A study was conducted to demonstrate ultraviolet resonance Raman (UVRR) investigations of peptide and protein structure and dynamics. The tuning of the excitation wavelengths allowed the probing of different chromophoric segments of a macromolecule. Another advantage of deep UV Raman measurements was that there was no interference from molecular relaxed fluorescence, as those chromophores that had their first transition below 260 nm were highly flexible and possessed small fluorescence quantum yields. UVRR was also used in pump-probe measurements to give kinetic information on fast biological processes. It was a powerful technique for studying static protein structure and for studying protein dynamics, such as in protein folding. The rapid development of UVRR was aided by the latest advancements in lasers, optics, and detectors.


Abstract. Routine cloud, precipitation and thermodynamic observations collected by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) and Aerial Facility (AAF) during the 2-year US Department of Energy (DOE) ARM Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5) campaign are summarized. These observations quantify the diurnal to large-scale thermodynamic regime controls on the clouds and precipitation over the undersampled, climatically important Amazon basin region. The extended ground deployment of cloud-profiling instrumentation enabled a unique look at multiple cloud regimes at high temporal and vertical resolution. This longer-term ground deployment, coupled with two short-term aircraft intensive observing periods, allowed new opportunities to better characterize cloud and thermodynamic observational constraints as well as cloud radiative impacts for modeling efforts within typical Amazon wet and dry seasons.


This contribution to the second installment of the Common Knowledge symposium "Whatever Happened to Richard Rorty?" argues that the field of science studies should be understood as a way of inheriting, rather than fundamentally breaking with, Rorty's antifoundationalism and postepistemology. Taken together, the work of Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, and Donna Haraway has been less about rebalancing the relative and the objective, and more about redrawing the checkerboard of knowledge into "in-disciplinary" styles of empirical philosophy. These styles rely on doubly held commitments to radical empirical curiosity about, on the one hand, events of science and culture, and, on the other hand, promises of conceptual speculation for collective learning. This work is highly important for the novel perplexities of the Anthropocene, but not quite in the way that Gaskill proposed.


North Indian talas (rhythmic timelines or ostinatos) are compared to Afro-American and African timelines, using several measures of rhythm dissimilarity with the goal of determining which measures are the best for use in phylogenetic algorithms. Such algorithms can be used for music information retrieval applications, culture-based musical rhythm classification, and determining a phylogeny of world rhythms. The results show that the dissimilarity measures proposed by Irfan et al. do not perform as well as previously suggested. However, this work also shows that their angle-distance measure produces equivalent results to the chronotonic-distance, which correlates well with human perception of rhythm dissimilarity. Thus this study adds validity to the angle-distance measure.


BACKGROUND: speech comprehension difficulty is a very common complaint of individuals with tinnitus with and without hearing loss. This study was conducted in order to analyze if tinnitus interferes in auditory processing and speech comprehension in individuals with normal hearing levels. AIM: to asses and compare the auditory behavior of temporal resolution and selective attention of adults with normal hearing levels with and without tinnitus. METHOD: 45 individuals, 15 with continuous tinnitus and 30 without tinnitus were selected and assessed by three auditory processing tests: Speech in Noise Test, Dichotic Digits Test and Gaps in Noise. After that, the results of each group were compared by appropriated statistic's tests; one of them was ANOVA. RESULTS: there were no significant statistical differences between the groups and both ears. CONCLUSION: tinnitus did not interfere in the auditory abilities of selective attention and temporal resolution.


Although low-temperature premixed compression ignition (PCI) combustion in a light-duty diesel engine offers dramatic and simultaneous reductions in nitric oxides (NOx ) and soot, associated increases in unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) become unacceptable. Production diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) are effective in oxidizing the increased levels of HC and CO under lean combustion conditions. However, the low temperature / high CO combination under rich PCI conditions, designed as a lean NOx trap (LNT) regeneration mode, generally renders the DOC ineffective. The objectives of this study are to characterize the oxidizing efficiency of a production DOC under lean and rich PCI conditions, and attempt to identify probable causes for the observed ineffectiveness under rich PCI. The study uses several tests to characterize the behavior of the DOC under lean PCI and rich PCI combustion conditions, including: (1) steady-state feed gas characterization, (2) transient feed gas characterization, (3) air injection (4) insulated AF sweep, and (5) combustion mode switching. The DOC never becomes effective under rich PCI for any of the tests, suggesting that the platinum-based catalyst may be incorrect for use with rich PCI. Furthermore, combustion mode switching between lean PCI and rich PCI (mimicking LNT loading and regeneration) demonstrates diminishing effectiveness of the DOC during and after continuous mode transitioning.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Sixty-nine patients, 23 of whom had documented attacks of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT), were studied electrophysiologically and the following results were obtained: (1) Antegrade concealed Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrom (AC WPW) was demonstrated in 7 out of 69 patients by atrial stimulation including extrastimulus. Six of these 7 patients presented an accessory pathway (AP) conduction of the Kent type, 5 of which showed Type A and another, Type B. The remaining one of these 7 patients showed an AP conduction of the Mahaim type. One of the 7 patients showed a combination with the James and Kent types AP conduction. (2) Retrograde concealed Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (RC WPW) was demonstrated in 8 out of 49 patients in whom the presence of V-A conduction was revealed by ventricular stimulation, while PSVT was documented in 7 of these 8 patients. An AP of the Kent type was identified in the left side of the heart in 5 out of 7 patients with documented PSVT, the right side in one and in the septal region in one. (3) The presence of bilateral or two APs were demonstrated in 3 patients. In another one with documented PSVT, the presence of a branched AP from a left-sided Kent bundle was assumed. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that concealed APs may be more frequent than realized. For example, the frequency of RC WPW in patients with PSVT was 30.4% (7/23) in our series. Accordingly, it is postulated that RC WPW may also be indicated for surgical therapy and that detailed electrophysiologic examination by the physician should be carried out for the sake of determining the indication.


Conventional wisdom holds that international political pressure and domestic civil unrest in the mid-1970s and 1980s brought an end to apartheid in South Africa. I show that, prior to these events, labor market pressure in the late 1960s/early 1970s caused a dramatic unraveling of apartheid in the workplace. Increased educational attainment among whites reduced resistance to opening semi-skilled jobs to Africans. This institutional change reflected white economic preferences rather than a relaxation of attitudes toward apartheid. I show that whites benefited from the relaxation of job reservation rules and that this is the primary cause of black occupational advancement.


The ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM), which was released in June 2009, provides elevation data for over 99 percent of Earth's land area. GDEM was found to contain significant anomalies mainly caused by residual clouds in the ASTER scenes, or by the algorithm used to generate the final GDEM from the variable number of individual DEMs. In this paper, the GDEM, for the whole area of Greece was validated by comparing it with reference DEMs with higher resolution derived either from aerial stereo imagery, or from ASTER raw data analysis; as well as with elevation values provided by a number of Geodetic Control Points (GCP) and GPS measurements. The vertical accuracy (at 95 percent confidence) was calculated to be more than 30 m (RMSE = 16.01 m) when compared to the GCPs, whereas the vertical accuracy was calculated around 20 m (RMSE = 11.08 m) when compared with the GPS derived elevations. It can be therefore stated that the current version of ASTER GDEM overall does not meet its pre-production estimated vertical accuracy of 20 m at 95 percent confidence over Greece, however, it can be used in several applications, such as topographic analysis, hydrological and geomorphological modeling, landscape visualization, and energy balance studies.


"Aquatic Directors' Handbook" provides information specific to the management of collegiate aquatic facilities and programs. With safety the focus above all other considerations, the goal is to assist professionals in developing a sound philosophy of aquatic management by providing the knowledge base necessary to make informed decisions.While the text is divided into sections specific to facilities, staff, and programming for ease of reading, these elements are intertwined in the everyday operation of the facility. This new publication provides you with the latest practical applications for running a first-rate aquatic department. Edited by Paul Fawcett, formerly the director of aquatics at Ball State University, this practical notebook is a hands-on manual that is not only a perfect reference tool for the experienced aquatics director but also an excellent training tool for your aquatic staff. Created by the members of the NIRSA Aquatic Committee, the authors of the eight chapters have a combined total of 120 years of experience. The numerous forms in the appendix are camera-ready to be used immediately at your aquatic facility.


Botanical products are frequently sold as dietary supplements and their use by the public is increasing in popularity. However, scientific evaluation of their medicinal benefits presents unique challenges due to their chemical complexity, inherent variability, and the involvement of multiple active components and biological targets. Translation away from preclinical models, and developing an optimized, reproducible botanical product for use in clinical trials, presents particular challenges for phytotherapeutic agents compared to single chemical entities. Common deficiencies noted in clinical trials of botanical products include limited characterization of the product tested, inadequate placebo control, and lack of rationale for the type of product tested, dose used, outcome measures or even the study population. Our group has focused on the botanical Centella asiatica due to its reputation for enhancing cognition in Eastern traditional medicine systems. Our preclinical studies on a Centella asiatica water extract (CAW) and its bioactive components strongly support its potential as a phytotherapeutic agent for cognitive decline in aging and Alzheimer's disease through influences on antioxidant response, mitochondrial activity, and synaptic density. Here we describe our robust, scientific approach toward developing a rational phytotherapeutic product based on Centella asiatica for human investigation, addressing multiple factors to optimize its valid clinical evaluation. Specific aspects covered include approaches to identifying an optimal dose range for clinical assessment, design and composition of a dosage form and matching placebo, sourcing appropriate botanical raw material for product manufacture (including the evaluation of active compounds and contaminants), and up-scaling of laboratory extraction methods to available current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) certified industrial facilities. We also address the process of obtaining regulatory approvals to proceed with clinical trials. Our study highlights the complexity of translational research on botanicals and the importance of identifying active compounds and developing sound analytical and bioanalytical methods for their determination in botanical materials and biological samples. Recent Phase I pharmacokinetic studies of our Centella asiatica product in humans (NCT03929250, NCT03937908) have highlighted additional challenges associated with designing botanical bioavailability studies, including specific dietary considerations that need to be considered.


