This mixed methods systematic review and meta-analysis sheds more light on the role parenting practices play in children's adjustment after war exposure. Specifically, we quantitatively examined whether parenting behavior explained some of the well-known associations between war exposure and children's adjustment. In addition, we meta-synthesized qualitative evidence answering when and why parenting practices might change for war-affected families. We searched nine electronic databases and contacted experts in the field for relevant studies published until March 2018, identifying 4,147 unique publications that were further screened by title and abstract, resulting in 158 publications being fully screened. By running a meta-analytic structural equation model with 38 quantitative studies (N = 54,372, M age = 12.00, SD age = 3.54), we found that more war-exposed parents showed less warmth and more harshness toward their children, which partly mediated the association between war exposure and child adjustment, that is, post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression and anxiety, social problems, externalizing behavior, and lower positive outcomes (e.g., quality of life). War exposure was not associated with parents' exercise of behavioral control. By meta-synthesizing 10 qualitative studies (N = 1,042; age range = 0−18), we found that the nature of war-related trauma affected parenting differently. That is, parents showed harshness, hostility, inconsistency, and less warmth in highly dangerous settings and more warmth and overprotection when only living under threat. We conclude that it is both how much and what families have seen that shapes parenting in times of war.


The spotlight of educational leadership is on instructional leadership. As pressure for improving student performance in the current standards-based accountability environment swells and test results are increasingly scrutinized, school principals are being urged to focus their efforts on the core business of schooling--teaching and learning. But what does it mean to be an instructional leader? What do principals that are instructional leaders do differently than other principals? How do they spend their time? How do they shape the cultures of their schools? How knowledgeable are they of subject-matter content? How do they work with, and develop, other leaders in their schools? In this study we sought to find answers to these questions by exploring the collective wisdom of several effective instructional leaders. Instructional leadership, not just by the principal but by a wider cast of individuals in both formal and informal leadership roles, can play a central role in shifting the emphasis of school activity more directly onto instructional improvements that lead to enhanced student learning and performance. By contrast, the status quo in most schools is diffuse attention to instruction scattered amidst a variety of environmental, social, and organizational distracters that lead to fragmented and uneven instructional focus. Principals are typically engrossed in organizational care-taking and the responsibility for instructional decisions falls to individual teachers. When individual teachers independently determine the kind and type of instruction in their classrooms, three things tend to occur. First, the instructional culture of the school tends to splinter, as there is no overriding instructional guidance and no coherent glue to tie instruction to a larger whole. Second, the quality of instruction varies widely, as teachers bring different experiences and have different notions of what is good teaching. Third, the content that students receive, even in the same grade, differs from classroom to classroom, as each teacher prioritizes what students ought to know.


"Remote sensing" is a general term for monitoring techniques that collect information without being in physical contact with the object of study. Overhead imagery from aircraft and satellite sensors provides the most common form of remotely sensed data and records the interaction of electromagnetic energy (usually visible light) with matter, such as the Earth's surface (fig. 1). Remotely sensed data are fundamental to geographic science. The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Eastern Geographic Science Center (EGSC) is currently conducting and promoting the research and development of several different aspects of remote sensing science in both the laboratory and from overhead instruments. Spectroscopy is the science of recording interactions of energy and matter and is the bench science for all remote sensing. Visible and infrared analysis in the laboratory with special instruments called spectrometers enables the transfer of this research from the laboratory to multispectral (5–15 broad bands) and hyperspectral (50–300 narrow contiguous bands) analyses from aircraft and satellite sensors. In addition, mid-wave (3–5 micrometers, μm) and long-wave (8–14 μm) infrared data analysis, such as attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectral analysis, are also conducted. ATR is a special form of vibrational infrared spectroscopy that has many applications in chemistry and biology but has recently been shown to be especially diagnostic for vegetation analysis.


Ecash is a payment system designed and implemented for making purchases over open networks such as the Internet. In this paper we review the main cryptographic techniques used throughout the ecash system. We will focus on security aspects as well as some performance related issues. The central notion of an electronic coin is treated in detail, and the basic protocols manipulating coins are described.


This study uses bibliometric techniques to examine the frequency and patterns of referencing in articles published in South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science (SAJLIS) from 1996 to 2007. The authors believe that an analysis of references and referencing patterns in a journal is vital because references play an important role in scholarly communication, which is defined as the process of sharing and publishing research findings in order to reach a wider scholarly and professional community. This paper thus seeks to determine, among other objectives : the growth of publications in the journal; the growth of references; articles with the most number of references; types of sources consulted by SAJLIS authors; language used to publish the consulted sources; and whether the length of articles influences the number of references. It was found that SAJLIS has maintained regular publication for all but one year, 1999, when the journal was not published. On average, SAJLIS published 15 articles per year between 1996 and 2007; journal articles were the most commonly consulted document type by SAJLIS authors (2241; 46.6%), followed by books (1512; 31.5%), Internet-based sources (665; 13.8%), and conference proceedings (189; 3.9%); Internet-based sources and electronic journals were growing in popularity among the researchers; the average number of references per article equated to 29.13; and the highest and lowest number of references recorded in a single article were 101 and 4, respectively. We also observed that the number of references in an article does not influence the length of the article; the average length of SAJLIS papers is 10 pages and there was an increased usage of electronic resources by SAJLIS authors from 2001. Finally, this paper draws several conclusions based on the findings of the study and provides some recommendations for further research.


Genetically modified (GM) crops have been largely adopted in major exporting countries thereby representing a dominant share of a few key agricultural commodities that are traded in international markets. Regulatory reviews and approvals for the cultivation and marketing of GM crops, however, are country-specific and significant discrepancies in the amount of time required to review and approve new GM crops between importing and exporting countries has led to "asynchronous approvals". Trade disruptions created by asynchronous approvals of GM crops are expected and can quickly deteriorate into effective trade bans because perfect segregation between approved and unapproved GM crops is difficult. The issues we examine in this paper are the potential market and welfare impacts from trade disruptions that might be caused by asynchronous regulatory approvals of new GM crops. We develop a trade model consisting of two composite importing countries and one exporting country. We first derive a baseline equilibrium where no unapproved events exists. When then derive a second equilibrium so that the market and welfare impacts of asynchronous approval on consumers and producers in each composite country can be analyze and discussed. We found that asynchronous approvals tend to increase prices, reduce consumer surplus and increase profits of producers of identity preserved commodities in all countries. However, we found that the aggregate quantities consumed and the profits of commodity producers are depend on the relative size of the export market in the countries where event are not approved.


Professor Ariatti is a founder member of the Department of Biochemistry on the Westville campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and has 35 years of lecturing experience at undergraduate and postgraduate level. During the course of his doctoral studies, which explored the peptidyl transferase step of protein biosynthesis, he developed a keen interest in the chemistry and biochemistry of nucleic acids. In the past 30 years much of his research has centered around the design and development of non-viral systems for the delivery of DNA and siRNA to mammalian cells, with particular focus on liposome-based vectors. Professor Ariatti continues to serve in an emeritus capacity since 2010 and co-supervises numerous postgraduate candidates. He has authored and co-authored over 75 peer reviewed articles, many of which are in the broad area of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology and serves as ad hoc reviewer for several international journals. In 2010 Professor Ariatti was conferred the title: Cavaliere dell'Ordine Della Stella Della Solidarietá Italiana, by the Honourable President of the Republic of Italy. He is presently engaged in the assessment of novel hepatocyte-directed cationic liposome-based nucleic acid delivery vehicles that address hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma.


This paper examines the problem of the control of multivariable linear time-invariant dynamical systems with bounded controllers using the Variable Structure Control (VSC) approach. New type of Lyapunov functions is introduced. The domain of attraction for this class of systems is obtained. A coordinate transformation for decoupling the "fast" and "slow" states is also presented. This transformation can also be used in the investigation of variable structure and high gain feedback systems. A pole placement problem in high gain feedback conrol systems is then considered and illustrated by means of a numerical example.


Primary tumors of the spine are relatively infrequent lesions compared with metastatic disease, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma. However, when a solitary lesion of the spine occurs, these neoplasms represent an important group of entities for diagnostic consideration. A wide variety of benign neoplasms can involve the spine, including osteoid osteoma, osteoblastoma, aneurysmal bone cyst, giant cell tumor, enostosis, and osteochondroma. Common primary nonlymphoproliferative malignant neoplasms of the spine include chordoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma or primitive neuroectodermal tumor, and osteosarcoma. The imaging features of these lesions of the spine are often characteristic. These changes include a small sclerotic focus with irregular thorny margins in the vertebral body (enostosis), a small radiolucent nidus with central calcification in the posterior elements of the vertebral body (osteoid osteoma), a large expansile lesion with multiple fluid-fluid levels (aneurysmal bone cyst), and an aggressive mineralized mass (chondroid or osteoid) with osseous and soft-tissue involvement (chondrosarcoma or osteosarcoma). Radiologists should be aware of the appearance of these unusual neoplasms in order to provide a complete differential diagnosis and to guide clinical colleagues in patient treatment.


