guilt for putting their partner through many difficult decisions and obstacles due to their genetic condition. Our findings demonstrate how one family‐planning decision is not unequivocally "better" or easier than another. Healthcare professionals must provide the necessary information and tools to support the individual's unique decision‐making process. Survivors' autonomy and individual needs, as well as the numerous and diverse aspects of heritable retinoblastoma, should be carefully considered.


The prevalence of obesity is rapid across the world. Knowledge of the actual energy expenditure (EE) of walking and running can lead to a more precise exercise prescription which may lead to an obesity reduction or avoidance. Limited research has focused on EE during walking and running. Therefore, the aims of this study included developing ethnic based cross validated EE prediction equations for African American, Asian and Caucasian adults, and a multiple regression equation developed that included all three ethnic groups. Also, the energy expenditure among these three ethnic groups were compared. A total of 224 subjects, including 71 Caucasians, 68 African Americans and 85 Asians were recruited to test EE through indirect calorimetry. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for overall significance with post hoc Scheffe test to compare EE in three groups (normal weight walkers, overweight walkers and runners). Multiple regression analysis was employed for EE prediction, and a dependent t-test and Chow statistical test were used to cross-validate. The results showed that EE in runners was significantly higher than that in normal weight walkers in African Americans. When EE was expressed relative to body weight, similar difference was observed between walkers and runners in both African Americans and Asians. When EE was expressed relative to fat free mass, normal weight walkers expended less energy than runners, both among African Americans and Asians. Furthermore, EE in African Americans was significantly higher than that in Caucasians and in Asians. Three EE prediction equations were developed specifically for African Americans, Asians, and the three ethnic groups. Through cross-validation, all the three equations were valid and they were all recommended to apply for calculating EE during walking or running one mile. The overall prediction equation was: EE=0.978 BW-4.571 Gender (M=1, F=2)+3.524 Ethnicity (Caucasians=1, AA=2, Asians=3)+32.447 (R=0.77; SEE=12.5 kcal·mile).


This research proposes a method to reconstruct the 3D object model from 2D images. The reconstruction theorem this research used is based on the stereo vision algorithm. Stereo vision is one type of the non-contact scanning measurement. The theorem of the stereo vision were simulates the human's eyes to calculate the object's depth information. There for, this research uses two CCD Cameras to capture the object's 2D images. Then find out the match points from the left and right two images. To reconstruct the object's 3D model by using the match points, parameters of the CCD Cameras and transform matrix that between the world coordinate and camera coordinate. The object this research reconstructed belongs to simple geometry. There for, we can reconstruct the object's 3D model by the feature points of the object. The feature points always appear on edges and vertices. In this way we can reduce the number of the points we should reconstruct, so the system can build up the object's 3D model fast. The CCD Cameras unable to capture the whole object's surface information in once time, so this research proposes a method that rotates the object to solve this problem. The system combines the rotation model with the reconstruction system to reconstruct the complete object's 3D model.


Antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens have been shown to cause metabolic changes in people living with HIV (PLWH), predisposing them to cardiometabolic disease (CVMD). However, such evidence is less established in pregnant women living with HIV (pWLWH) on ART. Pregnancy-induced cardiometabolic risks (CMR) can predispose to unfavourable pregnancy outcomes and further persist in the postpartum period, resolve, and recur in subsequent pregnancies, or emerge as newly diagnosed chronic diseases of ageing. Therefore, this systematic review aimed at synthesizing evidence on CMR and perinatal outcomes among pWLWH in the era of ART. We considered prospective and retrospective cohorts, case-control, cross-sectional, and interventional studies published in English. Specific keywords were used to conduct a thorough literature search on PubMed-Medline and Scopus following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guideline. Two investigators independently screened the search outputs and reviewed full texts of potentially eligible articles. Data extraction was conducted by one investigator and verified by the second investigator. Thirty-one relevant studies conducted on 20,904 pWLWH on ART across Africa, Asia, Europe, and America were included. Studies demonstrate inconclusive findings, especially on perinatal outcomes, but significant risks of gestational hypertension and dyslipidemia were reported in pWLWH on ART compared to the control group. Therefore, future studies should focus more on these perinatal outcomes, and their impact on postpartum maternal health and growth trajectories of uninfected infants born from pWLWH who are either on ART or ART-naïve in comparison to infants born of HIV-negative mothers over the life course, especially in HIV-burdened African countries.


