We demonstrate a significant relationship between leaf attributes and growth rates of mature trees under natural conditions in northern Australia, a pattern that has not been widely reported before in the literature. Increase in diameter at breast height (DBH) was measured every 3 months for 2 years for 21 tree species from four habitats near Darwin: Eucalyptus open forest, mixed eucalypt woodland, Melaleuca swamp and dry monsoon rainforest. Assimilation rates and foliar chlorophyll, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were positively correlated with growth rate and negatively correlated with leaf mass per area. For most species, increases in DBH were confined to the wet-season (summer) period between November and May. Average annual increases in DBH were larger in the dry monsoon rainforest (0.87 cm) and the Melaleuca swamp (0.65 cm) than in the woodland (0.20 cm) and the open forest (0.16 cm), and were larger in non-Myrtaceous species (0.53 cm) than in Myrtaceous species (0.25 cm). These results are discussed in relation to the frequent fire regime prevailing over much of northern Australia which causes the marked contrast between the small pockets of fire-tender closed monsoon rainforest and large expanses of fire-tolerant savanna.


Nutrient regeneration rates were determined at three sites increasing in distance from the Trinity River, the main freshwater input source, to Galveston Bay, Texas, from 1994 through 1996. Diffusive fluxes generally agreed in direction with directly measured benthic fluxes but underestimated the exchange of nutrients across the sediment-water interface. While the fluxes of ammonium and phosphate were directed from the sediment into the overlying waters, the fluxes of silicate and chloride changed in both magnitude and direction in response to changing Trinity River flow conditions. Oxygen fluxes showed benthic production during both summer 1995 and winter 1996, while light-dark deployments showed production-consumption, respectively. Benthic inputs of nutrients were higher at either the middle or outer Trinity Bay regions, most likely due to a higher quality and quantity of the autochthonous organic matter deposited. This feature is consistent with and gives evidence for previously observed non-conservative mixing behaviors reported for nutrients in this region of Galveston Bay. Calculated turnover times, between 7 to 135 d for phosphate, 4 to 56 d for silicate, and 0.3 to 10 d for ammonium were significantly shorter than the average Trinity Bay water residence time of 1.5 yr for the period September 1995 through October 1996. During periods of decreased Trinity River flow and increased residence times, benthic inputs of ammonium and phosphate were 1 to 2 orders of magnitude greater than Trinity River inputs and were the dominant input source of these nutrients to Trinity Bay. The sediments, a sink for silicate when overlying water column concentrations of silicate were elevated, became a source of silicate to the overlying waters of Trinity Bay under reduced flow, high salinity conditions.


Saliency integration has attracted much attention on unifying saliency maps from multiple saliency models. Previous offline integration methods usually face two challenges: 1) if most of the candidate saliency models misjudge the saliency on an image, the integration result will lean heavily on those inferior candidate models; and 2) an unawareness of the ground truth saliency labels brings difficulty in estimating the expertise of each candidate model. To address these problems, in this paper, we propose an arbitrator model (AM) for saliency integration. First, we incorporate the consensus of multiple saliency models and the external knowledge into a reference map to effectively rectify the misleading by candidate models. Second, our quest for ways of estimating the expertise of the saliency models without ground truth labels gives rise to two distinct online model-expertise estimation methods. Finally, we derive a Bayesian integration framework to reconcile the saliency models of varying expertise and the reference map. To extensively evaluate the proposed AM model, we test 27 state-of-the-art saliency models, covering both traditional and deep learning ones, on various combinations over four datasets. The evaluation results show that the AM model improves the performance substantially compared to the existing state-of-the-art integration methods, regardless of the chosen candidate saliency models.


NON-DEMOCRATIC CONTEXTS by CALE D. HORNE (Under the Direction of Jeffrey Berejikian) ABSTRACT In this project I address two direct but to-date unexamined questions: Do domestic audiences in non-democratic contexts, where public opinion should not matter for policymaking, develop structured preferences toward government policies nonetheless? If so, can these preferences ever influence policymaking in settings where governments are not obviously accountable to their citizens? Typically, studies of policy-preference formation or policy responsiveness are confined to democracies, where citizens have institutionalized means of punishing unresponsive leaders. I argue that both the cognitive structures of policy preferences as well as responsiveness to those preferences are generalizable political traits, observable beyond democracies. I test this argument using survey data from repressive political settings, where public preferences should be underdeveloped, and government responsiveness to those preferences largely absent. In so doing, I offer a first effort to fill this lacuna in opinion-policy research, and in the process provide new insights into the opaque world of authoritarian politics.


Study Design: Experimental design Background: Normal breathing mechanics play a key role in posture and spinal stabilization. Breathing Pattern Disorders (BPD) have been shown to contribute to pain and motor control deficits, which can result in dysfunctional movement patterns. The Functional Movement Screen TM (FMS TM ) has been shown to accurately predict injury in individuals who demonstrate poor movement patterns. The role BPD play on functional movement is not well established. Furthermore, there is currently no single test to clinically diagnose BPD. A variety of methods are used, but correlations between them are poor. Purpose: To examine the relationship between BPD and functional movement and identify correlations between different measures of BPD. Methods: Breathing was assessed in 34 healthy individuals using a multi-dimensional approach that included biomechanical, biochemical, breathing related symptoms, and breathing functionality measures. Movement was assessed using the FMS™. Analysis, involving independent t-tests and Pearson correlation were performed to identify associations between measures. Results: Individuals who exhibited biochemical and biomechanical signs of BPD were significantly more likely to score poorly on the FMS™. These studied measures of BPD correlated highly with each other. Conclusion: These results demonstrate the importance of diaphragmatic breathing on functional movement. Inefficient breathing could result in muscular imbalance, motor control alterations, and physiologi-cal adaptations that are capable of modifying movement. These findings provide evidence for improved breathing evaluations by clinicians.


In this essay I posit that postmodernism and modernism coexist simultaneously in society. While this is hypothesis may be, to some extent, unconventional, it is supported by substantive evidence: the real world. I contend that practical human experiences exhibit aspects of both modernism and postmodernism. It is the interaction between the two that ultimately determines the direction and form that experience takes in the wider social setting. The following discussion uses The Star Casino in Sydney to exemplify this process. I demonstrate that the Casino is a simultaneous manifestation of capitalism, a product of modernity, as well as of commodity consumption and hyper reality, conditions borne from postmodernism. The convergence of both social concepts in the context of the casino, and across wider aspects of the human experience, provides insight into the theoretical framework that supports the present moment we live in.


We are social animals, with evolved mechanisms to discern the beliefs and desires of others. This social reason is linked to the concept of intentionality, the ability to attribute beliefs and desires to others. In this book Jay Schulkin explores social reason from philosophical, psychological, and cognitive neuroscientific perspectives. He argues for a pragmatist approach, in which the role of experience -- that is, interaction with others -- is central to any consideration of action in the social world. Unlike some philosophers of mind, Jay Schulkin considers social reason to be a real feature of the information processing system in the brain, in addition to a useful cognitive tool in predicting behavior. Throughout the book, he incorporates neurobiological evidence for a domain-specific system for social cognition. Topics covered include the centrality of intentional attribution to social cognition, the rise of cognitive science in the twentieth century, the functional argument for the role of experience, intentional understanding in nonhuman primates, theory of mind and natural kinds in children, autism as a disorder of theory of mind, and the integration of emotions into theory of mind.


Existing learning-based surface reconstruction methods from point clouds are still facing challenges in terms of scalability and preservation of details on large-scale point clouds. In this paper, we propose the SSRNet, a novel scalable learning-based method for surface reconstruction. The proposed SSRNet constructs local geometry-aware features for octree vertices and designs a scalable reconstruction pipeline, which not only greatly enhances the predication accuracy of the relative position between the vertices and the implicit surface facilitating the surface reconstruction quality, but also allows dividing the point cloud and octree vertices and processing different parts in parallel for superior scalability on large-scale point clouds with millions of points. Moreover, SSRNet demonstrates outstanding generalization capability and only needs several surface data for training, much less than other learning-based reconstruction methods, which can effectively avoid overfitting. The trained model of SSRNet on one dataset can be directly used on other datasets with superior performance. Finally, the time consumption with SSRNet on a large-scale point cloud is acceptable and competitive. To our knowledge, the proposed SSRNet is the first to really bring a convincing solution to the scalability issue of the learning-based surface reconstruction methods, and is an important step to make learning-based methods competitive with respect to geometry processing methods on real-world and challenging data. Experiments show that our method achieves a breakthrough in scalability and quality compared with state-of-the-art learning-based methods.


