The International Monetary Fund (IMF), conceived at the Bretton Woods conference in July 1944, has become the focal point of the international monetary system. Created in 1946 with 46 members, it has grown to include 184 countries. The IMF has six purposes that are outlined in Article I of the IMF Articles of Agreement. They are the promotion of international monetary cooperation; the expansion and balanced growth of international trade; exchange rate stability; the elimination of restrictions on the international flow of capital; insuring confidence by making the general resources of the Fund temporarily available to members; and the orderly adjustment of balance of payment (BOP) imbalances. At the Bretton Woods conference, the IMF was tasked with coordinating the system of fixed exchange rates to help the international economy recover from two world wars and the instability in the interwar period caused by competitive devaluations and protectionist trade policies. From 1946 until 1973, the IMF managed the 'par value adjustable peg' system. The U.S. dollar was fixed to gold at $35 per ounce, and all other member countries' currencies were fixed to the dollar at different rates. This system of fixed rates ended in 1973 when the United States removed itself from the gold standard. Floating exchange rates and more open capital markets in the 1990s created a new agenda for the IMF - the resolution of frequent and volatile international financial crises. The Asian financial crisis of 1997-8 and subsequent crises in Russia and Latin America revealed many weaknesses of the world monetary system. To better help it achieve its overall goal of promoting a stable international monetary system, the IMF's format has changed dramatically since it was created in 1945. Designed initially to provide short-term balance of payments (BOP) lending and monitor member countries' macroeconomic policies, the IMF has steadily incorporated microeconomic factors such as institutional and structural reforms into its activities. These had been seen previously as the exclusive province of the World Bank and other development agencies. The IMF found that, in order to pursue its core responsibilities in the changed world economy, it needed to pay greater attention to second generation reforms, as economists call these sorts of issues. IMF member countries agreed on a quota increase in 1997. The U.S. Congress subsequently appropriated additional funding for the IMF in October 1998 in the midst of the Asian financial crises, a decision that engendered considerable debate in light of growing criticism of the IMF and its lending practices. In 2002, the IMF did not request any additional increase in funding. Although appropriations of new funds for the IMF is not pending, Congress exercises oversight authority over U.S. policy at the IMF and over its lending practices. This report supports congressional oversight of the IMF by providing an understanding of its organization, functions, and role in the world economy. This report will be updated only if major events and new developments require.


To be an effective designer in today's job market, students must be equipped with more than just technical skills. Today's design leaders know how to engage with other cultures and understand how to approach the wicked problems of the 21st century. By 2020 Australia and many other countries in the Asia Pacific region will have a large imbalance of citizens over the age of 65. The impact of this population imbalance in both Australia and abroad will be profound. More robust health services will need to be implemented and considerations for housing, community interaction and dealing with new technologies will need to be adapted to suit the needs of this growing population. To teach students how to approach and address this issue we believe that a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach is necessary. In June 2017, 27 students from the disciplines Graphic, Web and Industrial Design, as well as Nursing, from four Australian states (VIC ACT, NSW and QLD) travelled to Singapore to work with 47 Singaporean and Hong Kong students from the areas of Public Health, Nursing, Built Environment, Visual Communications and Product Design. Students explored the concept of "design for healthy ageing in multicultural societies" through an extensive research report and in site visits, lectures and intensive workshops and then designed strategies and prototypes for new technologies and approaches around key issues such as social isolation, dealing with new technologies, dementia care, mobility issues, residential care, and community engagement. This paper outlines our process and the benefits of this approach.


Oleyl amine capped CdSe quantum dots (QD) were synthesised by hot injection technique. These QDs formed a self-assembled monolayer on an aqueous subphase of a Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) trough. Here, in this report we introduced a simple but very efficient route to form a metal (Au)–QD hybrid nanostructure via the LB technique. In this method, the metal counterpart of the hybrid nanostructure could be deposited exclusively on one side of the QDs. The formation of stable monolayer of QDs was evidenced from a surface pressure–area (Π–A) isotherm. The development of gold tip was confirmed and monitored by detailed TEM study on the monolayer deposited on TEM grids from the LB trough. Other characterizations like UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, XPS and EDX also suggested the same. Oleyl amine was shown to act both as a reducing agent as well as a capping agent in this strategy.


This study examines the linkages between energy price and food prices over the period 2000–2016 by using a Panel-VAR model in the case of eight Asian economies, namely Bangladesh, the PRC, Indonesia, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Our results confirm that energy price (oil price) has a significant impact on food prices. According to the results of impulse response functions, agricultural food prices respond positively to any shock from oil prices. Furthermore, the findings from variance decomposition reveal that shares of oil prices in agricultural food price volatilities are the largest. In the second period 4.81%, and in the 20th period 62.49%, of food price variance is explained by oil price movements. The paper opens up new policy insight. Since inflation in oil price is harmful for food security, particularly in vulnerable economies, it would be necessary to diversify the energy consumption in this sector, from too much reliance on fossil fuels to an optimal combination of renewable and nonrenewable energy resources. In addition, the paper found that the impact of biofuel prices on food prices is statistically significant but explains less than 2% of the food price variance. However, by increasing the demand for biofuel, especially in advanced countries, there should be more concern about the global increase in agricultural commodities prices and endangering food security, especially in vulnerable economies.


As the sensors of many magnetometers, such as SQUID magnetometers, are not directly accessible, their spatial location is often known only approximately. To be able to position such sensors more accurately, a novel measuring setup has been developed to determine the sensor location by means of magnetic measurements. The system has a resolution of better than 0.1 mm. It can be used with virtually any magnetometer that is capable of working in inhomogeneous fields. Measurements with SQUIDs inside two different commercial Dewars yielded out-of-axis sensor displacements of 1.6 mm and 7.5 mm, which show clearly that the performing of such measurements is essential in experiments where the exact sensor location could be crucial.


Abstract. Mammalian species in northern Australia are declining. The resources that many species from this region require to persist in the landscape remain poorly understood. We examined habitat selection and diet of the scaly-tailed possum (Wyulda squamicaudata, hereafter called Wyulda) in the north-west Kimberley, Western Australia, in relation to variation in complexity of rocky habitat, habitat heterogeneity, and recent fire history. We fitted GPS tags to 23 Wyulda between January 2013 and February 2014 and analysed step selection between GPS fixes to describe habitat choice. We assessed diet by microscopic analysis of plant fragments from 47 faecal samples. Individual Wyulda preferentially foraged in locations with high rock complexity and high habitat heterogeneity in a wide variety of habitats, but denned exclusively in complex rock piles. They used savannas of a range of post-fire ages, including recently burnt (1–2 months after fire) and long unburnt (>24 months after fire). They were highly frugivorous with, on average, 77% of plant fragments per scat sample identified as fruit epidermal layers. Overall, rock complexity appears to be an important landscape attribute for Wyulda, as it may provide den sites and protect fire-sensitive landscape features such as fruiting trees and habitat heterogeneity.


Heterotopic pancreas is a congenital anomaly in which pancreatic tissue is anatomically separate from the main gland. The most common locations of this displacement include the upper gastrointestinal tract-specifically, the stomach, duodenum, and proximal jejunum. Less common sites are the esophagus, ileum, Meckel diverticulum, biliary tree, mesentery, and spleen. Uncomplicated heterotopic pancreas is typically asymptomatic, with the lesion being discovered incidentally during an unrelated surgery, during an imaging examination, or at autopsy. The most common computed tomographic appearance of heterotopic pancreas is that of a small oval intramural mass with microlobulated margins and an endoluminal growth pattern. The attenuation and enhancement characteristics of these lesions parallel their histologic composition. Acinus-dominant lesions demonstrate avid homogeneous enhancement after intravenous contrast material administration, whereas duct-dominant lesions are hypovascular and heterogeneous. At magnetic resonance imaging, the heterotopic pancreas is isointense to the orthotopic pancreas, with characteristic T1 hyperintensity and early avid enhancement after intravenous gadolinium-based contrast material administration. Heterotopic pancreatic tissue has a rudimentary ductal system in which an orifice is sometimes visible at imaging as a central umbilication of the lesion. Complications of heterotopic pancreas include pancreatitis, pseudocyst formation, malignant degeneration, gastrointestinal bleeding, bowel obstruction, and intussusception. Certain complications may be erroneously diagnosed as malignancy. Paraduodenal pancreatitis is thought to be due to cystic degeneration of heterotopic pancreatic tissue in the medial wall of the duodenum. Recognizing the characteristic imaging features of heterotopic pancreas aids in differentiating it from cancer and thus in avoiding unnecessary surgery. © RSNA, 2017.


Abstract. This paper presents the development of the European Flood Alert System (EFAS), which aims at increasing preparedness for floods in trans-national European river basins by providing local water authorities with medium-range and probabilistic flood forecasting information 3 to 10 days in advance. The EFAS research project started in 2003 with the development of a prototype at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), in close collaboration with the national hydrological and meteorological services. The prototype covers the whole of Europe on a 5 km grid. In parallel, different high-resolution data sets have been collected for the Elbe and Danube river basins, allowing the potential of the system under optimum conditions and on a higher resolution to be assessed. Flood warning lead-times of 3–10 days are achieved through the incorporation of medium-range weather forecasts from the German Weather Service (DWD) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), comprising a full set of 51 probabilistic forecasts from the Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) provided by ECMWF. The ensemble of different hydrographs is analysed and combined to produce early flood warning information, which is disseminated to the hydrological services that have agreed to participate in the development of the system. In Part 1 of this paper, the scientific approach adopted in the development of the system is presented. The rational of the project, the system�s set-up, its underlying components, basic principles and products are described. In Part 2, results of a detailed statistical analysis of the performance of the system are shown, with regard to both probabilistic and deterministic forecasts.