Methodological reflection on communication in archaeology greatly developed over the past fifteen years. It is now widely accepted that video-narrative medium has a larger potential compared with other media commonly used up to now. The archaeological video can be divided into some different categories - documentary, video update, docudrama - each of them potentially destined to a variety of audiences when the movie is inserted into a narrative framework. By its nature, the archaeological site of Vignale, where the relative poverty of the remains on the ground sharply contrasts with the richness of the 'stories' the site itself can narrate, is an ideal place to test the docudrama-model video. Initially intended to be just an instrument for communicating with and involving local population in the archaeological project as a whole, the video-narrative proved to be a powerful tool in stimulating the research group itself towards a more thoughtful and 'multivocal' recording of the fieldwork done. The output of the project was the making of a brief 'series' of videos, with the general title of 'The Excavation and its Stories. They were initially used as an educational support for younger students in archaeology, but later obtained a wider audience through the web.


In the UNIX/Linux environment the kernel can log every command process created by every user with process accounting. Thus process accounting logs have many potential uses, particularly the monitoring and forensic investigation of security events. Previous work successfully leveraged the use of process accounting logs to identify a difficult to detect and damaging intrusions within high performance computing (HPC) clusters, masquerade attacks, where intruders pose as legitimate users with purloined authentication credentials. This paper incrementally advances the goal of more accurately identifying masqueraders on HPC clusters by seeking to identify features within command sets that distinguish masqueraders. To accomplish this goal, we created NVision-PA, a software tool which produces text and graphic statistical summaries describing input processing accounting logs. This research is both a promising next step toward creating a real-time masquerade detection sensor for production HPC clusters as well as providing another tool for system administrators to use for statistically monitoring and managing legitimate workloads in HPC environments


We present the results from a spectroscopic study of 1080 nearby active M dwarfs, selected by correlating the Two Micron All Sky Survey and ROSAT catalogs. We have derived the spectral types and estimated distances for all of our stars. The spectral types range between K5 and M6. Nearly half of our stars lie within 50 pc. We have measured the equivalent width of the Hα emission line. Our targets show an increase in chromospheric activity from early to midspectral types, with a peak in activity around M5. Using the count rate and hardness ratios obtained from the ROSAT catalog, we have derived the X-ray luminosities. Our stars display a "saturation-type" relation between the chromospheric and coronal activity. The relation is such that log LX/Lbol remains "saturated" at a value of approximately -3 for varying Hα equivalent width. We have found 568 matches in the USNO-B catalog and have derived the tangential velocities for these stars. There is a slight trend of decreasing chromospheric activity with age, such that the stars with higher vtan have lower Hα equivalent widths. The coronal emission, however, remains saturated at a value of log LX/Lbol ∼ -3 for varying tangential velocities, suggesting that the coronal activity remains saturated with age. We do not find any break in the saturation-type relation at the spectral type at which stars become fully convective (∼M3.5). Most of the stars in our sample show more coronal emission than the dMe stars in the Hyades and Praesepe and have vtan < 40 km s-1, suggesting a young population.


