A photonic beamformer is presented, having smooth behavior. Third-order nonlinearities, resulting from its opto- electronic components, are investigated, with emphasis on their impact on the contrast of imaging radars. This contrast is shown to be severely limited by the induced RF nonlinearities. Limitations on the allowable modulation index are studied for linearly-chirped pulses returned from clutter. Index Terms — photonic beamformers, delay-lines, nonlinearities, imaging radar.


Balloon observations of proton and helium spectra in 1970, 1971 and 1972, which extend previous work for the period 1965 to 1969, reveal a factor of 1.85 deviation from a single valued regression at low rigidities. This deviation decreases with increasing rigidity for both species. The period 1969-1970 is unique because time variations at low and high energies were anti-correlated. When satellite observations are used to extend the balloon observations to energies below 100 MeV/nucleon, the proton spectrum showed a steeper slope in 1970 and 1972 than the characteristic J = AT spectrum observed during 19651969. The slope of the helium spectrum became continuously flatter during the same period (1970-1972). Computer generated spectra based on simple two parameter modulation models describe the basic features of the observations if one of the variable parameters is used to characterize the rigidity dependence of the diffusion coefficient. On the other hand, models which do not allow such a variation are not consistent with the observations. * Present address: NASA/ Space Sciences Laboratory Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Alabama 35812


Effects of cyperin 10 EC and neem extract on pollinators, fruit setting and fruit quality of mango was investigated. Number of pollinators visited mango inflorescences was higher in morning in comparison to noon and afternoon. In control plants, average 25.67 pollinators visited within 30 minutes which was higher than cyperin 10 EC (20.00) and neem extract treated (24.34) plants. The pollinators were under the order Hymenoptera (26.31%), Diptera (52.42%), Odonata (5.26%) and unidentified (10.53%). Bloomed and fertilized flowers were lower in cyperin treated plants than neem treated and control plants. Highest average fruit weight was obtained from neem treated plants, whereas cyperin treated plants gave lowest percentage of infested fruit and control plants gave highest percentage of deformed fruit.


Radioactive iodine (RAI) is a key component in the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer. RAI has been recommended more selectively in recent years as guidelines evolve to reflect risks and utility in certain patient subsets. In this study we sought to evaluate the survival impact of radioactive iodine in specific thyroid cancer subgroups. Nationwide retrospective cohort study of patients using the National Cancer Database (NCDB) from 2004-2012 and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1992-2009 examining patients with differentiated thyroid cancer treated with or without RAI. Primary outcomes included all-cause mortality (NCDB and SEER), and cancer-specific mortality (SEER). Cox multivariate survival analyses were applied to each dataset, and in 135 patient subgroups based on clinical and non-clinical parameters. A total of 199,371 NCDB and 77,187 SEER patients were identified. RAI was associated with improved all-cause mortality (NCDB: RAI hazard ratio (HR) 0.55, P<0.001; SEER: HR 0.64, P<0.001); and cancer-specific mortality (SEER: HR 0.82, P=0.029). Iodine therapy showed varied efficacy within each subgroup. Patients with high-risk disease experienced the greatest benefit in all-cause mortality, followed by intermediate-risk, then low-risk subgroups. Regarding cancer-specific mortality, radioactive iodine therapy was protective in high-risk patients, but did not achieve statistical significance in most intermediate-risk subgroups. Low-risk T1a subgroups demonstrated an increased likelihood of cancer-specific mortality with iodine therapy. The efficacy of RAI in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer varies by disease severity. A negative cancer-specific survival association was identified in patients with T1a disease. These findings warrant further evaluation with prospective studies.


Diabesity indicates the coexistence of obesity and diabetes. In the 21st century, Diabesity is considered a leading cause of serious fatal chronic diseases. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effect of bread formed of soya bean flour and turmeric or ginger in junction with a balanced hypocaloric regimen in reducing body weight and controlling diabetes in a sample of Egyptian females complaining of diabesity. This study was conducted on seventy two obese women suffering from type II diabetes. They followed a dietary therapy for 8 weeks. During the first 4 weeks, they followed a hypocaloric diet, supplemented with soya bean bread. While in the last 4 weeks, they followed only the hypocaloric regimen. Different anthropometric measurements, fasting blood glucose, serum lipid profile, C-peptide and Apolipoprotein J were determined. Data of the current study revealed that, bread formed of soya beans flour and fortified with curcumin or ginger helped in weight loss, decreased in % body fat with preservation of lean muscle mass, increased basal metabolic rate, reduced blood lipids levels, improved insulin sensitivity and reduced atherosclerosis risk. So both supplements can be used to prevent or delay the onset of diabesity- related co-morbidities by controlling the metabolic disorders.


Abstract The identification in China in December 2019 of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) immediately rekindled the spotlight on a problem also addressed in the past during the epidemics of SARS in 2002–2003 and MERS in 2012: the implications of a possible infection during pregnancy, both for pregnant women and for fetuses and infants. Pregnancy is characterized by some changes involving both the immune system and the pulmonary physiology, exposing the pregnant woman to a greater susceptibility to viral infections and more serious complications. The objective of this review is therefore to analyze the relationship between pregnancy and known coronaviruses, with particular reference to SARS-CoV-2.


A considerable proportion of Taiwanese people believe that Chinese medicine is superior for treating the cause of disease (curative therapy) whereas western medicine is mostly concerned with treating symptoms (symptomatic therapy). As a result, when illness arises, the combined use of both Chinese and western medicine is a common practice and referred to as pluralistic health-seeking behaviour. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship between beliefs of superiority of western or Chinese medicine, utilisation of therapy and glycaemic control in patients with diabetes from outpatient departments. The study was conducted between 20 December 2005 and 20 January 2006. We approached 176 patients consecutively, and 151 (85.8%) completed the survey. Seventy-nine patients with diabetes from a municipal Chinese medicine hospital and 72 patients from a near by western medicine hospital in southern Taiwan were recruited. Participants were asked to fill in a structured questionnaire. For those who could not fill in the questionnaire, interviews were conducted. Sixty-four participants took western medicine (42.4%), 65 people (43.0%) used the combination of western and Chinese medicine and 22 (14.6%) used Chinese medicine only. Beliefs about the superiority of Chinese versus western medicine were associated with the patients' utilisation of those therapies. Patients using a combination of Chinese and western medicine had significantly better glycaemic control than patients using Chinese medicine alone. Further research is needed to clarify whether better glycaemic control was the result of the combined therapy, a higher motivation for self-care or both. Nevertheless, a combination of traditional and western medicine plays an important role and should not be ignored in controlling diabetes. However, the cost-effectiveness of such a plural therapy needs to be investigated.


Increased oxidative stress from both mitochondrial and cytosolic sources contributes to the development and the progression of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and it is a target of therapeutic interventions. The numerous efforts made over the last decades in order to develop tools able to monitor the oxidative stress level in patients affected by CVDs rely on the need to gain information on the disease state. However, this goal has not been satisfactorily accomplished until now. Among others, the isolation of circulating leukocytes to measure their oxidant level offers a valid, noninvasive challenge that has been tested in few pathological contexts, including hypertension, atherosclerosis and its clinical manifestations, and heart failure. Since leukocytes circulate in the blood stream, it is expected that they might reflect quite closely both systemic and cardiovascular oxidative stress and provide useful information on the pathological condition. The results of the studies discussed in the present review article are promising. They highlight the importance of measuring oxidative stress level in circulating mononuclear cells in different CVDs with a consistent correlation between degree of oxidative stress and severity of CVD and of its complications. Importantly, they also point to a double role of leukocytes, both as a marker of disease condition and as a direct contributor to disease progression. Finally, they show that the oxidative stress level of leukocytes reflects the impact of therapeutic interventions. It is likely that the isolation of leukocytes and the measurement of oxidative stress, once adequately developed, may represent an eligible tool for both research and clinical purposes to monitor the role of oxidative stress on the promotion and progression of CVDs, as well as the impact of therapies.


Real-time embedded systems are becoming ever more complex. We are reaching the stage where even if static Response-Time Analysis (RTA) was feasible from a cost and technical perspective, the results of such an analysis are overly pessimistic. This makes them less useful to the practitioner. In addition, the temporal validation and verification of such systems in some applications, e.g., aeronautics, requires the probability of obtaining a worst-case response time larger than a given value in order to support dependable system functions. All these facts advocate moving toward statistical RTA, which instead of calculating absolute worst-case timing guarantees, computes a probabilistic worst-case response time estimate. The contribution of this paper is to present and evaluate such a statistical RTA technique which uses a black box view of the systems under analysis, by not requiring estimates of parameters such as worst-case execution times of tasks. Furthermore, our analysis is applicable to real systems that are complex, e.g., from a task dependencies perspective.


SUMMARY Modelling wildlife disease poses some unique challenges. Wildlife disease systems are data poor in comparison with human or livestock disease systems, and the impact of disease on population size is often the key question of interest. This review concentrates specifically on the application of dynamic models to evaluate and guide management strategies. Models have proved useful particularly in two areas. They have been widely used to evaluate vaccination strategies, both for protecting endangered species and for preventing spillover from wildlife to humans or livestock. They have also been extensively used to evaluate culling strategies, again both for diseases in species of conservation interest and to prevent spillover. In addition, models are important to evaluate the potential of parasites and pathogens as biological control agents. The review concludes by identifying some key research gaps, which are further development of models of macroparasites, deciding on appropriate levels of complexity, modelling genetic management and connecting models to data.