Soil temperature measurements from a climate monitoring network in Puerto Rico were evaluated and the difference between mean summer and mean winter soil temperature, known as isotivity value, was calculated. Air and soil temperature was collected from five weather stations of the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service from sea level to 1,019 m above sea level and from different soil moisture regimes. Isotivity values ranged from 1.2 to 3.9° C with an average of 2.6° C. The 750-m elevation was identified as the limit between the isohyperthermic and isothermic soil temperature regimes in the perudic soil moisture regime in Puerto Rico. The greatest differences between mean annual soil temperature and mean annual air temperature were observed at Guanica, Combate and Guilarte (2.1 ° C) stations. The smallest differences were observed at Maricao (0.8° C) and Isabela (1.8° C) stations. The study also indicated that the mean annual soil temperature in Puerto Rico can be estimated by adding 1.8° C to the mean annual air temperature or by the equation y = -0.007x + 28.0° C. The equation indicates that 97 percent of the time the behavior of the mean annual soil temperature is a function of elevation. According to the updated soil temperature regime boundaries, eight soil series were established in the Soil Survey of San German Area. In an area under the isothermic soil temperature regime, four soil series were classified as Oxisols (Haploperox), two soil series as Inceptisols (Eutrudepts) and two soil series as Mollisols (Argiudolls). This is the first field recognition of the Haploperox soil great group in the United States and its territories.


Cardiac glycosides (CGs) are natural compounds sharing the ability to operate as potent inhibitors of the plasma membrane Na+/K+-ATPase, hence promoting—via an indirect mechanism—the intracellular accumulation of Ca2+ ions. In cardiomyocytes, increased intracellular Ca2+ concentrations exert prominent positive inotropic effects, that is, they increase myocardial contractility. Owing to this feature, two CGs, namely digoxin and digitoxin, have extensively been used in the past for the treatment of several cardiac conditions, including distinct types of arrhythmia as well as contractility disorders. Nowadays, digoxin is approved by the FDA and indicated for the treatment of congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter with rapid ventricular response, whereas the use of digitoxin has been discontinued in several Western countries. Recently, CGs have been suggested to exert potent antineoplastic effects, notably as they appear to increase the immunogenicity of dying cancer cells. In this Trial Watch, we summarize the mechanisms that underpin the unsuspected anticancer potential of CGs and discuss the progress of clinical studies that have evaluated/are evaluating the safety and efficacy of CGs for oncological indications.


Habituation is a basic process of learning in which repeated exposure to a sensory stimulus leads to a decrease in the strength of neuronal activations and behavioral responses. In addition to increases in neuronal activity, sensory stimuli can also lead to decreases in neuronal activity. Until now, the effects of habituation on stimulus‐induced neuronal deactivations have not been investigated. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging in 30 healthy subjects during repetitive unilateral somatosensory stimulation and combined this analysis with a psychophysiological examination of changes in the perception threshold. Consistent with the literature, we found a time‐dependent decrease of the positive blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) response (indicative of habituation) in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) contralateral to the stimulus. In contrast, the negative BOLD response (NBR) in the ipsilateral SI did not show a decrease in amplitude; instead, an increase in amplitude was found, i.e., a stronger NBR (increased response). The increased NBR was associated with an increased perception threshold of the nonstimulated hand. These findings suggest that habituation is not primarily characterized by a decrease in the neuronal response to repeated stimuli but rather a widespread change in the balance between excitatory and inhibitory effects that favors inhibitory effects. Hum Brain Mapp 35:152–160, 2014. © 2012 Wiley‐Periodicals, Inc.


In this paper, we endeavor to restore Mꜣꜥt 'Maat' as truth to her rightful place by challenging erroneous and demonstrably incorrect notions as they appear in Ataa Ayi Kwei Armah's Wat Nt Shemsw: The Way of Companions. By cross-referencing Ataa Armah's vague allusions to "ancient Egyptian" mythology with actual textual documentation from Kmt 'Black Nation/Land of Blacks' (so-called "ancient Egypt"), we will interrogate the assertions made about the myths of the kmt(yw) 'Black people'. We find that where Ataa Armah's statements are at odds with the texts of Kmt 'Black Nation/Land of Blacks,' it is necessary to bring this information to light so that the readers can learn the actual content of these myths for themselves. In conclusion, we find that to truly understand Kmt 'Black Nation/Land of Blacks,' Afrikan champions interested in restoring the truth of Mꜣꜥt 'Maat' must let the Ancestors speak without Eurasian interpreters or interpretations.


With a global prevalence of 9%, diabetes is the direct cause of millions of deaths each year and is quickly becoming a health crisis. Major long-term complications of diabetes arise from persistent oxidative stress and dysfunction in multiple metabolic pathways. The most serious complications involve vascular damage and include cardiovascular disease as well as microvascular disorders such as nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy. Current clinical analyses like glycated hemoglobin and plasma glucose measurements hold some value as prognostic indicators of the severity of complications, but investigations into the underlying pathophysiology are still lacking. Advancements in biotechnology hold the key to uncovering new pathways and establishing therapeutic targets. Metabolomics, the study of small endogenous molecules, is a powerful toolset for studying pathophysiological processes and has been used to elucidate metabolic signatures of diabetes in various biological systems. Current challenges in the field involve correlating these biomarkers to specific complications to provide a better prediction of future risk and disease progression. This review will highlight the progress that has been made in the field of metabolomics including technological advancements, the identification of potential biomarkers, and metabolic pathways relevant to macro- and microvascular diabetic complications.


The cell surface glycoprotein P-cadherin is highly expressed in a number of malignancies, including those arising in the epithelium of the bladder, breast, esophagus, lung, and upper aerodigestive system. PCA062 is a P-cadherin specific antibody–drug conjugate that utilizes the clinically validated SMCC-DM1 linker payload to mediate potent cytotoxicity in cell lines expressing high levels of P-cadherin in vitro, while displaying no specific activity in P-cadherin–negative cell lines. High cell surface P-cadherin is necessary, but not sufficient, to mediate PCA062 cytotoxicity. In vivo, PCA062 demonstrated high serum stability and a potent ability to induce mitotic arrest. In addition, PCA062 was efficacious in clinically relevant models of P-cadherin–expressing cancers, including breast, esophageal, and head and neck. Preclinical non-human primate toxicology studies demonstrated a favorable safety profile that supports clinical development. Genome-wide CRISPR screens reveal that expression of the multidrug-resistant gene ABCC1 and the lysosomal transporter SLC46A3 differentially impact tumor cell sensitivity to PCA062. The preclinical data presented here suggest that PCA062 may have clinical value for treating patients with multiple cancer types including basal-like breast cancer.


DEER-VEHICLE COLLISIONS by SHARON ANN VALITZSKI (Under the Direction of Karl V. Miller and Robert J. Warren) ABSTRACT I evaluated the efficacy of sound as a deterrent for reducing deer-vehicle collisions by observing the behavioral response of captive and free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to a range of sound frequencies within their hearing range. Captive deer exhibited no behavioral response when exposed to any of 5 different pure-tone sound treatments. I then evaluated the effects of a moving automobile fitted with a sound-producing device and speakers on roadway behavior of free-ranging deer. My results indicated that deer within 10 m of roadways did not alter their behavior in response to any of the 5 pure-tone sound treatments tested in a manner that would prevent deer-vehicle collisions. Many commercially available wildlife-warning whistles (deer whistles) are purported to emit similar consistent, continuous pure-tone sounds; however, my data suggest that deer-whistles are likely not effective in altering deer behavior along roadways to help prevent deer-vehicle collisions.


The heat treatment of softwood (i.e. spruce, pine, fir, and larch) may result in significant colour changes. During this study Scots pine and spruce samples were steamed and analysed for their altered hue and lightness. Treatments included: 0 to 22 days of steaming time at a temperature range of 70 to 100°C. The outcome included a variety of colours between the initial hues and brownish tint. These new colours are similar to that of aged furniture and indoor wooden structures. Consequently, properly steamed softwood may be used to repair historical artefacts and relic furniture. Besides restoration, steamed stocks are excellent sources for manufacture of periodical furniture, where the aged appearance has aesthetical value. Results however, indicated that steaming at a temperature above 90 ˚C has a bleaching effect, i.e. the coloured chemical components formed by moderate steaming may be removed. Furthermore, we observed a linear correlation between lightness and colour hue at all steaming times and temperatures.


The prediction of the intensity, location and time of the landfall of a tropical cyclone well advance in time and with high accuracy can reduce human and material loss immensely. In this article, we develop a Long Short-Term memory based Recurrent Neural network model to predict intensity (in terms of maximum sustained surface wind speed), location (latitude and longitude), and time (in hours after the observation period) of the landfall of a tropical cyclone which originates in the North Indian ocean. The model takes as input the best track data of cyclone consisting of its location, pressure, sea surface temperature, and intensity for certain hours (from 12 to 36 hours) anytime during the course of the cyclone as a time series and then provide predictions with high accuracy. For example, using 24 hours data of a cyclone anytime during its course, the model provides state-of-the-art results by predicting landfall intensity, time, latitude, and longitude with a mean absolute error of 4.24 knots, 4.5 hours, 0.24 degree, and 0.37 degree respectively, which resulted in a distance error of 51.7 kilometers from the landfall location. We further check the efficacy of the model on three recent devastating cyclones Bulbul, Fani, and Gaja, and achieved better results than the test dataset.