The Biology of Dreaming. By ERNESTH@RTMANN. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. 1967. Pp. 206+X111.Price $9.75 The original discovery by Aserinsky, Kleitman and Dement of recurrent periods of nocturnal sleep with rapid eye movements from which it was possible to elicit dream recall has led to a great deal of human and animal research and to a realization that the phase of sleep concerned is neither "¿ light― nor "¿ deep― but rather a physiologically unique state, generally known as paradoxical or REM sleep. It is about this state that the present book has been written (the author unfortunately has his own, unshared terminology and calls it the "¿ D-state―). The state is remarkable for much more than its associations with dreaming. Dr. Hartmann provides a useful review of this wide field. Where advance is so rapid it cannot be expected that readers should agree with all his views; but the physical and psychological features of paradoxical sleep are well reported here; together with 656 references. Among other things Hartmann summarizes the relations between mental illnesses, psychosomatic illnesses, delirium and pre menstrual tension on the one hand and paradoxical sleep on the other. He reviews the still very scanty knowledge of the chemistry of sleep, especially with reference to brain amines. The book is one of a Living Chemistry Series. I wondered how the publishers could suppose they would win favour in the eyes ofscientists by editional forewords about three thousand years of stagnation being ended by their Series "¿ charged with the nisus élanof chemical wisdom, supreme in choice of inter national authors, optimal in standards of chemical scholarship, provocative in imagination for experi mental research, comprehensive in discussions of scientific medicine, and authoritative in chemical perspective of human disorders―and so on. One may expect this kind of thing on the dust cover but not within the book. Dr. Hartmann, by contrast, writes clearly and simply and provides a straight forward report to which many psychiatrists will wish to refer. L@.uOswAlD.


Introduction: Suicide is a serious social problem of global and national significance. Although Poland is a country with a relatively low suicide risk, it is the cause of death of several thousand people every year, roughly the same number as those who perish in road accidents. Aim of the research: To trace the number of suicidal deaths in the Lubelskie Region over a period of 11 years, and to analyse the breakdown of suicides and the tendencies of this phenomenon in the macroregion. Material and methods: The data were obtained with the permission of the Lublin Provincial Police Commander from the Lublin Provincial Police Headquarters. The data included the statistics of suicidal deaths from 2000 to 2010 in the Lublin Macroregion. Results and conclusions: Male sex is prevalent for suicides (86.4%) over female sex (14.6%). Suicides have most often concerned persons at the age of 30–50 (36.6%). Young people up to 20 take the fourth place in the age category (6.8%). The most exposed to risk of suicide are individuals with primary education (26.5%). The overall number of suicides in the Lubelskie Region has slightly risen in the past few years, although this differs by location within the macroregion. Increasing risk of suicide is a challenge for the prevention of the phenomenon, which should take suicidal risk factors into consideration. The most common cause of suicide It was a mental illness (15.1%). Family problems were the second cause of suicide. Economic problems were the cause of an average 5.1% of all suicides.


Clinicians evaluated the usefulness of footprint-sequence analysis in 25 lower-limb amputees who were all prostheses wearers. The patients walked at a comfortable speed with their usual walking aids along a 2.24-m footprint-recording strip. Each patient's physical therapist and physician indicated on visual-analogue scales how useful they judged both raw and derived data to be in problem solving and as documentation for future comparison. Both groups of clinicians found this type of analysis moderately useful. We found no significant difference, but moderate correlation (r = .61, p less than .01), between their estimates of usefulness for problem solving and for future documentation. They considered the derived data slightly, but significantly, more useful than the raw data (t = 4.20, p less than .001). We found no significant difference or correlation between the estimates of physical therapists and those of physicians. The clinicians ranked pressure distribution, stride width, step length, foot angle, and stride length in order of perceived usefulness. Footprint-sequence analysis appears to be a moderately useful adjunct to the evaluation and documentation of the walking problems of lower-limb amputees. Both raw and derived data should be made available to the physical therapists and physicians caring for these patients.


Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology as a source of alternate fuels is unique. The FT products are of excellent quality and their environmental properties are valuable in increasing drive towards cleaner fuels. There was surge of interest in FT in the thirties and fifties (during the Second World War) and now again in last couple of years. Fischer Tropsch technology has a disadvantage of broad product spectrum. There is strong requirement of improvement in the optimization of reaction in order to get a maximum yield of high value commercial products, mainly high value molecular weight products, alcohols and short chain hydrocarbons. Most of the investigations reported in this thesis have dealt with study and possible modifications in the preparation and reaction conditions of previously studied CoMnOx catalyst. Co-precipitation method for preparation of this catalyst has been studied in detail. Precipitation by variable pH has been found to be better than constant pH. pH, ageing time of precipitates and temperature of precipitation mixture are very important parameters which affect the selectivity pattern of products. This selectivity pattern was found to be further influenced by reaction temperature and pressure during CO hydrogenation reaction. An improvement in the selectivities for CO hydrogenation reaction has been developed using a modified co-precipitated Co/Mn oxide catalyst. This modification was achieved by using two different metal promoters, i.e., Potassium and ruthenium. Addition of these promoters has influenced the catalytic properties in a variety of ways as was observed from characterization and reaction results. Addition of small quantity of potassium (0.15%), and ruthenium (0.1%) promoters shifted the product spectrum to long chain hydrocarbons along with decrease in methane selectivity. Further improvements in catalytic activity and selectivity were made by addition of two different types of activated carbons (wood and peat shell) into Co/Mn catalyst. Co and Mn impregnated on wood peat carbon were found to be highly selective for high molecular weight hydrocarbons along with low selectivity of CO 2 compared with pure CoMnOx catalyst. An increase in concentration of metals with these carbons showed an increase in selectivity of CO 2 . One particular catalyst system of iron and manganese was studied with peat and wood carbons and was found to be highly selective for CO 2 formation. Alcohols, an important product of FT reaction are a good substitute to motor fuel which can enhance the octane number and can reduce the environmental pollution. Cobalt molybdenum sulphide is a patented catalyst system for alcohols synthesis. Present study has investigated the influence of transition metal promoters on selectivity pattern of this catalyst. Ti, Ni and Zr metals have been used as promoters. Addition of Ni and Ti into C0M0S2 have shown good catalytic activity but the major product was CO 2 . Zr addition has shown less CO 2 and more hydrocarbons. Pure C0M0S2 catalyst was found to be better for synthesis of higher alcohols.


To investigate the degree of absorption of flavan-3-ols in the small intestine, human subjects with an ileostomy ingested 200 mg of Polyphenon E, a green tea extract, after which ileal fluid and urine, collected over a 24-h period, were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array and mass spectrometric detection. The data obtained indicated that although approximately 40% of flavan-3-ol intake is recovered in ileal fluid, substantial quantities are absorbed in the small intestine. Moreover, 14 urinary metabolites, comprising sulfates, glucuronide, and methylated derivatives, were identified and quantified. All were metabolites of (epi)catechin or (epi)gallocatechin, representing 47 +/- 2% and 26 +/- 9%, respectively, of the ingested parent compound. These high recoveries indicate that these flavan-3-ols absorbed in the small intestine are much more bioavailable than most dietary flavonoids. No 3-O-galloylated flavan-3-ols or their metabolites were detected in urine. The absence of urinary flavan-3-ol metabolites after ingestion of 200 mg of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate indicates that there is no removal of the 3-O-galloyl group in vivo, and hence, this does not account for the high urinary recovery of (epi)gallocatechin metabolites after ingestion of Polyphenon E. Increasing the intake of Polyphenon E, by feeding doses of 200, 500, and 1500 mg, led to increased urinary excretion of (epi)catechin metabolites but not metabolites of (epi)gallocatechin. Coingestion of 200 mg of Polyphenon E with bread, cheese, or glucose did not significantly modify the absorption, metabolism, and excretion of flavan-3-ols. It does not necessarily follow, however, that the same would occur when flavan-3-ols are ingested with more complex food matrices.


With no further intervention, relapse rates in detoxified alcoholics are high and usually exceed 80% of all detoxified patients. It has been suggested that stress and exposure to priming doses of alcohol and to alcohol‐associated stimuli (cues) contribute to the relapse risk after detoxification. This article focuses on neuronal correlates of cue responses in detoxified alcoholics. Current brain imaging studies indicate that dysfunction of dopaminergic, glutamatergic and opioidergic neurotransmission in the brain reward system (ventral striatum including the nucleus accumbens) can be associated with alcohol craving and functional brain activation in neuronal systems that process attentional relevant stimuli, reward expectancy and experience. Increased functional brain activation elicited by such alcohol‐associated cues predicted an increased relapse risk, whereas high brain activity elicited by affectively positive stimuli may represent a protective factor and was correlated with a decreased prospective relapse risk. These findings are discussed with respect to psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatment options.


At present, outside of infancy, genetic testing for monogenic diabetes is typically for mutations in MODY genes that predominantly result in isolated diabetes. Monogenic diabetes syndromes are usually only tested when this is supported by specific syndromic clinical features. It is not known how frequently patients with suspected MODY have a mutation in a monogenic syndromic diabetes gene and thus missed by present testing regimes. We performed genetic testing of 27 monogenic diabetes genes (including 18 associated with syndromic diabetes) for 1280 patients with a clinical suspicion of MODY from routine clinical care that were not suspected of having monogenic syndromic diabetes. We confirmed monogenic diabetes in 297 (23%) patients. Mutations in 7 different syndromic diabetes genes accounted for 19% (95%CI 15-24%) of all monogenic diabetes. The mitochondrial m.3243A>G and mutations in HNF1B were responsible for the majority of mutations in syndromic diabetes genes. They were also the 4th and 5th most common causes of monogenic diabetes overall. These patients lacked typical features and their diabetes phenotypes overlapped with non-syndromic monogenic diabetes patients. Syndromic monogenic diabetes genes (particularly m.3243A>G and HNF1B) should be routinely tested in patients with suspected MODY that do not have typical features of a genetic syndrome.