The present study explored the predictors of teaching effectiveness among secondary school teachers of Dimapur district of Nagaland. Teaching effectiveness constitutes the characteristics, competencies, and behaviors of a teacher that enable his/her students to attain desired learning outcomes. The Teacher Effectiveness Rating Scale (Kulsum, 2001) was used to collect data. It was found that most (71%) teachers are having average level of teaching effectiveness. Further results revealed that out of five dimensions of teaching effectiveness, teacher characteristic is the most important dimension for the teaching effectiveness and age of teacher and teaching experience has no impact on his/her teaching effectiveness.


While it is commonly believed that 'interactive' media provides benefits to young children not obtained from 'non-interactive' media, there has been little research examining this issue, or the kinds of interactivity that elicit these benefits. The present study examined the attention, comprehension, and enjoyment of young children viewing different kinds of interactive television programs compared with those of children viewing the control prototype (non-interactive) programs. Three interactive prototypes and one control prototype of Dora the Explorer, Hi-5, and Play School were examined on these outcome measures. The interactive prototypes allowed participants to make simple choices about program content using a television remote control. Four hundred and ninety eight children aged four (49.4%) and five (50.6%) years individually viewed one of the prototypes, and the children's attention, comprehension, and enjoyment were examined. Participants were boys (49.7%) and girls (50.3%) drawn from Government (64.9%), Catholic (27.6%) and Independent (7.4%) schools in Perth, Western Australia.

Significantly higher attention, comprehension, or both were found for children interacting with two of the prototypes allowing increased viewer participation compared to children viewing the control prototype prototypes. Interactive prototypes allowing participants to repeat sections of program content also elicited significantly higher comprehension than control prototypes. However, interactive prototypes allowing participants to customise aspects of the program did not result in differences in the outcome measures compared with control prototypes. It was also found that interactive prototypes offering participants narrative choices were associated with significantly lower attention, comprehension or enjoyment for either interacting or non-interacting participants compared to the control prototypes. It is argued that interactivity, per se, does not bestow any benefits, with only specific models of interactivity resulting in higher comprehension or attention. In fact, some applications allowing young children to make choices about program narrative appears to disrupt program comprehension. It is concluded that successful interactivity builds upon the features of well-designed traditional children's television; opportunities for increased participation, and the repetition of content.


The volume contains contributions by many of the major discourse analysts of the New Testament, including E.A. Nida, W. Schenk, J.P. Louw and J. Callow. Some of these essays deal with methodology, raising necessary questions about what it means to analyse discourse. Others demonstrate an already committed approach by reading specific texts. A 'state-of-the-art' volume for all scholars interested in this increasingly important area of New Testament research.


Serbia has had numerous transformations of borders during the last 20 years. There is no other country in the world that has witnessed this phenomenon in such a short period of time: from two types of federation to a unitary state; from self-governing socialism dominated by a single party to the authoritarian regime of Milosevic; and finally, the most recent transition to democracy. The phenomenon was followed by wars and strong media propaganda under which different territorial aspirations were presented to the majority of the population.Moreover, slow transition towards market economy and moderate progress in EU integration process influenced the high level of regional differences in Serbia. In the Republic of Serbia 46 Municipalities out of 150 are extremely underdeveloped, and their rate of development is under 60% of national average. This is in direct connection with insufficient capacities of the Republic of Serbia to meet the Copenhagen criteria regarding the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union.The study's relevance is rooted in the fact that only a small number of CBC projects and initiatives exist in Serbia. The local development sector has the second highest share of total disbursed IPA funds, around 10% from €11.5 billion for the period 2007–2013. This raises the question of CBC development impact within domestic absorption capacity, which is at 85.7%, slightly under the Western Balkans average of 87.3%. The problems of utilising funds available for CBC in the regions of the Republic of Serbia which are eligible for CBC under the IPA Programme are well known and already analysed in literature. Still, this instrument of European territorial cooperation, which also serves as a developing instrument of local self-governments, is not used to its maximum.This research aims at enhancing the understanding of perceptions of borders in the cross-border regions of Serbia, and to evaluate the influences of these perceptions using mental mapping and other classical applied social science methods on cross-border policies and cross-border cooperation as a potential development instrument for bordering Serbian municipalities. The present paper is based on two hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that borders are perceived as less important in regions with higher CBC. The second hypothesis is that more developed regions (higher GDP, more local institutions and actors, more CBC project) are already working, consciously or by chance, on the creation of CB territory which can be suitable for establishing of EGTC. In the end, the conclusion will try to argue what border regions are best prepared for the future establishment of EGTC once the legal bases are set and Serbia becomes a candidate country for the EU.


AIM
To explore the mechanism of abnormal Connexin (Cx) 32 and Cx43 expression in the gastric mucosa after Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection.

METHODS
Biopsy specimens of gastric mucosa in different gastric carcinogenesis stages with H. pylori infection, that is, non-atrophic gastritis (NAG; n = 24), chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG; n = 25), intestinal metaplasia (IM; n = 28), dysplasia (DYS; n = 24), and gastric cancer (GC; n = 30), as well as specimens of normal gastric mucosa without H. pylori infection (NGM; n = 25), were confirmed by endoscopy and pathological examination. Cx32 and Cx43 mRNA expression was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Cx32 and Cx43 promoter CpG island methylation status was determined by methylation-specific PCR (MSP), bisulfite PCR sequencing (BSP) and MassArray methods.

RESULTS
The relative mRNA expression levels in the gastric mucosa of patients with NGM, NAG, CAG, IM, DYS and GC were 0.146 ± 0.011, 0.133 ± 0.026, 0.107 ± 0.035, 0.039 ± 0.032, 0.037 ± 0.01 and 0.03 ± 0.011 for Cx32; and 0.667 ± 0.057, 0.644 ± 0.051, 0.624 ± 0.049, 0.555 ± 0.067, 0.536 ± 0.058 and 0.245 ± 0.121 for Cx43, respectively, which were gradually decreasing and significantly different (GC vs NGM: P < 0.001 for Cx32, P < 0.001 for Cx43). The promoter methylation levels in the gastric mucosa from NGM to GC stages by MSP were 38.8% ± 9.0%, 43.1% ± 9.4%, 56.5% ± 3.1%, 64.4% ± 9.7%, 72.5% ± 4.2% and 79.6% ± 6.8% for Cx32; and 49.0% ± 3.9%, 58.1% ± 5.0%, 66.5% ± 7.9%, 74.0% ± 8.8%, 78.3% ± 3.6% and 88.7% ± 6.2% for Cx43, respectively, which were gradually increasing and significantly different (P = 0.039, P = 0.019). The promoter methylation levels by BSP and MassArray exhibited similar trends. Cx32 and Cx43 mRNA expression was negatively correlated with promoter methylation status and gastric carcinogenesis stages (P < 0.001, P = 0.016).

CONCLUSION
Cx32 and Cx43 mRNA expression decreased gradually during H. pylori infection-associated gastric carcinogenesis, and it is associated with hypermethylation of these genes' promoter.


Skin wounds created by the CO2 laser and the scalpel were evaluated to serially compare tensile strength. The tensile strength of paired skin incisions on the backs of two pigs was measured for 12 weeks. Laser wounds were weaker than scalpel wounds during the initial three weeks after the incision. Subsequent measurements disclosed that both wounds increased in strength at a similar rate. Maximal strength occurred for both wounds at 84 days after wounding. The maximal tensile strength for the scalpel wound was the same for one laser incision and less for the other. This difference may be related to the thermal damage at the edge of the laser wound with resultant delay in the initial phases of wound healing. Ongoing histologic and biochemical analyses will hopefully provide additional information about these differences.


This paper examines the relationships between productivity growth and characteristics of firms using Japanese firm-level data during the period 1995-2004. Applying a bootstrapped Malmquist index approach and weighted least squares (WLS) to two retail trade industries, we estimate the firm-level productivity growth rates and the effects of firms' characteristics on those growth rates. In addition, decomposing productivity growth into technical efficiency change and technical progress, we discuss mechanisms of productivity growth in detail. Our estimation reveals that productivity growth of department stores and supermarkets was stagnant during the sample period. It also indicates that positive technical efficiency changes are usually offset by technical regress and vice versa. Furthermore, effects of firms' characteristics on both productivity components are sometimes conflicting as well. In view of these findings, industrial policies should be carefully devised, based upon their efficiency distribution.


Cannibalism in Atlantic cod Gadus morhua is widespread under both field and culture conditions, but no studies have been conducted on the behavioural ontogeny of cannibalism in this species. We carried out an experiment to investigate the onset and ontogenetic changes in cannibal- istic behaviour of Atlantic cod during early developmental stages. Cod larvae were separated into 4 size classes (6, 9, 12 and 15 mm) to monitor cannibalistic activity on first-week (~4 mm) conspecific larvae. Five cannibalistic behaviours (fixation, aggression, fin nipping, attacking and engulfing) were monitored when the predator was introduced to the observation chamber. Cannibalistic attacks ini- tially appeared in 9 mm predators, although 6 mm larvae showed prey interest and engaged in fin nipping behaviour. The 9 and 12 mm larvae engaged in similar rates of cannibalistic activity, while 15 mm fish demonstrated a significant increase. These behavioural changes appear to coincide with the morphological and physiological changes associated with juvenile metamorphosis, namely fin ray, vertebrae and stomach development. More importantly, our observations indicate that canni- balism reduces survival of conspecifics at earlier developmental stages than indicated by diet analyses alone.