Seismic velocity is one of the most important sources of information about the Earth's interior. For its proper interpretation, we must have a thorough understanding of the dependence of seismic velocity on microstructural elements, including the modal composition, the crystal preferred orientation (CPO), the grain shape, the spatial distribution of mineral phases, etc. We have studied seismic velocities and microstructures of amphibole gneisses. Rock samples of amphibole gneisses were collected at Momose River (Yatsuo, Toyama Pref.). They are mainly composed of quartz (34-36vol.%), plagioclase (18-27vol.%) and hornblende (34-46vol.%). Quartz and plagioclase crystals are almost randomly oriented, while c-axes of hornblende crystals are strongly aligned parallel to the lineation and a-axes perpendicular to the foliation. A rectangular parallelpiped (the edge length ~ 40 mm) was made from rock samples for ultrasonic velocity measurements. Two faces are parallel to the foliation plane, and two faces perpendicular to the elongation direction. Velocity measurements were made under confining pressures of up to 180 MPa at room temperature. The pulse transmission technique was employed by using Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 transducers with the central frequency of 2 MHz. Under the confining pressure of 180 MPa, the fastest compressional wave velocity was observed in the direction parallel to the lineation, and the slowest one in the direction perpendicular to the foliation. Velocities calculated with the VRH averaging scheme reasonably reproduce the measured velocities. The anisotropy in velocity is caused by the CPO of hornblende crystals, though the anisotropy due to aligned hornblende crystals is largely weakened by almost randomly oriented quartz and plagioclase crystals. The influence of the grain shape of hornblende on the anisotropy in velocity will also be discussed in our poster.


The number of elderly people in Malaysia is increasing in trend due to better healthcare services provided by the government and increased awareness of the community towards disease prevention. Therefore, the knowledge of future medical doctors towards geriatric care should be upgraded at par to fulfill the needs of the older population. As a result, their level of knowledge should be assessed, particularly in terms of the fundamental concept of geriatrics. A new, invented, reliable and valid questionnaire is needed. This study aimed to develop and validate a newly developed questionnaire to assess the knowledge of medical students in geriatrics. The 23 items consist of true-false questions and one-based answer responses based on five domains of Giant I's geriatric, namely immobility, instability, incontinence, cognition, and iatrogenic. The sample size is calculated using a five-to-one item ratio. The questionnaires were distributed to 143 medical students. Reliability was determined using Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency, while construct validity was assessed using factor analysis. An acceptable internal consistency was observed (Cronbach's alpha = 0.62). Factor analysis showed two meaningful finalized components, which represent the geriatric general knowledge and the Giant I's. According to the findings of this study, this questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool for assessing medical students' knowledge of geriatric.
Keywords: Geriatric, Reliability, Construct Validity, Undergraduate Geriatric, Questionnaire


Survival rates of the larvae of sutchi catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus are reported to be three times higher under dim conditions (0.1 lx) than those under 100 lx. In this study, larval behaviour of sutchi catfish was examined under various light intensities (<0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 lx) using a CCD camera to understand why survival rates vary under different light intensities. Five-day-old larvae showed significantly higher swimming activity under <0.01, 0.1 and 1 lx than those under 10 and 100 lx. On the other hand, the larvae showed significantly higher aggressive behaviour under 10 and 100 lx; swimming larvae attacked resting individuals more frequently under 10 and 100 lx than those under 0 and 0.1 lx. Aggressive behaviour was considered to induce lesions, inflicted by the sharp teeth of attacking larvae, on larval skin surfaces. It is considered that the chemical substances would generate from injured skin surfaces then acted as stimuli, causing the cannibalistic behaviour in other fish around the injured fish. This study provided evidence that the observed higher survival rates depended on lower frequency of aggressive behaviour under dark or dim conditions. It is therefore recommended that larval rearing of sutchi catfish be conducted under dim (less than 1 lx) conditions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.


Purpose

This paper aims to investigate whether idiosyncratic volatility is priced in returns of equity funds while controlling for fund size and return momentum.

Design/methodology/approach

Following Fama and French (1993), an idiosyncratic volatility mimicking factor and a fund-size factor are constructed. The pricing ability of this idiosyncratic volatility mimicking factor is investigated in the context of Carhart (1997).

Findings

Idiosyncratic volatility is an important pricing factor even when controlling for fund size and momentum. In addition, idiosyncratic volatility is strongly and positively associated with the momentum effect. Further, when controlling for the association between the momentum effect and idiosyncratic volatility, the explanatory power of the momentum factor almost disappears, which suggests the pricing of idiosyncratic volatility mediates momentum and returns.

Originality/value

These findings imply that both the idiosyncratic volatility factor and the fund-size factor should not be ignored by fund managers when evaluating the performance of the equity funds.


Reliable data necessary to parameterize population models are seldom available for imperiled species. As an alternative, data from populations of the same species or from ecologically similar species have been used to construct models. In this study, we evaluated the use of demographic data collected at one California sea lion colony (Los Islotes) to predict the population dynamics of the same species from two other colonies (San Jorge and Granito) in the Gulf of California, Mexico, for which demographic data are lacking. To do so, we developed a stochastic demographic age-structured matrix model and conducted a population viability analysis for each colony. For the Los Islotes colony we used site-specific pup, juvenile, and adult survival probabilities, as well as birth rates for older females. For the other colonies, we used site-specific pup and juvenile survival probabilities, but used surrogate data from Los Islotes for adult survival probabilities and birth rates. We assessed these models by comparing simulated retrospective population trajectories to observed population trends based on count data. The projected population trajectories approximated the observed trends when surrogate data were used for one colony but failed to match for a second colony. Our results indicate that species-specific and even region-specific surrogate data may lead to erroneous conservation decisions. These results highlight the importance of using population-specific demographic data in assessing extinction risk. When vital rates are not available and immediate management actions must be taken, in particular for imperiled species, we recommend the use of surrogate data only when the populations appear to have similar population trends.


Musical and cinematographic works are shared on a large scale via the Internet, often disrespecting copyrights. State initiatives seek to curtail online copyright infringements in different ways; the latest being graduated response schemes, where the alleged infringer is initially warned twice before he is sanctioned. In this context questions arise inter alia as regards the identification of the actual infringer, information rights of the rightsholder, reliability of tracking methods or judicial review of the allegations. In this context, it is of some interest to see how these questions are dealt with under similar regimes. This paper outlines how these questions and online copyright infringements in general are targeted under German civil law and how this has become a profitable tool of the music and film industry, in particular following the introduction of further information rights by the Enforcement Directive. It critically evaluates the recent developments in Germany and argues for a more restrictive interpretation of the relevant provision of the German Copyright Act.


Different organizations in Sweden offer early childhood intervention to children with disabilities and their families, usually organized as inter-professional practice. In our presentation we will give a meta-analysis out of the methodological procedures and results of empirical studies made in different professional groups. We will discuss competence and development as well as the social interaction of professionals involved in early intervention. Social interaction in groups of special needs educators makes more of dialogical reflection than critical discussion. Groups documenting their meetings focus on the content of discussions rather than the structure of the meetings. Group discussions increase possibilities for meta-level reflection. Inter-professional groups tend to focus on the general competence rather than on specific expert skills. Special needs educators show a communicative skill adapted to the commission of communicating with children and parents everyday talk rather than in a meta-theoretical level of language. There is ambivalence among the professionals when talking about their own progress during work based training, pride in the individual knowledge on the one hand and onthe other reflection of new insights. Research methods used are focus groups, questionnaires, stimulated recall and discussion protocols. These interactive research methods include feedback process which contributes to awareness and insight of professional competence in early childhood intervention. Extensive programs of education, research and teacher education or qualified dialogue on these matters could constitute proper arenas for the realization of these ambitions. Demanding conversations on shared problems of theory and practice, and their interrelationships, may help to integrate principled arguments with contextual complexity in systematic ways that could hopefully bring important validity claims to the fore of professional conduct.


: The study of amateur photography presents a distinctive methodological challenge to photographic studies. For too long considered as a sub-category of photography or even as a photographic genre – when not ignored entirely in canonical histories - amateur photography has nonetheless represented, for over a hundred years, the single largest area of photographic practice. Too broad to see as a whole, and notoriously slippery to categorise, a range of adjectives from snapshot to vernacular have attempted to pin down this vast and heterogeneous domain across a range of disciplinary frames. Through an in-depth analysis of photographic hierarchies across a range of periods and places, with a specific focus on the culture and practice of the 'serious amateur', this chapter argues that, as the focus for both cultural dismissal and desire, amateur photography offers the prime site for ascertaining the moral values and social expectations made of the medium.


Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins are poorly solublized in non-ionic detergents such as Triton X-100 and Nonidet P40, but are easily solublized by detergents with high critical micelle concentrations such as octylglucoside. This solubility profile has been suggested to be due to the localization of GPI-anchored proteins to lipid microdomains rich in cholesterol and sphingolipids. Additionally, GPI-anchored proteins expressed on haemopoietic cells have been shown to associate with src-family tyrosine kinases and heterotrimeric G proteins. Despite these observations, the non-ionic detergent insolubility of GPI-anchored proteins on haemopoietic cells has not been quantified nor has a relationship between the non-ionic detergent insolubility of these proteins and their association with signal-transduction molecules been identified. Here we show that GPI-anchored proteins found on T-cell tumours and activated T cells, although significantly more insoluble then transmembrane proteins, are not uniform in their detergent insolubility. Whereas CD59 was between 4% and 13% soluble, CD48 was between 13% and 25% soluble, CD55 was between 20% and 30% soluble, and CD109 was between 34% and 75% soluble. The ability of these GPI-anchored proteins to associate with phosphoproteins was correlated with their detergent insolubility: the more detergent-insoluble that a GPI-anchored protein was, the greater the level of phosphoprotein associations. These experiments reveal a relationship between non-ionic detergent insolubility and association with signal-transduction molecules and suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between these two properties. In total, these experiments support the hypothesis that the association of GPI-anchored proteins with signalling molecules is due to their sorting to lipid microdomains.


Background: Intracranial venous thrombosis (ICVT) accounts for around 0.5% of all stroke cases. There have been no previously published studies of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) validation for the identification of ICVT admissions in adults. Objective: The aims of this study were to validate and quantify the performance of the ICD-10 coding system for identifying cases of ICVT in adults and to derive an estimate of incidence. Method: Administrative data were collected for all patients admitted to a regional neurosciences centre over a 5-year period. We searched for the following ICD-10 codes at any position: G08.X (intracranial and intraspinal phlebitis and thrombophlebitis), I67.6 (non-pyogenic thrombosis of intracranial venous system), I63.6 (cerebral infarction due to cerebral venous thrombosis, non-pyogenic), O22.5 (cerebral venous thrombosis in pregnancy) and O87.3 (cerebral venous thrombosis in the puerperium). Results: Sixty-five admissions were identified by at least one of the relevant ICD-10 codes. The overall positive predictive value (PPV) for confirmed ICVT from all of the admissions combined was 92.3% (60 out of 65) with the results for each code as follows: G08.X 91.5% (54 of 59), O22.5 100% (4 of 4), I67.6 100% (1 of 1), I63.6 100% (1 of 1) and O87.3 100% (1 of 1). There were 40 unique cases of ICVT over a 5-year period giving an annual incidence of ICVT of 5 per million. Conclusions: All codes gave a high PPV. Implications for practice: As demonstrated in previous studies, the incidence of ICVT may be higher than previously thought.


Current conceptualisations of Early Childhood (EC) educator workplace well-being are problematic due to large gaps in the workplace well-being literature. Gaps include a dearth of research examining healthy well-being, limited qualitative studies to understand the complexity of workplace well-being and a focus on hedonic well-being (happiness at work) without the inclusion of eudaimonic well-being (meaningful work). Moreover, attention in the literature is mainly given to external conditions influencing well-being such as poor pay and working conditions. This article begins with a critique of EC workplace well-being literature and then provides an argument that asserts Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has the potential to provide a more suitable conceptualisation of EC educator well-being. Key principles of both SDT and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) are provided to highlight the suitability of using SDT to understand and also support the healthy well-being of those working in prior to school settings in the Australian ECEC context.


IZA DP No. 15261 APRIL 2022 Diving in the Minds of Recruiters: What Triggers Gender Stereotypes in Hiring? We investigate the drivers of gender differentials in hiring chances. More concretely, we test (i) whether recruiters perceive job applicants in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions and (ii) whether the activation of these gender stereotypes in recruiters' minds varies by the salience of gender in a particular hiring context and the gender prototypicality of a job applicant, as hypothesised in Ridgeway and Kricheli-Katz (2013). To this end, we conduct an innovative vignette experiment in the United States with 290 genuine recruiters who evaluate fictitious job applicants regarding their hireability and 21 statements related to specific gender stereotypes. Moreover, we experimentally manipulate both the gender prototypicality of a job applicant and the salience of gender in the hiring context. We find that employers perceive women in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions. In particular, women are perceived to be more social and supportive than men, but also as less assertive and physically strong. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gender prototypicality of job applicants moderates these perceptions: the less prototypical group of African American women, who are assumed to be less prototypical, are perceived in less stereotypical terms than white women, while some stereotypes are more outspoken when female résumés reveal family responsibilities. JEL Classification: J71, J16, J15, J13, J24


Summary 1. Plants use a range of sophisticated strategies to protect themselves against herbivores and pathogens, such as the production of jasmonates, a group of plant hormones that prime the plant's defense system upon attack. However, defense-related mechanisms, such as the jasmonate response, play a more diverse role than previously appreciated. Jasmonates also regulate key mutualist relationships, leading to a suit of potential conflicting selection pressures as a single response is employed to mediate multiple species interactions. 2. Here, we experimentally manipulate the host's jasmonate response and document the impact on two key plant mutualisms: (i) changes to arbuscular mycorrhizal symbionts belowground (ii) modifications to floral traits affecting pollinator mutualists aboveground. By exogenously applying a range of methyl jasmonate solutions to cucumber plant roots grown with and without mycorrhizal fungi, we are able to examine the potential costs of the jasmonate response to both above and belowground mutualists. 3. We demonstrate that the negative effect of jasmonates on floral traits depends on whether the plant is mycorrhizal or nonmycorrhizal. Mycorrhization had a positive effect on floral traits, but benefits were lost with jasmonate application. While low levels of jasmonate decreased floral traits, these same jasmonate levels increased colonization by the mycorrhizal symbiont threefold, but only under high phosphorus conditions. 4. Our results highlight potential conflicts for the host in the regulation of their mutualists under different conditions and suggest that the overall impact of the jasmonate response depends on the plant mycorrhizal status and its nutrient context. 5. These findings suggest that increasing the jasmonate response may lead to differential costs and benefits for plants and their mutualists, and highlight potential conflict in planta ,w ith mycorrhizal symbionts benefiting from intermediate levels of jasmonates while certain floral traits can be depressed at this same level.


Inculturation is a relatively new term for something with long roots in Christian history - even though that "something" is lived with a different urgency and with more complex awareness in our day. St Paul, for instance, underwent a significant conversion in attitude in Athens, and took a sympathetic step towards the culture of a city that previously had left him disgusted (Acts 17). Even the very fact that we Christians have four gospels and not one is a powerful symbol of how the very telling of the good news was shaped from the beginning by the needs of different audiences or cultures. Or the fact that the New Testament is written in Greek is itself an indication of a dramatic and painful decision by the early Christians - to reach out beyond Jewish culture to the huge world of the Gentiles. Again, one can point to the extraordinary story of Christian art as an example of faith seeking mediations in tune with many shifts of sensibility through the centuries. Indeed the best chapters of church history constitute a long adventure of seeking to make real, in new languages and cultures, the revelation of God's love in Jesus Christ. This article seeks to ponder some of the main themes in theological reflection on inculturation mainly from a Roman Catholic perspective. In fact, a famous Roman document of 1659, from the then recently founded Congregation for the Propagation of Faith, offered the following blunt instruction for missionaries going to China: Do not bring any pressure to bear on these people to change their manners, customs and practices, unless these are obviously contrary to religion and morality. There is nothing more absurd than to want to bring France to China - or to bring Spain or Italy or any part of Europe. Carry none of that but rather faith which neither despises nor destroys the way of life and the customs of any people, when these are not evil things. On the contrary, faith desires that these traditions be conserved and protected.(1) A changed horizon Why are we talking so much about inculturation in these last decades if such sensitivity to local culture was already, at least in wise moments, a guiding ideal for evangelization? Because our new horizons of awareness have forced us to take plurality of local cultures much more seriously than in previous ages. Especially with the arrival of historical consciousness as one of the hallmarks of modern thought, it became impossible to think of any one culture or model of life as permanent or perfect. Once we see the extent to which our ways of thinking and acting are products of history and culture, then we are ready to see the relativity of our languages of living. Moreover, this intellectual insight concerning plurality of cultures has been accompanied by the ending of many colonial regimes as well as by a globalization process in world communications. As a result, the previously unchallenged culture of Europe has begun to see itself as no longer the classical way of "civilization," something to be exported and even imposed on less "advanced" cultures. Without denying the rich heritage of the west, and its unique role in world history during the millennium now ending, we need to confess the scars and blindspots on that history: its colonial arrogance and violence, its assumption of inferiority in different ways of life, and its own internal lopsidedness of development (cultivating the scientific and the organizational, the "masculine" bias in interpreting life). The new awareness of interculturality offers mutual challenges and helps: in the mirror of "difference" the previously complacent western culture can recognize some of its own dehumanizing features, or in more Christian terms, the culture repents its own sinful structures and admits its need of conversion. It is now widely accepted that older forms of mission to foreign cultures were marred by hidden bias - seeing the home language of Christianity as normality and tending to dismiss the genuinely spiritual aspect of the receiving culture. …


Nowadays, Linux file systems have to manage millions of tiny files for different applications, and face with higher metadata operations. So how to provide such high metadata performance with such enormous number of files and large scale directories is a big challenge for Linux file system. We viewed that metadata lookup operations dominate metadata workload and incur low metadata performance. In this paper, we present a metadata cache to accelerate metadata access for Linux file system. Through this optimization, the Linux file system (such as EXT2, EXT4, BTRFS, etc.) can gain improvement in read rates as well as write rates.