Seasonal reproduction is generally controlled by the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in fish. Previous studies have demonstrated that the kisspeptin (Kiss)/kisspeptin receptor (Kissr) system, a positive regulator of the HPG axis, mediates the responses to environmental cues. Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), a representative species of Pleuronectiformes, is one of the most commercially important fish species cultured in Europe and North China. However, the mechanisms by which the Kiss/Kissr system regulates the reproductive axis of turbot according to seasonal changes, especially photoperiod, have not been clearly characterized. In the current study, the cDNA sequences of kiss2/kissr2, along with kiss1/kissr3 which was thought to be lost in flatfish species, were cloned and functionally characterized. The kiss1, kiss2, and kissr3 transcripts were highly detected in the brain and gonad, while kissr2 mRNA was only abundantly expressed in the brain. Moreover, kiss/kissr mRNAs were further examined in various brain areas of both sexes. The kiss1, kissr2, kissr3 mRNAs were highly expressed in the mesencephalon, while a substantial degree of kiss2 transcripts were observed in the hypothalamus. During annual reproductive cycle, both kiss and kissr transcript levels declined significantly from the immature to mature stages and increased at the degeneration stage in the brains of both sexes, especially in the mesencephalon and hypothalamus. The ovarian kiss1, kiss2, and kissr2 mRNA levels were highest at the vitellogenic stage (mature stage), while expression of kissr3 was highest at the immature stage. The testicular kiss and kissr transcripts were highest in the immature and degeneration stages, and lowest at the mature stage. In addition, intraperitoneal injection of Kiss1-10 and Kiss2-10 significantly stimulated mRNA levels of pituitary lhβ, fhsβ, and gthα. In summary, two Kiss/Kissr systems were firstly proven in a flatfish species of turbot, and it has a positive involvement in controlling the reproduction of the Kiss/Kissr system in turbot. The results will provide preliminary information regarding how the Kiss/Kissr system controls seasonal reproduction in turbot broodstock.


Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a recently developed nucleotide sequence-based method for the definitive assignment of isolates within bacterial populations to specific clones. MLST uses the same principles as multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and provides data that can be used to investigate aspects of the population genetics and evolution of bacterial species. We used an MLST data set consisting of the sequences of approximately 450-bp fragments from seven housekeeping loci from a large strain collection of Neisseria meningitidis to estimate the relative impact of recombination compared with point mutation in the diversification of N. meningitidis clonal complexes. 126 meningococcal isolates were assigned to 10 clonal complexes, 9 of which contained minor clonal variants. The allelic variation within each complex was classified as a recombinational exchange or a putative point mutation through a comparison of the sequences of each variant allele with that of the allele typically found in the clonal complex. The nine clonal complexes contained a total of 23 allelic variants, and analysis of the sequences of these variant alleles revealed that a single nucleotide site in a meningococcal housekeeping gene is at least 80-fold more likely to change as a result of recombination than as a result of mutation. This value is estimated to be 10-50-fold for Escherichia coli and approximately 50-fold for Streptococcus pneumoniae.


Islanding occurs when distributed resources continue to power even though electrical power from the utility grid is no longer present. Islanding can be harmful for utility workers, who may not realize that this part is still powered. For the reason of safety hazards and equipment damage due to lack of utility control on voltage and frequency in the island, distributed resources must detect an island and immediately stop producing power. In this paper, we study the operation of multiple inverters utilizing different active islanding detection methods. The Sandia Voltage Shift (SVS), the Sandia Frequency Shift (SFS) and the Slip Mode frequency Shift (SMS) are used in this work. The study reported is based on MATLAB/Simulink time-domain simulations, taking into account modern international standards. It is shown that a multi-inverter system, which uses three different methods, can detect an island in case of power-matched load. However, it has a reduced performance and slower detection time, compared to single inverter structure.


We show in this paper how three continental philosophers (Husserl, Heidegger, and Derrida respectively) respond negatively to the analytic correspondence theory of truth using different notions developed by them (i.e. the notion of Intentionality by Husserl, the notion of Dasein by Heidegger, and the notion of Trace by Derrida). We show that despite the fact that the three philosophers are united against the analytic correspondence theory of truth, there are still deep differences between them which stem from the different tools they use to articulate the concept of truth. Also, we argue that Husserlian truth has an advantageous position over the other concepts of truth presented.


ABSTRACT
 Behavioral bioassays remain a standard tool in the discovery, development, and registration of arthropod repellents. Tick repellent bioassays are generally uncomplicated, but their results can be affected by basic variables (e.g., dimensions of testing materials, substrate, timing, temperature) of the assay. Using lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.), nymphs in climbing bioassays, we tested for the effects of substrate, solvent, and drying time on tick responses. In dose-response tests, the widely used repellents N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide (deet) and 1-methylpropyl-2-(hydroxyethyl)-l-piperidinecarboxylate (picaridin) were applied to filter paper strips and challenged by ticks at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 120 min after application. At 10-min drying time, repellency at the intermediate concentration 500 nmol repellent/cm2 filter paper was significantly lower for ethanol solutions of deet and picaridin (0 and 10% ticks repelled, respectively) than for solutions of deet and picaridin in acetone (96.7 and 76.7% ticks repelled, respectively). Repellency was greatest for both the acetone and ethanol solutions of deet and picaridin when challenged 120 min after application, and at shorter drying times at the highest concentration tested (2,000 nmol compound/cm2). The repellency of picaridin relative to deet differed at some combinations of solvent and drying time but not others. In dose-response tests using different paper substrates and a drying time of 10 min, both ethanol and acetone solutions of deet differed in repellency, depending on both the paper substrate and the solvent. However, there were no differences in repellency between ethanol and acetone solutions of deet applied to nylon organdy in an in vitro and in an in vivo (fingertip) bioassay. When deet in solution with various proportions of ethanol:water was applied at 2,000 nmol deet/cm2 filter paper, the proportion of ticks repelled decreased as the proportion of water in the test solutions increased. Somewhat similar results were seen for solutions of deet in an acetone solvent. Water absorbed from the atmosphere may affect the efficacy of repellents in solution with anhydrous ethanol. Overall, results obtained from bioassays that differ in seemingly minor ways can be surprisingly different, diminishing the value of comparing studies that used similar, but not identical, methods. Nylon organdy or another similar thin cloth may be preferable to filter papers and copier paper for minimizing solvent-related differences. When a paper substrate is used, acetone may be the more suitable solvent if the solubility of the test compound and other factors allow.


Curcuma longa (CL) is known as Turmeric. Palm oil (PO) is the most produced edible vegetable oil in the world. Both CL and PO have medicinal values. This study was carried out to evaluate the antihypercholesterolemic effect of PO and CL extract given in combination to rabbits fed a high cholesterol diet. New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into six groups of six rabbits per group. All groups except one (control normocholesterolemic group) were fed on 1% (w/w) cholesterol-enriched pellet for 8 weeks. Control normocholesterolemic group was fed normal pellet. The rabbits fed with high cholesterol diet were treated daily, orally, for 8 weeks with 5 mg/kg atorvastatin, 1 mL/kg PO, 500 mg/kg CL extract or with PO and CL extract in combination. Blood samples were taken before initiation of treatment and every 4 weeks during the 8 weeks experimental period for measurement of plasma total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride (TG) as well as fibrinogen, cytokines (interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor Alpha (TNF-a)) andliver enzymes (aspartate aminotransferase, AST; alkaline phosphatase, ALP; and alanine aminotransferase, ALT). At the end of treatment, the animals were sacrificed and the aortas were excised for histology and immunohistochemistry analysis. Data were analysed by using one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni analysis tests. In summary, treatment with PO and CL extract in combination elicited better effects in rabbits fed a high cholesterol diet than treatment with atorvastatin or singly with 1 ml/kg PO or 500 mg/kg CL extract. PO and CL extract in combination significantly decreased the level of serum TC, LDL, TG (p<0.05) and increased the HDL level at week 8 (p<0.05). AST, ALP and ALT levels returned to the normal, similar to that of normocholesterolemic control group. TNF- a or IL-6 levels of treated groups were not different from those of normocholesterolemic control group. The level of fibrinogen dropped significantly from 405.2 mg/dl to 344.8 mg/dl at 8 weeks of treatment with moderate thickening of the arterial wall in aortic sections of the group that received PO and CL in combination. The combination of PO and CL extract also significantly down-regulated expression of VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-selectin. In conclusion, the results provided the effectiveness of treatment with combination of PO and CL extract at reducing hypercholesterolemia in rabbits, comparable to effects of atorvastatin and potentially beneficial at prevention of hyperlipidemia and protection against cardiovascular disease.


This paper focuses on the Oscar-winning animated feature film Spirited Away as a case study in Audiovisual Translation and analyzes the translations of three types of Extralinguistic Cultural References  (ECR): honorifics, characters' names, and religious references. This analysis aims to shed light on the predominant translation strategies used in the film's English and Portuguese dubbings and subtitles and the effect of a relay translation on the Portuguese versions. The results of the analysis indicate that the predominant translation strategies for the ECRs in the English dubbing and subtitling are target-oriented, except for the case of characters' names,and source-oriented in the Portuguese counterparts,with a greater tendency for source orientation in subtitling. The English dubbing used a variety of target-oriented strategies to clarify ECRs to the target audience,whereas the Portuguese hardly used such strategies and avoided departing from the Japanese original storyline.


At present, there are a number of high-tech trends in the development of food raw materials in the world market, the future nutritional value and composition of which can be laid even at the stage of breeding a variety, as a result of production of which the raw materials will be obtained containing the specified components – vitamins, minerals and biologically active compounds. It is possible to refer to such kinds of food raw materials common wheat of a purple color which has a high content of anthocyanins. Despite the antioxidant capacity and the related health benefits, the studies on the use of raw materials with a high level of anthocyanins as an ingredient for food products are extremely rare. This article presents the results of the use of food products of new forms of cereals in production, namely, the isogenic wheat lines specially created for comparative studies at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the SB RAS with the help of molecular genetic methods, which only differ in a small segment of the genome containing the regulatory anthocyanin biosynthesis gene Pp3/TaMyc1. Flour and wheat bran with anthocyanins (PG) and the control (RG) group were used for the production of flour confectionery products in order to obtain products with a high level of anthocyanins beneficial for human health. The share of anthocyanins in the products obtained from PG wheat was 2.5–2.6 times higher than in the similar products obtained on the basis of the control line. The revealed differences between PG and RG in the end-use products testify to the resistance of anthocyanins to technological processing. It has been estimated that when eating 100 grams of biscuit made from flour with the addition of bran of purple wheat grain, the consumption of anthocyanins will be up to 0.83 mg. Thus, a high content of anthocyanins in PG allows to produce the enriched confectionery products with a high nutritional value.