This paper presents GREP, a highly scalable and efficient group rekeying protocol with the following merits. First, it rekeys the group with only two messages, introducing an overhead which is small, constant, and independent of the group size. Second, GREP considers collusion as a first-class attack. Third, GREP efficiently recovers the group from a collusion attack without recourse to a total member reinitialization. The recovery cost smoothly grows with the group size, and gradually increases with the attack severity. GREP achieves these results by organizing nodes into logical subgroups and exploiting the history of node joining events. This allows GREP to establish a total ordering among subgroups and among nodes in each subgroup, so making collusion recovery highly scalable and efficient. We evaluate performance from several standpoints, and show that GREP is deployable in large-scale networks of customary, even resource constrained, platforms.


The grid-spacing dependency of the numerical solutions of the supersonic gas/particle impinging flow of the cold spray is investigated. The control parameters of the grid spacing in the nozzle are the radial grid spacing normal to the nozzle wall, the axial grid spacing at the nozzle exit, and the radial number of grids in the nozzle. The working gas is nitrogen with a pressure and a temperature of 2MPa and 600K at the stagnant chamber. The solid particle to be accelerated by the supersonic gas flow is spherical copper 5µm in diameter. The numerical results reveal that the computational result with coarsest grid poorly captures the supersonic gas flow in the nozzle. However, the impinging velocity of the particle onto the substrate differs less than 3.5% between those results obtained from the finest and coarsest grids.


The results of the evaluation of yield and pomological characteristics of 9 cherry varieties (Sylvia, Kordia, Sunburst, Van, Summit, Stark Hardy Giant, Regina, Octavia, and Sum) and the local cherry variety Dolga siska, grafted on dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5, are presented in this paper. The research was conducted in an experimental orchard located in the village of Kosel in the Ohrid region. The orchard was planted in 2009 with a planting distance of 3.8 × 2 m. The training system of the trees is the central leader system. Intensive agricultural techniques are implemented in the orchard. The orchard is under a drip irrigation system. The study was performed during 3 consecutive years: 2011, 2012, and 2013. The following parameters were investigated: diameter of the rootstock and scion, trunk cross section area, volume of the tree crown and tree crown area, yield and yield efficiency, and quality characteristics of the fruits. All varieties had good compatibility with the rootstock. According to the diameter of the trunk, the most vigorous variety is Kordia. The local cherry variety Dolga siska had the lowest vigorousness among the evaluated varieties. The highest cumulative yield and yield efficiency were seen in the Octavia variety (41.25 kg, 0.46 kg/cm 2 ) and the lowest in Sunburst (13.14 kg, 0.16 kg/cm 2 ). The fruits from Dolga siska and Sunburst had the highest average fruit weight (11.70 g and 11.43 g), whereas the fruits from Sylvia had the lowest value for this parameter (7.79 g). All varieties had a very high ratio of fruit weight/stone weight. It ranged from 93.58% in Sylvia to 97.02% in Summit. Most of the studied varieties showed positive characteristics and can be recommended for mass growing in the Ohrid region. Besides the local variety Dolga siska as the best option, Stark Hardy Giant, Kordia, Sunburst, and Van can also be emphasized.


The specific features of the epidemiological situation in St. Petersburg at the first stage (1987-1995) and the second stage (1986-1999) of the development of HIV infection are described. During this period morbidity in HIV infection, starting from the insignificant rate of growth, sharply increased. For the first time injecting drug users were noted to come out to the foreground in the structure of the contingent of persons affected by HIV infection (57.5% and 72.6% in 1998 and 1999 respectively). Such change on the epidemic situation requires corrections in the strategy and tactics of preventive measures and medical assistance. To control HIV infection among drug users, only the combination of medical assistance given by narcologists with the realization of all elements of the program "Harm Reduction" can be effective.


SUMMARY One of the debates carried out in interwar Poland among legal professionals, including on the pages of legal journals, regarded the issue of how to define and delimit the scope of criminal policy. It was contributed to by many prominent jurists of that era, such as J. Makarewicz, B. Wróblewski or E.S. Rappaport. The aim of this article is to present J. Reinhold's and A. Moginicki's views on criminal policy. However, these two authors perceived the combat against crime differently as to the use of various means by the State or both the State and society (penalties and/or preventive/protective measures). Although they were influenced by the sociological school of criminal law, mainly F. von Liszt's position, an analysis of their views points to a number of differences in their positions.


Takis Zenetos was enthusiastic about the idea of working from home, and believed that both architecture and urban planning should be reshaped in order to respond to this. He supported the design of special public spaces in residential units, aiming to accommodate the inhabitants during working hours. This article argues that Zenetos's design for "Electronic Urbanism" was more prophetic, and more pragmatic, than his peers such as Archigram and Constant Nieuwenhuys. Despite the fact that they shared an optimism towards technological developments and megastructure, a main difference between Zenetos's view and the perspectives of his peers is his rejection of a generalised enthusiasm concerning increasing mobility of people. In opposition with Archigram, Zenetos insisted in minimizing citizens' mobility and supported the replacement of daily transport with the use advanced information technologies, using terms such as "tele-activity". Zenetos was convinced that "Electronic Urbanism" would help citizens save the time that they normally used to commute to work, and would allow them to spend this time on more creative activities, at or near their homes. The main interest of "Electronic Urbanism" lies in the fact that it not only constitutes an artistic contribution to experimental architecture, but is also characterized by a new social vision, promising to resynchronize practices of daily life. An aspect that is also examined is the relationship of Zenetos's ideas and those of the so-called Metabolists in the 1960s in Japan, including Kenzo Tange's conception of megastructures. Zenetos's thought is very topical considering the ongoing debates about the advanced information society, especially regarding the social concerns of surveillance, governance, and sovereignty within the context of Big Data. His conception of "tele-activities" provides a fertile terrain for reflecting on potential implications and insights concerning home-office conditions not only within the context of the current pandemic situation but beyond it as well.


The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to female representation within the governance structure of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A descriptive statistics approach through the lens of feminism was taken in collecting and analyzing data related to the gender representation of staff leadership positions within the NCAA national office and gender representation within the NCAA Division I, II, and III governance structure. This was coupled with a review of NCAA programming initiatives related to leadership opportunities. Although a number of strategies are being implemented by the NCAA to provide greater access and leadership opportunities for women (e.g., diversity initiatives, Senior Woman Administrator legislation, and guaranteed representation on committees), women continue to be underrepresented within NCAA governance substructures and upper leadership levels within the NCAA national office. In addition, nongender neutral sport governance policies still exist that impede the progress of achieving gender equality.


Goals We aimed to determine whether the presence of large liver cell dysplasia (LLCD) and/or small LCD (SLCD) in chronic hepatitis B is a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. Background A close relationship between LLCD/SLCD and hepatitis B virus has been observed and SLCD has been proposed to be a putative precursor of HCC, whereas the significance of LLCD is still controversial. Study One hundred eighty-one patients with chronic hepatitis B who underwent needle liver biopsy were evaluated for the presence of LLCD/SLCD. The predictive value of LLCD/SLCD for HCC development was assessed. Results LLCD and SLCD were present at initial biopsy in 82 (45%) and 17 (9%) patients, respectively. During the mean follow-up of 115±48 months, 19 (10%) cases were diagnosed of HCC, of which 13 (76%) and 3 (17%) cases had demonstrated LLCD and SLCD, respectively, at initial evaluation. The patients with LLCD showed a significantly higher cumulative probability of HCC development than those without LLCD (P=0.016). The risk of HCC development in the presence of LLCD was approximately 3-fold, with positive and negative predictive values of 15.9% and 94.9%, respectively. The patients with SLCD showed no significant difference in cumulative probability of HCC development compared with those without (P>0.05). Conclusions LLCD in chronic hepatitis B is considered to be one of the risk factors for HCC development and its presence may help to identify a high-risk subgroup of patients requiring more intensive screening for HCC.


Loss of information in a wavelet domain can occur during storage or transmission when the images are formatted and stored in terms of wavelet coefficients. This calls for image inpainting in wavelet domains. In this paper, a variational approach is used to formulate the reconstruction problem. We propose a simple but very efficient iterative scheme to calculate an optimal solution and prove its convergence. Numerical results are presented to show the performance of the proposed algorithm.


We have developed an evolutionary game model, where agents can choose between two forms of social participation: interaction via online social networks and interaction by exclusive means of face-to-face encounters . We illustrate the societal dynamics that the model predicts, in light of the empirical evidence provided by previous literature. We then assess their welfare implications. We show tha t dynamics, starting from a world in which online social interaction is less gratifying than offline encounters, will lead to the extinction of the sub-population of online networks u ers, thereby making Facebook and alike disappear in the long run. Furthermore, w e show that the higher the propensity for discrimination between the two sub-populations f socially active individuals, the greater the probability that individuals will ultim ately segregate themselves, making society fall into a social poverty trap. JEL codes: C73, D85, O33, Z13


We present a new nonlinear optimization procedure for the computation of generalized Gaussian quadratures for a broad class of square integrable functions on intervals. While some of the components of this algorithm have been previously published, we present a simple and robust scheme for the determination of a sparse solution to an underdetermined nonlinear optimization problem which replaces the continuation scheme of the previously published works. The new algorithm successfully computes generalized Gaussian quadratures in a number of instances in which the previous algorithms fail. Four applications of our scheme to computational physics are presented: the construction of discrete plane wave expansions for the Helmholtz Green's function, the design of linear array antennae, the computation of a quadrature for the discretization of Laplace boundary integral equations on certain domains with corners, and the construction of quadratures for the discretization of Laplace and Helmholtz boundary integral equations on smooth surfaces.