The study focused on the challenges experienced by returning Kenyan diplomats. They return with new skills and international experience but lace problems of adjusting to home cultures. It is important to develop and retain returning diplomats/diplomats who possess global knowledge and experience in international business. This study focused on diplomats who have returned to Kenya over the last IOycars since their last tour of duty and especially between 2008-2013. it covers all categories of diplomats, diplomatic staffs and their families. A descriptive research design will be adopted [or this study. The content analysis will be used to analyse the respondents' views on the strategic planning practices that the ministry has adopted. The data will then be coded to enable the responses to be grouped into categories. Descriptive statistics will be used mainly to summarize the data. This will include percentages and frequencies. A r .ickert scale and the use of Statistical Package [or Social Sciences (SPSS version 12.0) will be employed. Tables, Pie charts and other graphs will be used as appropriate to present the data collected [or ease of understanding and analysis. Measures of central tendency will be applied (mean, median, mode and percentages) for quantitative variables. The study found out that it is not only the work environment that changes but also the society and the diplomats during the international assignment. Cultural identity changes and demographic factors in particular have a direct effect on the returning diplomats' experience. Returning diplomats and their families have to deal with all the problems connected with housing, work for the spouse and schooling [or the children upon return home; cultural changes come slowly and therefore returning diplomats are not always aware of the changes that have taken place over time; there are some financial di fficultics that the diplomats encounter; returning diplomats loose the morale to perform because of deprived authority, status and control offered by their international assignment. The study also established that lack of returning diplomats' adjustment programmes including that for family members arc the leading causes of failure of the foreign policy. Therefore success CuI implementation of the Kenyan foreign policy framework calls Cor adequate Funding and strengthening of the Ministry. These should be reviewed with a view to human resource policies that create good international relations with other countries but also motivates its diplomats so as [0 enhance their performance. The study recommends open communication with diplomats and their families to be deployed in relevant departments in the ministry. The socioresettlement should also be addressed to enhance their effectiveness and performance .liconornic challenges pertaining to their resettlement should also be addressed to enhance their effectiveness and performance.


Quantitative studies of the evolution and cosmological consequences of networks of cosmic strings (or other topological defects) require a combination of numerical simulations and analytic modeling with the velocity-dependent one-scale (VOS) model. In previous work, we demonstrated that a GPU-accelerated code for local Abelian-Higgs string networks enables a statistical separation of key dynamical processes affecting the evolution of the string networks and thus a precise calibration of the VOS model. Here we further exploit this code in a detailed study of two important aspects connecting the simulations with the VOS model. First, we study the sensitivity of the model calibration to the presence (or absence) of thermal oscillations due to high gradients in the initial conditions. This is relevant since in some Abelian-Higgs simulations described in the literature a period of artificial (unphysical) dissipation---usually known as cooling---is introduced with the goal of suppressing these oscillations and accelerating the convergence to scaling. We show that a small amount of cooling has no statistically significant impact on the VOS model calibration, while a longer dissipation period does have a noticeable effect. Second, in doing this analysis we also introduce an improved Markov Chain Monte Carlo based pipeline for calibrating the VOS model, Comparison to our previous bootstrap based pipeline shows that the latter accurately determined the best-fit values of the VOS model parameter, but underestimated the uncertainties in some of the parameters. Overall, our analysis shows that the calibration pipeline is robust and can be applied to future much larger field theory simulations.


The growing demand for quick and effective methods of producing large amounts of plasmid DNA for human therapy and vaccination has increased the practical challenges associated with process optimisation to
improve supercoiled plasmid DNA yields obtained through current
methods. The supercoiled isoform of DNA is the preferred form for use in
gene therapy and vaccination as this isoform is known to produce higher
levels of in vitro and in vivo transgene expression than other forms of
plasmid DNA.
This study was designed to investigate whether different strategies can be
implemented early on in a process to improve supercoiled plasmid DNA
yields obtained upstream, with the view to aid and/or ease further
downstream stages. The main theme investigated is the influence of the
host strain on supercoiled plasmid DNA production. Seventeen strains of
Escherichia coli and three different plasmids were investigated at shake
flask scale, before two strains were selected for scale up to 7L
fermentation scale. The results obtained indicated that the host strain
plasmid combination can heavily influence both the quantity and quality of
plasmid DNA obtained and this behaviour cannot simply be determined by
looking at the host strain genotype. Fermentation runs on the two strains
selected for scale up (BL21 DE3 gWiz and HB101 gWiz) demonstrated
that these two strains scale up very well, maintaining high specific pDNA
yields (1.5mg/L/OD for BL21 DE3 gWiz) and high SC-DNA yields (98% for
HB101 gWiz).
Temperature amplification studies using strains harbouring pUC18 have
shown that although most strain-plasmid combinations yielded more
plasmid at a higher temperature of 40°C, the extent of this increase is
highly influenced by the host strain. Indeed in some cases, such as for the strains ABLE K, W3110, W1485, a higher plasmid yield was obtained at
37°C. However, as the growth rates of these cultures were not measured,
the extent of the accumulation of plasmid DNA due to the effects of the
growth rate and/or temperature during the exponential phase of growth is
unknown at this time. Similarities to what has been reported as
temperature induced runaway plasmid replication have been observed in
this study, although no experiments were conducted to confirm whether
these observations were indeed as result of runaway replication as
defined in the literature.
Potential alternative strategies investigated included implementing
anaerobiosis to test if these conditions can improve supercoiled plasmid
DNA production at fermentation scale, and whether a 'Quiescent cell
expression system' (a state where chromosomal replication and
expression is temporarily shut down but residual proteins remain
metabolically active) can be implemented to improve plasmid DNA yields
by redirecting resources away from biomass production. The results
suggest that under the conditions set in this study, these strategies do not
increase plasmid DNA production or the percentage of supercoiled
plasmid obtained.
In conclusion, the results from this investigation have demonstrated that a
highly effective and influential strategy for improving the quality and
quantity of plasmid DNA obtained is the initial choice of the host strainplasmid
combination. Further improvements can then be obtained through
the application of other reported fermentation strategies.


Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is formed in a few locations around the Antarctic continent, each source with distinct temperature and salinity. After formation, the different AABW varieties cross the Southern Ocean and flow into the subtropical abyssal basins. It is shown here, using the analysis of Lagrangian trajectories within the Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) model, that the pathways of the different sources of AABW have to a large extent amalgamated into one pathway by the time it reaches 31°S in the deep subtropical basins. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current appears to play an important role in the amalgamation, as 70% of the AABW completes at least one circumpolar loop before reaching the subtropical basins. This amalgamation of AABW pathways suggests that on decadal to centennial time scales, changes to properties and formation rates in any of the AABW source regions will be conveyed to all three subtropical abyssal basins.


The inherent characteristics of large-scale structural system are also called modal parameters, which include natural frequency, damping ratio and vibration mode. They are the basis for analyzing dynamic characteristics of large-scale structural system. Modal Parameter Identification is a modern method, and it is used to identify the vibration signals. At present, the problem of large-scale structural system security is paid more and more attention to, so the method of modal parameter recognition is very significant. A fast integral method is put forward to eliminate the trend item of vibration signals, and the vibration signals are collected through the wireless sensor network (acceleration signal), so as to obtain the integrated vibration signal (speed and displacement signal). The polynomial fitting method is applied to eliminate the trend items in the sampling integral, and improve the operation speed and accuracy by the relationship among the various coefficients. Then, they are discretized to meet the wireless sensor network requirements of "online" processing and analysis. Through the simulation of acceleration signals based on finite element modeling and the processing of actual acquisition acceleration signals based on wireless sensor network, the effectiveness of this method was verified. As a result, the precision effect by sampling frequency and the data length is summarized


Genetic studies of complex disorders such as autism and intellectual disability (ID) are often based on enrichment of individual rare variants or their aggregate burden in affected individuals compared to controls. However, these studies overlook the influence of combinations of rare variants that may not be deleterious on their own due to statistical challenges resulting from rarity and combinatorial explosion when enumerating variant combinations, limiting our ability to study oligogenic basis for these disorders. Here, we present RareComb, a framework that combines the Apriori algorithm and statistical inference to identify specific combinations of mutated genes associated with complex phenotypes. RareComb overcomes computational barriers and exhaustively evaluates variant combinations to identify nonadditive relationships between simultaneously mutated genes. Using RareComb, we analyzed 6189 individuals with autism and identified 718 combinations significantly associated with ID, and carriers of these combinations showed lower IQ than expected in an independent cohort of 1878 individuals. These combinations were enriched for nervous system genes such as NIN and NGF, showed complex inheritance patterns, and were depleted in unaffected siblings. We found that an affected individual can carry many oligogenic combinations, each contributing to the same phenotype or distinct phenotypes at varying effect sizes. We also used this framework to identify combinations associated with multiple comorbid phenotypes, including mutations of COL28A1 and MFSD2B for ID and schizophrenia and ABCA4, DNAH10 and MC1R for ID and anxiety/depression. Our framework identifies a key component of missing heritability and provides a novel paradigm to untangle the genetic architecture of complex disorders.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a community-led "informal heritage management" of the chini-tikri work of Kosaituli mosque, Old Dhaka, Bangladesh. It critically explores the interrelationship between the craft, existing social capital and informal heritage management.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper assesses the existing local policies, strategies and the top-down conservation efforts led by government and identifies the shortcomings. The study uses Kosaituli mosque as a case study as it displays some of the finest surviving examples of the chini-tikri work. Using observation, open-ended interview and focus group discussion as research tools, the study explores the challenges that the craft and craftsman faces, how existing social capital supports the informal heritage management process and the interrelationship between these critical elements.