Framing the Work. Neimeyer, Presence, Process and Procedure: A Relational Frame for Technical Proficiency in Grief Therapy. Kauffman, The Empathic Spirit in Grief Therapy. Cacciatore, Selah: A Mindfulness Guide Through Grief. Rubin, Tracking Through Bereavement: A Framework for Intervention. Modulating Emotion. Turret, Shear, Grief Monitoring Diary. Kosminsky, Mapping the Terrain of Loss: Grief and Not Grief. Winokuer, Experiencing the Pain of Grief. Holcomb, Psychotropic Medication for Grieving Adults. Thompson, Mindfulness Training. Simington, Multiple Losses and the Circle of Significance. Armstrong, Reconstructing Nightmares. Morgan, Visualization for Anticipatory Grief. Morgan, Intuitive Humor. Working With the Body. Neimeyer, Analogical Listening. Chan, Leung, Clapping Qigong. Harris, Hands in the Sand. Mitchell, Moving and Breathing Through Grief. Krawchuk. Body Imagery for Sustaining Connections, Moss, Written on the Body. Sands, The Body of Trust. Transforming Trauma. Fleming, Complicated Grief and Trauma: What to Treat First? Neimeyer, Retelling the Narrative of Death. Rynearson, Invoking an Alliance With the Deceased After Violent Death. Kosminsky, Mcdevitt, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Roos, Making Meaning of Flashbacks. Mehr, Blakley, Trauma Dialogues. Morgan, Treating Traumatic Bereavement in Conflicted and Inter-Generational Families. Changing Behavior. Holcomb, Behavioral Activation. Turret, Shear, Working With Difficult Times. Arnal, Julia, Assertiveness Training. Holtslander, A Finding Balance Writing Intervention. Restructuring Cognition. Boelen, Van Den Bout, Changing Catastrophic Misinterpretations With Behavioral Experiments. Malkinson, The ABC of Rational Response to Loss. Romanoff, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Malkinson, Rational Emotive Body Imagery. Lichtenthal, Schema Therapy for the Lost Relationship. Spuij, Boelen, Cognitive Restructuring for Childhood Prolonged Grief. Encountering Resistance. Rando, "Is It Okay for You to Be Okay?" Ecker, Overt Statements for Deep Work in Grief Therapy. Jeffreys, Controlled Avoidance in the Management of Grief. Finding Meaning. Lichtenthal, Breitbart, Finding Meaning Through the Attitude One Takes. Lichtenthal, Neimeyer, Directed Journaling to Facilitate Meaning-Making. Gerrish, Using the Loss Characterization With Bereaved Parents. Witztum, Metaphorical Reframing. Burke, Elacqua, Spiritual Devotionals. Rewriting Life Narratives. Jenko, Life Review. Dunton, Loss Timelines. Neimeyer, Virtual Dream Stories. Noppe-Brandon, Find Your Voice, De Preter, Hooghe, Documenting Children's Life Stories. Way, The Story Mountain. Integrating the Arts. Near, Intermodal Expressive Arts. Gershman, Prescriptive Photomontage. Berger, Playing With Playlists. Bardot, Figurative Sand Tray Therapy. Moss, What's in a Name? Entenman, Secrets of the Heart. Strouse, Lamorie, The Art Studio Process. Consolidating Memories. Gamino, Opening the Family Photo Album. Thompson, The Commemorative Flag. Smith, En-Training Memoir Slices. Goldman, Memory Work With Children. Potash, Handel, Memory Boxes. Thiel, Barrett, Natural Reminders. Renewing the Bond. Hedtke, Introducing the Deceased. Armstrong, Envisioning Connection Through Guided Imagery. Neimeyer, Correspondence With the Deceased. Jordan, Guided Imaginal Conversations With the Deceased. Neimeyer, Chair Work. Neimeyer, The Life Imprint. Attig, Reaching Through Sorrow to Legacy. Hochberg, "Moments Held" Documentary. Revising Goals. Holcomb, Goal Setting for Self-Care During the Grieving Process. Panagotacos, Defining and Envisioning Self. Axler, Mind Map for Coping Through the Holidays. Beder, Worden's Paradigm in Wartime Bereavement. Accessing Resources. Bowman, Poetry and Bibliotherapy. Robinson, Bibliotherapy With Children. Horsley, Horsley, Grief and Loss Support on the Web. Grieving With Others. Doka, Neimeyer, Orchestrating Social Support. Mackinnon, Smith, Henry, Berish, Milman, Copeland. Addressing Therapeutic Ruptures In Bereavement Support Groups. Hooghe, Talking About Talking With Couples and Families. Barski-Carrow, The Workplace Study Circle. Cacciatore, The Kindness Project. Luiten, All the Stars Above. Morgan, Group Treatment of Anticipatory Grief in Senior Pseudo-Psychosis. Ritualizing Transition. Doka, Therapeutic Ritual. Cacciatore, The "Barefoot Walkabout." Barrett, The Grief Spiral. Mayer, Barrett, Memory Boats. Marshall, Supporting the "Lost Ritual" After a Suicide Death. Healing the Healer. Krawchuk, Wisdom Circles for When Helping Hurts. Moss, Stand in These Shoes. Prashant, Degriefing Caregiver Burden. Epilogue.


Contact sensi t ivi ty to 2-phenyl-4-ethoxymethylene oxazolone (oxazolone) is readily produced in mice and can be transferred to normal recipients by peritoneal exudate, lymph node, and bone marrow cells. There is some evidence tha t this is a mixed immediate and delayed type hypersensi t iv i ty reaction with both humoral and cellular components (1, 2). We wished to investigate the abi l i ty of purified peri toneal exudate lymphocytes and macrophages to transfer these reactions. Nonspecific swelling (toxic reaction) caused by the applicat ion of the contact sensitizing agent to normal mice is a troublesome factor in assessing skin reactions. This difficulty was overcome by using i r radia ted recipients. I t was found tha t either purified peri toneal exudate lymphocytes or purified macrophages were able to transfer skin reactions to i r radia ted recipients and tha t normal macrophages, passively sensitized by lymphocytes within a Millipore chamber (Mill ipore filter Corp., Bedford, Mass.) were also active.


Context. The Orion-KL region contains the closest examples of high-mass accretion disk candidates. Studying their properties is an essential step in studying high-mass star formation. Aims. Resolving the molecular line emission at high spatial and spectral resolution in the immediate environment of the exciting sources to infer the physical properties of the associated gas. Methods. We used the CRIRES high-resolution spectrograph mounted on the VLT to study the ro-vibrational 12 CO, 13 CO, the Pfund β, and H2 emission between 4.59 and 4.72 μm wavelengths toward the BN object, the disk candidate source n, and a proposed dust density enhancement IRC3. Results. We detected CO absorption and emission features toward all three targets. Toward the BN object, the data partly confirm the results obtained more than 25 years ago; however, we also identify several new features. While the blue-shifted absorption is likely caused by outflowing gas, toward the BN object we detect CO in emission extending in diameter to ∼3300 AU with a velocity structure close to the vlsr. Although at the observational spectral resolution limit, the 13 CO line width of that feature increases with energy levels, consistent with a disk origin. If one also attributes the extended CO emission to a disk origin, its extent is consistent with other massive disk candidates in the literature. For source n, we also find the blueshifted CO absorption likely from an outflow. However, it also exhibits a narrower range of redshifted CO absorption and adjacent weak CO emission, consistent with infalling motions. We do not spatially resolve the emission for source n. For both sources we conduct a Boltzmann analysis of the 13 CO absorption features and find temperatures between 100 and 160 K, and H2 column densities of a few times 10 23 cm −2 . The observational signatures from IRC3 are very different with only weak absorption against a much weaker continuum source. However, the CO emission is extended and shows wedge-like position velocity signatures consistent with jet-entrainment of molecular gas, potentially associated with the Orion-KL outflow system. We also present and discuss the Pfund β and H2 emission in the region. Conclusions. This analysis toward the closest high-mass disk candidates outlines the power of high spectral and spatial resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy for studying the gas properties close to young massive stars. We will extend qualitatively similar studies to larger samples of high-mass young stellar objects to constrain the physical properties of the dense innermost gas structures in more detail and in a statistical sense.