Abstract : The paper describes and compares the application of two alternative approaches to identification of linear systems from input-output data. The first appraoch is based on fitting input and output data by series of exponentials and deriving the system structure from the resulting functions. The second appraoch is based on assuming a differential equation structure and finding optimum parameter values from the given data. The relative advantages, disadvantages and computational aspects of both approaches are discussed with reference to a specific biological problem. The results are applicable to a variety of compartmental analysis problems. (Author)


In this study, we investigated the immune response of patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and looked for evidence to support the proposal that AS is a form of reactive arthritis in which Klebsiella or other Enterobacteriaceae play a role. Immunoglobulin levels in patients' sera were measured. Using the laboratory parameters erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels as indicators of disease activity, it was found that patients with active disease had considerably higher levels of IgA and IgG than patients with inactive disease or controls. This suggests that these immunoglobulin levels could be another useful indicator of disease activity and they were therefore taken into account in all subsequent patient studies. It has been suggested that these high serum immunoglobulin levels indicate an ongoing immune response to antigen in patients with active disease, but such marked elevations are more likely to be accounted for by non-specific mechanisms. We had hoped to investigate any cellular basis for this by co-culturing AS and normal lymphocytes. However, in vitro immunoglobulin production by peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) did not reflect the serum studies: we were unable to demonstrate any abnormality in the production of immunoglobulin by patients' lymphocytes. The possibility of involvement of Enterobacteriaceae in AS was studied by measuring the levels of specific antibody in patients' sera to sonicated preparations of several bacteria. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used. When total antibodies were measured (i.e. all immunoglobulin classes), no differences were found between patients and controls. However, when antibodies of the IgA class only were studied, patients were found to have elevated antibody levels to Klebsiella and the three arthritogenic bacteria Salmonella, Shigella and Yersinia. This was not simply a result of the general elevation in serum IgA found in patients since normal levels of IgA antibodies to E. coli and Proteus were found. Using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and immunoblotting, an attempt was then made to identify any abnormality in the level of serum antibodies to individual Klebsiella proteins. No obvious difference was found in the blotting pattern of sera from controls, patients with inactive disease and patients with active disease. Since Klebsiella and the other bacteria implicated in AS are found in the gut, a study of the gut immune response should provide a better indication of whether antigenic stimulation by such bacteria has occurred. We studied patients' saliva, the only gastrointestinal secretion readily available. In an ELISA, neither patients as a whole nor the active disease group had high levels of total salivary IgA or IgA antibodies to formalin-killed or sonicated Klebsiella or Yersinia. If, as it has been suggested, the immune response to Enterobacteriaceae plays a pathogenic role in the disease, we would expect to find evidence for this immune response at the site of inflammation - the joints. We measured antibodies to sonicated and formalin-killed preparations of Klebsiella, Salmonella, Shigella and Yersinia in synovial fluids. These antibody levels were no higher in AS patients than in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or other inflammatory joint diseases. Moreover, the antibody response to these four bacteria was similar to that found to E. coli, a bacterium which has not been implicated in the seronegative spondyloarthropathies. Further studies using immunoblotting revealed no difference between AS and other patients in the level of synovial fluid antibodies to individual Klebsiella proteins . In the known reactive arthritides, lymphocytes from the joint demonstrate an elevated cellular immune response to the causative organism. We therefore measured the in vitro proliferative response to Klebsiella of AS synovial T-cells. This was not significantly different from the response of synovial lymphocytes from patients with other diseases. The humoral immune response in AS was further studied by measuring the levels of circulating immune complexes (CIC) in patients' sera. Using a Raji assay, patients were found to have elevated levels of IgG-CIC which were associated with active disease while an assay based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation and radial immunodiffusion revealed a difference between patients and controls which was independent of disease avtivity. All patients had normal serum levels of IgM-CIC. Significant levels of both IgG- and IgM-immune complexes were found in AS synovial fluids. These immune complexes may have no pathogenic relevance but they could be useful in the identification of any environmental factors associated with the disease.


The present study evaluated the influence of training systems and rootstocks on the quality of Syrah tropical wines, produced at São Francisco Valley, Brazil. For this purpose, physicochemical characteristics, phenolic composition, and antioxidant activity were assessed in wines produced with grapes grown under divided trellis system (lyre) and esparlier or vertical shoot position (VSP) training systems, grafted on IAC 572, IAC 766 and Paulsen 1103 rootsotcks and harvested at two different periods. Harvest season had the strongest influence on wine quality, followed by the rootstock. Regardless of the training system and climatic variability between the harvests, the use of the IAC 766 rootstock led to wines with higher alcohol, anthocyanins contents and color intensity. The interaction between the espalier training system and the rootstock IAC 766 resulted in higher flavonol content, phenolic acids, and malvidin-3-O-glucoside, which was detected as the major phenolic as quantified by HPLC. This wine also presented significant levels of procyanidins A2 and B2, which showed a positive correlation with the antioxidant activity.


Ab s t r Ac t Background: Amitraz is a member of the formamidine family of pesticides. Its structure is 1,5 di-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-3-methyl-1,3,5-triazapenta1,4-diene. It is used as an agricultural insecticide for fruit crops and as an acaricide for dogs and livestock. Awareness about amitraz, its toxicity, and its management remains poor among physicians, which is probably the reason for underreporting of amitraz intoxication in remote rural areas. In this systematic review on amitraz intoxication, we focus on demographics, toxicokinetics, mechanisms of toxicity, clinical features, and treatment modalities in amitraz poisoning. Materials and methods: EmBase and Medline databases were searched for the following terms: "amitraz," "intoxication," "poisoning," and "toxicity." Case reports, case series, and original articles describing human cases of amitraz poisoning were included. Results: A total of 251 articles were retrieved after excluding citations common to the two databases. A total of 63 articles described human cases. The clinical manifestations varied from central nervous system (CNS) depression (drowsiness, coma, and convulsions), miosis or mydriasis, respiratory depression, bradycardia, hypotension, hyperthermia or hypothermia, hyperglycemia, polyuria, vomiting, and reduced gastrointestinal motility. Only six reported deaths have been reported (case fatality rate, 1.9%). The proposed lethal dose of the toxin was reported to be 200 mg/kg. Around 33% of patients developed respiratory failure and 20% of them needed mechanical ventilation. Interpretation and conclusion: Amitraz poisoning occurs in either accidental or suicidal manner and is more common in children than adults. There is no specific antidote for this toxin till date. It has an excellent prognosis with supportive management.


This study of naturally occurring mutations predisposing to venous thrombosis has led to a number of important advances in our understanding of protein structure and function relationships and the molecular basis of gene mutation. It has also potentiated the accurate and reliable presymptomatic and antenatal detection of predisposing gene lesions. Perhaps the major challenge facing us is the probabilistic nature of thromboembolism; only a certain proportion of patients with recognized gene defects predisposing to thrombosis will actually suffer from thrombotic episodes. Environmental insults of various kinds, and perhaps epistatic effects resulting from the influence of other loci, are likely to be contributory factors and will help to determine whether a thrombotic event occurs in individuals already compromised by a defect in a gene whose malfunction is known to predispose to thrombosis. Since molecular genetic techniques allow us to dissect the allelioheterogeneity of the different deficiency states by characterizing the wide spectrum of gene mutations giving rise to thrombosis, it may eventually prove possible to relate specific gene lesions to the probability of thromboembolism as well as to the severity and frequency of thrombotic episodes. The multifactorial nature of thrombosis demands a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of its causation, early detection, treatment and prevention. The application of the new and powerful techniques of molecular genetics promises to make a substantial contribution to all aspects of thrombosis research.


This research is a classroom action research (CAR) by using Cooperative Learning ( Take and Give ) to improve physics learning outcome. The results showed that there is improvement on the student learning outcomes during the implementation of Cooperative Learning Model ( Take And Give Type) . Thus, based on the results of research indicate that through model learning Cooperative Learning ( Take And Give Type ) can improve students' physics learning outcomes class XI IPA 1 SMA Negeri 3 Bengkalis in the year 2012/2013. ___________________ Keywords: Learning Model, Take and Give Model, Physics Learning Outcome


Abstract. Changes in the Earth's orbit lead to changes in the seasonal and meridional distribution of insolation. We quantify the influence of orbitally induced changes on the seasonal temperature cycle in a transient simulation of the last 6000 years – from the mid-Holocene to today – using a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (ECHAM5/MPI-OM) including a land surface model (JSBACH). The seasonal temperature cycle responds directly to the insolation changes almost everywhere. In the Northern Hemisphere, its amplitude decreases according to an increase in winter insolation and a decrease in summer insolation. In the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is true. Over the Arctic Ocean, decreasing summer insolation leads to an increase in sea-ice cover. The insulating effect of sea ice between the ocean and the atmosphere leads to decreasing heat flux and favors more "continental" conditions over the Arctic Ocean in winter, resulting in strongly decreasing temperatures. Consequently, there are two competing effects: the direct response to insolation changes and a sea-ice insulation effect. The sea-ice insulation effect is stronger, and thus an increase in the amplitude of the seasonal temperature cycle over the Arctic Ocean occurs. This increase is strongest over the Barents Shelf and influences the temperature response over northern Europe. We compare our modeled seasonal temperatures over Europe to paleo reconstructions. We find better agreements in winter temperatures than in summer temperatures and better agreements in northern Europe than in southern Europe, since the model does not reproduce the southern European Holocene summer cooling inferred from the paleo reconstructions. The temperature reconstructions for northern Europe support the notion of the influence of the sea-ice insulation effect on the evolution of the seasonal temperature cycle.