Monchegorsk geographically located in the central part of the Kola Peninsula. Production units are situated on one industrial area, located in the central part of the Kola Peninsula in the north-western basin of Lake Imandra. Residential zone consists of Monchegorsk and Moncha city (district of the city), located at a distance of 3-6 km from the plant.
Severonickel located in the Lake Nyud and until 1995 had few sewage in the northern part of the lake. Environmental work has led to a reduction of sewage in the northern part of the lake. Now Severonickel has one discharge of wastewater from the process tank (the southern part of Lake Nyud) through overflow pipe of the dam.
Mining, concentrating and smelting units are concentrated at Nickel and Zapolyarnyi sites.
Refinery units are concentrated at the Monchegorsk site. The loading of refining units is provided by recycling of their own matte and the "GMK" Norilsk Nickel " matte.
The main production of Severonickel is the imported copper-nickel processing to produce the products the non-ferrous metals and concentrates of precious metals. The impact of smokes goes from a great variety of anthropogenic factors. Before construction the city to coal-mining complex, this region have been exposed to fire and selective felling only. In conjunction with logging in these areas there were the impact of other factors: smoke, pollution, mechanical damage to vegetation and soils, and in some cases, changes in the moisture regime, which was expressed as a change in groundwater levels and changes in drainage of soil by compaction, mixing, creating structural supports and the removal or carrying in the organic substrates (peat extraction, landfills making, mixing or removal of top soil horizons, etc.). Now overall, the area was covered with 3593 ha fire, and felling - 5283 ha, which is respectively 58.5% and 86% of study forest area in the past (6142 ha).
Imandra Lake is the largest water object in Murmansk region for fishing and drinking purposes, with an area of 885 square km. The highest concentrations of metals and sulfates are in a winter low flow. During the summer high water and summer low water, the content of pollutants decreases by dilution of sewage by runoff.
The annual average concentration of sulphate varies at the level of high pollution. Maximum concentrations of petroleum products and organic substances are 2 MPCs, aluminum, lead, potassium, ammonium and chloride - MPC.
In the area of the negative impact of plant "Severonickel" there are rivers Travyanaya and Kumuzhya. In the river Travyanaya the copper content is at an extremely high level. The concentration of nickel ranges from high to extremely high level of pollution. The northern part of lake Nyud also receives industrial waters from farm "Monchegorsk", as well water of rivers Kumuzhya and Travyanaya that are contaminated by atmospheric emissions of the plant and have a high content of nickel and copper. Sulfate-chloride solutions contain 15 normalized contaminants. Among 15 ingredients entering the water objects, the most dangerous are water-soluble metals (nickel, copper, cobalt). They have a direct toxic effect on living organisms and are capable of accumulation in their bodies, causing long-term consequences.
The wastewater treatment of plant from heavy metals was introduced in 1995 and acts even now with the lime milk method. Milk of lime is used as a reagent to precipitate heavy metals in the hydroxide form. Achievement of the MPD in sulphates and dry residue is only possible after the decision of the utilization of saline effluent. MPD of suspended matter can be achieved through filtering or putting coagulant.
Water purification of the sedimentation tank to the MPD standards can be reached after the following events:
1. Reduction of the secondary contamination of sewage water;
2. Modernization of the total runoff treatment schemes;
3. Stoppage of informal dumping of storm water from the industrial area;
4. Reducing the production flow;
5. To make a decision how to recycle the saline flow;
6. Modernization of the plant flowsheet.
In the atmosphere the most dangerous are emergency salvo emissions of chlorine. Accident is a situation in which there was a release of chlorine out of the shop - the consumer of chlorine and there was a danger of infecting the adjacent territory of other departments, the territory of the plant, its communication nets, as well as Monchegorsk and other cities.
Activities for periods of adverse weather conditions are developed for the main pollutant - sulfur dioxide. In these periods the pollutant emissions are reduced mainly by institutional activities, and, then, the sources that give the greatest contribution to air pollution. The overall efficiency of the measures for the first mode of sulfur dioxide is 15%, the second - 29.78%, 63.11% for the third one, in comparison with the work under normal conditions.
"Severonikel" is the complex of the first category in pollutant effects on the environment.
Indigenous landscape changes associated with the loss of forests have significantly changed the climate of contaminated area. In particular, the wind speed on the waste ground near the plant is 2-3 times higher than in the woods at a distance of 50-60 km from Monchegorsk. The density of snow cover is destructing, the closer the plant is, the stronger soil freezing is. That's why it was decided to begin the reclamation of vegetation. The most hardy trees are willow (Salix borealis and S. caprea) and birch (Вetulaceae tortuosa Ledeb). They don't suffer from industrial pollution, however, sometimes it can influence on it condition. And some individuals of spruce and pine can suffer even in the most pollutant territories. Overall there were chosen 17 ha of the area for reclamation.
Successful cultivation of plants for landscaping of urban and industrial areas is possible with systematic monitoring of soil fertility under the greenery. The need of this control is caused by the fact that for the development of green plantations the artificial ground mixture with unknown level of fertility is often used. In addition, landscaping of "Severonikel" complex is carried out under conditions of sufficiently intense contamination with heavy metals.


The transcription factor SOX2 is a key regulator of pluripotency in embryonic stem cells and plays important roles in early organogenesis. Recently, SOX2 expression was documented in various cancers and suggested as a cancer stem cell (CSC) marker. Here we identify the Ser/Thr-kinase AKT as an upstream regulator of SOX2 protein turnover in breast carcinoma (BC). SOX2 and pAKT are co-expressed and co-regulated in breast CSCs and depletion of either reduces clonogenicity. Ectopic SOX2 expression restores clonogenicity and in vivo tumorigenicity of AKT-inhibited cells, suggesting that SOX2 acts as a functional downstream AKT target. Mechanistically, we show that AKT physically interacts with the SOX2 protein to modulate its subcellular distribution. AKT kinase inhibition results in enhanced cytoplasmic retention of SOX2, presumably via impaired nuclear import, and in successive cytoplasmic proteasomal degradation of the protein. In line, blockade of either nuclear transport or proteasomal degradation rescues SOX2 expression in AKT-inhibited BC cells. Finally, AKT inhibitors efficiently suppress the growth of SOX2-expressing putative cancer stem cells, whereas conventional chemotherapeutics select for this population. Together, our results suggest the AKT/SOX2 molecular axis as a regulator of BC clonogenicity and AKT inhibitors as promising drugs for the treatment of SOX2-positive BC.


The legal systems of the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) are premised upon common norms, resulting in very similar bodies of jurisprudence. Due to these shared legal principles, one would expect the EU and the U.S. to use similar standards in the adjudication of asylum claims. For the most part, this expectation holds true. However, a glaring difference exists when an applicant's country of origin is an EU member state. Asylum adjudicators in the U.S. examine the individual merits of a claim, regardless of the applicant's country of origin. On the other hand, EU adjudicators are required to presume that asylum claims filed by EU nationals are without merit. This presumption comes primarily from the Protocol on Asylum for Nationals of Member States of the European Union (Protocol No. 24), the main subject of this paper. Protocol No. 24 eviscerates the asylum claims of Roma who are persecuted in the EU. It creates an almost irrebuttable presumption against EU asylum applicants, stating that EU member states are "safe countries of origin" and EUorigin asylum claims are deemed "manifestly unfounded." Protocol No. 24 is discriminatory and conflicts with the reality faced by many EU Roma. The multi-faceted approach of the U.S. asylum regime provides a more thorough and meaningful review of Roma asylum claims. Cases are assessed on an individual basis, with little (if any) legal presumptions against the applicant. The EU should adopt a similar asylum regime and reject the exclusionary mandate of Protocol No. 24.


Three of the most important questions concerning actin function are: (a) How does actin structure relate to actin function? (b) How does each of the numerous proteins that interact with actin contribute to actin cytoskeleton function in vivo? (c) How are the activities of these proteins regulated? Powerful molecular genetics combined with well-established biochemical techniques make the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae an ideal organism for studies aimed at answering these questions. The protein sequences and biochemical properties of actin and its interacting proteins and the pathways that regulate these interactions all appear to be conserved, indicating that principles elucidated from studies in yeast will apply to all eukaryotes. In this review, we highlight advances in our general understanding of actin properties, interactions with other proteins, and regulation of the actin cytoskeleton, derived from studies in the budding yeast S. cerevisiae.


A new method for the estimation of migration rates and effective population sizes is described. It uses a maximum-likelihood framework based on coalescence theory. The parameters are estimated by Metropolis-Hastings importance sampling. In a two-population model this method estimates four parameters: the effective population size and the immigration rate for each population relative to the mutation rate. Summarizing over loci can be done by assuming either that the mutation rate is the same for all loci or that the mutation rates are gamma distributed among loci but the same for all sites of a locus. The estimates are as good as or better than those from an optimized FST-based measure. The program is available on the World Wide Web at http://evolution.genetics. washington.edu/lamarc.html/.


The aggressive spatial reuse of radio resources is considered today as one of the most promising avenues to achieve significant cellular capacity improvements in future fifth‐generation networks. Accordingly, device‐to‐device (D2D) communications are an emerging paradigm that promises to offer these much expected gains without the need for additional investments into the network infrastructure. However, before this attractive technology can be deployed ubiquitously, the research community has to fully understand the extent of its potential performance benefits across typical scenarios of interest. In this work, we consider one such use case of rectangular cells (common for offices, shopping malls, dormitories, etc.) and develop the corresponding analytical methodology for D2D performance evaluation. As our target metric, we employ the signal‐to‐interference (SIR) ratio experienced by a D2D user. To this end, we propose two relatively simple approximations for SIR distribution and hence capture the related parameters, including user throughput. Further, we carefully investigate the most interesting numerical results by making important conclusions on the envisioned operation of our chosen scenario. In particular, we demonstrate that under certain conditions, the SIR behaviour is insensitive to the dimensions of cells, while different propagation exponents 'scale' its density function thus allowing to simplify the characterisation of SIR in a wide range of input parameters. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A new way to dynamically control in-flight pulses in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) single-mode fiber system is presented in this paper: This system functionally resembles an optical fiber ribbon cable, except that all the bits pass on one fiber optic waveguide and that the bandwidth and bit temporal pulse alignmen1 are much greater: In a WDMfiber system, where pulses on different wavelength beams may co-propagate in a single-mode fibeq the cross phase modulation (CPM) effects caused by the nonlinearity of the optical fiber are unavoidable. In other words, pulses on direrent wavelength beams can interact with and afect each other through the intensity dependence of the refractive index of the fiber: Using this phenomenon, through the introduction of a shepherd pulse at a separate wavelength, it is possible to manipulate, 'color ', and control pulses on co-propagating beams. How this can be accomplished will be demonstrated in this paper:


In this document we achieve exact and asymptotic enumeration of words, compositions over a finite group, and/or integer compositions characterized by local restrictions and, separately, subsequence pattern avoidance. We also count cyclically restricted and circular objects. This either fills gaps in the current literature by e.g. considering particular new patterns, or involves general progress, notably with locally restricted compositions over a finite group. We associate these compositions to walks on a covering graph whose structure is exploited to simplify asymptotic expressions. Specifically, we show that under certain conditions the number of locally restricted compositions of a group element is asymptotically independent of the group element. For some problems our results extend to the case of a positive number of subword pattern occurrences (instead of zero for pattern avoidance) or convergence in distribution of the normalized number of occurrences. We typically apply the more general propositions to concrete examples such as the familiar Carlitz compositions or simple subword patterns.