The inhibitory properties of a selected number of β-lactam antibiotics were studied, with the use of three distinct types of β-lactamases. The three enzymes were found to be distinguishable on the basis of their susceptibility to inhibition. Not one of the potential inhibitors tested was found to be a potent inhibitor of all three enzymes, but nafcillin possessed the broadest inhibitory activity. The enzyme isolated from Enterobacter cloacae was found to be the most susceptible. In some cases, the degree of inhibition varied with the time of incubation, and, depending upon the time chosen, widely different observations could be made. It is suggested that, in studies such as these, every consideration should be given to the period of incubation and to the concentration of inhibitor employed. Mixtures of inhibitor and cephaloridine did not always act synergistically against growing bacteria, and a number of reasons for failure are suggested.


During the late war there was an urgent need for some objective test by which the presence and the degree of circulatory disability could be measured. The observations on which this paper is based were made in the attempt to supply this need. The great majority of men with organic heart disease were rejected before admission to the army, but under the regulations issued for the medical examination of drafted men, it was not possible to exclude those who suffered from the condition known as irritable heart, neurocirculatory asthenia or effort syndrome, though a considerable percentage was later found to be incapable of active service. In England, Lewis developed a series of graduated drills by which the capacity of these men for service could be estimated. I used this system of exercises at Camp Lewis, both in normal individuals and in cases of irritable heart, but after some months it


High silicon steel is used for electrical applications because its electrical resistivity is increased and the magnetostriction is reduced. A silicon content up to 6.5 wt.-% gives excellent magnetic properties. The improvement of the magnetic properties stays in contrast with the lack of ductility of these alloys, making their thermo-mechanical processing difficult. The optimum final microstructure and texture depends on the final application of the material: extremely big grains with a Goss orientation ({110} <001>) are desired in transformers and grains with an average size of 100 -m and cube component ({100} <001>) are used in electrical motors. A series of plane strain compression (PSC) tests were performed on 3 electrical steels, with a silicon content from 1.8 to 4.1 wt.-%, in a temperature range of 800 to 1100°C, strain rates between of 0.5 and 5 s-1. Reductions and time between deformation and quenching were also varied in order to study the recrystallisation progress. Apparent activation energies for hot working, calculated using the hyperbolic sine equation, was in good agreement with literature and higher than the activation energy for self diffusion in iron. These values increase with the silicon content. The high temperature texture evolution was investigated by means of electron back scattering Diffraction (EBSD) technique, which allows the quantification of important texture components in function of the thermo-mechanical parameters applied during hot rolling and the plane strain compression tests. The hot rolled microstructures have shown an average grain size of 140 -m and a texture with a maximum on the cube fibre ({001} <-1-10>). The conventional α (<110> // RD) / γ (<111> // ND) fibre texture was developed after plane strain compression and their intensities depend on the deformation temperature and reduction. A similar tendency was observed for the fraction of static recrystallised grains.


Abstract In October 2015, students from Kingston University, London designed and delivered 'Climate Customs', an open pop-up studio during London's Inside Out festival. Conceived and developed in association with Helen Storey Foundation, the studio aimed to test ways of capturing public responses to climate change and sustainability. Tasked with developing methods of public engagement, students devised a journey of participation to highlight the global implications of climate change – how it is likely to affect each and every one of us, albeit in different ways and at different rates in different parts of the world. Drawing on the results and outputs from the pop-up studio – including visitor, student, project initiator, and tutor perspectives – our paper considers questions of design for sustainability, design for engagement, and studio culture. It presents and reflects on the format and programme that the students devised, and considers implications of incorporating such approaches into wider design teaching practice.


6-Carbethoxy-5-(3'-bromophenyl)-3-aryl-2-cyclohexenones 2a-j were obtained from the1-Aryl-3-(3'-bromophenyl)-2-propene-1-ones 1a-j by Micheal addition of ethyl acetoacetate, followed by internal Claisen condensation. Reaction of 2a-j with hydrazine hydrate afforded the corresponding 6-Aryl-4-(3'-bromophenyl)-3oxo-2,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-2H-indazoles 3a-j. The structures of newly synthesized compounds were established on the basis of elemental analyses, IR, NMR and Mass spectral data. The pharmacological evaluations were performed for their anticancer, antitubercular and antimicrobial activities.