The effect of a pretreatment dose (0.014 mg/kg) of pancuronium bromide on pulmonary function tests in 15 healthy volunteers was investigated. Ventilatory flow volume loops and maximum voluntary ventilation were determined before and 1 and 3 minutes following administration of the pancuronium. Calculation of the pulmonary function from the flow volume loops revealed statistically significant decreases in forced expiratory flow at 50% of expired volume, forced expiratory volume at 1 second and 3 seconds, peak inspiratory flow, peak inspiratory flow at 50% of inspired volume, forced vital capacity, and maximum voluntary ventilation. Significant pulmonary dysfunction associated with dyspnea was seen in four subjects and one subject had to be artificially ventilated and pancuronium had to be reversed with prostigmine. Ventilation should be closely monitored in patients following pretreatment doses of pancuronium in view of frequent atypical responses.


AbstractThis article challenges the postmodernist view—embodied in the work of such theorists as Baudrillard and Lyotard—that contemporary society is rife with meaninglessness and objectification. Rather, we will argue, meaning is creatively negotiated, among other ways, through narratives conveyed by the mass media. In examining the metanarrative underlying American news accounts, the drama of democracy, and the application of its various genres in the cases of Mikhail Gorbachev and Clarence Thomas, we aim to show that the dramatic categories of good and evil are ever-present parameters of morality in media accounts. The existence of such parameters demonstrates the robust nature of the social imagination as a resource to combat the despair offered by the postmodern perspective. (Sociology)


Issues importance-weighted value is a critical aspect
of decision making. Differences in weight, even the slightest
change in weight assignment, can drastically change the final
decision. Moreover, in the case of distributing social assistance
during the Covid-19 pandemic, objectivity and accuracy of
weighting the criteria for potential recipients are very important
applied for the welfare of the community. The proposes study 3
popular models of ranking methods for weighting criteria in the
internet data package assistance cases. Weighting is given to 390
alternatives with 5 decision-making criteria based on online
learning needs and economic cost capabilities. The decision
analysis method uses the reference point and optimization from
Moora. The study results were found accuracy, precision and
error rate performance each method using a confusion matrix
approach. The study results discussed raised several important
points of findings, that the three ranking methods (RS, RR, ROD)
have their respective characteristics in weighting importance,
where the level of accuracy and precision of the rank-sum method
is better than the RR and ROD methods (for the case: 5 criteria;
390 alternatives). Other things in giving weight value from
important to most important are comparable, and the weight value
of the non-benefit (cost) criteria in the ranking method have a
significant effect on performance results. These three methods are
simple in use and with the assessment of replacement weights that
can be determined how important these variables are to the
principal of these criteria.


The DNA repair protein O(6)-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is important in cellular resistance to certain alkylating antitumor agents such as the methylating drug temozolomide (TMZ). To provide a more rational basis for clinical combinations with another commonly used drug, cisplatin, we assessed the modulation of MGMT protein and mRNA levels in the human leukemic cell line Jurkat after treatment with these agents. Cisplatin decreased MGMT activity in a time- and dose-dependent manner, with maximal suppression (50%) observed 24 h after treatment with 25 microM cisplatin. This was probably the result of decreased transcription of the MGMT gene, because there was an earlier nadir of MGMT mRNA levels after cisplatin treatment and neither cisplatin nor DNA reacted with cisplatin in vitro was able to inhibit MGMT activity in an in vitro assay. TMZ alone depleted MGMT activity in a time- and dose-dependent manner with almost complete loss of activity occurring immediately after treatment with 500 microM TMZ. Combinations of cisplatin (12.5 microM) and TMZ (250 microM) caused substantial and prolonged MGMT depletion with recovery to only 30% of pretreatment levels by 48 h. These results suggest that the clinical efficacy of TMZ and cisplatin may be improved by appropriate schedules of combinations of these agents.


Presents an integrated approach to the derivation of scene descriptions from a pair of stereo images, where the steps of feature correspondence and surface reconstruction are addressed within the same framework. Special attention is given to the development of a methodology with general applicability. In order to handle the issues of noise, lack of image features, surface discontinuities and regions that are visible in one image only, we adopt a tensor representation for the data and introduce a robust computational technique called tensor voting for information propagation. The key contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we introduce "saliency" instead of correlation scores as the criterion to determine the correctness of matches and the integration of feature matching and structure extraction. Second, our tensor representation and voting as a tool enables us to perform the complex computations associated with the formulation of the stereo problem in 3D at a reasonable computational cost. We illustrate the steps on an example, then provide results on both random dot stereograms and real stereo pairs, all processed with the same parameter set.


INTRODUCTION
Whether apolipoprotein E's (APOE's) involvement in lipid metabolism contributes to Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk remains unknown.

METHODS
Incident probable dementia and cognitive impairment (probable dementia+mild cognitive impairment) were analyzed in relation to baseline serum lipids (total, low-density lipoprotein [LDL], high-density lipoprotein [HDL], non-HDL cholesterol, total-to-HDL, LDL-to-HDL, remnant cholesterol, and triglycerides) using Mendelian randomization in 5358 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study. We also examined associations of baseline dietary cholesterol and fat with lipids based on APOE status.

RESULTS
After an average of 11.13 years, less favorable lipid levels related to greater dementia and cognitive impairment risk. Dementia (odds ratio [OR] = 3.13; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.31 to 4.24) and cognitive impairment (OR = 2.38; 95% CI: 1.85 to 3.06) risk were greatest in relation to higher remnant cholesterol levels. Greater cholesterol consumption related to poorer lipids in APOE4+ compared to APOE3 carriers.

DISCUSSION
APOE4+ carriers consuming more cholesterol had less favorable lipids, which were associated with greater dementia and cognitive impairment risk.

HIGHLIGHTS
Less favorable serum lipids were associated with higher dementia incidence. Mendelian randomization findings suggest causality between lipids and dementia. Lipid levels in older women may be clinical indicators of dementia risk. APOE4 carriers had poorest lipid profiles in relation to cholesterol consumption. APOE risk for dementia may be modifiable through lipid management.


Abstract With the aim to evaluate the capturing techniques some haematic and physiological parameters were studied to discriminate stressed hares from non stressed hares. A total of 66 wild hares (experimental group) were sampled in 14 different non-hunting areas, where hares are usually captured for later release in low-density areas. In the same season a total of 30 hares (about 1 year old), reared in cages and thus showing a reduced fear of man, were sampled (control group). In each area the hares were captured by coursing with 3-4 dogs (greyhounds or lurches). The dogs were released by the different hunter teams to find and drive into trammel nets any hare that was seen running. After capture, the hares remained inside darkened, wooden capture-boxes for a variable period of time before blood drawing. For blood sample collection all the hares were physically restrained and their eyes immediately covered. Blood, always collected within 1-2 minutes, was drawn from the auricular vein. Blood samples (plasma) were analysed for glucose, AST, ALT, CPK and cortisol concentrations. Body temperature, heart and respiratory rate, sex, and age were evaluated in each hare. The effect of origin, sex and age on haematic and physiological parameters was analysed by ANOVA. Every measured parameter of the hares bearing to the capture group or the control group (reared) was then subjected to stepwise and to discriminant analysis, in order to select the groups of stressed (discriminated by the controls) and non-stressed hares. CPK, AST and glucose were found to be the best parameters for distinguishing stressed from non-stressed hares. The intensive exercise suffered by the wild hares induced a depletion of energetic reserves, so that most of the captured hares showed lower glucose and higher CPK activity in the plasma, probably due to muscle damage (P< 0.05). After reclassifying the hares in the two groups of stressed and non stressed hares, the reference values (means ± SE) resulted as follows: estimated non-stressed hares, glucose 234 ± 9 .4 mg/dl, AST 112 ± 22.2 U/l, CPK 1334 ± 734 U/l; estimated stressed hares, glucose 128 ± 7 mg/dl, AST 164 ± 13 U/l, CPK 4658 ± 454 U/l. These three cheap and quickly analysable analytes can be useful to the game manager in detecting stressed and non stressed hares, in order to improve the capturing techniques by the evaluation of the following relationship: (number of stressed hares + number of the dead hares during the capture)/number of total captured hares.


The nonradiative decay of majority electrons has been studied over a wide temperature range from 80 K to 600 K using the time-resolved free-carrier-absorption (FCA) technique. At high injection level of the highly-luminescent N-B codoped 6H-SiC epilayer, we revealed three main relaxation components of injected free electrons over ps-to-ms time ranges. By means of temperature dependency, two components can be ascribed to thermal activation of holes from a shallow (200 meV) and a deep (500 meV) acceptor. The third one, which has a hundred us-time scale, we attribute to minority hole recombination from the valance band into the electron trap (53 meV). This recombination channel seems to compete with the deep-acceptor (Boron) to-donor (Nitrogen) pair visible emission at and below 300 K.