Abstract Context: Pediatric bone sarcoma is a rare entity with low incidence of around 2.5–6 per million population in India. Management of this condition is well standardized, and global survival data are available; however, there is a paucity of data in the Indian perspective. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study is to analyze various prognostic factors and survival outcome. The purpose of this study is to assess the role of surgery, multiagent chemotherapy, and radiation in the management of these tumors. Patients and Methods: Retrospective analysis of patients aged 18 and less, diagnosed as bone sarcomas and treated in our tertiary cancer center. All the patients received at least one form of therapy depending on stage and site of the primary lesion. Results: Twenty-one patients of Ewing sarcoma and 20 patients of osteosarcomas were eligible and were included in the study. In Ewing sarcoma, completing the full course of standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy to the local site was associated with improved survival. In osteosarcoma, limb salvage surgery (LSS) had a significant difference in overall survival compared to amputation. Induction chemotherapy was associated with better percentage of necrosis and showed improved survival. The percentage of necrosis correlated positively with survival which was statistically significant (P = 0.015). Conclusion: The median survival in both these bone sarcomas is inferior to global trends. Probable reasons for such discrepancy are lack of compliance to treatment protocols due to age factors and late presentation. Completion of multiagent chemotherapy in both the tumors add to better survival. Radiotherapy in Ewing sarcoma improves survival. In osteosarcoma, LSS is an oncologically safe alternative to amputation. The percentage of necrosis following chemotherapy in osteosarcoma is a reliable predictor of prognosis.


Antibiotic resistance is an emerging global health threat which is linked to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics. This study was conducted to understand the knowledge and practices of smallholder pig farmers on antibiotic use and resistance in Timor-Leste. A cross-sectional study using a structured face-to-face interview was conducted in three municipalities. The interview was piloted and implemented in the local Tetun language. This study found that knowledge of antibiotics was very poor as only 12.7% (95% CI: 6.3–23.9) of farmers reported knowing what antibiotics were, and of these only one was able to correctly explain how an antibiotic worked. None of the farmers knew about antibiotic resistance and were able to explain the concept correctly. After the definition of antibiotic was explained to the farmer, only 3.6% (95% CI: 0.8–14.9) reported that their pigs had ever received antibiotics, and the majority of farmers whose pigs had not received antibiotics reported the lack of access to veterinary services. When used, antibiotics were only used for treatment with no reported use for disease prevention or growth promotion. None of the commonly used antibiotics were critically important antimicrobials. Compliance with withdrawal periods was not routinely followed. There is a need to improve access to government veterinary services for farmers in Timor-Leste, while addressing identified knowledge gaps on antibiotics and promoting prudent use practices. The findings from this study serve as baseline information to inform future interventions.


The end of the cold war compelled India to re-evaluate and realign its foreign policy according to new changed global milieu. Now it is seriously searching for a greater role in world affairs. Contouring the foreign policy to secure widespread international support and efforts to obtain a permanent seat in Security Council are commensurate with its ambition to be a great power. It is striving to develop its economy to enhance trade and foreign investment, foster international political stability and uplift its international profile. It is also engaged seriously in enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities to cover the Central Asia, Middle East, East Asia and Australasia. But it will not be a smooth sailing for India. It has to face formidable challenges, while vying for a major power status, at all the levels i.e. global, regional, bilateral and domestic. The present paper discovers the present world order system and tries to know where India stands in it. It further investigates the efforts taken by India to acquire a greater role in world affairs. Finally, it highlights the major challenges India is going to face while jostling for a major power status.


In type 2 diabetes, deficit of insulin secretion is often ascribed to the reduction of β-cell volume, implying that regeneration of β-cells could be one of its radical treatments. Hitherto, several models are known to elicit β-cell compensation in rodents. Among them, application of partial pancreatectomy can induce replenishment of β-cell volume in young mice, while it is unclear whether this occurs in humans. In the present study, islet pathology was evaluated using the pancreatic specimens from the patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent repeated (i.e., partial followed by total) pancreatectomy because of its local recurrence after the initial surgery. Ten subjects (5 males and 5 females) at Hirosaki University Hospital or Chiba University Hospital were evaluated. Morphometric analysis was performed on formalin fixed pancreatic sections, in which the quadruple immunostaining for each hormone and the fluorescent immunostaining for ALDH1A3 was conducted. The mean age at the first and second operations was 66.2±and 71.6±5.8 years old, respectively. The mean duration until recurrence was 3.2±2.0 years. There were no significant differences in HbA1c and BMI between first and second preoperation. In morphometrical analysis, α-cell volume in the second surgery was significantly increased compared to the first surgery (p<0.04) , while β-cell volume was comparable. There was a positive correlation between the frequency of conduit glucagon positive cells and islet α-cell volume (r=0.66, p<0.05) . The frequency of ALDH1A3 positive cells were positively correlated with the α-cell/ β-cell ratio in the second surgical specimen (r=0.81, p<0.01) . Taken together, unlike rodents, our results indicate that partial pancreatectomy did not induce replenishment of β-cell volume, but increased α-cell volume in human subjects. As its mechanism, the neogenesis of ductal endocrine cells and/or the transdifferentiation of β-cells to α-cells in the islets may be involved.

 Y.Takeuchi: None. H.Mizukami: None. S.Osonoi: None. K.Kudoh: None. T.Sasaki: None. S.Yagihashi: None.


A variant of the MPC 11 cell line, M 311, produces a short immunoglobulin heavy chain. When compared with the parental gamma 2b heavy chain, M 311 was found to have a carboxyl terminal deletion comprising the CH3 domain. The COOH-terminal cyanogen bromide (CNBr) cleavage fragment of M 311 is identical to a corresponding segment ofa parental heavy chain CNBr fragment, with the exception of a substitution of asparagine for lysine at the COOH-terminal residue. This observation enabled prediction of both the parental DNA sequence in this region and the genetic mechanism which generated the variant, a frameshift followed by premature termination. This hypothesis is supported by studies of the DNA sequence of the MPC 11 gamma 2b constant region gene.


Synthesis, isolation, and characterization of isomerically pure syn- and anti-anthradiindole (ADI) derivatives are described. The anti- and syn-ADI structures are demonstrated by (13)C NMR spectroscopy and by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The spectroscopic and electrochemical properties as well as the stability of these newly synthesized π-conjugated systems are evaluated and supported by quantum-chemical calculations.


Abstract : One of the principal functions of an interactive system is the facility to create an interactive subsystem. That is, to use the general facilities of the primary system to build a secondary or subsystem which projects attributes appropriate to a specific task. In this way, for instance, a library serial maintenance procedure can be provided on a remote computer terminal which is connected solely to a BASIC timesharing system. The process of creating such a subsystem is a distinctive one, due to the inherent nature of man-machine interaction. It becomes even more interesting when the subsystem creation process is a group effort. This paper is the description, partial analysis and evaluation of such a group project. The effects of using interactive systems for such projects are of growing interest. This paper attempts to point out some of the positive and negative factors that must be reckoned within such an environment. (Author)


This paper examines the role farmers' health plays as an element of adaptive capacity. The study examines which of twenty aspects of adaptation may be related to overall health outcomes, controlling for demographic and on-farm-factors in health problems. The analysis is based on 3,993 farmers' responses to a national survey of climate risk and adaptation. Hierarchical linear regression modelling was used examine the extent to which, in a multivariate analysis, the use of adaptive practices was predictively associated with self-assessed health, taking into account the farmer's rating of whether their health was a barrier to undertaking farm work. We present two models, one excluding pre-existing health (model 1) and one including pre-existing health (model 2). The first model accounted for 21% of the variance. In this model better health was most strongly predicted by an absence of on-farm risk, greater financial viability, greater debt pressures, younger age and a desire to continue farming. Social capital (trust and reciprocity) was moderately associated with health as was the intention to adopt more sustainable practices. The second model (including the farmers' health as a barrier to undertaking farm work) accounted for 43% of the variance. Better health outcomes were most strongly explained, in order of magnitude, by the absence of pre-existing health problems, greater access to social support, greater financial viability, greater debt pressures, a desire to continue farming and the condition of on-farm resources. Model 2 was a more parsimonious model (only nine predictors, compared with 15 in model 1), and explained twice as much variance in health outcomes. These results suggest that (i) pre-existing health problems are a very important factor to consider when designing adaptation programs and policies and (ii) these problems may mediate or modify the relationship between adaptation and health.