This thesis addresses challenges related to mathematical and numerical modeling of flow in porous media. To address these challenges, two applications are considered: firstly, counter-current two-phase flow in a heterogeneous porous media and secondly, polymer flooding in the context of enhanced oil recovery. Furthermore, an upscaled model for CO2 migration is used to estimate effective rates of convective mixing from commercial-scale injection. Numerically, the upstream mobility scheme is widely used to solve hyperbolic conservation laws. For flow in heterogeneous porous media there exists no convergence analysis for this scheme. Studies of the convergence performance of this scheme are important due to the extensive use of the upstream mobility scheme in the reservoir simulation community. We show that the upstream mobility scheme may exhibit large errors compared to the physically relevant solution when applied to a counter-current flow in a reservoir where discontinuities in the flux function are introduced through the permeability. A small perturbation of the relative permeability values can lead to a large difference in the solution produced by the upstream mobility scheme. Not only does the scheme encounter large errors compared to what is considered to be the physically relevant solution, but the solution also lacks entropy consistency. High-resolution schemes are often used for model problems where high accuracy is required in the presence of shocks or discontinuities. Polymer flooding represents such a system and is a difficult process to model, especially since the dynamics of the flow lead to concentration fronts that are not self-sharpening. The application of modern high-resolution schemes to a system that models polymer flooding is considered and different firstand higher-order schemes are compared in terms of how the discontinuities are treated. Through numerous numerical experiments some special numerical artifacts of the polymer system are uncovered. The need of high-resolution schemes and the importance of their applicability for the polymer problem is addressed. The process of CO2 migration ranges over multiple scales and results in challenges when it comes to modeling and simulation of this system. This expresses the need for a upscaled model and upscaled parameters that can capture both large and smallscale spatial and temporal effects. The ongoing CO2-injection at the Utsira formation is considered as a field-scale study for CO2 storage. Through an upscaled model for CO2 migration we get the first field-scale estimates of the effective upscaled convective mixing rates in this context. The findings are comparable but somewhat higher than reported in the existing literature based on fine-scale numerical simulations. Our work validates the use of numerical simulations to obtain upscaled convective mixing rates,


The Galesville Sandstone (Cambrian) of south-central Wisconsin was studied as an example of porosity reduction in a shallow buried quartz arenite. The Galesville is a clean, well-rounded, well-sorted quartz arenite and probably has had a maximum overburden of 900 m. Porosity of the samples in thin section ranges from 15 to 28%. Minus-cement porosity averages 24%. Differences in porosity according to orientation are not statistically significant, and the percentage of pressolved quartz is similar for all outcrops, averaging 0.8%. Reduction in porosity owing to mechanical repacking of grains after deposition may have reduced porosity from about 45 or 50% to a minimum of 33%. Intergranular pressure solution of approximately 0.8% of the Galesville resulted in a minimum porosity reduction of 9% below the value established for maximum mechanical compaction.


Particle-in-cell simulations are widely used as a tool to investigate instabilities that develop between a collisionless plasma and beams of charged particles. However, even on contemporary supercomputers, it is not always possible to resolve the ion dynamics in more than one spatial dimension with such simulations. The ion mass is thus reduced below 1836 electron masses, which can affect the plasma dynamics during the initial exponential growth phase of the instability and during the subsequent nonlinear saturation. The goal of this article is to assess how far the electron to ion mass ratio can be increased, without changing qualitatively the physics. It is first demonstrated that there can be no exact similarity law, which balances a change in the mass ratio with that of another plasma parameter, leaving the physics unchanged. Restricting then the analysis to the linear phase, a criterion allowing to define a maximum ratio is explicated in terms of the hierarchy of the linear unstable modes. The criterion is applied to the case of a relativistic electron beam crossing an unmagnetized electron-ion plasma.


A transient gas-solid model based on CPFD Software's Barracuda Virtual Reactor was developed for a feed system to a pilot-scale pressurized oxy-coal (POC) reactor. A simplified geometry with a vertical coal hopper feeding into a 0.635-cm diameter horizontal pipe was used to represent key elements of the feed system. Coal particles were transported with 20-atm CO2 gas. The feed system was required to maintain a steady flow of gas and solids at a coal flow rate of approximately 3.8 g/s and a CO2 to coal mass ratio in the range 1–2. Sensitivity of model results to mesh size and particle interaction sub-model settings was assessed.
 Two design concepts were evaluated. A gravity-fed concept was found to be infeasible due to inadequate coal flow rates even at very high CO2 to coal flow ratios. This was due to gravitational forces being insufficient to move the pressurized coal from the hopper into the CO2 stream at the desired rate. A fluidized bed concept was found to provide the desired coal flow rate and CO2 to coal flow ratio. CO2 injected at the hopper base first fluidized the vertical coal bed before transporting it through a horizontal exit pipe. A second CO2 inlet downstream of the hopper exit pipe was used to dilute the fluidized coal and increase pipe velocities to minimize coal drop out. The amount of coal transported from the hopper was dependent on the net CO2 hopper flow but independent of the CO2 dilution flow. This meant that the coal flow rate and CO2 to coal flow ratio could be controlled independently. Pipe exit coal flow rates were found to fluctuate at levels acceptable for steady burner operation.


Sir .—The otherwise useful report by Abadco et al 1 in the September 1992 issue of AJDC is marred by repeated use of the incorrect term Streptococcus viridans . This, of course, does not refer to a specific genus and species but rather to a large group of α-hemolytic streptococci, correctly designated as viridans streptococci (nonitalicized). Nevertheless, the authors are correct in discounting these organisms as pathogens when isolated from bronchoalveolar lavage specimens, as they serve only to indicate that oral flora have contaminated the lavage specimen.


BACKGROUND
Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a severe side effect of the prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism with unfractionated heparin. The aim of the present study is to gain more information on the incidence of HIT during prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism with low-molecular-weight heparin in elective hip surgery.

METHODS
586 consecutive patients were included into the prospective study, who were admitted to hospital for elective hip replacement. The incidence of thrombocytopenia, clinically manifest venous thromboembolism and of the heparin-induced IgG antibodies were analysed during prophylaxis with low molecular-weight heparin. Patients received once daily subcutaneously low molecular-weight heparin for a mean of 28 days postoperatively. Platelet counts and clinical examinations for the presence of venous thromboembolism were done at days 0, 2, 7 (+/- 1) and 12 (+/- 2). Heparin-induced IgG antibodies were determined before and after a 12 (+/- 2) days prophylaxis with low molecular-weight heparin in 265 of 586 patients randomly. Patients were reexamined for thromboembolic complications after 3 and 6 months. The clinical suspicion of thromboembolic complication was documented objectively.

RESULTS
None of the patients developed a decrease of platelets of < 50% of the initial value. Ten of 265 patients had elevated IgG antibodies against heparin/platelet factor 4 before prophylaxis (3.8%). After the 12 (+/- 2) days prophylaxis 13 of 265 patients had elevated IgG antibodies (4.9%). C14 serotonin assay was positive in 0 of 10 patients before treatment and in 3 of 19 patients at day 12 (+/- 2). Ten patients developed venous thromboembolism postoperatively (8 x deep venous thrombosis, 2 x pulmonary embolism, no fatal embolism). Only 1/19 patients with elevated antiheparin IgG titres developed venous thromboembolism. The C14 serotonin assay was negative in this patient. Two patients died in the postoperative phase due to underlying cardiovascular diseases.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with elective hip replacement prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism with low molecular-weight heparin was associated with a very low incidence of HIT, and hence screening for HIT antibodies is not required.


Exciting applications of superconductivity are based on the macroscopic quantum state which exists in a superconductor. In this chapter we investigate the behaviour of junctions consisting of two weakly coupled superconductors. These junctions are nowadays called Josephson junctions1 (Josephson, 1962). The macroscopic quantum state results in an exceptional behaviour of these Josephson junctions. They are the basis for various applications in superconductive electronics (cf. Anders et al, 2010), e.g. in the field of metrology for highprecision measurements. The most significant representative of a metrological application is the Josephson voltage standard. This quantum standard enables the reference of the unit of voltage, the volt, just to physical constants. It is nowadays used in many laboratories worldwide for high-precision voltage measurements. The main component of each modern Josephson voltage standard is the highly integrated series array consisting of tens of thousands of Josephson junctions fabricated in thin-film technology. While Josephson junctions are conceptually simple, nearly 50 years of developments were needed to progress from single junctions delivering a few millivolt at most to highly integrated series arrays containing more than 10,000 or even 100,000 junctions. These large series arrays enable the generation of dc and ac voltages at the 10 V level, which is relevant for most applications. Conventional Josephson voltage standards based on underdamped Josephson junctions are used for dc applications. The increasing interest in highly precise ac voltages has stimulated different attempts to develop measurement tools on the basis of Josephson arrays for ac applications, namely programmable Josephson voltage standards containing binary-divided arrays and pulse-driven Josephson voltage standards both based on overdamped Josephson junctions. This chapter describes the development of these modern dc and ac Josephson voltage standards as well as their fundamentals and applications. The development and use of Josephson voltage standards have also been described recently in several review papers (amongst others: Niemeyer, 1998; Hamilton, 2000; Yoshida, 2000; Behr et al., 2002; Kohlmann et al., 2003; Benz & Hamilton, 2004; Jeanneret & Benz, 2009).


Chymotrypsinogen A and alpha-chymotrypsin are both nitrated at tyrosines 146 and 171 by reaction with tetranitromethane. This substitution was essentially without influence on the overall rate constant for hydrolyses of N-acetyl-L-tryptophan methyl ester and N-acetyl-L-tyrosine ethyl ester catalyzed by alpha-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin, prepared by fast tryptic activation of nitrated chymotrypsinogen. With both ester substrates Km was doubled for nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin. Nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin, nitrated delta-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin could all bind N-acetyl-L-tryptophan methyl ester at alkaline pH, in contrast to alpha-chymotrypsin. The dissociation constant, Kd, of the complex of alpha-chymotrypsin and basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor was lowered ten-fold relative to the constant obtained with unmodified alpha-chymotrypsin. The nitrated delta-chymotrypsin and delta-chymotrypsin showed identical Kd values. The nitrated alpha-chymotrypsin is inactivated faster at pH 8.0 and 8.5 than alpha-chymotrypsin and apparently by a different mechanism.


Movement primitives as basis of movement planning and control have become a popular topic in recent years. The key idea of movement primitives is that a rather small set of stereotypical movements should suffice to create a large set of complex manipulation skills. An interesting side effect of stereotypical movement is that it also creates stereotypical sensory events, e.g., in terms of kinesthetic variables, haptic variables, or, if processed appropriately, visual variables. Thus, a movement primitive executed towards a particular object in the environment will associate a large number of sensory variables that are typical for this manipulation skill. These association can be used to increase robustness towards perturbations, and they also allow failure detection and switching towards other behaviors. We call such movement primitives augmented with sensory associations Associative Skill Memories (ASM). This paper addresses how ASMs can be acquired by imitation learning and how they can create robust manipulation skill by determining subsequent ASMs online to achieve a particular manipulation goal. Evaluation for grasping and manipulation with a Barrett WAM/Hand illustrate our approach.