We have previously shown that extracellular ATP, like norepinephrine (NE) and many other hypertrophy-inducing agents, increases expression of the immediate-early genes c-fos and junB in cultured neonatal cardiac myocytes but that the intracellular signaling pathways activated by ATP and responsible for these changes differ from those stimulated by NE. Furthermore, whereas NE increases incorporation of [14C]phenylalanine (14C-Phe) and cell size in neonatal cardiomyocytes, ATP does not. Since ATP is coreleased with NE from sympathetic nerve endings in the heart, we investigated whether ATP could modulate cardiac hypertrophy induced by adrenergic agonists, such as NE. We report in the present study that extracellular ATP inhibited the increase in incorporation of 14C-Phe into cellular protein and the increase in cell size in neonatal rat cardiac myocytes that was induced by NE, phenylephrine (PE), basic fibroblast growth factor, or endothelin-1. This inhibition was dose dependent, occurred predominantly through P2 purinergic receptors, and was observed even when cells were treated with ATP for as little as 1 hour before the addition of the hypertrophy-inducing agent. ATP also selectively affected changes in gene expression associated with hypertrophy. It prevented PE-stimulated increases in atrial natriuretic factor and myosin light chain-2 mRNA levels, while appearing to augment basal and PE-stimulated skeletal alpha-actin mRNA levels. ATP alone increased sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase mRNA levels but had no effect when added with PE. ATP did not significantly affect the level of the constitutively expressed mRNA for GAPDH. Neither the PE-stimulated increase in immediate-early gene expression nor the initial induction of mitogen-activated protein kinase activity by PE was inhibited by ATP. These results demonstrate that extracellular ATP can inhibit hypertrophic growth of neonatal cardiac myocytes and differentially alter the changes in gene expression that accompany hypertrophy.


Culture of the causative infectious agent is the only definitive method of diagnosing septic arthritis and can be identified by culture of synovial fluid (SF) or by tissue cultures (TC) obtained at surgery. The aim of this study is to compare the cultures of joint needle aspiration (JNA) with tissue cultures obtained at surgery. 52 patients treated for a suspicion of a septic arthritis of the native knee were retrospectively reviewed. In 84% tissue cultures were equal to joint needle aspiration. Median Gächter classification was 1.0 (range 1-3). 60% of the patients underwent multiple procedures. All patients were successfully treated with an average of 2.0 (range 1-6) arthroscopies. Our results showed that if a patient with a clinical suspicion of septic arthritis is treated, starting antibiotic therapy prior to surgery can be considered, but only after joint needle aspiration to obtain samples for bacteriologic culture. Arthroscopic surgery must be the treatment of choice in Gächter stage 1 to 3, although it might be necessary to perform multiple procedures.


The lack of concentration, caused by fatigue, is the most factor of the increasing number of accidents. In the last few years, the development of an automatic system which based on facial expression analysis, to controls the driver fatigue and prevents him in advance from accidents, has received a growing interest in all intelligent vehicle systems. In This paper, we propose and compare two methods to detect the driver drowsiness state. These methods extracts geometric features using video to characterize eyes blinking as a nonstationary and nonlinear signal. The first method is based on Cumulative Blink Signal analysis technique"CBS" which locates and analyses the eyes blinking from the obtained nonstationary and nonlinear signal to detect the driver drowsiness state. The second method is based on IFD technic "Intinsic Functions Decompositionof the nonstationary and nonlinear signal to analyse the nonstationary and nonlinear signal by using the combination between the two methods: Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and Band Power(BP). For both proposed methods, this analysis is confirmed by the support Vector Machine (SVM) to classify the state ofdriver fatigue. The synthesis results obtained by both methods CBS and IFD are discussed and compared to those of the literature.


CultureShock! France peels away the layers of the French and their country to reveal the heart of the Gallic temperament. The book navigates through essential topics such as learning the French language, how best to work with the French, observing their body language and even how to choose wine in a restaurant. Glean practical advice on finding a home, getting the utilities running and putting the children into school. Find out more about the French, a complex people who maintain a cool composure on the outside, yet are inwardly passionate about art, romance, cuisine and wine. Discover how easily the French recognise a foreigner just by the way their salad and pasta are eaten and learn how to avoid being the object of their criticism. CultureShock! France is a must-read guide to all the essential information needed for one to feel right at home in France.


Fractional- frequency synthesizers have long been known to suffer from a set of spurious components, often referred to as fractional spurs, which are usually attributed to the operation of the modulator. This paper proposes a new phenomenon-based on cross-coupling and sampling of the nonharmonically related signals present in such synthesizers-which is capable of producing a family of spurious components of identical form to fractional spurs, with support from a range of analytic, simulated and measured results. A unique experimental arrangement is described, allowing controlled cross-coupling of signals within a synthesizer, which provides convincing experimental validation of this mechanism. Finally, techniques are suggested to allow at least partial mitigation of the effect.


Hibiscus sabdariffa, also known as sorrel in the Virgin Islands, is an annual plant that is grown mainly for its colorful fleshy calyxes during the Christmas Season. Sorrel is used to make a healthy drink that is high in vitamin C and anthocyanins which is claimed to be better than cranberry juice. Sorrel is normally planted at 60 cm during July and August. The objective of this study was to compare sorrel growth and production of a Caribbean day-neutral variety and a Zambian short-day variety planted in September with in-row plant spacing of 20 cm, 40 cm and 60 cm, and 150 cm between rows. Data was collected weekly on plant height, branching and fruit set. The results indicated that the Caribbean day-neutral variety can be grown at 20 to 60 cm with no effect on branching or production. However, the Caribbean dayneutral plants were shorter at 60 cm spacing than either at 20 or 40 cm, while spacing was not an influence on plant height for the Zambian short-day variety at 20 to 60 cm. The Zambian shortday sorrel has greater branching and fruit set as the plant spacing increases from 20 to 60 cm. Planting sorrel in September at 40 cm can increase production per length of row. This research was funded through VI Dept. of Agriculture Specialty Crops Block Grant and USDA-NTFAResident Instruction in Insular Areas (Grant # #2008-34816-20016).


Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify and assess the relative importance of predictors of the self-rated adjustment and psychiatric morbidity of recent Chinese migrants. Method: Chinese migrants (n = 271) living in Auckland and aged 15 years or older completed a postal questionnaire that included the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ). The majority of respondents came from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Results: Most respondents did not report major adjustment problems. The psychiatric morbidity rate was 19%. Major predictors of experiencing problems included rejection by locals, being aged 26–35 years or over 45 years and low English proficiency. Major predictors of poor adjustment included unemployment, low English proficiency, lack of university education, younger age, shorter residency, expectations not met and regrets about coming to New Zealand. Predictors of minor mental disorder included regretting coming, female gender and younger age. For migrants resident 2 years or less, unemployment and underemployment were additional risk factors. Mothers with absent husbands and young people with absent parents also had elevated rates of mental disorder. Conclusions: Although the overall prevalence of mental disorder for this sample of recent migrants appears to be similar to that of the general population, significant risk factors were identified. The findings extend knowledge of the adjustment and the mental health of migrants and provide potential focal points for primary and secondary prevention interventions.


Since the 1990s, studies within the inter-disciplinary fields of crime, the media and children have been wide-ranging. In spite of this however, to date, research into the media's reporting on the missing and murdered child has been a neglected area of study. This thesis redresses this gap by providing the first significant study into the missing and murdered child and the way in which the media interrogates this phenomenon within the mediated public sphere. Reflecting on historical and contemporary debates and ideas about the public sphere, the thesis draws on current literature and considers the way in which mediated narratives about the missing and the murdered child, reinforce particular ideological and cultural assumptions about the politics of childhood, motherhood, community and privacy. The thesis considers the way in which the media's coverage of the missing and the murdered child has contributed to the 'emotionalization' of the public sphere. The study examines established viewpoints about the nature of an emotionalized public sphere and the extent to which it undermines Western values associated with liberal democracy. A qualitative textual analysis of two case studies was conducted into the media's coverage of two high-profile incidents of child murder and abduction- the Soham murder investigation in 2002 and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 2007. Samples for analysis were drawn from both print and broadcast media including five UK national tabloid newspapers- Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Sun, Daily Star, Daily Express together with an episode of the BBC'S Crimewatch. Findings from this study reveal that a public sphere shaped by emotion provides a vehicle whereby subaltern counter-publics, the voice of ordinary citizens takes precedence. Moreover, I argue that the distinctiveness of this research is that it highlights the way in which a mediated public sphere informed by emotion appears to promote active citizenship and engagement with matters of public concern, of which the missing and the murdered child are but two examples. Finally, I suggest that it is through participation, and perhaps social and political engagement in response to such incidents, that contributes to the reformulation of a mediated public sphere and thereby sustains the very doctrines that underpin the role of the state and civil society.


In 8 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) on hemodialysis combined therapy (erythropoietin+calcitriol) effect was evaluated versus control group of 9 hemodialysis patients on erythropoietin monotherapy. In patients on the combined regimen the antianemic effect occurred sooner, this effect of calcitriol coming prior to correction of uremic defects in phosphoric-calcium metabolism. Calcitriol mechanisms of action in renal anemia and benefits of potential calcitriol+erythropoietin combination use in CRF patients suffering from uremic osteodystrophy, hypercatabolic conditions, uremic hypogonadism and infection complications are discussed.


What explains the differences in the black and white arrest rates? Previous authors have reached conflicting conclusions – differences in arrest rates can either be explained through black individuals committing a greater amount of crimes, or through a racial bias in policing methods. I create a model which explains how the racial composition of arrests changes as the ratio of black to white individuals varies between states. Using this model along with arrest and socioeconomic data by race at a state level, I estimate the difference in probability of arrest for a black individual compared to a white individual. These probabilities are used to determine the difference in the frequency with which blacks and whites commit crimes and the probability of arrest when committing a crime for both racial groups. I find that on average, blacks commit three to four times as many crimes as whites, and that the probability of arrest when committing crimes is three times greater for blacks than it is for whites, which is due to a racial bias in police methods. I conclude that the discrepancy between black and white arrests rates can be attributed to both of these factors.