In early June of 2011, the Autodesk software company released "Project Photofly" in its Labs division.  Following significant feedback from a variety of fields interested in 3-D modeling, Autodesk decided to turn their lab project into a fully developed, marketable, and operational software package called "123D Catch" that is currently in Beta testing.  This software generates a point cloud based 3-D model from nothing more than a series of digital photographs taken 360° around any given object. Around the same time that Autodesk decided to develop their software, research began into the local Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania legend of a B-25 Mitchell bomber that crashed into the Monongahela River on January 31, 1956 and was never seen again.  A recent 2008 river survey conducted by the B-25 Recovery Group and various other public and private agencies turned up some compelling evidence as to the location of the missing bomber.  This evidence comes mostly in the form of ROV video footage of what appears to be a propeller and possible remnants of aircraft landing gear. Diver testimonials also refer to propeller and wing-like objects present at the site in question.  The search was called off, however, due to dangerous diving conditions.  The dangerous conditions and hazardous debris littering the Monongahela River make sending inspection divers into the river a last resort.  Photographic images and video footage obtained by an ROV would help to alleviate this risk to divers and may, in fact, provide enough information to identify the wreckage.  However, the authors would like to proceed further and create a 3-D model of the wreckage.  This model could be useful for a number of applications including the development of possible excavation plans, the creation of museum displays and exhibits, and possibly to help determine what has happened to the site since the time of deposition. The development of Autodesk's "123D Catch" software makes it possible to gather 3-D data remotely due to the simplicity and ease of operation of the necessary hardware.  The dynamic nature of the Monongahela River and similar environments, however, create an obstacle to the proper positioning of an ROV for the "123D Catch" software to function properly using still photography.  Theoretically, it should be possible to gather the necessary images using an HD video camera fly-around.  This method provides for much simpler data collection, since the video camera eye is always open. The authors, therefore, tested the ability of "123D Catch" to create 3-D models using frame grabs from HD video footage of objects on dry land.  The technique is then tested using footage gathered from a controlled underwater survey of a known object. If successful, this method shows tremendous promise for the future of remote 3-D imaging. The technique could be used to gather 3-D data from a variety of settings that pose hazards to humans and certainly should not be limited exclusively to imaging archaeological material.


With ultrashort laser pulses (25 fs) and low energy (E=15 mJ), we observe laser plasma channels with a length over 5 m in air. The diameter of the plasma channel is measured to be 120 mum. The average electron density in the channel is inferred to be about 10(18) W/cm(3) with an interferometric method. At the same time, the temporal evolution of the electron density in the plasma channel is investigated. The resistivity in the plasma channel is measured to be less than 1Omega cm. It is suggested that the lifetime of the plasma channel can be greatly prolonged by launching another long laser pulse along the plasma channel.


In the presence of heavy foreign gases, such as Kr and Xe, diffused absorption bands were observed at both the short wavelength and the long wavelength side of the first four absorption doublets of the Rb principal series. The red bands were observable when the Rb vapor pressure in the absorption tube was relatively low (10−3 to 10−2 mm Hg). The violet bands were not intense enough until the Rb vapor pressure was increased to 0.1–1 mm Hg. With other lighter gases (H2, He, Ne, A, N2) only violet bands were observed. The positions and the absorption contours of the bands in relation to the member of the absorption series and to the nature of the foreign gases are discussed.


In our modern societies, socio-technological systems and human system interactions are taking on a large part in numerous domains such as health, control of risk, people safety, communication, information technologies, and so on. In order to manage such systems, it is necessary to put in place the most relevant indicators. To facilitate decision making in various fields such as people safety and risk management, the definition of indicators generated by such systems is needed in order to deliver the appropriate action plan especially to control occupational accidents. The aim of the article is to present our approach to analyze and define this category of new indicators.


Motivation and engagement are firmly implicated in students' participation in class, educational aspirations, enjoyment of school, academic learning, and academic achievement. Motivation refers to an individual's inclination, energy, direction, and drive with respect to learning and achievement. Engagement involves the thoughts, actions, and emotions that reflect this inclination, energy, and drive. There are numerous theories articulating the key elements of students' motivation and engagement. These theories describe how and why motivation and engagement are important for educational outcomes in their own right, as well as how and why motivation and engagement are important means to other desirable educational outcomes. Given the vast array of different theories in the areas of motivation and engagement, researchers have made calls to integrate the body of knowledge that has amassed. The Motivation and Engagement Wheel is an example of a multidimensional framework that traverses salient motivation and engagement factors from major theory and research. These factors encompass positive motivation constructs (self-efficacy, valuing, and mastery orientation), positive engagement constructs (planning, task management, and persistence), negative motivation constructs (anxiety, uncertain control, and failure avoidance), and negative engagement constructs (self-handicapping and disengagement). A broad body of research provides support for the salience of the factors in the Wheel in relation to a range of other variables (e.g., background characteristics, cultural factors) and through a variety of research designs and approaches. Importantly, there are additional exciting directions in motivation and engagement research, such as real-time investigations, the use of biomarkers, the interface with teachers, and intervention research, that are relevant to optimizing students' academic development through school—and beyond.


Objective: To determine whether the relationship between organizational climate and employee mental health is consistent (ie, invariant) or differs across four large hospitals, and whether organizational efficiency mediates this relationship. Methods: Participants (total N = 5316) completed validated measures of organizational climate variables (social climate, participatory management, goal clarity, and performance feedback), organizational efficiency, occupational stress, and mental health. Results: Path analysis best supported a model in which organizational efficiency partially mediated relationships between organizational climate, occupational stress, and mental health. Conclusions: Focusing on improving both the psychosocial work environment and organizational efficiency might contribute to decreased employee stress, improved mental well-being, and organizational performance.


Directors designed for observation and fire control in naval environments consist of a mechanical pedestal moved by two electrical motors. To meet the high demands on director precision, a servo solution based on feedback control is used. The digital servo controller has to be tuned to meet demands on performance and stability. This report presents methods for automatic tuning, intended to replace today's manual tuning procedures. System identification based on relay feedback and recursive least-squares approximations are combined with the Ziegler-Nichols and AMIGO tuning procedures for PI controllers are evaluated.Evaluations are performed in simulations, for which a SIMULINK model is constructed. Results indicate that the automatic tuning may perform well compared to the manual tuning used today, and that it could bring considerable reduction in the time required for tuning.


Context and Theme : The 21st century is distinctly marked as a century of globalization, the era of the internet and, more specifically, the realm of social media. Information becomes more accessible and at the same time undergoes complex processes of homogenization, standardization, and assimilation, whereby human factor diminishes significantly. New communication technologies craft a parallel virtual universe where people's identities are re-created and established by the cultural Hegemony of the West and the Rest challenging core concepts of a multicultural society: ethnic and linguistic diversity. In other words, paradoxically, though (technically) connecting people in and through the worldwide web, new communication technologies create communication environment that does not value multicultural society, ethnic and linguistic diversity, the distinguishing features of multilayered social identities of human beings.Specific Focus and Goal:The following paper explores the ways in which social identities are re-conceptualized through social media (e.g. facebook or twitter). This project further illuminates how social media affect interpersonal as well as intercultural relationships, contribute to the processes of social alienation and cultural escapism, and re-craft traditional distribution of power and privilege of cultural capital. This work suggests new avenues for initiating non-discriminatory cross-cultural dialogues in the alternative format, enabled through the virtual universe. Specifically, considering identity a social construction, this essay critically analyzes the dynamics within the intersectional paradigm of identity formation, enabled through social media. Through problematizing the phenomena of diversity, linguistic capital, humanity and cultural transformation; this project aims to explore alternative, non-discriminatory avenues of negotiation of social identities in the virtual world of social media.Theoretical and Methodological Framework and Specific Content Examples:The theoretical frame of this essay is primarily informed by various feminists of color. The concept of intersectionalty suggested by Collins (2000) is called into question - since different identity layers, such as race, gender, sexuality, and class can be blurred, erased, created, or re-defined in the virtual "social reality" offered by facebook. In other words, one can be selective of re-presenting self, and the classic "visible identities" of race and ethnicity suggested by Alcoff (2003), as well as the social connotation they correlate with, can be made invisible. Although, as Allen (2004) claims, "difference matters", it does in a different way on facebook as it might in the real world. So what really happens to our identities if we face the facebook reality? This essay aims to answer this question by means of critically addressing the following ones: What happens to the (Collins') famous "theory of flesh" if there is no more flesh, no more bodies that are socially "normalized" or "marginalized"? Is it possible to erase some historically oppressive visible identities? Can we de-colonize our existence if our bodies that still bear the bitter traces of colonization no longer limit us? And, at what costs? Does social media posses enough influence to enable a better social belonging? Can it help to re-define relations of power through controlling our choice to disclose in the virtual world? What languages would it require, literally and metaphorically? Carrillo Rowe (2008) once said that "we may move among various stages of belonging throughout our lives - many cross lines of class, national boundaries, racialized communities, places of work, the language communities that hail us, each movement rendering our becoming-other as our relational needs shift over time and across space;" so, can social media re-define our belonging through re-defining who we are? And shape us into what Lugones (1994) describes as the world of travelers who "have the distinct experience of being different in different worlds and ourselves in them"? In other words, do social media contain a possibility of a cultural transformation without sacrificing of one's identity? Does it enable a better cross-cultural understanding through the virtual liberty of creating or disclosing "self" in the virtual world? Or does it threaten us with the loss of our true selves through "cultural amnesia" because we sometimes choose to forget? Contribution: By answering these and other critical questions, the following essay aims to contribute to a better cross-cultural awareness as it relates to the emergence of social media, and critical understanding of possible ways to re-create and communicate one's identity in the current century of globalization and increasing multiculturalism.