OBJECTIVE
The UroLume stent has been utilized in the management of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), particularly in patients at high surgical risk. Our results are analyzed and the literature reviewed.

METHODS
From June, 1994 to November, 1996, 19 patients at high surgical risk (ASA III/IV) with symptomatic BPH were treated at our center; 17 (89.4%) had an indwelling catheter. The UroLume stent was inserted under local anesthesia and intravenous sedation.

RESULTS
Stent placement as monotherapy was found to be clinically effective in 15 patients (78.9%) with a mean follow-up of 8.2 +/- 5.7 months (range 1-18). The mean symptom score (Madsen-Iversen) was 6.1 +/- 1.2. Patients with no further manipulations had a mean maximum flow rate of 8.8 +/- 3.8 ml/s. Two patients (10.5%) required stent removal due to retrograde displacement in one case and perineal discomfort and irritative voiding symptoms in the other. In two other patients (10.5%), remnant tissue had to be resected in order to void spontaneously. Seventeen patients (89.4%) were satisfied with the results. No case of urosepsis or incrustations were documented. A microbiological analysis disclosed urinary tract infection in one patient.

CONCLUSIONS
The UroLume stent is clinically effective in the treatment of symptomatic BPH in patients unfit for prostatic surgery. It carries a low incidence of major complications and procedure-related morbidity.


Medical wastes have been implicated in river pollution in developing countries and most often people depend on water from such rivers for sources of livelihood. Phthalates (endocrine disruptors) are major components in medical wastes and are commonly found contaminants in aquatic environment. Most sewage treatment facilities handling medical waste are inefficient due to overuse and poor maintenance and discharge directly into rivers. This study aimed to investigate the identity and estimates the concentration of phthalates in supposed treated medical wastes from a hospital sewer and water from a receiving river. Samples were randomly collected before and after treatment by the sewer plants, while samples were randomly collected along the course of the river starting from point of discharge. Control samples were taken from upstream about 500 m along the river course. The samples were extracted by liquid-liquid chroma- tographic process using dichloromethane, after which they were cleaned up in a column of silica gel using hexane as the mobile solvent. The cleaned extracts were analyzed by HPLC. The concentrations (μg/L) of dimethyl-, diethyl-, diphenyl-, dibutyl- and di-(2-ethyl)hexyl phthalates ranged from 62.81 ± 18.53; 4.74 ± 3.57; 2.05 ± 1.80; 11.40 ± 5.58 to 141.92 ± 35.8 respectively in the sewer waste. The receiving river had a concentration (μg/L) of 9.17 ± 14.02; 0.18 ± 0.31; 0.48 ± 0.84; 2.84 ± 1.21; 61.72 ± 38.35 respectively for dimethyl-, diethyl-, diphenyl-, dibutyl- and di-(2-ethyl) hexyl phthalates. These concentrations were higher than control and far exceeded the USEPA limits of 3 μg/l recom- mended for phthalates in water. Contaminants of aquatic environment by untreated wastes from hospitals has serious implications on public health and environment as human risks for phthalate esters downstream are high and this calls for urgent need to develop strategy to build incentives for compliance in treatment and discharge of wastes into river waters.


A new thin layer phantom for testing hyperthermia controllers has been constructed and evaluated using an ultrasound hyperthermia system. The phantom's thermal behaviour agrees with the characteristics of the Pennes' bio-heat transfer equation (BHTE). In particular, the experimental and theoretical results agree in the following ways. First, with respect to the power deposition: for a given power magnitude and scan radius, the shape of the temperature distribution across the phantom corresponds to the shape predicted by the BHTE and the experimental and theoretical temperature values agree closely; when the power magnitude is varied at a fixed scan radius, the average temperature of the phantom varies linearly with the applied power, and as the scan radius is varied at a fixed power magnitude, the average temperature increases with decreasing scan radius size. Secondly, with respect to perfusion: increasing or decreasing the flow rate over the phantom simulates an increase or decrease in the BHTE perfusion term, and the estimated perfusion values are dependent on flow rate only, and are not functions of power or geometry. The combination of these experimental and theoretical results validate the phantom's potential for testing feedback control systems, particularly for future use in the development and verification of model-based controllers. The use of this phantom should improve and accelerate the testing and evaluation of feedback control systems, and reduce the need for animal and human testing.


Work-life interference is a significant workplace issue that has substantial human resource management implications. The goal of this study is to expand our understanding of the work-life interference experienced by Muslim men who are a significant ethno-religious cultural minority in Australia and New Zealand. Muslims have distinct cultural and religious values, which suggest that they may have different experiences from the mainstream Australian and New Zealand population. This raises questions about the applicability of work-life policies and programs to this population and underscores the importance of understanding their experiences from a human resource management perspective. Data collected from 301 men using survey questionnaires indicate that participants experience low levels of interference and the pattern is similar to that found among workers from societies known to uphold collectivistic cultural values. In accordance with workers in such societies, job demands a stronger predictor of interference than work hours, which raises doubts about the effectiveness of work-life policies such as flexible work options around working hours. At a broader level, the research highlights the need to re-think the policies designed to facilitate work-life balance among workers who have different cultural and religious beliefs than the mainstream population.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
The course of disordered gambling in women has been described as 'telescoped' compared with that in men, with a later age at initiation of gambling but shorter times from initiation to disorder. This study examined the evidence, for the first time, for such a telescoping effect in a general population rather than a treatment-seeking sample.

METHOD
Participants in a large community-based Australian twin cohort (2001 men, 2662 women) were assessed by structured diagnostic telephone interviews in which they reported the ages at which they had attained various gambling milestones and additional information to be used as covariates (the types of gambling in which they had participated and history of symptoms of alcohol dependence, major depression, and adult antisocial behavior). Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine differences between men and women in the time from gambling initiation to the first disordered gambling symptom and a diagnosis of disordered gambling.

RESULTS
Men had a higher hazards than women for the time to the first disordered gambling symptom [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.13, P < 0.0001] and to a diagnosis of disordered gambling (HR = 2.53, P < 0.0001). These differences persisted after controlling for covariates. Earlier age of initiation was the most potent predictor of progression to the first symptom.

CONCLUSIONS
When assessed at the general population level, female gamblers do not appear to show a telescoped disordered gambling trajectory compared with male gamblers.


A record heavy Yellow Sand event was observed on 20 March in Beijing. This event was unusual because the wind speed was low and the dust concentration was extremely high at the dust front. Observations with a polarization lidar, an optical particle counter, and a high‐volume sampler were performed throughout the event in Beijing. The visibility derived from the lidar data was 650 m, and the total suspended particle concentration was 11 mg/m3 at the peak. Chemical transport model analysis revealed that the main part of the dust originated in the Mongolian border area near Ejinaqi. This dust event severely affected Korea and northern Japan. Continuous lidar observations in Beijing, Nagasaki and Tsukuba revealed that the frequency of dust events in 2001 and 2002 was similar in Beijing but much higher in 2002 in Nagasaki and Tsukuba. The model showed dust was transported to the east more frequently in 2002 and the difference is probably related to the smaller perturbation of the westerly jet. This indicates that a slight change in climate can cause a large difference in dust phenomena in the northwestern Pacific region.


Beside the traditional paradigm of "centralized" power generation, a new concept of "distributed" generation is emerging, in which the same user becomes pro-sumer. During this transition, the Energy Storage Systems (ESS) can provide multiple services and features, which are necessary for a higher quality of the electrical system and for the optimization of non-programmable Renewable Energy Source (RES) power plants.
A ESS prototype was designed, developed and integrated into a renewable energy production system in order to create a smart microgrid and consequently manage in an efficient and intelligent way the energy flow as a function of the power demand. The produced energy can be introduced into the grid, supplied to the load directly or stored in batteries.
The microgrid is composed by a 7 kW wind turbine (WT) and a 17 kW photovoltaic (PV) plant are part of. The load is given by electrical utilities of a cheese factory.
The ESS is composed by the following two subsystems, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and a Power Control System (PCS). With the aim of sizing the ESS, a Remote Grid Analyzer (RGA) was designed, realized and connected to the wind turbine, photovoltaic plant and the switchboard.
Afterwards, different electrochemical storage technologies were studied, and taking into account the load requirements present in the cheese factory, the most suitable solution was identified in the high temperatures salt Na-NiCl2 battery technology. The data acquisition from all electrical utilities provided a detailed load analysis, indicating the optimal storage size equal to a 30 kW battery system. Moreover a container was designed and realized to locate the BESS and PCS, meeting all the requirements and safety conditions.
Furthermore, a smart control system was implemented in order to handle the different applications of the ESS, such as peak shaving or load levelling.


I spent the summer of 1990 studying the work of disk jockeys involved in the 'House' club scene in London, Manchester and Belfast. What I was initially intrigued by was how a popular music genre could develop such a following, indeed, some notoriety, without the traditional trappings of 'rock 'n' roll' ('star performers', 'groups'), and without a manifest ideological stance adopted in relation to mainstream lifestyles. I came to conclude that a shift of meanings had occurred in the activity of mass dancing to records during the late 1980s, a shift which has created a new and central role for disk jockeys.


The paper analyzes 3 main trends: (t1) The economic development in the Muslim world is slower than in the rest of the world. (t2) The world grows increasingly democratic due to rising incomes, but this trend does not affect the Muslim world. (t3) The world grows increasingly secular due to rising incomes, but this trend is much weaker in the Muslim world. The difference in (t1) is smaller than necessary to explain (t2) and (t3). It is demon-strated that the data contains two economic convergence clubs: The Western club and the Arab one. The non Arab Muslim countries follow the path of other non-Western countries, though at a lower level. Further, it is demonstrated that Muslims deviate as to religiosity, family life values and as to the preference for religion in politics.