BACKGROUND
Meckel's diverticulum (MD) is the most common congenital anomaly of the gastrointestinal tract and is also an important cause of bloody stool and anemia in children. However, there are few data about video capsule endoscopy (VCE) for MD in children. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of VCE for MD in children.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
children who underwent VCE for obscure gastrointestinal bleeding from October 1st 2015 to August 31st 2019 at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University were included in this retrospective study. Medical data, VCE data and Meckel's scans, etc. were collected for each patient.

RESULTS
sixteen patients were diagnosed with MD by VCE, including 13 males and 3 females. The age of the patients ranged from 4 years to 13 years, with an average of 7.8 ± 2.7 years. Lower gastrointestinal tract bleeding was the main symptom for patients with MD, including hematochezia (75 %) and melena (25 %). Of the VCE findings, 14 patients had double lumen signs and 2 showed protruding lesions. Among the 16 patients diagnosed with MD by VCE, 14 patients were diagnosed with MD by Meckel's scan, 3 with MD by abdominal enhanced CT and 14 patients were diagnosed with MD by surgery. During the follow-up, bleeding occurred sporadically in patient 12 and the reason is still unknown.

CONCLUSIONS
VCE is useful for the diagnosis of MD and should be used as a valuable and less invasive examination to confirm or establish a diagnosis.


It is well known that the hypercube has a rich set of good properties, and consequently it has been recognized an
ideal structure for parallel computation. Nevertheless, according to the current VLSI technology, the implementation
feasibility of the hypercube remains questionable when the size of the hypercube becomes large. Recent research
efforts have been concentrated on finding good alternatives to the hypercube. The star graph was shown having
many desirable properties of the hypercube, and in several aspects, the star graph is better than the hypercube.
However, we observe that the star graph as a network has several disadvantages, compared with the hypercube. In
this paper, we propose a class of new networks, the star-hypercube hybrid networks (or the SH networks). The SH
network is a simple combination of both the star graph and the hypercube. This class of networks contains the
star graph and the hypercube as subclasses. We show that the SH network is an efficient and versatile network for
parallel computation, since it shares properties of both the hypercube and the star graph, and remedies several
major disadvantages of the hypercube and the star graph. This class of networks provide more flexibility in choosing
the size, degree, number of vertices, degree of fault tolerance, etc. in designing massively parallel computing
structures feasible for VLSI implementations.


Unit testing of software requires the construction of large amounts of supporting software Test drivers and stubs are needed to isolate the unit under test from other units and test cases speci cations need to be translated into compilable code Constructing test software is as time consuming and as fault prone as any other software and sometimes more so To support testers there are tools that can automatically generate test code from test case speci cations that are similar to the test case speci cation These tools include a test case de nition language in which the test cases are stated and a test script generator that generates com pilable code from the test case de nitions Even so testers often have to resort to writing source code for test cases requiring features unavailable in the test case de nition language To learn more about how a better test case de nition language could be constructed we have designed and implemented a test script generator and a test case de nition language This paper gives an overview of some of our experiences and some of our ideas for future work


In this study field data from mesoscopic-scale brittle structures (faults) are used to decipher palaeostress and relate it to regional-scale kinematics. Fault-slip data from oblique-slip normal faults in granite (Mulgund, West Dharwar Craton, southern India) are analysed in three steps: (1) determination of palaeostress direction using fault-slip data; (2) kinematic interpretation of fault data; (3) fitting the kinematic model to the regional far-field stress. Palaeostress analysis of two sets of faults (left-lateral and right-lateral oblique-slip normal faults) reveals that both formed under the same compression direction (ENE–WSW). It is shown that inferring the faults to be R, P, R′ and X shears of a Riedel shear system explains their kinematic evolution within the granite. The Riedel shears developed as a result of sinistral movement along the 305°-oriented contact between the granite and the surrounding gneisses. Riedel shear kinematics is interpreted as being a consequence of deformation partitioning, which was favoured by the rheological contrast between the above lithologies, during the late stage of a third phase of deformation under 315–135°-directed (SHmax) far-field stress.


An anisotropic elastic constitutive equation for drawn polymers is derived from a rational continuum mechanics point of view. The strain-energy function depends on elastic strain and internal variable tensor, and can be expressed as a function of the ten traces of the tensor products. The free energy plays the role of potential and its partial derivative with respect to the elastic strain is equal to the stress tensor. In amorphous polymers, evolution equation of internal variable for stretched polymers is expressed by modified Hencky strain and a loading surface. The loading surface is defined by the first invariant of the Cauchy-Green strain tensor (entropy elasticity) in principal draw ratio space. A loading-unloading criterion is introduced using the loading surface. It is shown that this model can describe the experimental results of anisotropic elastic constants reported by Matsumoto and co-workers for the uniaxially stretched, the two-way successively biaxially stretched and the simultaneously stretched films of amorphous polymers such as polyvinylchloride.


Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of substance use disorder (SUD) and its association with the course and outcome of bipolar disorder (BD). Materials and Methods: A total of 773 patients with BD were recruited from 14 centers in different parts of India, and they were evaluated for the prevalence of comorbid substance dependence, course and outcome, subjective cognitive functioning, and disability. Results: About one-fourth (22.9%) of the participants had one or more substance dependence. In terms of specific substance of abuse, 136 (17.6%) had nicotine dependence, 80 (10.3%) patients had alcohol dependence, 13 (1.7%) had cannabis dependence, and nine (1.2%) had opioid dependence. Compared to those without comorbid substance dependence, those with a dual diagnosis (i.e., using at least one substance in a dependent pattern) were less educated, more often males, more often currently single, more often employed, had a lower number of depressive episodes per year of illness, had a higher number of manic and mixed episodes per year of illness in the first 5 years of illness, had a higher level of disability, and more often had a history of hospitalization and a history of receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); also, a higher proportion of them had manic predominant polarity, more often had recurrent mania course, and were more often receiving a combination of lithium and valproate. Conclusion: About one-fourth of BD patients have comorbid SUDs, and presence of SUD has a negative impact on the course and outcome of BD.


Transient responses of temperature and penetration to a step change in welding conditions were investigated using FEM calculation of three-dimensional heat conduction and TIC welding of mild steels. Correlations between welding parameters and transient response of temperature and penetration were clarified through the comparison of experimental results with calculated ones. In addition, the temperature distribution and heat flow in the workpiece were also analyzed, from which the main factors of welding parameters dominating the transient response were discussed.Temperature and penetration showed different behaviors to a step change in welding parameters, and their transient responses were characterized by their variation rates from the former quasi-state to later one. With a step change in welding velocity, the characteristics of transient response of temperature showed identical behaviors regardless of the variation of step change and heat input. The same response was also observed in the transient change of penetration. The main factor dominating the transient response to the step change in welding velocity was the heat flow direction. The transient response to a step change in welding current or heat input showed the different characteristics depending upon the variation of heat input, which was caused from the heat flow rate in the workpiece.


Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective degeneration of motor neurons. Mutations of the Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) account for 20% of the familial cases of ALS. Transgenic mice overexpressing the mutated human SOD1 enzyme develop phenotypic and pathological symptoms resembling ALS in humans. Previous studies showed that, in this transgenic model of ALS, expression of the human G93A-mutant SOD1 gene does not affect passive membrane properties, whereas it induces a different excitability with respect to control and SOD1 motor neurons. To investigate which modifications at the ionic current level can produce the observed phenomenon, we developed a numerical simulator of the electrical activity of mouse spinal motor neuron. The simulator was based on a mathematical model including a Hodgkin-Huxley (HH)-type parallel conductance membrane model and a lumped fluid compartment model accounting for the activity of a cytosolic calcium-binding buffer. The equations describing voltage-dependent fast sodium current (INa) were modified from a conventional Hodgkin-Huxley formulation, and the parameters were adjusted in order to fit experimental data from non-transgenic mouse motor neurons. We then introduced minimal changes to other model parameters in order to match available SOD1 current-clamp electrophysiological data. The model is able to reproduce AP waveform properties as well as the relation between firing frequency and injected current measured in SOD1 motor neurons. This model offers a powerful investigative tool, making it possible to identify the current modifications which could produce the observed effects on G93A motor neurons excitability.


The history of elasmobranch ageing highlights the difficulty of age estimation in animals lacking ossified structures. Ageing techniques are numerous, yet all are limited by difficulties of validation and verification and inherent subjectivity. Sample scarcity further hinders progress as limited samples cannot be risked on exploratory techniques. This study explored the use of genetic analysis of telomeres as a method of age determination in a deep-sea shark, Etmopterus granulosus, a representative of a poorly studied taxon with regard to ageing due to sample scarcity. Telomeres were amplified in 39 individuals with qPCR, compared across samples, and were found to differ across size classes. More work is needed to determine whether telomeres consistently correlate with size class across elasmobranchs. However, telomeres offer easily obtainable data that can be combined with traditional methods to provide additional points of comparison for elasmobranch biology. Our results underscore the importance of expanding current ageing methods and highlight a necessary distinction between chronological and biological ages when describing elasmobranch populations.


While issues of land-use have been considered in many analyses of biomass systems, little attention has heretofore been paid to land-use in reference fossil systems. In this study we address this limitation by comparing forest biomass systems to reference fossil systems with explicit consideration of land-use in both systems. We estimate and compare the time profiles of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and cumulative radiative forcing (CRF) of woody biomass systems and reference fossil systems. A life cycle perspective is used that includes all elements of both systems and all GHG emissions along the full material and energy chains. We consider the growth dynamics of forests under different management regimes, as well as energy and material substitution effects. We determine the annual net emissions of CO2, N2O and CH4 for each system over a 240-year period. We then calculate time profiles of CRF as a proxy for climate change impacts. The results show greatest CRF reduction when fertilized forest management is applied in the woody biomass system. The results show the relevance of including land use options in both the biomass and the fossil system to accurately determine the climate impacts and benefits of forest management and product use.


Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are among nanoscale materials displaying exponentially growing production due to their applications in the field of cosmetology, medicine, as antibacterial agent and catalyst. The ZnO nanomaterials release into the aquatic ecosystems through domestic and industrial wastewaters has the potential to induce pernicious effects on fish and other organisms. Increasing concerns on the environmental hazard to aquatic biota have been highlighted by the toxic potential of some metal-based nanomaterials. Several characteristics of ZnO-NPs (e.g. size, shape, surface charge and agglomeration state) play a central role in biological effects such as genotoxic, mutagenic or cytotoxic effects. Overall, Zn bioaccumulation, histopathological, and hematological changes with oxidative and cellular stress have been reported in ZnO-NPs exposed animals. This chapter provides an overview on applications of ZnO-NPs followed by a brief outline on methods of synthesis and characterization, and the current knowledge on the ZnO-NPs interaction with fish as they are valuable models in ecotoxicology, sensitive to many contaminants, representing a potential source of food for humans. This chapter intends to provide information for a critical overview of the pros and cons of using these particles, factors influencing their effects, and potential human health implications.


A dynamical model for star formation on a galactic scale is proposed in which the interstellar medium is constantly condensing to star-forming clouds on the dynamical time of the average midplane density, and the clouds are constantly being disrupted on the dynamical timescale appropriate for their higher density. In this model, the areal star formation rate scales with the 1.5 power of the total gas column density throughout the main regions of spiral galaxies, and with a steeper power, 2, in the far outer regions and in dwarf irregular galaxies because of the flaring disks. At the same time, there is a molecular star formation law that is linear in the main and outer parts of disks and in dIrrs because the duration of individual structures in the molecular phase is also the dynamical timescale, canceling the additional 0.5 power of surface density. The total gas consumption time scales directly with the midplane dynamical time, quenching star formation in the inner regions if there is no accretion, and sustaining star formation for ∼100 Gyr or more in the outer regions with no qualitative change in gas stability or molecular cloud properties. The ULIRG track follows from high densities in galaxy collisions.


The laboratory, teaching method of which is based on the principle of learning by doing, is relevant, on both formative and teaching plan, as a propositive learning experience. Doing presides the dynamics that underlie every learning process and it supports the active construction of knowledge by the subject, the acquisition of skills and the development of a reflective attitude, the one which gives a significant learning.


Descriptive titles provide crucial context for interpreting tables that are extracted from web pages and are a key component of search features such as tabular featured snippets from Google and Bing. Prior approaches have attempted to produce titles by selecting existing text snippets associated with the table. These approaches, however, are limited by their dependence on suitable titles existing a priori. In our user study, we observe that the relevant information for the title tends to be scattered across the page, and often-more than 80% of the time-does not appear verbatim anywhere in the page. We propose instead the application of a sequence-to-sequence neural network model as a more generalizable approach for generating high-quality table titles. This is accomplished by extracting many text snippets that have potentially relevant information to the table, encoding them into an input sequence, and using both copy and generation mechanisms in the decoder to balance relevance and readability of the generated title. We validate this approach with human evaluation on sample web tables and report that while sequence models with only a copy mechanism or only a generation mechanism are easily outperformed by simple selection-based baselines, the model with both capabilities performs the best, approaching the quality of crowdsourced titles while training on fewer than ten thousand examples. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed technique is the first to consider text-generation methods for table titles, and establishes a new state of the art.


The currently available measures of online teaching effectiveness (OTE) have several flaws, including a lack of psychometric rigor, high costs, and reliance on the construct of traditional on-the-ground teaching effectiveness as opposed to the unique features of OTE (Blackman, Pedersen, March, Reyes-Fournier, & Cumella, 2019). Therefore, the present research sought to establish a psychometrically sound framework for OTE and develop and validate a measure based on this clearly-defined construct. The authors developed pilot questions for the new measure based on a comprehensive review of the OTE literature and their many years of experience as online instructors. Students enrolled in exclusively online coursework and programs at Purdue University Global, N = 213, completed the survey, rating the effectiveness of their instructors. Exploratory Factor Analysis produced four clear OTE factors: Presence, Expertise, Engagement, and Facilitation. The resulting measure demonstrated good internal consistency and high correlations with an established OTE measure; good test-retest reliability; and predictive validity in relation to student achievement. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed a good fit of the data and yielded a final 12-item OTE measure. Further refinement and validation of the measure are recommended, particularly with students in other universities, and future research options are discussed. Keywords : online teaching effectiveness, instructor effectiveness, distance learning, student evaluations, asynchronous learning.


Statin therapy reduces cardiovascular events in patients with, or at risk of, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. However, statins are underutilized in patients for whom they are indicated and are frequently discontinued. Discontinuation may be the result of statin-associated muscle symptoms (SAMS), which encompass a broad spectrum of clinical phenotypes from myalgia to severe myopathy. As with many adverse drug reactions (ADRs), inter-individual variability in susceptibility to SAMS is due, at least in part, to differences in host genetics. The genetic basis for SAMS has been investigated in candidate gene studies, genome-wide association studies, and, more recently, studies of multi-omic networks, including at the transcriptome level. In this article, we provide a systematic review of the pharmacogenetic basis of SAMS, focusing on how an understanding of the genetic and molecular determinants of SAMS can be considered in a personalized approach to reduce the incidence of this ADR, optimize statin adherence, and reduce the risk for cardiovascular events.


The objective of this study is the development of an automatic segmentation framework for measuring volume changes in the white matter tissue from premature infant MRI data. The early stage of the brain development presents several major computational challenges such as structure and shape variations between patients. Furthermore, a high water content is present in the brain tissue, that leads to inconsistencies and overlapping intensity values across different brain structures. Another problem lies in low-frequency multiplicative intensity variations, which arises from an inhomogeneous magnetic field during the MRI acquisition. Finally, the segmentation is influenced by the partial volume effects which describe voxels that are generated by more than one tissue type. To overcome these challenges, this study is divided into three parts with the intention to locally segment the white matter tissue without the guidance of an atlas. Firstly, a novel brain extraction method is proposed with the aim to remove all non-brain tissue. The data quality can be improved by noise reduction using an anisotropic diffusion filter and intensity variations adjustments throughout the volume. In order to minimise the influence of missing contours and overlapping intensity values between brain and nonbrain tissue, a brain mask is created and applied during the extraction of the brain tissue. Secondly, the low-frequency intensity inhomogeneities are addressed by calculating the bias field which can be separated and corrected using low pass filtering. Finally, the segmentation process is performed by combining probabilistic clustering with classification algorithms. In order to achieve the final segmentation, the algorithm starts with a pre-segmentation procedure which was applied to reduce the intensity inhomogeneities within the white matter tissue. The key element in the segmentation process is the classification of diffused and missing contours as well as the partial volume voxels by performing a voxel reclassification scheme. The white matter segmentation framework was tested using the Dice Similarity Metric, and the numerical evaluation demonstrated precise segmentation results.


The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Project-Based Learning in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Polytechnic in Malaysia. This study was designed with Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) model. Project-Based Learning is a different approach than the traditional learning in the sense that it is a student-centered learning approach based on the principles of constructivism. This study involved a random sample of 118 students and 43 supervisors in the Mechanical Engineering Department in Polytechnic Kota Bharu Malaysia. The instrument used in this study were a set of questionnaire. In terms of finding ideas, both students and supervisors agreed that students were encouraged to assess the real problem by their supervisors. However, the supervisors were uncertain whether the students went to the library to get the ideas for their project. In addition, the supervisors were barely agreed about the creativity of the students in finding the project ideas. However, students and their supervisors believed that critical thinking and creativity were needed in the Project-Based Learning. The respondents also believed that e-SOLMS helped the students to work in group to complete the project.


This paper addresses sports skill discrimination using motion picture data, focused on volleyball attack skill. We attempt to certify the hypothesis that expert skills have relatively low frequency motions rather than novice skills as the similarity of human postural control. For this purpose we proceed experiments and analyze sports skills as for frequency of motion using time series motion pictures of volleyball attacks. In this paper, volleyball play is analyzed with motion picture data recorded by hi-speed cam-coder, where we do not use physical information such as body skeleton model, and so on. Time series data are obtained from the motion picture data with four marking points, and analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and clustering data mining method. As the experiment results, we have found that y-axes of novice data have more high-frequency data, and that implies novice motions have high frequency motions, and that may support our hypothesis.


There is no better place to explore the relationship of industry enclaves to urban life than China, where traditional danweis (work units) have coexisted with new foreign direct investment enclaves. Here we draw on original interviews with workers at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company (WISCO) and Foxconn in the city of Wuhan to examine industry enclaves old and new in terms of their spatial arrangement, work, institutions, and social life and identity. The article is one of the first to integrate urban and economic geographical perspectives on the subject of enclaves. It provides evidence of similarities and contrasts in the spatial arrangement of work, institutions, life and identity centred on industry enclaves old and new. These contrasts reflect wider relations between the state and the market and between social subject and commodified labour in China. In conclusion, we identify several research directions concerning the scale, diversity and reach of urban enclavism in China and beyond.


Includes Texas Supreme Court case reports from 1856 along with a list of the justices of the Texas Supreme Court, a list of cases, and an index.