This paper studies rates of decay to equilibrium for the Becker-Doring equations with subcritical initial data. In particular, polynomial rates of decay are established when initial perturbations of equilibrium have polynomial moments. This is proved by using new dissipation estimates in polynomially weighted ` spaces, operator decomposition techniques from kinetic theory, and interpolation estimates from the study of travelling waves.


Edwidge Danticat had long been scared off from Carnival by a loved one, who spun tales of people dislocating hips from gyrating with too much abandon, losing their voices from singing too loudly, going deaf from the clamor of immense speakers, and being punched, stabbed, pummeled, or fondled by other lustful revelers. Now an adult, she resolves to return and exorcise her Carnival demons. During her journeys she traces the heroic and tragic history of the island, from French colonists and Haitian revolutionaries to American invaders and home-grown dictators. Danticat also introduces us to many of the performers, artists, and organizers who re-create the myths and legends that bring the Carnival festivities to life. When Carnival arrives, we watch as she goes from observer to participant and finally loses herself in the overwhelming embrace of the crowd. Part travelogue, part memoir, this is a lyrical narrative of a writer rediscovering her country along with a part of herself.


The North Absaroka Wilderness was studied during 1970-1972 to evaluate the resource potential of the area. The results of geologic field mapping, field inspection of claims and prospects, analyses of bedrock and stream-sediment samples, and an aeromagnetic survey indicate that a small area of geologic terrane with probable mineral-resource potential for silver, lead, and zinc is present on the northern edge of the wilderness. Bentonite, low-quality coal, and localized deposits of uranium and chromite have been produced from surrounding areas; but such deposits, if present in the wilderness, are probably too deeply buried, too small, or too sporadically distributed to be classed as resources. Copper and gold mines and prospects are present on the fringes of the wilderness, but otherwise the area seems to be devoid of concentrations of metallic minerals. No surface evidence of geothermal energy resources was found.


A phenomenon appears in a sensor network when a group of sensors persist to generate similar behavior over a period of time. PhenomenaBases (or databases of phenomena) are equipped with phenomena detection and tracking (PDT) techniques that continuously run in the background of a sensor database system to detect new phenomena and to track already existing phenomena. The process of phenomena detection and tracking is initiated by a multi-way join operator that comes at the core of PDT techniques to report similar sensor readings. With the increase in the sensor network size, the join operator (and, consequently, query processing in the PhenomenaBase) face several scalability challenges. In this paper, we present a join operator for PhenomenaBases (the SNJoin operator) that is specially-designed for dynamically-configured large-scale sensor networks with distributed processing capabilities. Experimental studies illustrate the scalability of the proposed join operator in PhenomenaBases with respect to the number of detected phenomena and the output delay


The purpose of the paper is to describe the impact of community-led action research on food security and poverty alleviation on the production decisions and food adjustment strategies of farmers in a grain-producing village in northwest Bangladesh. The study used a mixed method approach with 80 respondents for the quantitative part (survey), which are distributed equally between gono-gobeshona participants and non-participant groups, and 30 for the qualitative part (10 in-depth interviews, 4 key informant interviews, 4 focus groups, and 10 case studies). Survey responses were analyzed using SPSS software and content analysis framework was used for qualitative data. The findings show that far more households who participated in the from the gono-gobeshona make joint decisions (by both husband and wife) in various aspects of production than non-participants. Women as authority figures were higher in number among the participants than the non-participants and more households in the non-participant group considered the husband as the authority figure. Finally, the community-led action research process met sustainability features and was inclusive across social positions.


The study of random partitions has been an active research area in probability over the last twenty years. A quantity that has attracted a lot of attention is the number of blocks in the random partition. Depending on the area of applications this quantity could represent the number of species in a sample from a population of individuals or the number of cycles in a random permutation, etc. In the context of Bayesian nonparametric inference such a quantity is associated with the exchangeable random partition induced by sampling from certain prior models, for instance the Dirichlet process and the two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet process. In this paper we generalize some existing asymptotic results from this prior setting to the so-called posterior, or conditional, setting. Specifically, given an initial sample from a two parameter Poisson-Dirichlet process, we establish conditional fluctuation limits and conditional large deviation principles for the number of blocks generated by a large additional sample.


Attrition of anatomy knowledge has been an area of concern in health professions curricula. To ensure safe and effective clinical practice, the study of chiropractic requires a good knowledge of musculoskeletal anatomy. In this study, musculoskeletal limb knowledge retention was investigated among students in the 5‐year chiropractic program at Macquarie University, Australia. A test of 20 multiple‐choice questions, categorized into low‐order (LO) and high‐order (HO) cognitive ability according to Bloom's Taxonomy, was developed. Students enrolled in the program were invited to participate with 257 of the 387 choosing to participate, (response rate ranging 56%–72% per year level). No attrition of knowledge across the years was observed, instead, a significant increase in knowledge, measured by total LO and HO scores (P < 0.0005), throughout the program. There were significant increases in both low and high cognitive scores which were not uniform, with high‐order scores increasing significantly in the last two year levels. The increase of knowledge, may be explained, at least partially, by the vertical and horizontal integrated curriculum. Retrieval of knowledge, especially in clinically applied formats, may have led to an enhanced ability to apply anatomy knowledge and account for the increased scores in the high‐order knowledge seen in the later clinical years. Evaluating anatomy knowledge retention at different cognitive levels seems to provide a better assessment and is worth considering in future anatomy educational research.


The objectives of this research is to explain pattern of behavior of trading volume intraday investor inform and investor uninformed, and analysis contribution of the both investors in explaining pattern behavior of investors trading volume in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Regression analysis result indicates that investor or trader informed is more contributionly in explaining trading volume pattern in all time intervals, but not all investors or traders uninformed contributions in all time intervals. Only order informed is more can explain trading volume pattern compared with order uninformed. Regression result finds that order status match have to share is determine trading volume pattern intraday. The role of more determined by INFBM and INFSM compared with UNFBM and UNFSM. While order status amend, open and withdraw is less have casting for determining trading volume pattern intraday. Some possibility of this development of researchs in the future, between the are test the relation of behavior of investors at trading volumes by dividing investor inform with block tradings. This division anticipated to give different response at trading volume pattern. usage of stock transaction data intraday before applying ofpre-opening in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Keywords: trading volume, investor behavior,


Background Men in sub-Saharan Africa are less likely than women to get tested for HIV, less likely to present for treatment, less likely to be maintained in treatment, more likely to have detectable viral load, more likely to transmit HIV with unprotected intercourse, and more likely to progress to AIDS and die sooner from HIV. The ultimate objective of this research is to provide evidence-based strategies to improve HIV testing and treatment of HIV-infected men. Methods This study is being conducted in the Greater Edendale Area and Vulindlela region in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is a two-stage design of a cluster-randomised trial and an individual randomised trial to test how structural and individual-level interventions address the demand-side factors that affect HIV testing and treatment for hard-to reach, high-risk men. It combines male-focused mobilization, community-based mobile HIV Testing Services and a small incentive to determine if the strategies singly and in combination can result in more men diagnosed with HIV, and more men linked to and maintained in care with undetectable viral load. Discussion A priority for sub-Sahara Africa is developing and evaluating novel and cost-effective strategies for identifying hard-to-reach groups such as men, linking them to HIV testing and care services and maintaining them in care to the point of viral suppression. We propose a combination prevention intervention that addresses men's individual, interpersonal, and structural barriers to testing and care. This includes male-led mobilization to encourage uptake of testing and treatment; male-focused testing venues; male-only counselors; developing counseling models that are �exible and responsive to men; and strategies for adhering to clinic visits without missing work and navigating the health care system. By thoughtfully combining male-focused mobilization, testing and addressing some of the barriers to male engagement with health facilities, this study hopes to add to the growing evidence based about how to reach, test, link and maintain a hard to reach group such as men in HIV treatment and care services. combination prevention interventions include: (a) male-led mobilization to encourage uptake of testing and treatment; (b) male-focused testing venues convenient and accessible to men and their work obligations; (c) male-only counsellors who will counsel other men; (d) counselling and mobilization messaging that address gender norms and masculinity ideals – promoting the bene�ts of good health for earning income and supporting one's family, the importance of being a strong role model for children, especially sons; (e) developing counselling models that are �exible and responsive to men and their work demands; (f) ways to get support from fellow men; and (h) strategies for keeping clinic visits without missing work and navigating the health care system. By thoughtfully combining male-focused mobilization and testing and addressing some of the barriers to male engagement with health facilities, this study hopes to add to the growing evidence based about how to reach, test, link and maintain a hard to reach such as men in HIV treatment and care services.