Jumonji domain-containing protein 1A (JMJD1A) play a key role in the development and progression of several malignancies. The present study investigated the expression and clinical significance of JMJD1A in gastric cancer. JMJD1A was found to be upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, the upregulated expression of JMJD1A was significantly correlated with the results of the invasion depth (P=0.006), lymph node metastatic status (P<0.001), and TNM stage (P<0.001). JMJD1A was also shown to be an independent prognostic predictor of overall survival (HR3.988; 95% CI 1.948-8.167; P<0.001) for patients with gastric cancer. In addition, in vitro experiment revealed that knockdown of JMJD1A expression inhibited the gastric cancer cell proliferation, and further study suggested that JMJD1A knockdown suppressed MAPK pathway via transcriptional downregulation the expression of long noncoding RNA MALAT1. Therefore, we speculated that JMJD1A-MALAT1-MAPK signaling might participate in the JMJD1A-induced cell proliferation of gastric cancer. Collectively, our data demonstrate for the first time that JMJD1A gene has an important regulatory role in gastric carcinogenesis, and could function as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.


Recent experiments exhibit a rate dependence for granular shear such that the stress grows linearly in the logarithm of the shear rate, gamma. Assuming a generalized activated process mechanism, we show that these observations are consistent with a recent proposal for a stress-based statistical ensemble. By contrast, predictions for rate dependence using conventional energy-based statistical mechanics to describe activated processes, predicts a rate dependence of (ln(gamma))(1/2).


The aim of this study was to characterize the effects of cortical cholinergic denervation on cholinergic parameters in the cerebral cortex and basal forebrain using a novel immunotoxin (conjugate of the monoclonal antibody 192IgG against the low‐affinity nerve growth factor receptor armed with cytotoxin saporin) to efficiently and selectively lesion cholinergic neurons in rat basal forebrain. Seven days following an intracerebroventricular injection of the cholinergic immunotoxin 192IgG‐saporin the binding levels of nicotinic and M1‐ and M2‐muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR), high‐affinity choline uptake sites, as well as the m1‐m4 mAChR mRNA were determined in coronal brain sections by both receptor autoradiography and in situ hybridization, and quantified by image analysis. Hemicholinium‐3 binding to high‐affinity choline uptake sites was decreased by up to 45% in all cortical regions and in the hippocampus after a single injection of the immunotoxin compared to controls. In contrast, M1‐mAChR sites were increased over the corresponding control value in the anterior parts of cingulate, frontal, and piriform cortex by about 20%, in the hindlimb/forelimb areas (18%), in the parietal cortex (35%), in the occipital cortex area 2 (17%), as well as in the temporal cortex (25%) following immunolesion. M2‐mAChR levels were found to be significantly increased in the posterior part of the parietal cortex area 1 (by about 22%) and in the occipital cortex area 2 (20%) only. With respect to laminar cortical localization, M2‐mAChRs and choline uptake sites were altered in all cortical layers, whereas M1‐mAChRs were preferentially affected in the upper cortical layers by the immunolesion. The increase in M1‐mAChR binding in the temporal and occipital cortex as a consequence of the immunolesion was complemented by an increase in the amount of m1 and m3 mAChR mRNA of about 20% in these regions. The elevated levels of M2‐mAChR sites in the occipital and temporal cortex following immunolesion were accomplanied by an increase in the m4 (by 25%) but not m2 mAChR mRNA. There was no effect of the immunolesion on the m1‐m4 mAChR mRNA in frontal cortical regions. In the basal forebrain, however, immunolesioning caused about a 40% decrease in the level of m2 mAChR mRNA in the medial and lateral septum as well as in the vertical and horizontal limb of the diagonal band, whereas M1‐ and M2‐mAChR binding and the levels of m1, m3, and m4 mAChR mRNA were not affected by the immunolesion in any of the basal forebrain nuclei studied. Seven days after a single dose of the 192IgG‐saporin immunotoxin there was no change in the level of cortical nicotinic acetylcholine receptor sites in any of the regions studied compared to corresponding controls. The region‐specific changes in the level of M1‐ and M2‐mAChRs, as well as corresponding receptor gene expression and the lack of effects on cortical nicotinic receptors, may be part of an adaptive mechanism in response to cholinergic degeneration. These data further support the usefulness of the 192IgG‐saporin conjugate as an appropriate tool to produce cortical cholinergic dysfunction. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Home health care workers fill an essential role in the daily lives of elderly persons. However, the work is physically and emotionally exhausting. This mixed-methods study explicates sources of stress found in agency-based caregiving in the post-industrial economy. Agencies operate under a highly regulated legal and organizational framework, but little is known about how to reduce sources of job strain to better protect workers' health. Drawing on existing occupational health stress theories (Karasek; Siegrist; Landsbergis) and sociological stress theory (Pearlin; Fenwick & Tausig), this study explores how workers' experiences and agency characteristics are related to home health care worker's occupational health and self-rated health. Multinomial logistic regression models estimate the health impacts of occupational stressors among home health care workers using data from the CDC's National Home Health Aide Survey (n=3,235). Qualitative analysis feature the analysis of both agency executives' and home health care workers' narratives (n=45) from nine upstate New York home care agencies. By interrogating upper and mid-level management in addition to the workers, the agency's inner workings were made more transparent. Detailed results upheld Demand/Control/Support and Effort-Reward Imbalance theories while also demonstrating that discrimination on the job and double burden care routines are negatively associated with health. Unexpectedly, blacks were less likely to report injuries than whites. The finding suggests black are under-reporting and may be at risk for occupational health inequality because they are not accessing workers' compensation. Aides report financial strain, exposure to poor working conditions and lack of respect on the job as centrally important. Agency leaders' responses vary, but generally concede that high-level stressors "trickle down" and can become work-related stressors for home health aides. Lack of training and low-quality training are also implicated in impeding progress in addressing home care workers' health. Demand for home health care workers is urgent as the baby boomers age into later life. Policy work in a changing health care system requires coordination at the federal, state, and agency levels to achieve appropriate compensation, updated training, greater access to occupational health care and healthier work conditions leading to improvement in the quality of home-based long-term care. OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND HEALTH AMONG HOME HEALTH CARE WORKERS


The authors reported a twelve year and four-month old girl who had prolonged fever for 2 weeks. Physical examination revealed a painless enlarged thyroid gland with firm consistency. Hyperparathyroidism was suspected because of hypercalcemia, hypophosphatemia, high level of serum alkaline phosphatase, and decreased density of long bones. Thyroid scan showed a cold nodule of the left upper lobe which subsequently proved to be a medullary thyroid carcinoma by high serum thyrocalcitonin level and pathological examination. Her 24-hour urinary vanillyl mandelic acid was in the normal range, and abdominal ultrasonography demonstrated normal adrenal glands. Multiple endocrine neoplasia type IIa (MEN IIa) was diagnosed by medullary thyroid carcinoma and hyperparathyroidism. However, the fully developed syndrome is characterized by the combined occurrence of medullary thyroid carcinoma, primary hyperparathyroidism, and pheochromocytomas. This syndrome is a rare, complex, and potentially lethal disease so early recognition and family screening are very important.


The E3/19K protein of human adenovirus type 2 binds to class I MHC Ags thereby interfering with their cell surface expression and Ag presentation function. Currently, it is unclear exactly which structure of MHC molecules is recognized by the E3/19K protein. We have previously demonstrated that the murine H-2Kd Ag is able to associate with E3/19K, whereas the allelic H-2Kk molecule is not. By using exon shuffling between Kd and Kk molecules, the alpha 1 and alpha 2 domains of MHC class I molecules were identified as essential structures for binding the viral protein. In this report, we have examined the contribution of individual amino acids within the alpha 2 domain of MHC for binding E3/19K. First, we show that within this domain the alpha-helical part is most important for the interaction with E3/19K. By using site-directed mutagenesis, Kd-specific amino acids were introduced into the alpha-helix of the alpha 2 domain of Kk. By using the expression of mutagenized proteins in E3/19K+ cells, we have identified Tyr 156 and Leu 180 as being essential for the association with the E3/19K protein. In addition, Kd residue Glu 163 seems to contribute to the complex formation. Furthermore, analysis of a panel of Kd/Dd recombinants indicates that a similar region in the Dd molecule, namely, the C-terminal half of the alpha 2 domain, affects binding to E3/19K. Combining these results with Ab binding data, we present two alternative models of how the adenovirus protein may bind to the alpha 1 and alpha 2 domains.


The aim of the current work was to test the effects of an innovative teaching method in improving motor skills. We evaluated the effectiveness of an error-based instruction method (Method of Amplification of Error, MAE) in increasing the performance of 13-year-old school students in the standing long jump. We compared MAE with direct verbal instruction (DI) and no instruction (Control group). The rationale for the MAE method is that giving a participant the opportunity to experience directly his or her own main movement error will trigger a positive searching strategy that will in turn help him or her to improve performance. The effectiveness of MAE is because of the type of feedback provided, namely the same motor-perceptive language used by the participant. Results showed that for the MAE and DI groups the length of jump increased from pre- to post-instruction, but postinstruction performance of the MAE group was significantly that of both of the other groups. It appears that MAE is an easy-to-use metho...