Objective: Dietary phytoestrogens are promoted as alternatives to synthetic estrogens for hormone therapy, however, their effects on the reproductive axis have not been exhaustively studied in vivo. Female aromatase knockout mouse (ArKO) mice are estrogen-free, anovulatory, and have a block in folliculogenesis, hemorrhagic cysts, and development of Sertoli cells within their ovaries. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the (ArKO) mouse as a model to test the effects of phytoestrogen replacement in vivo. Design: We examined the effects of phytoestrogen-supplemented diets on the reproductive organ weights, ovarian morphology, gonadotropin levels, and the transcript levels of ovarian somatic cell and steroidogenic markers of wild-type and ArKO mice. Results: The genistein diet significantly increased uterine and ovarian weights of ArKO mice. The soy, and to a larger extent the genistein diet, improved ovarian morphology. Morphological Sertoli cell transformation in ArKO mice was decreased by both diets, whereas the gene expression of Sertoli cell markers was not affected. The soy diet increased both gonadotropins in both genotypes compared with those animals on the soy-free diet. The genistein diet reduced FSH levels in ArKO mice, correlating with increased ovarian inhibin subunit expression. Conclusion: Phytoestrogens are estrogenic in ArKO mice. Specifically, they can affect serum gonadotropin levels, and offset the development of Sertoli cells and hemorrhagic cysts within the ovaries. However, the effects on the mouse ovary depended on the type of dietary phytoestrogen. Further studies using the ArKO mouse are required to determine the effective doses and treatment regimes for phytoestrogens as endocrine modulators.


In addition to its role in the storage of fat, adipose tissue acts as an endocrine organ, and it contains a functional renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a key role in the RAS by converting angiotensin I to the bioactive peptide angiotensin II (Ang II). In the present study, the effect of targeting the RAS in body energy homeostasis and glucose tolerance was determined in homozygous mice in which the gene for ACE had been deleted (ACE−/−) and compared with wild-type littermates. Compared with wild-type littermates, ACE−/− mice had lower body weight and a lower proportion of body fat, especially in the abdomen. ACE−/− mice had greater fed-state total energy expenditure (TEE) and resting energy expenditure (REE) than wild-type littermates. There were pronounced increases in gene expression of enzymes related to lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation (lipoprotein lipase, carnitine palmitoyl transferase, long-chain acetyl CoA dehydrogenase) in the liver of ACE−/− mice and also lower plasma leptin. In contrast, no differences were detected in daily food intake, activity, fed-state plasma lipids, or proportion of fat excreted in fecal matter. In conclusion, the reduction in ACE activity is associated with a decreased accumulation of body fat, especially in abdominal fat depots. The decreased body fat in ACE−/− mice is independent of food intake and appears to be due to a high energy expenditure related to increased metabolism of fatty acids in the liver, with the additional effect of increased glucose tolerance.


Designers apply different design elements such as form, colour, texture, light, and movement in the design of products. This interdisciplinary study aims to investigate the application of 'biophilic movement' in the design of interactive wearable objects. In order to investigate how designers might incorporate 'biophilic movement' in the design of products, this research draws from the discipline of biology. This thesis suggests that biophilic movement can potentially create a pleasurable experience and enhance the interaction between people and wearable objects with biophilic movements. The key findings of this study include: 1) Adding biophilic movement can add interest to biophilic wearable objects by engaging the people who interact with it; 2) Identifying and categorizing biologically inspired movements can help designers in the area of biology-to-design; and 3) Presenting a biophilic semantic differential scale that can be used to understand how people interpret movements in biophilic artifacts.


Recently there has been interest in the approaches for training speech recognition systems for languages with limited resources. Under the IARPA Babel program such resources have been provided for a range of languages to support this research area. This paper examines a particular form of approach, data augmentation, that can be applied to these situations. Data augmentation schemes aim to increase the quantity of data available to train the system, for example semi-supervised training, multilingual processing, acoustic data perturbation and speech synthesis. To date the majority of work has considered individual data augmentation schemes, with few consistent performance contrasts or examination of whether the schemes are complementary. In this work two data augmentation schemes, semisupervised training and vocal tract length perturbation, are examined and combined on the Babel limited language pack configuration. Here only about 10 hours of transcribed acoustic data are available. Two languages are examined, Assamese and Zulu, which were found to be the most challenging of the Babel languages released for the 2014 Evaluation. For both languages consistent speech recognition performance gains can be obtained using these augmentation schemes. Furthermore the impact of these performance gains on a down-stream keyword spotting task are also described. Index Terms: data augmentation, speech recognition, babel


COVID-19 changed so much for higher education. Traditional classrooms were vacant. They remained vacant for months. St. Petersburg College was just one of many institutions that grappled with swift and critical decisions to go online and what the environment would be for coming back. With nearly 47,000 students and 2,800 faculty and staff to consider, it was no small feat to accomplish. Budget considerations were top of mind, with volatile enrollment and unknown state funding amounts for the upcoming year. One of the biggest decisions that laid before President Tonjua Williams was how to keep employees employed as long as college resources would allow.

Dr. Williams had no idea what her budget was going to be – what the state was going to ultimately contribute; what enrollment was going to be; and how many losses were going to be incurred as a result of COVID. It was clear that the president had to plan for a shortfall for the next fiscal year. But how much? With 80% of its budget being spent on personnel, one thing was for sure, a cost savings to personnel was the only area that could make a dent.

Dr. Williams found herself contemplating options. Does she furlough everyone? Does she lay off people? Does she keep everyone on board, but implement pay cuts? She remained optimistic, but how could she limit the impact on her people during this challenging time? With a new fiscal year approaching, the decision would be even more complicated.


Background: Recently, PRP are being used to treat acute and chronic injuries in an attempt to jump start healing due to being too much growth factor source. However, the homologous platelet rich plasma has been investigated in several studies to treat chronic wounds. In this study, we used H-PRP injection for tendon, muscle and ligament injuries and degenerative joint disorders. Our objective was to use homologous PRP for the treatment of tendon, muscle and ligament injuries and degenerative joint disorders and investigate the effects of it.
Methods: We applied 164 injection of homolog PRP to 109 patients. We repeated the injection in 17 patients. The 139 injection were made intra-articulacy patients and 25 injections were applied to the soft tissue. We followed all of the patients for one year.
Results: No severe adverse events or complications related to the injections were observed during the treatment or follow-up period. All of the patients were very satisfied with the treatment and had reported pain relief and increase of their life standards subjectively. Second session was performed to the seventeen patients after six months. Sixteen of them had resumed knee pain and one of them had temporomandibular joint pain. However, we also observed no side effects with patient satisfaction.
Conclusion: This study showed Homologous PRP could be safely used without any adverse effects to treat the patients of tendon, muscle and ligament injuries and degenerative joint disorders with high patient satisfaction.


The methotrexate (MTX) metabolite, 7-hydroxymethotrexate, which is potentially capable of influencing MTX rescue by affecting both MTX and reduced folate transport at the cell membrane, has been estimated in the plasma of patients receiving moderate doses (240 mg/m2) of MTX. Forty-eight hours after MTX dosage the level of 7-hydroxymethotrexate exceeded that of MTX by ten to one. Studies of the utilization of thymidine and inosine by MTX-treated L1210 cells in culture suggest that these cells may be able to utilize these substrates when their extracellular concentration is less than 1 microM. The incorporation of 14C hypoxanthine into the nucleotide pools and the nucleic acids of L1210 cells increases following exposure to MTX. This observation is compatible with the known increased availability of phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate in these cells following MTX treatment. These observations show ways in which naturally occurring nucleosides as well as metabolites of MTX itself may modulate the toxicity of the drug. Such observations may be relevant to the design of treatment and rescue protocols.


The vulnerabilities of the textual password have been well known. Users tend to pick short passwords or pass-words that are easy to remember, which makes the pass-words vulnerable for attackers to break. Furthermore, tex-tual password is vulnerable to shoulder-surfing, hidden-camera and spyware attacks. Graphical password schemes have been proposed as a possible alternative to text-based scheme. However, they are mostly vulnerable to shoulder-surfing. In this paper, we propose a Scalable ShoulderSurfing Resistant Textual-Graphical Password Authentica-tion Scheme (S3PAS). S3PAS seamlessly integrates both graphical and textual password schemes and provides nearly perfect resistant to shoulder-surfing, hidden-came ra and spyware attacks. It can replace or coexist with con-ventional textual password systems without changing ex-isting user password profiles. Moreover, it is immune to brute-force attacks through dynamic and volatile session passwords. S3PAS shows significant potential bridging the gap between conventional textual password and graphical password. Further enhancements of S3PAS scheme are pro-posed and briefly discussed. Theoretical analysis of the se-curity level using S3PAS is also investigated.


Concept of study: The leading cause of death worldwide is not communicable diseases or infectious diseases, rather it is non-communicable diseases and life style related disorders. Among non-communicable diseases, cardiovascular diseases is attributable as the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Cardiovascular disease is a multifactorial disorder and thus it is more important to prevent it beforehand rather than finding a cure. It is known fact that cardiovascular diseases are more prevalent in elderly/upper age group individuals, but owing to increasing work stress and sedentary life style, younger age group under fifty years are also suffering from early cardiac diseases. This can be due to accelerated biological aging. Therefore in this study we have tried to find possible links between lifestyle disorders and cardiovascular diseases so that we can prevent the outcome of the disease at the earliest. Key words: Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Intervention, Risk factors, Sedentary life style.


Three inter-related assumptions regarding best practice in second/foreign language teaching and bilingual/immersion education continue to dominate classroom instruction. These assumptions are that: (a) the target language (TL) should be used exclusively for instructional purposes without recourse to students' first language (L1); (b) translation between L1 and TL has no place in the language classroom; and (c) within immersion and bilingual programs, the two languages should be kept rigidly separate. Research evidence provides minimal support for these assumptions and they are also inconsistent with the instructional implications of current theory in the areas of cognitive psychology and applied linguistics. Based on current research and theory, a set of bilingual instructional strategies are proposed and concrete examples are provided to illustrate how these strategies can be used together with monolingual strategies in a balanced and complementary way.