ABSTRACT Zhong, Z.; Yang S., and Duan, Y., 2018. Sustainable development of typhoon prone coastal areas based on SD model. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 754–769. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Sustainable development systems are a dynamic and complicated large systems, that can both be modestly destroyed and restrained by typhoon disasters. System dynamics can be used to study the problems of sustainable development. In this study, based on the theory of sustainable development and targeting typhoon disaster events in Leizhou Peninsula of China, we selected four subsystems (economy, population, environment, and water resource) using the background of typhoon disasters to empirically analyze the effectiveness and practicability of simulation models. Based on this, the restricting factors for sustainable development of the Leizhou Peninsula were assessed via scenario analysis. It was found that typhoon disasters introduced both benefits and harms to the economic development. The existing environmental protection investment did not meet the demands for social development, and the supply-demand contradiction of water resources remained severe. To promote sustainable development of the Leizhou Peninsula, the government has to adjust industrial structure, increase environmental investment, preserve water resources, and improve water quality.


Vast agricultural areas are affected by flooding causing up to 80% yield reduction and resulting in multibillion dollar losses. In recent years, the occurrence of flooding has increased though human activities, especially in agricultural systems with poor drainage. Therefore, waterlogging stress is becoming one of the main challenge of the modern agriculture. Of all the cereals, barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a widely adaptable crop, which is ranked fourth among grains in quantity produced behind maize (Zea mays L.), rice (Oryza sativa L,) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L,). The less complex barley genome also makes it a useful species to understand physiological and molecular aspects of plant adaptation to the flooding stress and to improve their adaptive abilities to confront environmental constrains.
Waterlogging tolerance is a complex trait affected by various factors including soil characteristics, temperature, plant developmental stage, microbe activities and oxygen availability. Understanding the mechanisms of waterlogging tolerance make it possible for plant breeders to target individual physiological traits and create barley breeding materials with enhanced waterlogging tolerance. Up to now, the focus of plant breeders was predominantly on alleviating detrimental effects of anoxia, while other (potentially equally important) traits were essentially neglected. One of these is the soil elemental toxicity. Excess water triggers a progressive decrease in the soil redox potential, thus increasing the concentrations of Mn2\(^+\) and Fe2\(^+\) that can be toxic to plants, when exceeding a threshold concentration. Cellular detoxification and exclusion are the main strategies for plants to resist excess ion concentration in soil. However, specific details of their coordination and the relative contribution of these components towards manganese toxicity tolerance in barley have not been fully revealed. Besides, the linkage between ion toxicity tolerance and waterlogging stress tolerance is still poorly understood, although tolerance to one or more elemental toxicities can be an essential trait to improve plant performance in waterlogged soils.
Accordingly, the major aim of this PhD project was to investigate the physiological and molecular aspects of manganese toxicity tolerance associated with waterlogging stress tolerance. The following specific objectives were addressed:
To quantify the relative contribution of Mn2\(^+\) toxicity to waterlogging stress tolerance;
To develop a rapid screening method and screen a large number of barley varieties;
To identify QTLs controlling tolerance to manganese toxicity in barley associated with tolerance of waterlogging stress;
To investigate physiological and molecular mechanisms conferring manganese
tolerance.
Working along these lines, a broad range of barley (Hordeum vulgare and Hordeum spontaneum L.) genotypes contrasting in waterlogging stress tolerance were used to investigate its linkage with manganese toxicity tolerance. In total, twenty barley genotypes (including three wild barleys) contrasting in waterlogging stress tolerance were studied for their ability to cope with the toxic (1 mM) amounts of Mn2\(^+\) in the root rhizosphere. Under Mn2\(^+\) toxicity, chlorophyll content of most waterlogging-tolerant genotypes (TX9425, Yerong, CPI-71284-48 and CM72) remained above 60% of the control value, whereas sensitive genotypes (Franklin and Naso Nijo) had a chlorophyll content less than 35% of the control. Manganese concentration in leaves was not related to visual Mn2\(^+\) toxicity symptoms, suggesting that various Mn2\(^+\) tolerance mechanisms might have operated in different tolerant genotypes, i.e. avoidance versus tissue tolerance. The overall significant (r = 0.60) correlation between tolerances to Mn2\(^+\) toxicity and waterlogging in barley suggests that plant breeding for tolerance to waterlogging traits may be advanced by targeting mechanisms conferring tolerance to Mn2\(^+\) toxicity, at least in this species.