The market share of lightweight steel‐framed (LSF) construction system has grown over the last decades, mainly in low‐rise residential buildings, due to its advantages such as having small weight with high mechanical strength; reduced disruption on‐site and speed of construction; great potential for recycling and reuse; high architectural flexibility for retrofitting purposes; easy prefabrication, allowing modular construction; economy in transportation and handling; superior quality given off‐site manufacture control; and excellent stability of shape in case of humidity and resistance to insect damage. However, given the high thermal conductivity of steel and the lightness of this type of construction, it may also have some drawbacks if not well designed and executed. Therefore, special attention should be given to the LSF building envelope in order to minimize thermal bridges. Moreover, given the usual reduced thermal mass, several strategies could be implemented to increase thermal inertia, consequently reduce indoor temperature fluc ‐ tuations, enhance the occupants comfort and increase energy efficiency. In this chapter an overview of the main features related to the thermal behaviour and energy efficiency of LSF buildings is provided alongside some related case studies.


REWRITING LITERARY GENRES IN ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
My dissertation focuses on the examination of some Asian American texts and the way they critically relate to the Western literary tradition, specifically to the "question of genre" in the light of its most recent theorizations. Rather than considering the notion of genre as either a selective-descriptive criterion of classification or a rule literary texts have to conform with, these aim at highlighting a more unstable and flexible idea of genre and its "relational character".
Because of the explicitly political roots of the Asian American community and discursive formation, until very recently Asian American criticism has read literary texts emphasizing their social and political function to highlight the historical presence of Asian Americans in the United States and their legitimate struggle against power apparatuses. Very little attention has been paid to the aesthetic dimension of their artistic production and the ideological and "constructed dimension of the literary" (S. Lee).
The first two chapters deal with the concept of genre and the issues under debate in Asian America, whereas the remaining chapters consist of a detailed close reading of Mona in the Promised Land by G. Jen, Native Speaker by C. Lee, In the Heart of the Valley of Love by C. Kadohata and The Book of Salt by M. Truong, in order to grasp the literary quality and the manifold negotiations with the traditional generic categories they refer to, respectively the comedy, the spy story, the distopic novel and the autobiography.


The article provides an overview of ongoing research and key characteristics of Cognitive Semiotics, an emerging field dedicated to the "transdiciplinary study of meaning", involving above all researchers from semiotics, linguistics, developmental and comparative psychology and philosophy. The combination of the following features distinguish it from other synthetic approaches: (a) integration of theoretical and empirical research; (b) ontological pluralism and methodological triangulation; (c) influence of phenomenology; (d) focus on dynamism and (e) the ambition of true transdisciplinarity. Its ultimate goal is to provide new insights into the nature and culture of human beings, as well as other meaning-making creatures.


Objectives: To evaluate the clinical results of intramedullary nailing of femoral shaft fractures using a rigid intramedullary nail placed through the lateral aspect of the greater trochanter in older children and adolescents. Design: A retrospective study was carried out evaluating all skeletally immature patients with femoral shaft fractures treated using a modified rigid humeral intramedullary nail. Patients/Participants: Fifteen children and adolescents with displaced femoral diaphyseal fractures and open physes. Intervention: Femoral shaft fractures in children and adolescents were stabilized using a modified humeral intramedullary nail placed through the lateral aspect of the greater trochanter. Main Outcome Measurements: Patients were evaluated to determine time to union, final fracture alignment, hospital stay, complications, clinical outcome, and proximal femoral changes including avascular necrosis or proximal femoral valgus with femoral neck narrowing. Results: Fifteen patients were followed for a minimum of 1 year (range 70–157 weeks). The average age of the patients was 12 years and 5 months (range 8 years and 2 months–17 years and 1 month). All fractures healed at a mean of 7 weeks (range 5–14 weeks) after fracture. The average hospital stay for patients with isolated femur fractures (8/15) was 2.8 days (range 1–5 days). At an average follow-up of 141 weeks (range 70–326 weeks), no patient had developed avascular necrosis, femoral neck valgus, femoral neck narrowing, or other complications. Conclusions: The technique of intramedullary nailing in children through the lateral aspect of the greater trochanter seems to be safe, effective, and well tolerated by patients.


Combined effects of residual facet reflection and spatial hole-burning on the front-rear correlation and nonlinearity in L-I characteristics of quarter-wavelength-shifted DFB lasers have been studied by using an effective index transfer matrix method and rate equations. Changes in front-to-rear power ratio, caused by the spatial hole-burning and asymmetric facet-reflection due to the different grating end phases at the two facets, are shown to be responsible for both the correlation and the linearity problems, while the threshold gain change causes the linearity problem only. The problems are serious even in the cases of low facet reflectivity of 0.3%.


Conventional chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer has limited specificity when administered systemically and is often associated with toxicity issues. Enhanced accumulation of polymeric nanocarriers at a tumor site may be achieved by passive and active targeting. Incorporation of trigger responsiveness into these polymeric nanocarriers improves the anticancer efficacy of such systems by modulating the release of the drug according to the tumor environment. Triggers used for tumor targeting include internal triggers such as pH, redox and enzymes and external triggers such as temperature, magnetic field, ultrasound and light. While internal triggers are specific cues of the tumor microenvironment, external triggers are those which are applied externally to control the release. This review highlights the various strategies employed for the preparation of such trigger responsive polymeric nanocarriers for cancer therapy and provides an overview of the state of the art in this field.


Water pollution in Pakistan and all over the world is one of the major concerns, because it is badly affecting the living beings and reducing the chances of survival of life on the planet earth. Tannery industry with all its waste from leather products manufacturing and dyes wastes is one of the leading contributor to the water pollution, especially in developing countries like Pakistan where people are mostly unaware of the harmful drawback of their acts of today on their future life. To reduce this problem many methods and techniques have been used and are still being in process. These methods are quite expensive and cannot be used by informal industry holders. The dangerous waste materials from tannery wastewater must be treated before discharging into the environment. In the present study, tannery wastewater will be purified using Eucalyptus biochar (prepared at different temperatures and heating durations). The adsorption of pollutants on the surface of biochar and the extent of purification of wastewater was analyzed by comparing the difference in the values of physico-chemical parameters like: pH, TSS, TDS, COD, DO, turbidity, hardness, chlorides, calcium and magnesium using standard methods of APHA. A Multi-barrier Water Treatment System was used. The water treatment system efficiency and Eucalyptus biochar adsorption capacity for the wastewater pollutants was examined.


Purpose To compare radiologists' confidence in assessing breast cancer using combined digital mammography (DM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) compared with DM alone as a function of previous experience with DBT. Materials and Methods Institutional ethics approval was obtained. Twenty-three experienced breast radiologists reviewed 50 cases in two modes, DM alone and DM+DBT. Twenty-seven cases presented with breast cancer. Each radiologist was asked to detect breast lesions and give a confidence score of 1-5 (1- Normal, 2- Benign, 3- Equivocal, 4- Suspicious, 5- Malignant). Radiologists were divided into three sub-groups according to their prior experience with DBT (none, workshop experience, and clinical experience). Confidence scores using DM+DBT were compared with DM alone for all readers combined and for each DBT experience subgroup. Statistical analyses, using GraphPad Prism 5, were carried out using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with statistical significance set at p< 0.05. Results Confidence scores were higher for true positive cancer cases using DM+DBT compared with DM alone for all readers (p < 0.0001). Confidence scores for normal cases were lower (indicating greater confidence in the non-cancer diagnosis) with DM+DBT compared with DM alone for all readers (p= 0.018) and readers with no prior DBT experience (p= 0.035). Conclusion Addition of DBT to DM increases the confidence level of radiologists in scoring cancer and normal/benign cases. This finding appears to apply across radiologists with varying levels of DBT experience, however further work involving greater numbers of radiologists is required.


This is your online resource for World Civilizations I. Here you will find the weekly readings, course schedule, and other important information. You will also find the all powerful, all knowing syllabus available to answer most of your questions.


Abstract Neonatal services, which provide care to babies born with medical complications, are under financial pressures in the United Kingdom (UK). The services are heavily regulated affecting efficiency. One possible solution is to reduce the length of stay (LoS) of babies and allow a degree of doctors' clinical judgment to make decisions. The aim of this paper is to determine the impact of using clinical judgment on neonatal services performance. To achieve this aim, an system dynamics (SD) model was built and validated in a UK neonatal unit. The model was used initially to evaluate the impact of LoS reduction on performance as clinical judgment policies were rejected by participants. The counterintuitive results led to a behavioural change and participants accepted clinical judgment policies which the results indicated should lead to considerable performance improvement. Results' implications and SD's modelling ability to foster learning and alter participants' perceptions and behaviour are discussed.


SUMMARY The goal of this paper is to present a new hybrid system based on the fusion of gaze data and Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) not only to command a powered wheelchair, but also to account for users distraction levels (concentrated or distracted). For this purpose, a multi-layer perception neural network was set up in order to combine relevant gazing and blinking features from gaze sequence and brainwave features from occipital and parietal brain regions. The motivation behind this work is the shortages raised from the individual use of gaze-based and SSVEP-based wheelchair command techniques. The proposed framework is based on three main modules: a gaze module to select command and activate the flashing stimuli. An SSVEP module to validate the selected command. In parallel, a distraction level module estimates the intention of the user by mean of behavioral entropy and validates/inhibits the command accordingly. An experimental protocol was set up and the prototype was tested on five paraplegic subjects and compared with standard SSVEP and gaze-based systems. The results showed that the new framework performed better than conventional gaze-based and SSVEP-based systems. Navigation performance was assessed based on navigation time and obstacles collisions.