Findings
The results shows two clear issues. First, the informal heritage management system has been continuing to protect and manage the local heritage while fighting several challenges. Second, though they require external support, they want to keep the "community ownership." The study recommends how the craftsman can be revived through incentives and capacity building to facilitate the survival of the craft with a three-step process: identifying the rare craftsmen, providing them due recognition and transferring the traditional knowledge to the next generation.

Originality/value
No similar prior studies were carried out in Old Dhaka that focus on this subject. This paper can contribute in new policy formation not only for Bangladesh but also will potentially guide other cities that face similar challenges of disappearing craft and craftsman.


Fragmentation and allocation are database distribution design techniques used to improve the system performance by increasing data localisation and reducing data transportation costs between different network sites. Often fragmentation and allocation are considered separately, disregarding that they are using the same input information to achieve the same objective. Vertical fragmentation is often considered a complicated problem, because the huge number of alternatives make it nearly impossible to obtain an optimal solution. Therefore, many researchers seek for heuristic solutions, among which affinity-based vertical fragmentation approaches form a main stream in the literature. However, using attribute affinities to perform fragmentation can not really reflect the local needs of data at each site. Therefore it is not guaranteed that the remote data transportation costs can be reduced. This paper addresses vertical fragmentation and allocation simultaneously in the context of the relational data model. The core of the paper is a heuristic approach to vertical fragmentation, which uses a cost model and is targeted at globally minimising these costs. Further, based on the proposed vertical fragmentation, an integrated methodology is proposed by applying vertical and horizontal fragmentation simultaneously to produce mixed fragmentation schemata.


This research aims to measure the effect of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on the innovative work behavior of a manufacturing company in Indonesia. Psychological capital also plays a role as a mediation between the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior. Data collection was carried out by simple random sampling to the 213 population. The returned and valid questionnaire results were 195 samples. Data processing was using the SEM method with SmartPLS 3.0 software. The results of this research are authentic leadership style and psychological capital have a positive and significant effect on innovative work behavior. Psychological capital as a mediator for the relationship between authentic leadership style and innovative work behavior. This novel research is proposing a model to enhance innovative work behavior among employees of a manufacturing company in Indonesia through authentic leadership practice and psychological capital. This research can pave the way to improve employee readiness in facing global business competition.


For approximately eight years, Whole Foods Market, Inc. [Whole Foods] CEO John Mackey posted messages to Yahoo! Financial online message board for Whole Foods. Rather than using his real name, Mr. Mackey like many posters to chat rooms, created an online alter ego and posted his comments under a pseudonym. As Rahodeb Mr. Mackey promoted his Whole Foods chain, boasted about personal stock gains in Whole Foods stock, company plans and performance records, as well he criticized competitors. His actions raise profoundly important corporate governance questions and potentially implicate a range of legal challenges including securities, defamation, privacy, trade libel, copyright and trade secret laws. Perhaps tempted by the perception (or, is it more an illusion) of anonymity on the internet where posters perceive they are at once protected and liberated from further inquiry, Mr. Mackey's actions raise novel questions especially in the area of securities regulation because of his position as an executive engaged in public communications about a publicly traded company. While there is extensive literature addressing issues raised by anonymous communications by employees, this present article focuses on anonymous communications by executives, thus triggering other legal and regulatory concerns. The specific legal issues are part of a broader set of concerns as executives messages are now communicated in an era with unlimited distribution potential. This reach and scope of executive communications impact company security, reputation and compliance. The author sets out recommendations on best practices for managing officer communications, clearly an issue of growing concern due to the increased modes and opportunities for communication.


We use a difference-in-differences approach to examine the causal impact of the funding ratios of U.S. corporate defined benefit (DB) pension plans on the assumption of expected return on pension assets (EROA). To make the causal case, we use the 2008 global financial crisis as an exogenous shock to the funding ratio of DB pension plans, and the simultaneous implementation of the Pension Protection Act, which emphasized the accountability of underfunded pension plans. We find that DB pension plans making the transition from fully funded to underfunded status over this period significantly revise their EROA assumption upward. The upward revisions in EROA are economically significant and generate obligation-reducing outcomes for corporate plans sponsors: a switch from fully funded to underfunded status generates at least a 40 (and up to a 80) basis point increase in EROA, which, in turn, corresponds to an average annual reduction in pension contributions of $6 (to $11) million.


Background Peer evaluation drives effective self-assessment, encourages autonomous learning and enhances both metacognitive skills and critical reasoning skills.1 Students, by commenting on the work of others, gain a better understanding of the criteria required for successful performance and develop skills of objective judgment which can be transferred to the assessment of their own work.2 Methodology Peer feedback was introduced to a simulated patient consultation. Miller has demonstrated that peer feedback was improved by providing students with specific prompts3. Thus a feedback grid was adapted from the RCPCH anchor statements for communication skills4. Students were required to tick the observed standard on a form detailing 7 components of effective communication. In interview students indicated that they benefited from the opportunity to engage in peer feedback. Students reported that they felt more comfortable receiving feedback from peers than providing feedback to peers. Results 65% of students (n = 250) rated peer performance as excellent which did not correlate with summative OSCE results. When students did mark the borderline grade, a significant difference was found for one individual element of the feedback score. Students ticked "lacked confidence/fluidity" significantly more frequently than any other of the 7 elements suggesting they felt more comfortable relaying this element of performance feedback as it did not address content understanding or knowledge. Conclusion Ability to give constructive feedback should be viewed as an essential skill but for success students need to be taught how to give effective peer feedback. Emotions and loyalties affect student's unwillingness to find fault with a fellow student's work. Students may need more opportunities to conduct peer assessment to become familiar and comfortable with this process. Co-operative learning in simulation can combine with peer feedback to produce effective social constructivist approaches; however faculty input is required to monitor and validate the feedback. References Ballantyne R, Hughes K, Mylonas A. Using an Action Research Process: Developing Procedures for Implementing. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 2002;27(5) Hulsman RL, Harmsen AB, Fabriek M. Reflective teaching of medical communication skills with DiViDU: Assessing the level of student reflection on recorded consultations with simulated patients. Patient education and counseling 2009;74(2):142–9 Miller PJ. The effect of scoring criteria specificity on peer and self-assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 2003;28(4):383–95 The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) website @ http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/training-examinations-professional-development/assessment-and-examinations/examinations/clinical-e-3


As part of an effort to understand the water quality dynamics in the Kouris Dam and the impact of possible management strategies, the present study assessed the transport process of atrazine in this reservoir and the effects of bottom and surface withdrawal schemes. The 2D laterally averaged CE-QUAL-W2 model was used in this study. It was found that, during the period of upstream river discharge, significant vertical variations of atrazine concentrations could be observed in the epilimnion. The maximum concentrations were found at the depth of 5-8m rather than in the surface in this period. This suggests that the widely used assumption of complete mixing in the epilimnion is not valid for this period in this reservoir. It was also found that the dynamics of atrazine in the Kouris Dam were noticeably affected by the withdrawal schemes. Bottom withdrawal would significantly facilitate the transport of pesticides in this reservoir and therefore result in noticeably higher pesticide concentrations in deep layers. However, surface withdrawal is not able to lower atrazine concentrations in the epilimnion in this reservoir possibly due to the decreased mixing depth corresponding to the surface withdrawal, although more atrazine would be removed from the reservoir by the surface withdrawal. These results suggest that it is sensible to integrate withdrawal schemes into reservoir management system to achieve different water quality objectives under various scenarios.