Direct selection (using only agronomic traits) for stress tolerance is easily affected by environments thus less effective. Marker assisted selection (MAS) could provide an indirect selection process which can effectively reveal distinct genetic differences but not merely on trait itself. Therefore, further studies were conducted in specific doubled-haploid populations to determine whether the same genes are responsible for Mn2\(^+\) and waterlogging tolerance. A total of 177 lines from Yerong/Franklin population were used to identify QTL conferring Mn2\(^+\) tolerance and another 188 DH lines from TX9425/Naso Nijo were used to validate the QTL identified in the Yerong/Franklin population. Seven QTLs were identified from these two populations. Among all, four QTL controlling plant survival under manganese toxicity determined almost 40% of phenotypic variation. Two significant QTL for leaf chlorosis were identified at a similar position as those for plant survival on chromosome 3H and 6H, explaining 22.1% and 7.5% of phenotypic variation respectively. In the TX9425/Naso Nijo DH population, only one significant QTL accounting for plant survival was identified which was located at a same position on chromosome 3H as the major QTL identified in the Yerong/Franklin DH population. Based on the major QTL on chromosome 3H, three candidate genes (POD, KAT3, HMA) for this QTL were identified, suggesting antioxidant system and potassium transport might play a substantial role in coping with manganese toxicity.
We then used the MIFE (microelectrode ion flux measurement) technique to study some aspects of manganese stress signalling, focusing on K\(^+\) transport (as per about QTL findings). K\(^+\) retention plays a pivotal role in conferring many abiotic stress tolerances in plants. In this work, ten selected barley genotypes were used to study Mn-induced changes in K\(^+\) transport. These fluxes were then related to appropriate changes in fluxes of Ca2\(^+\)+ (a known second messenger) and H\(^+\) (a proxy for H\(^+\)-ATPase activity). All genotypes responded to Mn treatment by net K\(^+\) influx, while net Ca2\(^+\) and H\(^+\) efflux was observed after adding 1 mM Mn2\(^+\). No significant difference among genotypes was found. Several inhibitors were used to understand the specific signal pathway affected by manganese. Manganese-induced K\(^+\) uptake and Ca2\(^+\) efflux were significantly inhibited by TEA (a blocker of K\(^+\) channels) and vanadate (H\(^+\)-ATPase inhibitor). However, a significant K\(^+\) and Ca2\(^+\) leakage was measured in DPI-pretreated root when applied Mn treatment, suggesting that NADPH-oxidase may play an essential role in regulating Mn uptake. High manganese concentration did not significantly affect net Ca2\(^+\) flux and net K\(^+\) flux in Gd3\(^+\), La3\(^+\) or TG (thapsigargin, endomembrane Ca2\(^+\) channel inhibitor) pretreated roots. The above results suggest that both non-selective cation channels and Ca2\(^+\)/H\(^+\) exchangers contribute to manganese uptake and transport in barley roots. Hypoxic conditions also trigger a burst in reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in a significant K\(^+\) efflux. This work has shown that hypoxia enhanced sensitivity to exogenous H\(_2\)O\(_2\) while additional Mn ion efficiently alleviated the impact of hypoxia on intracellular K\(^+\) homeostasis. The reported up-regulated expression of HAK gene also suggests that manganese may play an important role by signalling K\(^+\) deficiency and enabling plants with mechanisms for better K\(^+\) retention to confront stress.
In conclusion, this project has found that different barley genotypes adopt different strategies to resist manganese toxicity. Both exclusion and internal tolerance mechanisms contribute to Mn2\(^+\) tolerance. Tolerance to Mn2\(^+\) showed a significant positive correlation with waterlogging tolerance. However, Mn2\(^+\) does not appear to be toxic in roots. The ability of roots to retain K\(^+\) was proven to be one of the key traits conferring tolerance to numerous stress. Mn was able to trigger a hyperpolarisation of the plasma membrane, leading to significant K\(^+\) uptake. NADPH oxidase-mediated apoplastic H\(_2\)O\(_2\) production may be causally related to ROS inducible Ca2\(^+\) uptake systems contributing to Mn uptake. Also, HvHAK5 transporter was found to be involved in maintenance of K\(^+\) content in root, which was identified at the major QTL on chromosome 3H associated with manganese toxicity. This QTL could therefore be used in breeding programs to enhance bothmanganese toxicity tolerance and waterlogging tolerance.