Security issues related to vulnerability assessment in electrical networks are necessary for operators to identify the critical branches. At present, using complex network theory to assess the structural vulnerability of the electrical network is a popular method. However, the complex network theory cannot be comprehensively applicable to the operational vulnerability assessment of the electrical network because the network operation is closely dependent on the physical rules not only on the topological structure. To overcome the problem, an adjacent graph (AG) considering the topological, physical, and operational features of the electrical network is constructed to replace the original network. Through the AG, a branch importance index that considers both the importance of a branch and the fault adjacent relationships among branches is constructed to evaluate the electrical network vulnerability. The IEEE 118-bus system and the French grid are employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Our purpose was to investigate longitudinal changes in gross energy expenditure (GEE) of 20 middle-aged and older men during submaximal exercise in 1969 and in 1985. GEE (kcal/min) was estimated using the caloric equivalent for each liter of oxygen consumed at the measured respiratory exchange ratio during submaximal exercise. The men performed a 10-min submaximal cycle ergometer exercise test at a power output (PO) of 100 W. Pedalling frequency was 50 rpm. Results showed a significant 5.9% decrease in GEE (p less than .01) from 8.5 +/- 0.8 (M +/- SD) kcal/min in 1969 to 8.0 +/- 0.4 (M +/- SD) Kcal/min in 1985. In addition, the effects of chronological age and leisure time physical activity on GEE were assessed and found to be nonsignificant, although a significant decrease in GEE over time (p less than .02) was observed in both groups. The present results support a decrease in GEE in middle-aged and older men over the 16-year time period. Furthermore, this decrease in GEE persisted regardless of chronological age or leisure time physical activity status.


It is by now axiomatic that the objective of the civil lawsuit has evolved. Litigants no longer routinely resolve their disputes through trial but instead engage in pretrial battles designed to extract favorable settlements. Modern litigation revolves around protracted discovery and dispositive motions, driven by two primary dynamics: (1) the maximization of fees for lawyers who charge their clients by the hour; and (2) the desire to make litigation as painful as possible for an adversary so that settlement becomes the adversary's better option. We have, in short, fostered a pretrial industry that can relegate the merits of a dispute to a secondary role in both the conduct of litigation and in its resolution. It raises important questions about the ethical obligations of lawyers to avoid improperly exploiting the powerful tools afforded by the judicial system for their clients' or their own personal gain.
The judicial system does a poor job of responding to the pretrial industry. Judges are often slow and reluctant to rule on civil motions, particularly discovery motions, so parties often have the unbridled ability to pursue or to obstruct discovery, regardless of the merits of their positions. In addition, judges are typically eager to move cases from their dockets by encouraging parties to settle. To make matters worse, the judicial system has responded to the pretrial industry by erecting litigation barriers that purport to solve the problem but that actually impose disproportionate burdens on the parties least able to bear them. Through higher pleading standards, tighter discovery rules, and greater reliance on summary judgment, judges have made it virtually impossible for parties with legitimate grievances but limited resources to have their day in court — especially against wealthier adversaries.
Fixes are in order, and I here offer two. First, we should consider requiring parties to engage in early settlement evaluation — ideally before extensive discovery gets underway — by submitting cases to summary jury trials and imposing a range of consequences on parties who choose to disregard the results. Second, we need to allocate a greater percentage of judicial resources on discovery management in order to curtail the discovery free-for-all. Neither fix is without its costs, but the costs are likely much lower than the costs of perpetuating the pretrial industry that currently defines contemporary American civil litigation.


There is a significant development in the accounting practices and communication due to the rapid growth of internet technology. Nonetheless, until today, financial reporting through the internet still has no legally structured standard compared to the formal international financial reporting standard (IFRS) that firms need to adhere. Yet, firms must still consider stakeholders' decision making based on internet accounting disclosures. Since the 1990s studies on Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) apply various indexes to measure disclosure practices. However existing indexes mainly focus only on the level and quality of IFR disclosure. Our study develops a new checklist – IFR disclosure strategy checklist – to measure IFR disclosure strategy based on a taxonomy proposed by Williams (2008) which has not yet been empirically tested until today. However, the taxonomy only outlines the characteristics of each proposed strategy. Our study takes the challenge to interpret the taxonomy by developing a checklist for each characteristic that were describe in the taxonomy. Utilizing content analysis, detailed consideration was made about items in the checklist based on prior studies, available regulations in several countries as well as current practices by reporting entities. Results from reliability test indicate that our checklist is a valid and reliable instrument with regards to our sample of study. It is expected that our checklist will be referred to by reporting entities in order to assist stakeholders' decision making. Eventually we hope that with the knowledge about the disclosure strategy, stakeholders might reduce their time and effort in searching for the best business entities when deciding upon their investment portfolio.


Thin films of lanthanum substituted bismuth titanate, Bi_4−xLa_xTi_3O_12 (BLTx), were prepared by chemical solution deposition. Crystallized BLTx films were obtained by rapid thermal annealing at a temperature as low as 650 °C. Structural and electrical characteristics of crystalline BLTx films were studied as functions of La composition. Structure characterization was conducted by x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The lowest lattice vibration mode around 116 cm^−1 showed softening with increasing lanthanum composition. Surface morphology of BLTx films were recorded by scanning electron microscopy. BLTx films have saturated hysteresis loops with remnant polarization of 9.7, 12.3, and 4.5 μC/cm^2, respectively, for x = 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 films. BLT0.75 films showed fatigue-free behavior over 250 kV/cm, 50 kHz cycling, which could be compared with that of SrBi_2Ta_2O_9 thin films. Fatigue resistance decrease at lower cycling field. The field dependence of fatigue property was discussed briefly in terms of competition between domain pinning and field-assisted unpinning.


All names published prior to 1980 that were not included in the Approved Lists are available for reuse without reference to their past application. However, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria endorses the revival of disused names in the sense in which they were previously used and provides Rules (28a, 33c and 33d) as guidance. Nevertheless, the Code is obscure as to how citations are to be reported for this use to be perpetuated in subsequent nomenclatural revisions. A revision of Rule 33c is proposed.


South of Africa, warm Indian Ocean water enters the Atlantic Ocean by means of large Agulhas Rings. These rings, with diameters up to 350 km and reaching all the way to the ocean floor at 5 km depth, form an important link in the global thermohaline circulation, which is the driving force behind the moderate temperatures over Northern Europe.

For six years, the shedding of Agulhas rings has been monitored from space, using satellite altimeter measurements of the sea surface height. Rings can be identified by sea surface elevations on the order of 20-50 cm. The rings are followed on their way westward through the Atlantic, where they gradually decay. The decay is found to take place mainly in the Cape Basin during the first year after formation, probably delivering most of the Ring's thermohaline contents to this region. Also, rings are observed to often split into smaller rings.

The shedding of Agulhas Rings is shown to be related to upstream processes. Especially, eddies from the Mozambique Channel are found to control the timing of Agulhas Ring shedding. These Mozambique Eddies have recently been
measured to be dynamically comparable to the energetic Agulhas Rings, to carry tropical water masses southward through the Mozambique Channel, and to induce strong mixing in the channel. They in turn seem to be part of a mode of variability that is found over much of the Indian Ocean.

A four-per-year signal is found to originate in the equatorial part of the Indian Ocean, and to propagate by a sequence of Kelvin and Rossby waves into the Mozambique Channel. Kelvin waves at the equator are forced by the semi-annual westerly windbursts that occur during the change of the monsoons. The frequency of these waves is doubled to four, probably by resonance of an equatorial basin mode. Four Kelvin waves per year are observed to reach the Indonesian coast, where they travel southward as coastal Kelvin waves. These force baroclinic Rossby waves at subtropical
latitudes, which travel in westward direction towards the African continent. When they reach Madagascar these waves force the frequency of the Mozambique eddies in the channel between Madagascar and the African continent. A statistically significant correlation between the equatorial forcing and the Mozambique Channel eddies is shown to exist at a lag of
1.25 years.


Introduction: The association between diabetes and adverse cardiovascular outcome may be partially explained by the strong independent association of type 2 diabetes with cardiovascular target organ damage, such as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), a well-known predictor of cardiovascular events independent of coronary artery disease. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the relation of LVH to fibrinogen and C-reactive protein (CRP) as markers of inflammation and susceptibility to atherothrombosis. Methods and Subjects: We selected 50 adults with type 2 diabetes. 32 were women and 18 were men, mean age 45 ± 14.Hypertension was defined by systolic blood pressure (sBP) 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (dBP) 90 mmHg. Diabetes was defined by fasting plasma glucose levels 126 mg/dl or by specific treatment. BMI was calculated by the standard formula. Echocardiography Methods: The prevalence of left ventricular abnormalities has been determined by bidimensional echocardiography. The left ventricular mass index (LVMI) has been evaluated according to the method of Devereux and Reichek. Participant's laboratory data were examined in the morning after an overnight fast 12 h. The levels of CRP and fibrinogen have been measured. Results: From 50 participants, 22 (44%) presented LVH, which was associated with higher BMI and CRP, fibrinogen levels, left ventricular hypertrophy, markers of inflammation. We found relationships between fibrinogen and concentric LVH (p < 0,001) and also between CRP with concentric hypertrophy (p < 0.005). Conclusions: 22 patients presented concentric LVH, 10 patients eccentric LVH, and 18 patients normal LV mass. Concentric LVH was associated with elevated markers of systemic inflammation and susceptibility to atherothrombosis (CRP and fibrinogen levels) independently of clinically overt cardiovascular disease and traditional cardiovascular risk factors. No correlation was found between CRP and fibrinogen and eccentric LVH.