Abstract Use of temporary restorations in the process of prosthetic rehabilitation is generally accepted practice. Direct method of temporary restoration making as the results of computer modeling is offered. The method essence is in translation of the results of 3D computer modeling of the dentition into stereolithographic model from which later on silicone print (key) is taken; further on it is used for making temporary restoration by the direct method. Such method let in advance work off form and size of the future permanent restorations with taking into account peculiarities of the face and the smile of each patient and receive predictable aesthetic result and increase patient's motivation to the treatment.


Clip art is a simplified illustration form consisting of layered filled polygons or closed curves used to convey 3-D shape information in a 2-D vector graphics format. This paper focuses on the problem of direct conversion of smooth surfaces, ranging from the free-form shapes of art and design to the mathematical structures of geometry and topology, into a clip art form suitable for illustration use in books, papers and presentations. We show how to represent silhouette, shadow, gleam and other surface feature curves as the intersection of implicit surfaces, and derive equations for their efficient interrogation via particle chains. We further describe how to sort, orient, identify and fill the closed regions that overlay to form clip art. We demonstrate the results with numerous renderings used to illustrate the paper itself.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this in-vitro study was to compare the amount of material (post and luting agent) and root dentine removed using two methods for removal of endodontic posts.

METHODS
Human premolar teeth (n=20) were sectioned at the CEJ and fibre reinforced posts were cemented at a length of 10mm following root canal therapy. Teeth were randomly assigned to two study groups. The methods of removal compared were: the use of RTD re-access kit (Composipost, RTD, France, St Egreve) in a conventional hand-piece driven by an electric motor (Group A); or a long tapered diamond bur (FG Diamond grit bur, Dentsply Ltd, UK) in an air-driven high speed turbine (Group B). Using micro- CT the volume of material and root dentine removed for each sample was calculated.

RESULTS
Both the volume of material removed and the volume of root dentine removed were significantly greater when using diamond burs. (p⟨0.001). The volume of dentine removed using the diamond bur method (mean 22.64mm³) was greater than the volume removed using the reaccess kit (mean 11.71mm³).

SIGNIFICANCE
Use of a diamond bur to remove fibre reinforced endodontic post removal poses higher risk for root perforation compared to the reaccess kit.


Family law is again in turmoil, and the ALI Principles are an ambitious and sometimes inspired effort to increase clarity and fairness. This turmoil can be attributed to two major factors. First, family law is ground zero in the gender wars. Second, family law is reeling from the upheavals of globalization. These factors provide the backdrop against which the dilemmas addressed in Chapter 7, Agreements, play out. Chapter 7 focuses on a particularly intriguing tension, between commercial contracts and premarital agreements. This tension is grounded in the broader tension between American views on freedom of contract and autonomy in general, on the one hand, and American views on freedom of contract and autonomy in the specific context of the family, on the other. While the emphasis on freedom of contract may be peculiarly American, tension between legal regimes and private contractual regimes governing the family is quite common from an international perspective. As it is here, the tension between competing regimes in other countries reflects deep cultural tensions. Rather than being grounded in the sacrosanct principles of autonomy and contractual freedom, however, private contractual regimes in other countries are generally grounded in religious or customary practices. Prominent examples include the Islamic and Jewish marriage contracts. While these tensions have been addressed by a broad range of domestic courts relying on domestic law, here and abroad, my focus is on the international mediation of these competing interests under international law. International law addresses these conflicts through private international law, such as the Convention on the Recognition of Foreign Judgments, and through public international law, specifically international human rights law. My thesis here is that the ALI Principles on Agreements should incorporate, and be subject to, the relevant human rights law. While there are certainly good reasons for incorporating human rights law in all areas of family law, there are especially strong reasons for adopting it here. First, any consensus regarding "appropriate rules" must be grounded in a coherent rationale. Because of the stature of the norms to which they are an exception, including constitutionally protected religious freedoms, the underlying rationale to justify different treatment between marital and non-marital contracts should be grounded in law of commensurate stature. Second, because of the growing diversity of the American population, and the proliferation of disparate cultural norms, that law should not be grounded in the amorphous and irrelevant conceptions of equity, but in well-established and widely accepted international human rights law.


The method of application of physical drills of hatha-yoga is presented on educational trainings on physical culture with students. The volume of empiric information made more than 10000 measurings. Information is confirmed about predominance in the student environment of violations of health, related to the locomotorium and cardiovascular system (33,4% and 32,6% accordingly). Functional violations of spine are marked: pains in the back (59,8%), during (54,2%) and after (43,8%) physical loading, in pains in thurls (19,6%), in the constraint of motions after sleep (58,8%). It is set that the personal touches of vital functions of students are: deficit of motive activity, parahypnosiss and appetite, short duration stay outdoors, presence of harmful habits. Application of physical drills of hatha-yoga is recommended in employments: static, dynamic, respiratory.


Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, nontuberculous mycobacterial infections have been reported with increasing frequency in HIV-infected patients. Although Mycobacterium avium complex has been responsible for the majority of these infections, an increasing number of other nontuberculous mycobacteria have been reported to cause clinical disease. In spite of initial questions about the clinical significance of disseminated M avium complex infection, it now appears that this infection contributes to the morbidity and mortality of HIV-infected patients. Therefore, recent studies have focused on the use of antimycobacterial drugs to treat or prevent M avium complex bacteremia. These studies have found that drug treatment, especially with the newer macrolides, can decrease bacteremic load and improve debilitating symptoms. Furthermore, rifabutin have been found to decrease or delay the development of M avium complex bacteremia. As HIV-infected patients live longer because of antiviral drugs or prophylaxis against opportunistic infections, nontuberculous mycobacterial infections will likely become increasingly frequent and contribute to substantial morbidity or mortality.


A comparison of the results of examination of 100 individuals, some of whom had taken part in the survey while the others had refused it and information about them was specially obtained by other means (in some cases by collecting the medical documentation), is presented. Factors conducive to the development of ischemic heart disease predominated among individuals who refused to take part in the survey. The incidence of ischemic heart disease and arterial hypertension was also higher among them. It is concluded that individuals who refuse examination during preventive survey form a group with a high risk of the development of ischemic heart disease; this group should be taken into account when therapeutic and preventive measures are conducted among the population.


The mixed perovskites (Bi1-xSrx)FeO3-y (x = 0.07, 0.14, 0.25 and 0.50) were studied by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy in the temperature range 87–700 K. The samples were prepared by conventional ceramic technology with 10% 57Fe isotope enrichment. X–ray diffraction measurements showed that the samples were single-phase and had a rhombohedral structure at x = 0.07 and a cubic one at x = 0.14-0.50. As the strontium content x increases, the Neel temperature TN(x) increases from 640 K (x = 0) to 670 K (x = 0.25) and then decreases to 637 K (x = 0.5). The similar dependence on x was found for the hyperfine field values B(x) at T = 87 K. The experimental Mössbauer spectra are satisfactorily described by three to four Fe3+ states with the room temperature isomer shift values in the range 0.17-0.43 mm/s, which correspond to the iron sites with 4, 5 and 6 oxygen neighbours.


A discrete model has been developed that describes the extracellular current that flows in a smooth muscle syncytium upon the secretion of a quantum of transmitter onto a smooth muscle cell in the syncytium. This allows a description to be given of the current (called the excitatory junctional current (EJC)) recorded by an electrode of given diameter placed on the surface of the muscle, during synaptic transmission from a varicosity situated anywhere in the muscle. The EJC is of maximum negative amplitude when the varicosity is at the surface of the muscle near the inside rim of the electrode and decreases as the varicosity moves to the centre of the electrode. It is of maximum positive amplitude when the varicosity is at the surface near the outside rim of the electrode and declines rapidly in amplitude as the varicosity is removed further from the outside rim. Smaller diameter electrodes give larger EJCs than larger diameter electrodes for most positions of the varicosity on the surface of the muscle. The EJC amplitude declines for varicosities beneath the electrode that are not on the surface of the muscle, but deep in the tissue. The rate of this decline is greater the smaller the diameter of the electrode. The time-course of the EJC is largely invariant under changes in the position of the varicosity with respect to the recording electrode. Changes in the polarity of the current flow during a single EJC can occur, however, if two varicosities secrete transmitter simultaneously, one inside the electrode and one outside, and the time-course of the currents due to the individual varicosities is either the same or slightly different. This theoretical work has been used to interpret a number of recent experimental studies of extracellular current flow during autonomic neuromuscular transmission.


The local convective thermal transfer from a spherical surface in an air stream was experimentally investigated by measuring the temperature distribution in the air stream surrounding the sphere. The investigation was carried out in an air stream of known turbulence level at bulk velocities of 8 and 16 feet per second using two different half-inch spheres. The local thermal flux over the spherical surface was calculated from the detailed measurements of temperature distribution in the air close to the surface. These results are compared with available experimental results obtained at higher velocities with larger spheres.

In the forward region of the sphere from the stagnation point up to an angle of about 80[degrees], the experimental radial temperature distributions are correlated empirically in terms of the displacement thickness of the thermal boundary layer. Over this region the experimental and correlated results are compared in terms of the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers with the results of theoretical analyses based on the laminar boundary layer theory. There is satisfactory agreement with the theoretical results obtained by the method of Drake and the application of the solutions of Eckert.