Shape analysis has become of increasing interest to the neuroimaging community due to its potential to precisely locate morphological changes between healthy and pathological structures. This manuscript presents a comprehensive set of tools for the computation of 3D structural statistical shape analysis. It has been applied in several studies on brain morphometry, but can potentially be employed in other 3D shape problems. Its main limitations is the necessity of spherical topology. The input of the proposed shape analysis is a set of binary segmentation of a single brain structure, such as the hippocampus or caudate. These segmentations are converted into a corresponding spherical harmonic description (SPHARM), which is then sampled into a triangulated surfaces (SPHARM-PDM). After alignment, differences between groups of surfaces are computed using the Hotelling T2 two sample metric. Statistical p-values, both raw and corrected for multiple comparisons, result in significance maps. Additional visualization of the group tests are provided via mean difference magnitude and vector maps, as well as maps of the group covariance information. The correction for multiple comparisons is performed via two separate methods that each have a distinct view of the problem. The first one aims to control the family-wise error rate (FWER) or false-positives via the extrema histogram of non-parametric permutations. The second method controls the false discovery rate and results in a less conservative estimate of the false-negatives. Prior versions of this shape analysis framework have been applied already to clinical studies on hippocampus and lateral ventricle shape in adult schizophrenics. The novelty of this submission is the use of the Hotelling T2 two-sample group difference metric for the computation of a template free statistical shape analysis. Template free group testing allowed this framework to become independent of any template choice, as well as it improved the sensitivity of our method considerably. In addition to our existing correction methodology for the multiple comparison problem using non-parametric permutation tests, we have extended the testing framework to include False Discovery Rate (FDR). FDR provides a significance correction with higher sensitivity while allowing a expected minimal amount of false-positives compared to our prior testing scheme.


This study investigates risk and time preferences of small-scale cattle farmers in West Africa and examines how demographic and socio-economic characteristics are related to these preferences. Using a maximum likelihood approach we jointly estimate risk and time preferences. Our findings show that, overall the West African cattle farmer shows poor performance in using probability information and is generally risk averse. The average cattle farmers' time preferences indicate a higher degree of patience than expected. We also find that income, education, and religion are highly correlated with risk and time preferences.


We investigate bacterial chemotactic strategies using run-tumble and run-reverse-flick motility patterns. The former is typically observed in enteric bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella, and the latter is observed in marine bacteria Vibrio alginolyticus and possibly exhibited by other polar flagellated species. It is shown that while the 3-step motility pattern helps the bacterium to localize near hot spots, an exploitative behavior, its exploratory potential in short times can be significantly enhanced by employing a non-Poissonian regulation scheme for its flagellar motor switches.