A study was conducted to evaluate the ecological as well as monetary potential of wild plants occurring in pure plantations of exotic Eucalyptus tereticornis, Prosopis juliflora, and native Dalbergia sissoo and mixed culture of D. sissoo+E. tereticornis in Haryana, India, in terms of 5 major uses: food, fuel, fodder, medicine and soil stabilization. The plant diversity on the floor of a plantation is a direct indicator of sustainability. Mixed culture of D. sissoo and E. tereticornis exhibited more diversity of species on its floor compared to monocultures of E. tereticornis and P. juliflora. The biomass production (136.48 gm/m2) in D. sissoo plantation revealed a healthy growth of understorey vegetation, which was approximately 21.06 and 3 times better than that of E. tereticornis and P. juliflora, respectively. While the mixed culture plantations possessed a much higher biomass production value (627.73 gm/m2). Only Chenopodium album exhibited variety of uses (food, fodder, medicine and soil stability) out of all the plants found on the floor of E. tereticornis plantations. On the floor of P. juliflora plantation, the maximum uses were found in Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Dichanthium annulatum for fuel, fodder and soil stability. The scenario was quite different in case of indigenous Dalbergia sissoo plantations. Out of the 25 species, 10 carried food value, 9 had fuel, 16 had fodder and all the species contributed to soil stability. Boerhavia diffusa revealed the capacity to carry potential value for the 5 uses. In mixed culture plantations, out of 20 species, 6 had value, 18 had medicinal importance and all contributed for soil stabilization. The maximum monetary value was seen in case of C. album, for food, fodder, medicine and soil stability. Maximum total monetary value was obtained in Dalbergia sissoo and E. tereticornis mixed culture plantations.


Amcor announces today, an agreement to acquire Zhongshan Tian Cai Packaging Company, a Chinese flexible packaging business for RMB 211 million. The purchase price represents 7.1 times EBITDA. Tian Cai has one plant located in Zhongshan and sales of approximately RMB 280 million per annum. The business produces flexible packaging products for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical end markets and supplies leading local and multinational customers. Amcor is currently the market leader in Southern China, with three flexibles packaging plants, including one plant in Zhongshan. This acquisition will complement the existing food and beverage business and broaden Amcor's capabilities within the South China region to include pharmaceutical packaging. Amcor's Managing Director and CEO, Ken MacKenzie said: "China is one of the most attractive markets for flexible packaging globally. The Tian Cai acquisition is a strong fit with our existing operations and provides an opportunity to further expand Amcor's customer base and product offering in the South China region. "Amcor has a strong and successful position in the Chinese flexible packaging market with ten operations covering all key regions, and annualised sales of approximately US$500 million."


This thesis focuses upon aspects of political ideology at the courts of Burgundian and Burgundian-Habsburg rulers between 1450 and 1555. Around 1450 the theory of the divine, hierarchical order of society had lost supremacy both in ideological sense and in political practice. In this thesis political treatises, mirrors-for-princes, educational treatises, orations, dialogues and letters which the Burgundian and Burgundian-Habsburg rulers possessed, or that were translated or written on behalf of them, outline the divergencies between rulers with regard to their political ideology and the treatment of the theory of the divine, hierarchical order of society. The reason for paying atterntion to art-historical material and historical circumstances between 1450 and 1555 is that these, along with the already mentioned written source material, offer insight into this political ideology in the most complete sense. ... Zie: Summary


Traditional teaching modes are engaged with teachers delivering knowledge to students with minimum feedback. Teaching is conducted in lecture theaters and classrooms, which are sometimes designed with minimum flexibility for university education. However, the rapid development of information and communication technologies has altered the teaching pedagogy from traditionally teacher-centered to more collaborative learning between teachers and students. Learning spaces should be designed to be interactive and collaborative with suitable physical movement and social engagement among teachers and students. This paper aims to examine the relationships between modern technology and pedagogical shift, and to identify and discuss the essential design principles for effective active learning through built pedagogy. A recent renovation project of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in converting conventional classrooms and lecture theaters to active learning spaces was adopted as a case study to illustrate and validate the design principles and their actual implementation. Feedback and responses from 410 end-user students on the impact of the renovated classrooms and lecture theaters on teaching and learning effectiveness were gleaned through empirical survey questionnaires dispatched face-to-face to students after attending classes in the renovated classrooms and lecture theaters. The results of factor analysis indicated that the 15 variables of key design criteria for active learning spaces were consolidated under six underlying clustered factor groups: (1) Versatility of learning space; (2) interior design of learning environment; (3) modern information technology / audio and video (IT/AV) technologies; (4) interior lighting; (5) comfortable furniture and acoustic design; and (6) interior temperature. The survey findings can serve as good references and useful insights for architects in designing new learning spaces and facilities that assist active and collaborative learning for university students in future.


We consider multi-agent settings where a set of agents want to take a collective decision, based on their preferences over the possible candidate options. While agents have their initial inclination, they may interact and influence each other, and therefore modify their preferences, until hopefully they reach a stable state and declare their final inclination. At that point, a voting rule is used to aggregate the agents' preferences and generate the collective decision. Recent work has modeled the influence phenomenon in the case of voting over a single issue. Here we generalize this model to account for preferences over combinatorially structured domains including several issues. We propose a way to model influence when agents express their preferences as CP-nets. We define two procedures for aggregating preferences in this scenario, by interleaving voting and influence convergence, and study their resistance to bribery.


In 1998 I was invited by Dr Sarfraz Qureshi, the then Director of PIDE to deliver a lecture on "The Political Economy of Reforms: A Case Study of Pakistan". 1 This lecture was subsequently published by PIDE as a monograph. A year later, in December 1999, I had the honour of becoming the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and actually participated actively in the formulation and implementation of economic reforms. During the six year period of public policy making I realised that my knowledge about the political economy as manifested in my PIDE lecture was incomplete. The narrative was more complex than I had developed as an outsider. Now, six years later after my retirement from the State Bank of Pakistan I again reflected upon this topic as an observer and analyst rather than a participant. I realised that my learnings have become much richer by applying these different prisms—those of an international development economist, a public policy-maker and now an independent analyst. I am grateful to Dr Rashid Amjad and Dr Musleh ud Din and their colleagues at PIDE for providing me this opportunity to share these learning with my colleagues, peers and other scholars present here today. The political economy of economic reforms and structural adjustment has become focus of growing attention in the literature drawing at the inter-disciplinary tools of analysis and cross-country comparative perspectives. Detailed case studies of country situations do throw useful insights which are not captured through cross-country studies. The key question that is explored by this group of researchers is: if policy and institutional reforms are associated with high economic pay offs, then why are these reform programmes not sustained and implemented consistently? Why are they derailed? I would like to focus the discussion on Pakistan only and address the following questions:


Cell mechanical interactions play a fundamental role in the self-organisation of organisms. How these interactions drive coordinated cell movement in three-dimensions remains unclear. Here we report that cell doublets embedded in a 3D extracellular matrix undergo spontaneous rotations and we investigate the rotation mechanism using live cell imaging, quantitative measurements, mechanical perturbations, and theory. We find that rotation is driven by a polarized distribution of myosin within cell cortices. The mismatched orientation of this polarized distribution breaks the doublet mirror symmetry. In addition, cells adhere at their interface through adherens junctions and with the extracellular matrix through focal contacts near myosin clusters. Using a physical theory describing the doublet as two interacting active surfaces, we find that rotation is driven by myosin-generated gradients of active tension, whose profiles are dictated by interacting cell polarity axes. We show that interface three-dimensional shapes can be understood from the Curie principle: shapes symmetries are related to broken symmetries of myosin distribution in cortices. To test for the rotation mechanism, we suppress myosin clusters using laser ablation and we generate new myosin clusters by optogenetics. Our work clarifies how polarity-oriented active mechanical forces drive collective cell motion in three dimensions.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Several authors have reported low folate intake in patients with eating disorders (ED). This vitamin plays an essential role in synthesis reactions for neurotransmitters and structural elements of neurons, and therefore its deficiency has been associated with the presence of different disorders linked to mental function. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of folic acid supplementation on homocysteine levels and the cognitive and depressive status of a group of patients with eating disorders with low folate intake.

SUBJECTS/METHODS
The study was designed as a randomised, prospective clinical trial, which included 24 participants assigned to two treatment groups for six months: supplemented group (SG) (10 mg/day of folic acid [ACFOL]) and a placebo group (PG). Both groups maintained their medical, dietary and psychological treatment. At baseline and end of the intervention, anthropometric, dietary and biochemical parameters (plasma homocysteine [Hcy], serum and red blood cell folate) were recorded. Cognitive and depressive status questionnaires were administered (Stroop Test, Trail Making Test and Beck Depression Inventory).

RESULTS
Twenty-two patients completed the study (SG: 12, PG: 10, mean age: 24.2 ± 8.8 years, BMI 18.9 ± 3.5 kg/m2). The SG significantly increased their serum and red blood cell folate levels and lowered Hcy levels (9.4 ± 2.4 μmol/l vs. 7.5 ± 1.7 μmol/l, P < 0.01). The SG also significantly improved most of their test scores for cognitive and depressive status. The PG showed no significant changes in any of the evaluated variables.

CONCLUSIONS
The results show that folic acid supplementation may be used as another tool within the comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment applied to patients with ED.