The integrated values of thermal transfer are in agreement with the gross values obtained from simultaneous over-all measurements. There is also fair agreement between the integrated results and available published information on the gross thermal transfer from a sphere.

A detailed knowledge of the distribution of temperature, thermal flux, and the pressure gradients associated with the turbulent flow of fluids is of importance in creating a background of experimental facts from which it is possible to predict the transfer characteristics for a particular physical situation.

Special methods and equipment employed in the measurement and control of temperature and thermal flux in an investigation of thermal transfer in turbulent gas streams are described. Measurements of the thermal flux and the pressure gradient are presented as a function of the imposed temperature distribution and macroscopic flow rate. They extend from gross velocities of 10 to 90 feet per second and to average temperature gradients as high as 1000[degrees] F. per foot.

The results represent a contribution to the knowledge of the shear and the thermal flux associated with the nonisothermal flow of air between parallel plates. As expected, the thermal transfer coefficients for nonuniform transfer are larger than those obtained in this work under conditions of uniform transfer.

The region near the boundary of a turbulently flowing fluid accounts for the greater part of the resistance to thermal transfer to or from the stream. An understanding of the influence of conditions of flow upon the temperature distribution near the boundary of turbulently flowing streams is required in order to permit the recent advances in fluid mechanics to be applied to the prediction of thermal transfer in steady flow.

The detailed temperature distribution near the boundary of a turbulent air stream flowing between parallel plates was measured at gross velocities from 10 to 90 feet per second and for average temperature gradients as high as 1000[degrees] F. per foot. The corresponding value of thermal flux was determined directly, and from these primary measurements the temperature gradient and eddy conductivity were established as a function of flow conditions.

The eddy conductivity was correlated with the position in the stream and the gross conditions of flow. The measurements permit estimation of the thermal transfer to a turbulently flowing air stream in conduits of large radius to be made with accuracy adequate for some engineering purposes for a variety of uniform and nonuniform conditions of thermal transfer.


We propose a network for Congested Scene Recognition called CSRNet to provide a data-driven and deep learning method that can understand highly congested scenes and perform accurate count estimation as well as present high-quality density maps. The proposed CSRNet is composed of two major components: a convolutional neural network (CNN) as the front-end for 2D feature extraction and a dilated CNN for the back-end, which uses dilated kernels to deliver larger reception fields and to replace pooling operations. CSRNet is an easy-trained model because of its pure convolutional structure. We demonstrate CSRNet on four datasets (ShanghaiTech dataset, the UCF_CC_50 dataset, the WorldEXPO'10 dataset, and the UCSD dataset) and we deliver the state-of-the-art performance. In the ShanghaiTech Part_B dataset, CSRNet achieves 47.3% lower Mean Absolute Error (MAE) than the previous state-of-the-art method. We extend the targeted applications for counting other objects, such as the vehicle in TRANCOS dataset. Results show that CSRNet significantly improves the output quality with 15.4% lower MAE than the previous state-of-the-art approach.


In recent years, an increasing influx of migrants to Europe has led to a heated public discourse about integration capacities within receiving countries such as Germany. During this period, German society, with its changeful immigration history, is again challenged to provide policy responses and foster migrant integration, especially in urban areas. The efforts of cities along that path, however, vary greatly. Complementing locality approaches on immigration and integration policies, which are focused on metropolises and the U.S.-American context, this article is an empirical application for understanding institutional and structural conditions for local variations in integration strategies in Germany by presenting a comparative analysis of four mid-sized cities. The particular research interest lies on discourses from interviews with local authorities and civil society actors. Our analysis reveals city-specific streamlines: For instance, discourses at a center of the 'knowledge society' focused on a strong municipal power structure that allowed communally-financed, sustainable projects to evolve from a historically-grounded commitment to welcome migrants and from high financial capacities at its disposal. In another case, discourses revolved around a city's financially constraints, which were equalized by compensatory civil society networks. In other cities, progress was associated with spontaneous local happenings or individual innovative leadership. These street-level patterns create a degree of locality within the global migration discourse, since they emerge from the interplay of financial, economic, and demographic features; historical concepts; or local events. We therefore contend that urban planning initiatives would profit from considering place-specific institutions that influence integration stakeholders, which are regime-makers and foster institutional, migration-led changes.


Abstract. Soil organic carbon (OC) is the largest terrestrial C stock and soils' capacity to preserve OC varies with many factors including land use, soil type and depth. We investigated the effect of land use change on particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MOM) in soils. Surface (0–10 cm) and sub-surface (60–70 cm) soil samples were collected from paired-sites (native and cropped lands) of four contrasting soils. Bulk soils were isolated into POM and MOM fractions, which were analysed for mineralogy, OC and nitrogen, isotopic signatures and 14C content. POMs of surface soils were relatively unaffected by land use change, possibly because of continuous input of crop residues, while corresponding POM in sub-surface lost more OC. In surface soils, oxides-dominated MOM lost more OC than phyllosilicates- and quartz -dominated MOM, which is attributed to diverse OM input and the extent of OC saturation limit of soils. In contrast, oxides-associated fractions were less affected in the sub-surface soils than the other two MOM fractions, possibly due to OC protection via organo–mineral associations. Changed isotopic signature (linked with vegetation) across the fractions suggested that fresh crop residues constituted the bulk of OM in surface soils (supported by greater 14C). Increased isotopic signatures and lower 14C in sub-surface MOM fractions suggested the association of more microbially processed, aged OC in oxides-rich fractions than other MOMs. Results reveal that quantity and quality of OC after land use change was influenced by the nature of C input in surface soils and by mineral-organic association in sub-surface soils.


ABSTRACT By 2020, the Vietnamese government has committed to having 90% of patients receiving ART as well as 90% of those on ART having successful viral suppression. Factors that influence adherence to ART among patients are essential to allowing the adequate care. This study was conducted across 8 outpatient clinics in Hanoi and Nam Dinh province and included 1133 patients living with HIV. Socioeconomic factors such as marital status, education, employment as well as health-related quality of life improvements were investigated as potentially being associated with adherence rates of ART patients. Through multivariate logistic regression analysis with self-reported ART adherence and VAS scores, this study was able to identify marital status and employment as two factors associated with positive adherence scores. Similarly, health problems, stigmatization, and duration on ART were associated negatively with ART adherence. Knowing that these factors may be linked to adherence rates, they can be preemptively managed with patients to enhance adherence rates and achieve successful viral suppression.


Background and purpose: Uses of highly toxic pesticides mostly occur in developing countries, including Indonesia. Farmers at Pancasari village in Bali were active pesticide users, that potential for pesticide poisoning. Pesticides and personal protective equipment (PPE) use and their relationship with health complaints on farmers in that region are not well known.Methods: Cross sectional survey was conducted among 87 horticultural farmers. Univariate, bivariate (chi square test) and multivariate (using logistic regression) analysis were conducted to understand relationship between health complaints related to pesticides used (at least two health complaints of: headache, itching, fatigue and nausea) with socio-demographics, knowledge and use of pesticides and PPE behaviour.Results: The majority (94.3%) of farmers aged less than 30 years and 81.6% were male with secondary education or lower (78.2%). More than half (54.1%) farmers had moderate knowledge about pesticides and PPE, however they had poor behaviour. A total of 60.9% farmers experienced specific health complaints. Health complaints were associated with use of organophosphate (AOR=3.74; 95%CI: 1.33-10.48), number of days use of work clothes before being washed (AOR=1.37; 95%CI: 1.08-1.75), not wearing long-sleeve clothes when mixing pesticide (AOR=0.25; 95%CI: 0.09-0.76) and not wearing a mask when spraying pesticide (AOR=0.18; 95%CI: 0.05-0.69).Conclusion: Health complaints were associated with type of organophosfat pesticide, behavior of work clothes used before being washed and inadequate use of personal protective equipments.


The Multifrequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR), flown on-board Oceansat-I (IRS-P4), is a four-frequency and dual-polarization sensor for oceanographic applications. An extensive ground calibration experiment was conducted prior to launch to evaluate calibration coefficients. This paper presents an overview of the on-board system, details of ground calibration methodology, and expected calibration performance derived from ground calibration data.


Because of the efficiency of modeling fuzziness and vagueness, Z-number plays an important role in real practice. However, Z-numbers, defined in the real number field, lack the ability to process the quantum information in quantum environment. It is reasonable to generalize Z-number into its quantum counterpart. In this paper, we propose quantum Z-numbers (QZNs), which are the quantum generalization of Z-numbers. In addition, seven basic quantum fuzzy operations of QZNs and their corresponding quantum circuits are presented and illustrated by numerical examples. Moreover, based on QZNs, a novel quantum multi-attributes decision making (MADM) algorithm is proposed and applied in medical diagnosis. The results show that, with the help of quantum computation, the proposed algorithm can make diagnoses correctly and efficiently.


Histological transformation, with its profound diagnostic and therapeutic implications, is considered to be one of the most unfavorable events in the natural history of follicular lymphoma (FL). No optimal treatment of transformed follicular lymphoma (tFL) has been identified because of its rarity and heterogeneous presentation, and the lack of data from randomized clinical trials. Consequently, its treatment has been based on that used in de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. However, patients with tFL present a different behavior, with a worse clinical course and poor response to treatment, although their prognosis seems to have improved significantly since the introduction of rituximab into therapeutic schemes. There is no consensus definition of tFL, which prevents the genuine identification of transformation when a biopsy is unavailable. There are no biomarkers at diagnosis that accurately identify patients who will transform. A better knowledge of the pathways leading to transformation would clearly help to identify patients at risk of transformation, and to distinguish them from patients who will relapse with FL and from those who will remain disease-free. This would also facilitate the identification of new drug targets, the design of clinical trials and the treatment of transformation when it arises. In the present review we provide a comprehensive overview of the current open questions in the field of transformation of FL. Large-scale international collaborative studies are required to address these gaps in our knowledge.