In this meta-analysis of 19 interventions, we suggest that PCBR interventions positively and significantly impact the psychosocial functioning of both parents and children. CONTEXT: Parent-child book reading (PCBR) is effective at improving young children's language, literacy, brain, and cognitive development. The psychosocial effects of PCBR interventions are unclear. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and synthesize the effects of PCBR interventions on psychosocial functioning of children and parents. DATA SOURCES: We searched ERIC, PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, PubMed, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Family and Society Studies Worldwide, and Social Work Abstracts. We hand searched references of previous literature reviews. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials. DATA EXTRACTION: By using a standardized coding scheme, data were extracted regarding sample, intervention, and study characteristics. RESULTS: We included 19 interventions (3264 families). PCBR interventions improved the psychosocial functioning of children and parents compared with controls (standardized mean difference: 0.185; 95% confidence interval: 0.077 to 0.293). The assumption of homogeneity was rejected (Q = 40.010; P < .01). Two moderator variables contributed to between-group variance: method of data collection (observation less than interview; Qb = 7.497; P < .01) and rater (reported by others less than self-reported; Qb = 21.368; P < .01). There was no significant difference between effects of PCBR interventions on psychosocial outcomes of parents or children (Qb = 0.376; P = .540). LIMITATIONS: The ratio of moderating variables to the included studies limited interpretation of the findings. CONCLUSIONS: PCBR interventions are positively and significantly beneficial to the psychosocial functioning of both children and parents.


Nowadays, various image-based methods have been used in the area of monitoring. Whereas the precision of detection objects and real-time processing are the key issues for many applications. Considering the limitation of the working environment, the higher correctness and faster operating time can guarantee the work efficiency. In this paper, the image-based methods have been studied to monitoring the state of the flood in the real-time system. The performance of each image processing technique has been evaluated based on accuracy and processing time. In the flood monitoring system, the variation of important parameters can cause the change of performance and the effect of the variable parameters has been demonstrated from the experiment results. After comparing to the other image-based techniques, canny edge detection presents the best one, which also has better repeatability with the source image from different locations. Consequently, the improved canny edge detection method has been proved that can work very well on the real hardware in the outdoor environment.


Cystatin are super family of cystein protease inhibitor protein which is found in plants, animals and micro-organism. They are divided into three inhibitory families based on the difference of amino acid sequence, disunity bond and molecular weight including: the first is stefines, the second is cystatins and the third is kininogens. In plant cystatin is name phytocystatin (physic), it is also an independent brand of cystatin families on phylogenetic. Physic has very importance physiological functions such as regulation of activity of endogenous cystein protease during seed development, germination and programmed cell death. Recently, there are many researches on relationship between cystatin and resistance in plant (drought tolerance, cold tolerance, salt tolerance and ability of against pathogenic microorganisms). Analyzing and comparing cytatin gene sequences not only can provide valuable knowledge for the conservation and evaluation of the evolution of cytatin genes, but also shed light on issues related to function of cytatin protein. Isolation and sequencing cystatin gene of the L23 peanut cultivar and two lines: R4.6, M4.8 derived from callus treated with irradiation and dehydration of L18 peanut cultivar. The results showed that cystatin genes had 461 nucleotides and contained one intron between two conservative regions L 22 A 23 R 24 F 25 A 26 V 27 and Q 49 V 50 V 51 A 52 G 53 . There are 28 different nucleotide positions on cystatin genes and seven amino acids on protein molecules of L23 peanut varieties and the M4.8, R4.6 lines in comparison with published sequences of peanut cystatin gene. The gene sequence encoded protein of peanut lines in this research have different levels from 2.1% to 5.2% and could be used for further research on the relationship between cystatin gene structure related to drought tolerance of peanut.


Herein, a photothermal nanoconfinement reactor (PNCR) system is proposed and demonstrated by using hollow carbon nanospheres (HCN) to enhance the performance of chemical reaction. Under light irradiation, the local temperature of HCN inner void space was much higher than the bulk solution temperature because the confined space concentrates heat and inhibits heat loss. Using a temperature sensitive model reaction, peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation to oxidize micropollutant, it is shown that the degradation rate of sulfamethoxazole in the PNCR system was 7.1 times of those without nanoconfinement. It is further discovered that the high-quality local heat inside the nanoconfined space shifted the model reaction from an otherwise non-radical pathway to a radical-based pathway in the presence of the confinement. This work provides an interesting strategy to produce locally high temperature which has a wide range of applications to energy and environmental fields.


Due to the difference in cultures and languages, language minority students, who are mostly immigrant students, are confronted with more demands than are mainstream students (Ogden, Sorlie, & Hagen, 2007). Further, when they are limited in English proficiency (LEP), they tend to perform at lower levels in school and to be at risk of school failure. Based on the previous studies that addressed the importance of students' social skills for school success, this study examined the social development of the language minority immigrant students from kindergarten to fifth grade and investigated the longitudinal effect of their social skills on their academic performance in comparison with the English-speaking mainstream students. Using a nationally representative database, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K), this study first investigated the concurrent association between social skills and the academic achievement of fifth-grade students, and the profiles of their social skills during the first six years of schooling to identify the relative importance of various aspects of social skills that are related to academic performance. Next, the language minority student group, which was further divided based on their LEP status at kindergarten, was examined and compared with the mainstream student group with respect to their development patterns and levels of social skills from kindergarten to fifth grade. As a final step, the longitudinal effect of students' social skills on their reading and math performance was estimated and tested using the two-level hierarchical growth model. The result identified approaches to learning as the most important aspect of social skills related to academic achievement. Language minority immigrant students from families living in poverty displayed extremely unstable development in all aspects of social skills, including their approaches to learning. In addition, the longitudinal effect of the social skills on reading and math performance was significant for all students but larger for the students in poverty regardless of the language minority status. The positive effect of improved social skills was the largest for the group of students who displayed the most unstable social development, which were the language minority immigrant students who did not show LEP at kindergarten and who were living in poverty. This result suggests the needs of students living in poverty, especially language minority students, for relevant supports and intervention.


Antibiotics are the foundation of modern medicine, and the sustainability of antibiotic use depends on overcoming the challenge of antibiotic resistance (AR). This may be extremely difficult, given that antibiotic production by environmental microbiota is a natural process and AR is widespread in nature. AR has been shown to spread readily and quickly, as well as to exist in the absence of anthropogenic forcing (i.e., the application of antibiotics by humans). This study compared a range of approaches to identify AR gene sequences in microbial community genomes in three habitats (Palsa, Bog, and Fen) across a permafrost thaw gradient in Abisko, Sweden. Depending on the search algorithm used, we found a range of 0.72–1.29% AR protein-coding genes across all habitats, with model-based search algorithms resulting in greater sensitivity than traditional identity-based approaches for identifying AR sequences. Though each habitat within the permafrost gradient showed different cell densities, pH, bioavailable carbon, water content, nutrient availability, and other factors that impact microbial life, the difference in overall AR protein abundance between habitats was not significant. Examination of AR at this location will contribute to our understanding of AR presence in natural environments and how AR may be impacted by permafrost thawing related to global warming.


To find the explosives concealed in cargos, X-ray penetration information and neutron induced γ information are both helpful. The combination of them would improve the capability of explosives detection in complex situation like metal shielded or other organic materials disturbed. In this paper, we present the research of combining dual energy X-ray imaging and photoneutron induced γ-ray analysis. The former technique provides the materials identification capability based on effective atomic number that indicates organic, light metal, inorganic and heavy metal areas. The area containing organic material will be suspected further that will undergo neutron analysis. High energy X-ray induced photoneutron analysis provides the 2-dimensional elemental distribution of hydrogen, nitrogen and iron. Area wealthy of nitrogen and hydrogen element may be suspected as to be explosive. Several different shielding situations are researched in the experiments to evaluate the explosive detection capability, including explosive standing alone, shielded by 2cm iron plate, surrounded by sugar and so on. 9MeV and 6MeV X-ray pulses are produced interlaced with 5μs pulsed width and 3000rad/min@1m to form dual energy X-ray image. Neutrons are produced by X-ray with 20kg heavy water converter. The experiments results show that areas of organic materials could be first notified by dual energy imaging effectively, then the 2-dimensional elements information of nitrogen and hydrogen are used to confirm the existence of explosive.


PURPOSE
Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is increasingly utilised in radiation therapy for image guidance and adaptive applications. While iterative reconstruction algorithms have been shown to outperform traditional filtered back-projection methods in improving image quality and reducing imaging dose, they cannot handle data truncation in the axial view, which frequently occurs in the full-fan partial-trajectory acquisition mode. This proof-of-concept study presents a novel approach on truncation artefact reduction by utilising a priori pre-conditioned information as the initial input for the iterative algorithm.

METHODS
Projections containing axial truncation were used for image reconstruction in extended axial field-of-view (AFOV) using conjugate gradient least-squares (CGLS) algorithm. A priori information in the form of a planning fan beam CT (FBCT) was repositioned in the expected CBCT imaging geometry, then further processed to dampen high-density features and convolved with a cubic Gaussian kernel to ensure differentiability for the gradient descent method. Anatomical and positional differences between the estimated and the actual imaging object were introduced to verify the efficacy of the proposed method.

RESULTS
Extending the reconstruction AFOV alone could partially reduce truncation artefact. Using a priori information directly resulted in ghosting artefact when there were anatomical and positional differences between the estimated and the actual imaging object. Using a priori pre-conditioned information was shown to effectively reduce truncation artefact and recover peripheral information.

CONCLUSIONS
Using a priori pre-conditioned information can effectively alleviate truncation artefact and assist recovery of peripheral information in iterative CBCT reconstruction. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.