OBJECTIVE--To determine whether reduced fetal and infant growth are associated with higher plasma fibrinogen and factor VII concentrations in adult life. DESIGN--Follow up study of men born during 1920-30 whose weights at birth and at 1 year had been recorded by health visitors, and men born during 1935-43 whose size at birth had been measured in detail. SETTING--Hertfordshire and Preston, England. SUBJECTS--591 men born in east Hertfordshire who still lived there and 148 men born in Preston who still lived in or close to the city. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Plasma fibrinogen and factor VII concentrations. RESULTS--Among men in Hertfordshire mean plasma fibrinogen and factor VII concentrations fell with increasing weight at 1 year (from 3.21 g/l in men of less than or equal to 18 lb to 2.93 g/l in men greater than or equal to 27 lb and from 122% of standard to 103%; p less than 0.001, p less than 0.005 respectively). The trends were independent of cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and social class. Neither plasma fibrinogen nor factor VII concentration was related to birth weight. In men in Preston, however, fibrinogen concentration fell progressively as the ratio of placental weight to birth weight decreased (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS--Reduced growth in fetal life and infancy is strongly related to high plasma concentrations of the haemostatic factors fibrinogen and factor VII. This may be a persisting response to impaired liver development during a critical early period.


The regeneration of TiO2 used in water purification via photocatalytic reactions is usually carried out using flocculation, and centrifugation. However, the major drawbacks in these methods are the needs of additional process controls, equipment, and energy. Use of magnetic separation in water treatment could be highly effective in both efficiency and operating cost over the other methods. In this study, ilmenite (Fe TiO3), a naturally available mineral widely used in TiO2 production, is modified into Fe3O4/TiO2 magnetic composite with enhanced magnetic and photo catalytic activity. The synthesized composite material was tested for photo degradation potential of a common herbicide1,2-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. The synthesized Fe3O4/TiO2 was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, and FTIR spectroscopy. The mass susceptibility values of both ilmenite and the synthesized Fe3O4/TiO2 were also measured. The morphology of the composite particles was also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The identity of the synthesized Fe3O4/TiO2 was confirmed by the XRD pattern. FTIR peaks corresponding to Fe-O-O bending and Fe-O asymmetric stretching were observed at 533 cm and 1,384 cm, respectively. The analysis of the synthesized Fe3O4/TiO2 with XRF data revealed the presence of both Fe (54%) and Ti (44%) and trace amounts of silicon, manganese, and aluminum. SEM data showed mostly spherical particles of sub-micron size. Magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate a strong diamagnetism in the composite material with a mass susceptibility of 8.05x10 mkg which is much higher than the parent material, ilmenite (3.01x10 mkg). According to the catalytic data the synthesised nanocomposite shows a strong propensity to remove a common herbicide, 1,2dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, from an aqueous solution through photocatalytic degradation with approximately 65% removal efficiency. These results clearly confirms the synthesis of an environmentally significant photocatalyst with considerable magnetic properties.


The integration of hydrology and climate is important for understanding the present and future impact of climate on streamflow, which may cause frequent flooding, droughts, and shortage of water supply. In view of this, we assessed the impact of climate change on daily streamflow duration curves as well as extreme peak and low flow values. The objectives were to assess how climate change impacts watershed-wide streamflow and its extreme values and to provide an overview of the impacts of different climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5) on streamflow and hydrological extremes when compared with the baseline values. We used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model for daily streamflow and its extreme value modeling of two watersheds located on the Island of Oahu (Hawaii). Following successful calibration and validation of SWAT at three USGS flow gauging stations, we simulated the impact of climate change by the 2050s (2041–2070) and the 2080s (2071–2100). We used climate change perturbation factors and applied the factors to the historical time series data of 1980–2014. SWAT adequately reproduced observed daily streamflow with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) values of greater than 0.5 and bracketed >80% of observed streamflow data at 95% model prediction uncertainty at all flow gauging stations, indicating the applicability of the model for future daily streamflow prediction. We found that while the considered climate change scenarios generally show considerable negative impacts on daily streamflow and its extreme values, the extreme peak flows are expected to increase by as much as 22% especially under the RCP 8.5 scenario. However, a consistent decrease in extreme low flows by as much as 60% compared to the baseline values is projected. Larger negative changes of low flows are expected in the upstream part of the watersheds where higher groundwater contributions are expected. Consequently, severe problems, such as frequent hydrological droughts (groundwater scarcity), reduction in agricultural crop productivity, and increase in drinking water demand, are significantly expected on Oahu. Furthermore, the extreme values are more sensitive to rainfall change in comparison to temperature and solar radiation changes. Overall, findings generally indicated that climate change impacts will be amplified by the end of this century and may cause earlier occurrence of hydrological droughts when compared to the current hydrological regime, suggesting water resources managers, ecosystem conservationists, and ecologists to implement mitigation measures to climate change in Hawaii and similar Islands.


Question classification is an important task with wide applications. However, traditional techniques treat questions as general sentences, ignoring the corresponding answer data. In order to consider answer information into question modeling, we first introduce novel group sparse autoencoders which refine question representation by utilizing group information in the answer set. We then propose novel group sparse CNNs which naturally learn question representation with respect to their answers by implanting group sparse autoencoders into traditional CNNs. The proposed model significantly outperform strong baselines on four datasets.


The bad prognosis of exocrine pancreas carcinoma manifests itself by a high incidence of recidivation, early metastasis formation and a low 5-year survival rate of 1-2% on an average has not essentially been improved in recent times although progress is evident in diagnosis as well as in surgical, radiological and cytostatic therapy. The unfavourable course of illnesses is due to the symptomless early phase rather than the existing diagnostic potential. Thus, a recording, standardization and definition of pancreatic duct atypias is a necessity for optimizing the pattern of examinations. Topographically, the structure of pancreatic parenchyma may be classified by 1) interlobular ducts; 2) intralobular ducts; 3) intercalated ducts; 4) centroacinar cells, and 5) acinar cells. Based on this matrix, entities of varying diagnostic relevance may be derived, i.e. 1) orthological histiomorphological tissue formations; 2) hyperplastic epithelial changes; 3) metaplastic epithelial formations; and 4) atypical hyperplasias. Beyond this, there are numerous indications of a redifferentiation of numerous pancreatic cell types, primarily of acinar cells. The close relationships between ductal and acinar cells may be subsumed as a terminal ductulo-acinar intercalated duct complex. Against the background of chronic pancreatitis and corresponding length of history (< 6.5 years), cancer may develop in up to 16% of cases. On the molecularbiological level, point mutations of the K-ras gene, a mutation or deletion of the p53 suppressor gene and an excess production of the c-erbB-2 protooncogene are found in a great number of pancreatic carcinomas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Background Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the children worldwide. In this study, we aim to describe the aetiology of viral infection of pediatric community-acquired pneumonia in mainland China. Methods During Nov. 2014 and Jun. 2016, the prospective study was conducted at thirteen hospitals. The hospitalized children under 18 years old who met the criteria for CAP were enrolled. The throat swabs or nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from cases and screened the eighteen respiratory viruses using multiplex PCR assay. Results Viral pathogens were present in 56.6% (1539/2721) of enrolled cases, with the detection rate of single virus in 39.8% cases and multiple viruses in 16.8% cases. The most frequently detected virus was RSV (15.2%, 413/2721). The highest detection rate of virus was in < 6 m age group (70.7%). RSV, HMPV, HPIVs and Flu B showed the similar prevalence pattern both in northern and south China, but HPIVs, Flu A, HBoV, HAdV and HCoVs showed the distinct circulating patterns in northern and south China. HEV/HRV (27.6%, 27/98), HBoV (18.4%, 18/98), RSV (16.3%, 16/98) and HMPV (14.3%, 14/98) were the most commonly detected virus in severe pneumonia children with signal virus infection. Conclusions In conclusion, viral pathogens are frequently detected in pediatric CAP cases and may therefore play a vital role in the aetiology of CAP. RSV was the most important virus in hospitalized children with CAP in mainland China.


. This paper describes the initial stages of the process of implementing the data infrastructure required to develop analytics capabilities in a public sector organization. Helfo (the Norwegian Health Economics Administration) is responsible for making payments to healthcare actors who submit reimbursement claims. An important task for Helfo is also to prevent and detect errors, and the organization is currently strengthening this capacity though employing data analytics and artificial intelligence. Implementing data analytics entails more than a "plug-and-play" process, and we analyze the initial stages of the implementation process as a sociotechnical change process. As a starting point we employ the CRISP-DM process model and enrich this with additional steps and tasks that was found to be central in the case. We describe in more detail the preparatory work relating to the technical setup and data infrastructures, and the implications for the information processing routines of the organization more broadly. The case study shows that also the early-phase improvements in data access and utilizing basic analytics capabilities yielded instant benefits to the organization, even before employing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. The rich description of the early stages of the implementation process can be valuable for other public sector organizations that seek to build data analytic capabilities.


Over the last decades, the genus Streptomyces has stirred huge interest in the scientific community as a source of bioactive compounds. The majority of all known antibiotics is isolated from these bacterial strains, as well as a variety of other drugs such as antitumor agents, immunosuppressants and antifungals. To the best of our knowledge, StreptomeDB was the first database focusing on compounds produced by streptomycetes. The new version presented herein represents a major step forward: its content has been increased to over 4000 compounds and more than 2500 host organisms. In addition, we have extended the background information and included hundreds of new manually curated references to literature. The latest update features a unique scaffold-based navigation system, which enables the exploration of the chemical diversity of StreptomeDB on a structural basis. We have included a phylogenetic tree, based on 16S rRNA sequences, which comprises more than two-thirds of the included host organisms. It enables visualizing the frequency, appearance, and persistence of compounds and scaffolds in an evolutionary context. Additionally, we have included predicted MS- and NMR-spectra of thousands of compounds for assignment of experimental data. The database is freely accessible via http://www.pharmaceutical-bioinformatics.org/streptomedb.