In the Western Hemisphere, Zika virus is thought to be transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. To determine the extent to which Ae. albopictus mosquitoes from the United States are capable of transmitting Zika virus and the influence of virus dose, virus strain, and mosquito species on vector competence, we evaluated multiple doses of representative Zika virus strains in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. Virus preparation (fresh vs. frozen) significantly affected virus infectivity in mosquitoes. We calculated 50% infectious doses to be 6.1–7.5 log10 PFU/mL; minimum infective dose was 4.2 log10 PFU/mL. Ae. albopictus mosquitoes were more susceptible to infection than Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, but transmission efficiency was higher for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, indicating a transmission barrier in Ae. albopictus mosquitoes. Results suggest that, although Zika virus transmission is relatively inefficient overall and dependent on virus strain and mosquito species, Ae. albopictus mosquitoes could become major vectors in the Americas.


This experiment was carried out at Universiti Malaysia Sabah in the Soil Science Laboratory of the Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture Sandakan, Sabah. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of poultry litter biochar (PLB) on phosphorus (P) leaching, pH, and moistur ne content in tropical clay soil. The experiment was carried out for 2 months starting from 1st of September 2014 to 1st of November 2014. Factorial completely randomize design (CRD) with different PLB and TSP fertilizer rates were used as the factors. In the 1st experiment which was to test for the phosphorus leaching and pH, 0, 10, and 20 % W/Wsoil PLB in combination with 0, 30, and 60 mg kg-1 TSP were used for the 9 different treatment combinations, each of which was mixed with 10 g of tropical clay soil. These treatments were leached with 100 ml rain water collected beforehand for 2 weeks in leaching columns. In this experiment, there was significant interaction between TSP and PLB over time of leaching on phosphorus leaching and also on soil pH. The results showed that with increased application of PLB and TSP rates, more phosphorus was leached out from the soil. Soil treated with 20 % PLB and 60 mg kg-1 resulted in the highest amount of phosphorus leached while 0 % PLB and 0 mg kg-1 resulted in the lowest amount of phosphorus leached. On the other hand, PLB increased the pH and 20 % PLB treatment resulted in the highest pH readings while 0 % PLB treatment resulted in the lowest pH readings. 2nd experiment was conducted to test the effect of PLB on soil moisture retention. In this experiment, same rates of PLB were used to form 3 different treatments and each treatment was added to 100 g of the tropical clay soil in leaching column and were leached for 2 days with 200 ml rain water. The results showed that PLB significantly increased the soil moisture content. The more PLB added, the higher the soil moisture retention. In this experiment, 20 % PLB treatment had resulted in the highest soil moisture content while 0 % PLB treatment showed the lowest soil moisture content.


ABSTRACT Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth and has an acute need to manage its water resources effectively. Australian Aboriginal peoples have a profound knowledge of surface water and groundwater which has allowed them to thrive for thousands of generations even in the most arid parts of the landscape. Aboriginal peoples place a high priority on protecting water, but the challenge is to ensure that their values are integrated into water planning. The Australian New South Wales (NSW) government's Aboriginal Water Initiative (AWI) (2012-2017) sought to include Aboriginal cultural and spiritual values in water management. The AWI operated under the NSW Government's Water Management Act 2000, which seeks to protect the cultural and spiritual values of water and the benefits to flow to Aboriginal peoples. Speaking from the perspective of the previous leader of the AWI, this article will reflect on its inception and structure, particularly focussing on approaches of engagement and consultation. These were highly structured and included a focus on cultural training and protocols and benefited from having Aboriginal staff involved. While ultimately discontinued in 2017, a reflection on the AWI provides useful insights into how engagement and consultation can be operationalised in water management and policy.


Abstract According to Action Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992, sustainable development is a major objective for local and global development. Economic growth, good living conditions, and protection of the earth's natural environment are important to all people in the world. This article focuses on one aspect of sustainable development, i.e. on environmental sustainability. Research shows that local government can take a leading position in protecting the natural environment and disseminating information on it among stakeholders. However, our knowledge about the dissemination of environmental information practices among stakeholders is limited. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in current knowledge, to describe and compare the practical work with dissemination of such information among stakeholders in Swedish and Polish municipalities. The questions to be answered are: What environmental information is collected and produced by the local government ? At what stakeholders is such information targeted ? and What effects does it have on decision-making by stakeholders in the investigated municipalities ? The study is based on state regulations, the homepages of municipal offices, and policy documents, official reports, and semi-structured interviews with key managers responsible for the protection of the natural environment in the studied municipalities. Data were collected from late 2015 to early 2017. This research indicates that dissemination of environmental information has a positive effect on the decision-making of internal stakeholders. In both countries, the municipal authorities follow the EU recommendations, resulting in innovative work and growing environmental awareness among the municipal authorities, the residents, and other stakeholders. Improvement of the natural environment is perceived as "a must" for the future. Nonetheless, especially larger municipalities face challenges because the production and dissemination of environmental information is time-consuming. In the long run, however, surprisingly positive effects on the local protection of the natural environment appear.


Domain-specific visual languages support high-level modeling for a wide range of application domains. However, building tools to support such languages is very challenging. We describe a set of key conceptual requirements for such tools and our approach to addressing these requirements, a set of visual language-based metatools. These support definition of metamodels, visual notations, views, modeling behaviors, design critics, and model transformations and provide a platform to realize target visual modeling tools. Extensions support collaborative work, human-centric tool interaction, and multiplatform deployment. We illustrate application of the metatoolset on tools developed with our approach. We describe tool developer and cognitive evaluations of our platform and our exemplar tools, and summarize key future research directions.


An ex post rate of return analysis was conducted to estimate the internal rate of return (IRR) to Bangladesh developed and released high yielding wheat varieties that have replaced the previously introduced wheat varieties. Since the inception of the CIMMYT assisted Bangladesh wheat research program in the 1970's and the release of the first Bangladesh variety in 1979, the IRR to the total investment in both wheat research and extension was calculated at 32%. The increase in production due to the higher yielding varieties also generated foreign exchange savings of Tk. 7.9 Billion because of the need to import less wheat. Under various assumptions about the magnitude of the benefits and the research and extension expenditures, the IRR ranged between 27% and 41% and the foreign exchange savings ranged between Tk. 5.9 Billion and Tk. 9.8 Billion. The rate of return is comparable to returns to wheat research and other agricultural research and extension investments in most developing countries. This indicates that Bangladesh and donor agency funding of wheat research and extension is a good investment.


We survey the state-of-the-art methods of how to rank economic departments on the basis of a sample of 14 studies conducted in years 1995-2005. We cover a diversity of rankings: U.S., worldwide, E.U., those of developed academic nations and those of developing academic nations. Each method rests on a specific goal: while some identify top-notch research, others reflect quantity and thus are able to discriminate down the ranking. We also document novelties in ranking-construction such as sensitivity analysis, parallel rankings, instant updates and journal weights based on impact-adjusted impact factors.


We propose an adaptive, data-driven thresholding method based on a recently developed idea of Minimum Noiseless Description Length (MNDL). MNDL Subspace Selection (MNDL-SS) is a novel method of selecting an optimal subspace among the competing subspaces of the transformed noisy data. Here we extend the application of MNDL-SS for thresholding purposes. The approach searches for the optimum threshold for the data coefficients in an orthonormal basis. It is shown that the optimum threshold can be extracted from the noisy coefficients themselves. While the additive noise in the available data is assumed to be independent, the main challenge in MNDL thresholding is caused by the dependence of the additive noise in the sorted coefficients. The approach provides new hard and soft thresholds. Simulation results are presented for orthonormal wavelet transforms. While the method is comparable with the existing thresholding methods and in some cases outperforms them, the main advantage of the new approach is that it provides not only the optimum threshold but also an estimate of the associated mean-square error (MSE) for that threshold simultaneously.


Prehospital care delivery varies across different geographies. Among the starkest differences is the role of the physician in prehospital care and emergency medical services (EMS). In the 'Anglo-American' model, ambulances are primarily staffed by emergency medical technicians (EMTs), emergency medical responders (EMRs), and paramedics. In contrast, in the 'Franco- German' model, ambulances are commonly staffed by physicians. Physicians can theoretically provide superior prehospital care due to increased level of training, judgement, and competency. However, physician-staffed emergency medical services (PS-EMS) also increase the financial burden on the prehospital care system. This review paper aims to summarize, compare, and analyze the clinical and financial features of these two models in order to identify the best staffing model. The information presented in this paper can aid medical administrators in the decision-making process involved in optimizing their prehospital care delivery system.


Modern Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) combine critical real-time and non-critical best-effort tasks and messages onto an integrated multi-core multi-SoC hardware platform. The real-time safety-critical software tasks have complex interdependencies in the form of end-to-end latency chains featuring, e.g., sensing, processing/sensor fusion, and actuating. The underlying real-time operating systems running on top of the multi-core platform use static cyclic scheduling for the software tasks, while the communication backbone is either realized through PCIe or Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). In this paper, we address the problem of configuring ADAS platforms for automotive applications, which means deciding the mapping of tasks to processing cores and the scheduling of tasks and messages. Time-critical messages are transmitted in a scheduled manner via the timed-gate mechanism described in IEEE 802.1Qbv according to the pre-computed Gate Control List (GCL) schedule. We study the computation of the assignment of tasks to the available platform CPUs/cores, the static schedule tables for the real-time tasks, as well as the GCLs, such that task and message deadlines, as well as end-to-end task chain latencies, are satisfied. This is an intractable combinatorial optimization problem. As the ADAS platforms and applications become increasingly complex, such problems cannot be optimally solved and require problem-specific heuristics or metaheuristics to determine good quality feasible solutions in a reasonable time. We propose two metaheuristic solutions, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and one based on Simulated Annealing (SA), both creating static schedule tables for tasks by simulating Earliest Deadline First (EDF) dispatching with different task deadlines and offsets. Furthermore, we use a List Scheduling-based heuristic to create the GCLs in platforms featuring a TSN backbone. We evaluate the proposed solution with real-world and synthetic test cases scaled to fit the future requirements of ADAS systems. The results show that our heuristic strategy can find correct solutions that meet the complex timing and dependency constraints at a higher rate than the related work approaches, i.e., the jitter constraints are satisfied in over 6 times more cases, and the task chain constraints are satisfied in 41% more cases on average. Our method scales well with the growing trend of ADAS platforms.