We also explored the interaction of polymer solutions with Vibrio alginolyticus. As the polymer concentrations increase, the flick of Vibrio alginolyticus is suppressed by the surrounding media. Two theoretical models are developed to explain the interaction, which confirms non-Poissonian property of Vibrio alginolyticus swimming interval distribution and reveals that motor fluctuations can be modeled with a damped harmonic oscillator. The motor fluctuations are coupled with the viscoelastic environment so that a "resonance-like" effect of the directional autocorrelation function of swimming bacteria can be observed. On the other hand, we only see the decreasing of swimming speed with increasing polymer concentration, which is different from the non-monotonic results of E. coli observed by Martinez et al. The swimming speed vs. concentration of polymer solutions shows a scaling law.


Objectives: To compare (1) absolute and (2) weight-specific blood flow volume of uterine arteries (UtA) in normal twin pregnancies to normal singleton pregnancies. Methods: Twelve twin pregnancies (10 dichorionic, two monochorionic) with normal UtA PI and normal weight at birth were included. UtA diameter and time-averaged maximum velocity were obtained to calculate flow (mL/min) and UtA flow/EFW (mL/min/kg) in each UtA. UtA flow was estimated by the formula Q = hV · πD2/4; a patient-specific coefficient, h, was obtained by an ad hoc mathematical model. Total UtA flow was calculated as a sum of right and left vessel flow volume. Twins' UtA flow was expressed per unit EFW considering the sum of the two EFWs. Twins were compared to 48 normal age-matched singletons. Results: Gestational age at exam was similar in twins and in singletons (25.9 ± 6.4 vs. 25.2 ± 6.2 weeks, NS). UtA flow (mL/min) was significantly increased in twins (509.3 ± 240.7 mL/min) compared to singletons (337.2 ± 257.0 mL/min) (P = 0.04). UtA flow (mL/min) exponentially increased along gestation in twins and in singletons. The twins' trend was above the third interquartile range of singletons' reference values. UtA diameter was significantly increased in twins (0.33 ± 0.07 cm) than in singletons (0.28 ± 0.05 cm), while no differences in UtA mean velocity were observed (77.5 ± 29.9 vs. 76.7 ± 29.1 cm/sec, respectively, NS). UtA flow per EFW did not differ between twins and singletons (384.4 ± 198.6 vs. 460.9 ± 302.9 mL/min/kg, respectively, NS). Conclusions: (1) UtA flow volume (mL/min) in twin pregnancies was significantly increased. This was determined by larger vessel diameter, compared to singletons. (2) Each twin proved to share an amount of UtA flow per unit estimated fetal weight not significantly different from singletons.


The ultimate purpose with socially intelligent agent (SIA) technology is not to simulate social intelligence per se, but to let an agent give an impression of social intelligence. Such user-centred SIA technology, must consider the everyday knowledge and expectations by which users make sense of real, fictive, or artificial social beings. This folk-theoretical understanding of other social beings involves several, rather independent levels such as expectations on behavior, expectations on primitive psychology, models of folk-psychology, understanding of traits, social roles, and empathy. The framework presented here allows one to analyze and reconstruct users' understanding of existing and future SIAs, as well as specifying the levels SIA technology models in order to achieve an impression of social intelligence.


The EPSRC pilot project Meeting the Design Challenges of NanoCMOS Electronics (nanoCMOS) began in October 2006 and is focused upon tackling the decreasing scale of modern semiconductor components. This scaling has direct impact upon the complete circuit and system electronics design process due to the variability in transistor behaviour caused by differences in atomic structure. To address these challenges, the project has focused upon large scale device simulations exploiting a wide variety of computational resources. This paper focuses on the approach adopted for managing the many hundreds of thousands of files being generated that are associated with these simulations. Specific challenges in achieving this are related to the fine grained security demanded in protecting intellectual property of data and metadata, and the seamless linkage of metadata associated with services. We believe that this data architecture has widespread applicability to many research areas.