Docker containers have become a prominent solution for supporting modern enterprise applications due to the highly desirable features of isolation, low overhead, and efficient packaging of the execution environment. Containers are created from images which are shared between users via a Docker registry. The amount of data Docker registries store is massive; for example, Docker Hub, a popular public registry, stores at least half a million public images. In this paper, we analyze over 167 TB of uncompressed Docker Hub images, characterize them using multiple metrics and evaluate the potential of file-level deduplication in Docker Hub. Our analysis helps to make conscious decisions when designing storage for containers in general and Docker registries in particular. For example, only 3% of the files in images are unique, which means file-level deduplication has a great potential to save storage space for the registry. Our findings can motivate and help improve the design of data reduction, caching, and pulling optimizations for registries.


Author(s): Smith, Geoffrey Alexander | Advisor(s): Taunton, Jack | Abstract: The common γ-chain cytokines (IL-2, 4, 7, 9, 15 and 21) play an essential role in lymphocyte development and function. Their signals are transduced through receptor complexes comprised of the IL-2Rγ (γc) and one or two private subunits. These subunits lack intrinsic kinase activity and thus require the cytoplasmic kinases JAK1 and JAK3 for signal transduction. Cytokine binding induces a conformational change that activates JAK1 and JAK3, which in turn phosphorylate key tyrosines within one of the receptor subunits. These phosphorylated tyrosines recruit downstream signaling molecules, principally the STAT transcription factor family members. It is unknown what the precise non-redundant roles are for JAK1 and JAK3 in the signaling complex. Furthermore, although it is known that proliferation or differentiation requires hours to days of continuous cytokine exposure, how the signaling dynamics change over time has not been studied.To address both the specific role of JAK3 and the requirements for JAK3 catalytic activity over time, we identified a potent and highly selective JAK3 inhibitor with in vivo activity. We took advantage of a cysteine found in JAK3 (Cys909 human/Cys905 mouse) but not in other JAK kinases to design selective inhibitors based on three different scaffolds, ultimately identifying JAK3i. By monitoring STAT5 phosphorylation over 20 hours in IL-2-stimulated CD4+ T cells, we document a previously unappreciated second wave of signaling that is much more sensitive to JAK3i than the first wave. Selective inhibition of this second wave is sufficient to block cyclin expression and S-phase entry. Finally, we extended this study of IL-2 signaling dynamics to the closely related CD8+ T cell, which has an earlier and greater proliferative response to IL-2. When STAT5 phosphorylation was followed over time, CD8 T cells sustained this signaling throughout a 6-hour time course, in contrast to the biphasic CD4 response. A 50% knockdown of the IL-2Rβ receptor chain converted CD8 T-cells to a CD4-like signaling pattern and reduced early S-phase entry. This cell type variability in IL-2Rβ expression appears to tune responses, potentially preventing extensive, autoimmune expansion of CD4 T-cells while still enabling sufficient CD8 expansion to control viral infections.


The Kaliningrad region is developing in complicated exclave conditions, which results in insufficient resilience of its economy to external impacts. There is a need for constant monitoring of the economic situation in the region and the adaptation of the regional strategy to changing conditions. This article sets out to evaluate the stages of regional economy development and the methods of its modernisation and restructuring in view of accumulated experience in reacting to changes in conditions of regional development. The authors analyse complex statistical data from 1990—2012 and the modern condition of the Kaliningrad regional economy compared to the national average. The article relies heavily on the results of the survey of specialists working in regional companies. Russian accession to the WTO and the abolition of certain customs privileges planned for 2016 form the basis for the import substitution manufacturing and will significantly affect the conditions of regional economy development. Implementation of the Strategy for the Socioeconomic Development of the Region will contribute to the innovativeness of economy, its export orientation, development through an increase in labour productivity, and cooperation with both Russian and international partners. It will reduce the dependence of production on imported raw materials and semi-finished produces, as well as its energy intensity. The formation of a new more stable economy will be facilitated through federal support and implementation of a number of regional programmes.


PURPOSE: To evaluate the changes in academic quality indicators after implementation of a quality management system according to DIN ISO 9001:2000. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After implementation and certification of a quality management system, the actual state based on quality indicators from the fields of student teaching, research, continuing education and the satisfaction of referring physician was determined. After implementation of an action plan for the individual areas, the temporal changes in the ratios were documented in the follow-up. RESULTS: The evaluation of teaching performance obtained by questionnaire among the students of the radiology course showed a steady increase in satisfaction (mean value 2003: 2.7; 2007: 3.9). In the field of research an increase in scientific output was achieved based on the number of an internal publication score (2002: 99 points; 2006: 509). Repeated opinion surveys among our referring physicians found improvements in indicators for the appointment of investigations, consulting service and waiting times for the investigation, while the waiting times for internal transport service did not improve. Exemplary measurements of the success of the advanced training of the staff demonstrated the need for continuing education for quality improvement. CONCLUSION: The evaluation of quality indicators showed over time a measurable positive impact on processes of a radiological University Hospital after implementation of a QM system according to DIN ISO 9001:2000.


The diagnosis of head lice infestation is made through visual inspection of the hair and the scalp or by dry/wet combing. The choice of the method essentially depends whether the examiner aims at the detection of active infestation – presence of trophic stages and/or viable eggs – or wants to identify a historical infestation (presence only of nits/dead eggs). For the latter purpose, visual inspection of the hair at five predilection sites (temples, behind the ears, neck) is the method of choice (sensitivity 80% 90%). The optimal method for the diagnosis of active head lice infestation is wet combing with a sensitivity 90%, even in children with a low infestation intensity. In resource-pour settings, where pediculosis capitis is very common and infestation intensity is high, self-diagnosis by affected individuals or their caretakers is an accurate alternative.


Experts continuously predict that mobile technology would create new competitions in the business world and that all e-commerce would be on wireless devices in the near future. This technological trend indicates that M- commerce has been envisioned to be a major force of business competition. To any organizational member in an institutional field, a more comprehensive understanding of M-commerce strategy would thus become critical. Since conventional wisdom emphasizes economic aspects of technological strategy, a more comprehensive understanding of M-commerce would need to incorporate social/political aspects of strategic choice because such social/political backdrops in an institutional field often shape an organization's decision. Institutional theorists, for instance, argue that organization members' decisions are often driven by social/political pressures in an institutional field, particularly when the environment is surrounded by emerging technological issues. With its developing nature, M-commerce well fits into such an uncertain context. Institutional theory could thus help better understand how social/political forces in an institutional field influence an institutional member's decision. More specifically, this paper proposes that each of three isomorphic pressures, coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures, positively influences an organization's M-commerce strategy. These propositions encourage business and technology decision makers to consider social/political factors embedded in their institutional landscape and in turn better shape their organizations' M-commerce strategy.


The literature raises concerns that Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is not always used effectively to transform teaching practice in higher education. This paper reports on a study that was conducted across four faculties of a research-intensive university in South Africa to examine 17 academics' engagement in a self-driven SET process. Kirkhart's integrated theory of evaluation influence was used to analyse the collected data. Findings indicate that participation in self-driven SET influenced the academics to reflect deeply on their approaches, to prioritise context specific challenges and to interrogate elicited feedback to better understand students and their own engagement with teaching and learning. I argue that the use of SET in evaluating performance, limits and underplays the importance of personal and contextual factors that are crucial to support effective practices. The paper suggests that to complement the unavoidable institutional standardised processes whilst ensuring effective SET, robust self-driven processes should be promoted.


Many busy professionals are susceptible to stress, burnout, and other work-related conditions that detract from their quality of life. Medical physicists are no exception, and in some ways are even more susceptible to these pressures and difficulties than other professionals. The challenges to maintaining physical and mental stamina are real and fast-changing due to advances in technology, economic forces, and generational shifts and trends in the workforce. A stressed or burned-out individual is probably working harder than he or she needs to due to inefficient workflow. Such people tend to take a lot of work home with them, negatively impacting their priorities outside the workplace. As the stress mounts, it is typical to feel that one needs to "get organized" or improve "time management" in order to improve the situation. Most such efforts fail, if they are even begun.There are a number of popular approaches to time management and goal-setting which fail to address these challenges because they take an unrealistic approach. These methods fail because they don' t give the user control over his or her situation. Unpleasant and difficult circumstances generate the most stress when the individual feels out of control. A successful approach to time, task, and stress management must be based on principles, but these principles must be tied to implementing clear and simple practices. This session will introduce a set of principles for managing time, tasks, and resources, beginning with attention. Examples of specific practices that support the principles will be discussed. The meaning of "work-life balance" will be explored as it relates to the medical physics profession. Attendees will learn an approach to controlling their attention and focus so they can move toward aligning their day-to-day activities with their longer-term goals.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Explain what work-life balance means to you. 2. Describe the principles of self-direction and control that are needed to align activities with goals and priorities. 3. List three practices that lead to greater personal control and greater efficiency.