Objectives The introduction of PSA in clinical practice has resulted in decreasing the death rate form prostate cancer and in a downward shift of the pathological stage in radical prostatectomy specimens. This seems not to be the case for bladder cancer. In order to verify this assumption, we have reviewed the charts of the patients operated on of radical prostatectomy and radical cystectomy between 1994 and 2006. METHODS 456 and 491 consecutive patients, respectively, underwent radical cystectomy and radical prostatectomy with bilateral lymph nodes dissection. We excluded all the patients who had received neoadjuvant treatment or did not undergo node dissection. The patients were divided into two consecutive groups according to the year of treatment: group 1 included pts treated from 1994 to 2000, and group 2 pts from 2001 to 2006. The histopathological findings of the two groups of pts were compared. The difference among TNM systems has been balanced evaluating histopathological reports critically and converting them to the 2002 edition. RESULTS. For patients with prostate cancer, those in group 2 had a decrease in the incidence of extracapsular extension and lymph nodes invasion. The bladder cancer patients belonging to group 2 had a greater number of T2, but there was an increased number of pN+ in this group. CONCLUSIONS Even if there is a decline in locally advanced disease in patients with bladder cancer, our retrospective analysis did not show a comparable success in early diagnosis as it did for prostate cancer. There is undoubtedly an increase in the lymph node dissemination, whether this is due to a more extended lymph node dissection or to a premature dissemination remains questionable. Public awareness regarding bladder cancer and its risk factors is limited, but several studies have reported that a delay in diagnosis of invasive bladder cancer is an adverse prognostic factor. A higher care in the development of new diagnostic markers for bladder tumors and especially in the screening protocols together with an earlier radical therapy could hopefully improve the management of such a pathology, as it happened for prostate cancer.


To the Editor:—We read with interest Martin et al.'s study on the antiinflammatory effect of peripheral nerve block after total knee arthroplasty. We would be delighted to see such an outcome; however, we wish to raise the following questions on the conclusion drawn that peripheral nerve blocks have a clinical antiinflammatory effect, especially when there was no change in inflammatory mediator levels. This study's primary outcome measure was IL-6 at 24 hours. Statistically it was powered to demonstrate a 50% reduction in IL-6 at 24 hours, with 20 patients per treatment arm. This study was not powered to demonstrate the clinical outcome measures for inflammation–knew circumference and temperature. Therefore we cannot draw any definitive conclusions regarding peripheral nerve blocks and any potential anti-inflammatory effects until further work is done. Second, the absence of sham blocks here can lead to observer bias. Third, the use of 20 ml of 0.75% Ropivicaine for each femoral and sciatic nerve block could have contributed towards reduced temperature and edema, given that studies have shown that Ropivicaine's vasoactive properties cause a reduction in blood flow. Lastly, and most importantly, the reduced circumference and temperature seen may merely be the result of improved pain control and mobility. The conclusions drawn were based only on findings from postoperative days 1 to 7, with no significant differences seen between groups at a later follow-up. We therefore feel that further investigation is required before concluding that peripheral nerve blocks reduce clinical or biochemical inflammation, and if it does so, whether it actually translates into long-term patient benefit.


Bismuth (Bi) doped fibers have shown promising potential for lasers and amplifiers in the 1150-1500 nm and 1600-1800nm wavelength region. Bi-doped aluminosilicate, phosphosilicate and germanosilicate fibers provide luminescence around 1150 nm, 1300 nm and 1450 nm, respectively. Recent results have demonstrated the possibility to extend the Bi luminescence window beyond 1600 nm using Bi-doped high (≥ 50mol %) germanosilicate fibers. These spectral regions can serve a wide range of applications in medicine, astronomy, defense and to extend the optical fiber communication. However, Bi-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers are still far from their optimum performance owing to the unclear nature of the near-infrared emitting Bi active centers. In this paper, we review the current state of the art of Bi-doped silica fiber lasers (CW and pulsed) and amplifiers in different wavelength bands. Also, we present our work on the development of Bi-doped aluminosilicate and phosphosilicate fiber lasers and amplifiers in the 1180 nm and 1330 nm bands. These lasers and amplifiers find applications in generating visible light sources and to access the second telecommunication window. The fibers used here were fabricated by modified chemical vapor deposition-solution doping technique and characterized for their unsaturable loss. Moreover, we present the influence of pump wavelengths on the gain, noise figure and laser efficiency of these Bi-doped fiber amplifiers and lasers. We also discuss Bi-doped fibers for pulsed laser application and demonstrate a mode-locked Bi-doped fiber laser operating at 1340 nm. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal


The study was aimed to evaluate the bacteriological profile of the traditionally collected industrial raw milk from the milk pocket zones of Bangladesh. About 365 raw milk samples were collected from the milk tanker, who brought raw milk from the mother chilling centre where raw milk was chilled at 4°C following traditional method. All milk samples were subjected to perform standard plate count and total coliform count. The average standard plate count was found to be 4.37 x 10 6 cfu/ml and the highest occurrence of standard plate count was found to be 6.70 x 10 6 cfu/ml in October and the lowest (3.28 x 10 6 cfu/ml) in March. The highest occurrence of total viable bacteria was found to be 5.64 x 10 6 cfu/ml in autumn and the lowest was found to be 3.78 x 10 6 cfu/ml in summer. On the other hand, the average of the coliform bacterial count was found to be 3.88 x 10 5 cfu/ml with the highest (5.70 x 10 5 cfu/ml) occurrence in May and the lowest (1.90 x 10 5 cfu/ml) in January. Moreover, the highest occurrence of coliform count was found to be 4.84 x 10 5 cfu/ml in rainy season and the lowest was 2.75 x 10 5 cfu/ml found in winter. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjm.v25i1.4849 Bangladesh J Microbiol , Volume 25, Number 1, June 2008, pp 17-20


With the recent development of new three-dimensional (3D) multimedia services such as 3D television or free viewpoint television, a new 3D video format, called multiview video + depth (MVD) is currently being investigated. MVD allows synthesizing as many views as required at the receiver side, thus providing smooth scene transitions and the ability to experience a new 3D perspective with each different viewing point. The format introduces, alongside traditional 2D image sequences, sequences of depth maps, which must be efficiently coded to achieve good quality for the synthesized views. One approach to code depth videos is to exploit the correlations between texture and depth. In this work, we propose a new tool to code depth videos in which the texture Intra modes are inherited and used as predictors for the depth Intra modes, hence reducing the mode signaling bitrate. The tool is only used in prediction units where texture and depth Intra directions, or modes, are expected to match. Two criteria that exploit the statistical dependency between the texture and depth Intra modes are studied in this work: GradientMax and DominantAngle. Average bitrate reductions of 1.3 and 1.6% on synthesized sequences are reported for GradientMax and DominantAngle, respectively. The latter method additionally achieves 2.3% bitrate reduction on depth sequences.


One of the reasons attributed to the continuous decline in student performance and low educational outcomes in public schools is the poor leadership displayed by many principals. Despite the fact that there are no stringent criteria for the appointment of school principals or prerequisite qualifications, principals do have the potential to lead and manage efficient and successful schools. In this paper, I argue that principals can develop exemplary leadership practices when subjected to sound training and professional development programmes. The Department of Education and Higher Education institutions have emphasised the importance of formal qualifications for enhancing career development programmes for practicing and aspiring principals in South Africa. Using questionnaires, I explore the perceptions of teachers and school management team (SMT) members of the leadership qualities exhibited by principals who acquired the professional qualification referred to as the Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership and Management (ACESLM). Findings revealed that leadership development for principals is crucial for school improvement because of active teaching and learning. Leadership capacity requires principals to participate with relevant stakeholders skilfully, and where there is high leadership capacity, instructional leadership develops into sound leadership practices. Keywords: effective leadership; instructional leadership; leadership practices; professional development; school improvement; school leadership


People in the rural areas do not have access to specialist medical care, and when they have complications of stroke, they do not have specialists to look at them and they cannot afford to travel to the cities. The primary health care centers are not equipped with sophisticated equipments. Medicine is about medication, treatment and management. In rural areas treatment is not available either because of accessibility or affordability. Even the few doctors that are available are not in primary health care centres. Well conserved one-dimensional non-linear equations of blood flow describing blood flow in distensible blood vessels were used to develop software. This model could describe discontinuities and disruption in blood flow. The computer software can be used for detecting artherosclerosis, stenosis and differentiation of haemorrhagic and ischaemic strokes for stroke management from simple measurements. The software developed is capable of computing the Siriraj and the Allen clinical scores. These scores have been proposed to help clinicians in making decisions while waiting for results of computerized tomography, hence clinicians can start anti-thrombotic treatment while waiting for the scan results. It is capable of simulating stenosis at different position and depth of flow along the arterial length, and can be used for diagnosis. The medical emphasis is on avoiding possible occurrence, every individual can know his status by inputting the required data such as flow and geometry of their arteries into the developed interface and such measurements can be obtained from simple Doppler measurements.