Initially, it was hoped that resistant starches (ie, starches that enter the colon) would have clear advantages in the reduction of colon cancer risk and possibly the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Recent studies have confirmed the ability of resistant starch to increase fecal bulk, to increase the molar ratio of butyrate in relation to other short-chain fatty acids, and to dilute fecal bile acids. However, reduction in fecal ammonia, phenols, and N-nitroso compounds have not been achieved. At this point the picture from the standpoint of colon cancer risk reduction is not clear. Nevertheless, there is a fraction of what has been termed resistant starch (RS1), which enters the colon and acts as slowly digested, or lente, carbohydrate. Foods in this class are low glycemic index and have been shown to reduce the risk of chronic disease. They have been associated with systemic physiologic effects such as reduced postprandial insulin levels and higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Consumption of low glycemic index foods has been shown to be related to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes has in turn been related to a higher risk of colon cancer, especially colon cancer deaths. If carbohydrate has a protective role in colon cancer prevention, it may lie in the systemic effects of low glycemic index foods. The colonic advantages of different carbohydrates, therefore, remain to be documented. However, there is reason for optimism about the possible health advantages of so-called resistant starches that are slowly digested in the small intestine.


Mike Kirby, Visiting Professor, The Prostate Centre, London, writes the 'Message for the clinic'. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Interface Ltd


Banking Industry has transitioned very well from traditional offline practices to mainstream online practices. It is thus really important to measure customer satisfaction with the online banking services provided by Indian Banks from time to time. Six Indian Banks were considered for our research study out of which 3 were private sector banks and 3 were public sector banks. We used the E-ServQual method to measure the service quality of online banking services and a total of 204 responses were collected from the respondents for our study. The 5 Service quality dimensions i.e., Reliability, Responsiveness, Efficiency, Security, and Convenience have a significant contribution towards determining the overall satisfaction of customers in using online banking services. Convenience has the highest impact on the satisfaction of customers on online banking usage, followed by Responsiveness and Reliability of the services. Most people prefer Ease of Use and Reduced Time of transactions as primary factors to use online banking. While the youngsters prefer the Quality of Service attribute of the bank the most, the old age people prefer the trust part of the bank the most. The old age or people from Baby Boomers generation value that trust-building with the bank is very necessary. Also, the old age people are less familiar with online banking and its services compared to the young generations.


BACKGROUND
Since 1993, the American College of Surgeons has sponsored an annual 6-day course entitled the Surgeons as Educators. The course was designed to provide academic surgeons with the knowledge and skills necessary to enhance the surgical education curriculum, teaching strategies, educational program administration, and performance evaluation. This article describes the development, implementation, and effect of the course on the classes graduating in 1993 and 1994.

STUDY DESIGN
The effect of the course was studied by using a longitudinal survey approach. A survey was mailed to participants 3 to 6 months after they completed the course. Graduates were asked to describe any education-related actions taken attributable to attending the Surgeons as Educators course. The quality of course content and presentations were evaluated by using end-of-course evaluation forms and daily feedback forms and by an external reviewer.

RESULTS
Within 6 months of returning from the course, more than one half of the graduates initiated actions related to curriculum development, teaching strategies, or educational administration. One third or more of the graduates modified their performance and program evaluation systems. Using a five-point scale, ratings of the course content ranged from 3.78 to 4.64 for "value of topic" and from 3.77 to 4.76 for "quality of presentation." Items evaluated by the graduates on the end-of-course evaluation forms ranged from 7.8 to 8.7 on a nine-point scale.

CONCLUSIONS
The Surgeons as Educators course offered an opportunity for participants to interact among themselves and with course faculty about educational issues and to practice teaching skills. The course was highly rated for educational quality and value. The retreat environment and the length of the program helped attendees become immersed during this "protected time" to analyze strengths and weaknesses of their programs and devise achievable plans to improve their abilities as educators and the effectiveness of their programs.