The article provides a brief overview of the background of constructing composite leading indicators (CLI) for Russia; the paper defines key indicators which currently are calculated and published monthly; they can be put in practice to monitor the Russian economy. The underlying methodological approaches are analyzed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. The importance of accounting for a factor of regular or irregular updates and revisions of methods for calculating the CLI is emphasized. Due to them not only the current but also the "historical" dynamics of the indices occasionally change. The paper compares various CLI components and reveals both similarities and differences in the notion of the cyclical dynamics of individual components, reaching the point that the same indicators depending on the methodology are considered as leading, or as lagging. A set of "core" indicators included in the calculation of almost all Russian CLIs is determined; the author also noted those indicators that are widely used in other countries but not yet in Russia, for various reasons.Special attention is paid to the problems of dating economic cycle turning points, in particular, those arising from different notions of the very concept of the economic cycle. Dating using formal statistical methods, firstly, is mostly determined by purely technical (and not substantive) nuances, and secondly, it often changes retroactively when revising historical time series. Analysis of global experience indicates that the way out of this impasse can be the detecting of cyclical turning points based on the decisions of the special expert council, whose sole tasks include dating cyclical peaks and troughs. The article describes methodological approaches that the Economic Cycle Dating Committee (Russian Dating Committee, RDC) under the Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (ARETT), is supposed to follow.The final part of the article analyzes the ability of various Russian CLIs to timely warn when a new phase of the economic cycle is approaching, especially the impending recession. It is shown that expert opinions on the future dynamics of the Russian economy, contained in monthly press releases, are often more accurate than the conclusions that can be obtained based on the CLI trajectory using purely formal decision rules. On this basis, it is concluded that the existing Russian CLIs can be improved; this calls for clarification and finally fixing the dating of cyclical turning points (peaks and troughs), as well as for conducting additional research to identify various economic and financial indicators as the leading, synchronous or lagging indicators of the Russian economic cycle.


Obesity encapsulates the increased risk of disease and premature death associated with excess fat, but it is usually measured using a simple function of weight and height known as the Body Mass Index (BMI). Economists use the BMI to determine the prevalence of obesity within the population, to estimate the "disease burden" created by obesity, to establish the additional medical spending attributable to obesity, and to measure the current and potential effects of government policy on obesity. Estimates will be biased if the measurement error from using BMI to proxy for obesity is correlated with other covariates. In this paper we use a flexible function of percent body fat and several metabolic factors to construct an obesity index to predict death and disease. We use this index to show that using BMI leads researchers to misattribute obesityrelated health outcomes to other factors such as aging, family health history, alcohol consumption, and household income. Moreover, we show how these biases necessarily generate the opposite implications for studies on the causes of obesity. Specifically, using BMI leads researchers to underestimate the effects of aging, family history of diabetes, alcohol consumption, and household income on obesity. We find no significant evidence of measurement error bias associated with smoking or insomnia. We also show that, compared with our obesity index, BMI generates substantially more false negative predictions of diabetes. JEL Codes: C52, I10


Climate change has affected the Arctic Ocean (AO) and its marginal seas significantly. The reduction of sea ice in the Arctic region has altered the magnitude of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) entering the water column, impacting primary productivity. Increasing cloudiness in the atmosphere and rising turbidity in the coastal waters of the Arctic region are considered as the major factors that counteract the effect of reduced sea ice on underwater PAR. Additionally, extreme solar zenith angles and sea-ice cover in the AO increase the complexity of retrieving PAR. In this study, a PAR algorithm based on radiative transfer in the atmosphere and satellite observations is implemented to evaluate the effect of these factors on PAR in the coastal AO. To improve the performance of the algorithm, a flag is defined to identify pixels containing open-water, sea-ice or cloud. The use of flag enabled selective application of algorithms to compute the input parameters for the PAR algorithm. The PAR algorithm is validated using in situ measurements from various coastal sites in the Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. The algorithm estimated daily integrated PAR above the sea surface with an uncertainty of 19% in summer. The uncertainty increased to 24% when the algorithm was applied year-round. The PAR values at the seafloor were estimated with an uncertainty of 76%, with 36% of the samples under sea ice and/or cloud cover. The robust performance of the PAR algorithm in the pan-Arctic region throughout the year will help to effectively study the temporal and spatial variability of PAR in the Arctic coastal waters. The calculated PAR data are used to quantify the changing trend in PAR at the seafloor in the coastal AO with depth < 100 m using MODIS-Aqua data from 2003 to 2020. The general trends calculated using the pixels with average PAR > 0.415 mol m−2day−1 at the seafloor during summer indicate that the annual average of PAR entering the water column in the coastal AO between 2003 and 2020 increased by 23%. Concurrently, due to increased turbidity, the attenuation in the water column increased by 22%. The surge in incident PAR in the water column due to retreating sea ice first led to increased PAR observed at the seafloor (∼12% between 2003 and 2014). However, in the last decade, the rapid increase in light attenuation of the water column has restricted the increase in average annual PAR reaching the bottom in the coastal AO.


Malachite has a layered structure composed of triangular CO3 groups and CuO2(OH)2 coordination squares of two types. In 2D projection, each layer can be decomposed into two OD strips: the A strip, containing CO3 groups and square co-ordinations of Cu2, with idealized symmetry pgm2, and the B strip, without CO3 groups, with symmetry p2 (the b axis of malachite is the infinite strip direction). In the 3D structure, these strips form the 'A' OD-layers with symmetry reduced by coordination requirements to approximately p2212, which alternate with the 'B' OD-layers with layer symmetry . The B-layer can assume two positions, which are related by a 180° rotation axis running through the C1 and O1 atoms of the CO3 group in the A-layer. This axis is oriented close to [100]*. The fit of the A-layer and of the coplanar rotated B-layer is hindered by the presence of important partial gaps and overlaps at the boundary. Inclining these two structure portions towards one another, together with small positional adjustments, appears to alleviate the misfit problems; the two layer portions so related form an angle of about 124°, i.e., they form a twin relationship. This desymmetrization of the malachite structure away from the ideal model results in occasional twinning instead of the fully developed monoclinic polytype structure which is derived in this paper. In the structure of the Cu-Zn analogue, rosasite, the above-described match problem is solved in a different way, by shifting a Zn coordination octahedron (which replaces Cu2 in malachite) into the interlayer space. Malachite polytypes 1 and 2 and rosasite illustrate three different orientations of P21/a symmetry elements with respect to the structural layers, resulting in three different structure configurations.


Globally, cancer has surpassed cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death. In 2008, more than 7.5 million deaths are attributable to malignant diseases worldwide (1). To the general public, cancer prevention has always been a topic of concern, and strategies such as dietary modification or the intake of health supplements have been thoroughly investigated in the past. Amongst all the natural health supplements, vitamin E is probably the most intensively studied cancer preventive agent because of its renowned anti-oxidant property.


Recently, localization in wireless networks has gained a lot of interest; especially after some of the most interesting positioning application areas have emerged in wireless communications. The most important are the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the European Recommendation E112, both of which require that wireless providers should be able to locate within tens of meters users of emergency calls. In this paper, fingerprinting-based localization depending on SCORE measurements has been addressed in WiMAX networks. Fingerprinting is a good way to overcome signal propagation peculiarities caused by the propagation environment. And using the SCORE values is of great interest because of their availability during the normal operation of a standard modem. The obtained results show that using SCORE values to locate users in WiMAX networks is feasible and provides the required positioning accuracy by most of location-based services (LBS) if fingerprinting-based approaches were used to obtain localization. However, using the received signal strength (RSS) values gives higher accuracy but obtaining them is more difficult and not feasible using the current standard modems.


Russ Eberhart and Yuhui Shi have succeeded in integrating various natural and engineering disciplines to establish Computational Intelligence. This is the first comprehensive textbook, including lots of practical examples. -Shun-ichi Amari, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan

This book is an excellent choice on its own, but, as in my case, will form the foundation for our advanced graduate courses in the CI disciplines. -James M. Keller, University of Missouri-Columbia

The excellent new book by Eberhart and Shi asserts that computational intelligence rests on a foundation of evolutionary computation. This refreshing view has set the book apart from other books on computational intelligence. The book has an emphasis on practical applications and computational tools, which are very useful and important for further development of the computational intelligence field. -Xin Yao, The Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and Applications, Birmingham

The "soft" analytic tools that comprise the field of computational intelligence have matured to the extent that they can, often in powerful combination with one another, form the foundation for a variety of solutions suitable for use by domain experts without extensive programming experience.

Computational Intelligence: Concepts to Implementations provides the conceptual and practical knowledge necessary to develop solutions of this kind. Focusing on evolutionary computation, neural networks, and fuzzy logic, the authors have constructed an approach to thinking about and working with computational intelligence that has, in their extensive experience, proved highly effective.

Features
· Moves clearly and efficiently from concepts and paradigms to algorithms and implementation techniques by focusing, in the early chapters, on the specific concepts and paradigms that inform the authors' methodologies.

· Explores a number of key themes, including self-organization, complex adaptive systems, and emergent computation.

· Details the metrics and analytical tools needed to assess the performance of computational intelligence tools.

· Concludes with a series of case studies that illustrate a wide range of successful applications.

· Presents code examples in C and C++.

· Provides, at the end of each chapter, review questions and exercises suitable for graduate students, as well as researchers and practitioners engaged in self-study.

· Makes available, on a companion website, a number of software implementations that can be adapted for real-world applications.

· Moves clearly and efficiently from concepts and paradigms to algorithms and implementation techniques by focusing, in the early chapters, on the specific concepts and paradigms that inform the authors' methodologies.

· Explores a number of key themes, including self-organization, complex adaptive systems, and emergent computation.

· Details the metrics and analytical tools needed to assess the performance of computational intelligence tools.

· Concludes with a series of case studies that illustrate a wide range of successful applications.

· Presents code examples in C and C++.

· Provides, at the end of each chapter, review questions and exercises suitable for graduate students, as well as researchers and practitioners engaged in self-study.

· Makes available, on a companion website, a number of software implementations that can be adapted for real-world applications.


INTRODUCTION
We conducted a retrospective audit on the inpatient assessment and care of children admitted with febrile convulsion to Hospital Batu Pahat, a district hospital in Malaysia, using the Malaysian national clinical practice guidelines and the American Academy of Paediatrics practice parameters on febrile convulsion as the reference standards.

METHODS
The case notes of 100 consecutive children admitted in 2004 were analysed. The documentation of major clinical features, selection of investigations, the timeliness of antipyresis and frequency of parental education were evaluated.

RESULTS
In general, the major clinical features that were relevant to the presenting problem were adequately documented, although fever was not mentioned as a presenting complaint in one quarter of the cases. On an average, about five investigations were ordered for every patient on admission. There was no major difference in the number of investigations conducted between children who were more severely ill and the rest of the patients. The majority of the investigations did not yield any useful diagnostic information. Only 38 percent of the children received antipyretics and 53 percent were tepid-sponged during fever, with 23 percent having received tepid-sponging without concurrently receiving antipyretics. No parental education on febrile convulsion was recorded in half of the cases.

CONCLUSION
Excessive unjustified investigations, deficient antipyresis when required and inadequate communication with the family of children with febrile convulsion were observed. Awareness of such deficiencies from this audit should lead to regular staff education, monitoring and future audits in order to improve the quality of our clinical care.


The variety of programs that a good modern auditorium should accommodate, requires that reverberation should be controllable if each program is to merit optimal acoustical environment. Guidance from auditorium synthesis suggests that, in contrast with the usual doctrine stressing reverberation time, the sound level of the reverberant sound relative to the direct sound is a dominant factor. Following on from the seminal work of Carl Eyring, this paper describes experiments and experience over the past 25 years that suggest a very practical way to achieve the necessary control.


Health system responsiveness reflects the extent national health systems meet the legitimate expectations of patients. This study assessed the responsiveness of primary health care services in Nigeria from the clients' perspective. A cross - sectional survey of 379 participants were randomly selected from 7 centers from a sample frame of 20 primary healthcare centers. Descriptive results were presented in frequencies and percentages. The associations between the importance and performance ranking were examined using the Spearman's ranked correlation coefficient. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify predictors of responsiveness with p-values ≤ 0.05 considered statistically significant. There were equal proportion of respondents aged <30 years and>≥30 years but more were female (95%), had attained less than the tertiary level of schooling (60.9%), and currently married (92.3%). The highest proportion of patients reported good responsiveness for dignity (81.8%) and least proportion for the choice of care provider (53.8%). Patient-level predictors of good responsiveness in relation to autonomy were younger age (p = 0.003) attainment of tertiary level of education (p = 0.001); tertiary education was associated with confidentiality (p = 0.009) and those who are not married with prompt attention (p = 0.027). Dignity, confidentiality, and prompt attention were identified as priority areas to focus in improving the responsiveness of primary healthcare services in Rivers State.


Gratitude is positively associated with health and well-being. Past studies of gratitude have primarily focused on the distinct cultural context of European Americans. The current studies aimed to extend gratitude research to Latino and East Asian Americans, 2 collectivistic contexts known to differently value positive emotions. Two studies explored whether Latino and East Asian Americans varied in gratitude experience and whether the disposition toward gratitude was associated with well-being for both. In Study 1, participants completed measures of the emotional experience and expression of gratitude. Latino Americans rated the desirability, appropriateness, frequency, and intensity of their gratitude experience-expression higher than did East Asian Americans. Moreover, European Americans' gratitude experience and expression was similar to those of Latino Americans and higher than those of East Asian Americans. In Study 2, participants completed measures of gratitude disposition and indicators of well-being. Latino Americans reported a higher disposition toward gratitude than did East Asian Americans. Higher disposition toward gratitude was associated with higher self-esteem and with less loneliness and perceived stress across groups. However, the strength of the association of gratitude with subjective health and depressive symptoms varied by group in theoretically expected ways. The promising possibilities of extending research on gratitude to culturally diverse groups is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).


: In a five-year period from February 1984, 76 orthotopic heart transplantations were performed in the most extensive heart transplantation programme in the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. The average age of the patients was 43 years (range 14-61 years) and the sex distribution was 55 men/21 women. Cardiomyopathy and ischaemic heart disease were the commonest indications for transplantation. The actuarical survival was 84% after one year, 81% after two years and 76% after five years. When the operative lethality is excluded, the one-year survival was 91%, the two-year survival 88% and the five-year survival 82%. Six operative deaths occurred within the first 30 days and seven late deaths, five of these from acute rejection and two as a result of transplant atherosclerosis. No deaths were due to infection. Twelve patients developed 14 general surgical complications and laparotomy proved necessary in ten cases. One of the patients died from haemorrhagic pancreatitis and the remainder had no sequelae. An association was found between tissue type compatibility (human leukocyte antigen (HLA)) between donor and recipient and the occurrence of steroid resistant rejections.


We present a simple log-linear reparameterization of IBM Model 2 that overcomes problems arising from Model 1's strong assumptions and Model 2's overparameterization. Efficient inference, likelihood evaluation, and parameter estimation algorithms are provided. Training the model is consistently ten times faster than Model 4. On three large-scale translation tasks, systems built using our alignment model outperform IBM Model 4. An open-source implementation of the alignment model described in this paper is available from http://github.com/clab/fast align .


Study Design. Narrative review. Objective. To identify suitable outcome measures that can be used to quantify neurological and functional impairment in the management of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Summary of Background Data. CSM is the leading cause of acquired spinal cord disability, causing varying degrees of neurological impairment which impact on independence and quality of life. Because this impairment can have a heterogeneous presentation, a single outcome measure cannot define the broad range of deficits seen in this population. Therefore, it is necessary to define outcome measures that characterize the deficits with greater validity and sensitivity. Methods. This review was conducted in 3 stages. Stage I: To evaluate the current use of outcome measures in CSM, PubMed was searched using the name of the outcome measure and the common abbreviation combined with "CSM" or "myelopathy." Stage II: Having identified a lack of appropriate outcome measures, we constructed criteria by which measures appropriate for assessing the various aspects of CSM could be identified. Stage III: A second literature search was then conducted looking at specified outcomes that met these criteria. All literature was reviewed to determine specificity and psychometric properties of outcomes for CSM. Results. Nurick grade, modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scale, visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36), and Neck Disability Index were the most commonly cited measures. The Short-Form 36 Health Survey and Myelopathy Disability Index have been validated in the CSM population with multiple studies, whereas the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scale score, Nurick grade, and European Myelopathy Scale each had only one study assessing psychometric characteristics. No validity, reliability, or responsiveness studies were found for the VAS or Neck Disability Index in the CSM population. Conclusion. We recommend that the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scale, Nurick grade, Myelopathy Disability Index, Neck Disability Index, and 30-Meter Walk Test are most appropriate for the assessment of CSM. However, 6 additional outcome measures (QuickDASH, Berg Balance Scale, Graded Redefined Assessment of Strength Sensibility and Prehension, Grip Dynamometer, and GAITRite Anlaysis) were identified, which provide complementary assessments for CSM. Summary Statements. There does not exist a single or composite of outcome instruments that measures myelopathy impairment, function/disability, and participation that have also demonstrated reliability, validity, and responsiveness in a CSM population. More work in the development and psychometric evaluation of new or existing measures is necessary to identify the ideal composite of measures to be used in the clinical and research settings.The mJOA, Nurick grade, NDI, MDI, and 30MWT should be adopted in any clinical practice that treats CSM both for screening and clinical follow-up.We propose that clinicians and researchers consider using the ancillary measures identified, such as the QuickDASH, Berg Balance Scale, GRASSP version 1.0, Grip Strength, and GAITRite Analysis.It is highly recommended that baseline and follow-up measurements should be performed in patients with CSM.


Node clustering has been widely considered in underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) to improve energy efficiency and prolong network lifetime. Network survivability is a great concern in cluster-based UWSNs. In this paper, we propose a dependable clustering protocol to provide a survivable cluster hierarchy against cluster-head failures in such networks. The proposed clustering protocol attempts to select a primary cluster head and a backup cluster head during clustering so that the cluster members associated with the failed cluster head can quickly switch over to the backup cluster head in the event of a cluster-head failure. Meanwhile, it attempts to select a set of clusters with minimum total cost so that network lifetime can be prolonged to ensure long-term underwater environmental monitoring. Simulation results show that the protocol can effectively enhance network survivability and improve network capacity in the event of cluster-head failures.