In an effort to intentionally create the level of deep learning necessary for practitioners to make meaningful changes in their classrooms, professional networks are increasingly being promoted as mechanisms for knowledge creation that can makes a difference for students. This paper explores the way networks function by testing a theory of action within the Network of Performance Based Schools (NPBS) in British Columbia, Canada. It presents networks as collaborative systems that support particular ways of working and find expression within two distinct organizational units -the network itself and its participant schools.

A new kinetic model for the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) riser is developed. An elementary reaction scheme, for the FCC, based on cracking of a large number of lumps in the form of narrow boiling pseudocomponents is proposed. The kinetic parameters are estimated using a semi-empirical approach based on normal probability distribution. The correlation proposed for the kinetic parameters' estimation contains four parameters that depend on the feed characteristics, catalyst activity, and coke forming tendency of the feed. This approach eliminates the need of determining a large number of rate constants required for conventional lumped models. The model seems to be more versatile than existing models and opens up a new dimension for making generic models suitable for the analysis and control studies of FCC units. The model also incorporates catalyst deactivation and two-phase flow in the riser reactor. Predictions of the model compare well with the yield pattern of industrial scale plant data reported in literature. ᭧

We used multiple regression to calculate a new Ego Impairment Index (EII-3). The aim was to incorporate changes in the component variables and distribution of the number of response as found in the new Rorschach Performance Assessment System, while sustaining the validity and reliability of previous EIIs. The EII-3 formula was derived from a large, diverse, developmental sample (N = 411) and tested on an independent validation sample (N = 206) procured from psychiatric, forensic, research, and nonclinical control contexts. Additional analyses revealed high correlations with previous EIIs with similar reliability and validity but superior distributional qualities.

Second, I shall identify two generic styles of theological reflection papers, the pastoral reflection paper and the systematic reflection paper. Third, I shall follow a student writer's process of writing a pastoral reflection paper and constructing a theology as she writes. Finally, I shall propose a pedagogical bridge to help students move from writing pastoral reflection papers in a personal voice to writing systematic reflection papers in an academic voice, as well as offer some concluding reflections on teaching theological reflection by reflecting on writing as a theological practice.

This study examined the co-occurrence of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment in a predominantly African American sample of 268 female veterans, randomly sampled from an urban Veterans Affairs hospital women's clinic. A combination of hierarchical and iterative cluster analysis was used to identify 4 patterns of women's lifetime experiences of violence co-occurrence. The 1st cluster experienced relatively low levels of all 4 forms of violence; the 2nd group, high levels of all 4 forms; the 3rd, sexual revictimization across the lifespan with adult sexual harassment; and the 4th, high intimate partner violence with sexual harassment. This cluster solution was validated in a theoretically driven model that examined the role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a mediator of physical health symptomatology. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that PTSD fully mediated the relationship between violence and physical health symptomatology. Consistent with a bio-psycho-immunologic theoretical model, PTSD levels more strongly predicted pain-related physical health symptoms compared to nonpain health problems. Implications for clinical interventions to prevent PTSD and to screen women for histories of violence in health care settings are discussed.

Poor handwriting has been shown to be associated with developmental disorders such as Developmental Coordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, autism, and learning disorders. Handwriting difficulties could lead to academic underachievement and poor self-esteem. Therapeutic intervention has been shown to be effective in treating children with poor handwriting, making early identification critical. The SOS test (Systematic Screening for Handwriting Difficulties) has been developed for this purpose. A child copies a sample of writing within 5 min. Handwriting quality is evaluated using six criteria and writing speed is measured. The Dutch SOS test was administered to 860 Flemish children (7-12 years). Inter-and intrarater reliability was excellent. Test-retest reliability was moderate. A correlation coefficient of 0.70 between SOS and "Concise Assessment Methods of Children Handwriting" test (Dutch version) confirmed convergent validity. The SOS allowed discrimination between typically developing children and children in special education, males and females, and different age groups.

The increasing number of Islamic followers in worldwide context and positive tourism trends boost up the demand for and supply of Islamic hospitality services. It is assumed that the emergence of Islamic financing is one of the driving factors of Syariah Compliant hotels besides the increasing number of Arab and Muslim travellers and their high purchasing power. However, specific guidelines need to be introduced in constructing this concept since there are many different opinions and inconsistencies in understanding such practices among the Syariah scholars and hotel operators. Corpus of past literatures affirmed that currently there is no standardization being introduced and most of the hotel operators came out with their own interpretation of compliant strategies. Therefore, this study empirically investigates the customers' awareness on Syariah Compliant concept and practices. Self-reported questionnaires were used to gather the data from the customers using convenience sampling. Result shows the more customers aware of Syariah Compliant concept and practices, the more they will accept it. However, it could be said that customers in general are not really comprehend about Syariah Compliant hence hotel operators are responsible to educate the customers.

As teacher quality becomes a central issue in discussions of children's literacy, both researchers and policy makers alike express increasing concern with how teachers structure and allocate their lesson time for literacy-related activities as well as with what they know about reading development, processes, and pedagogy. The authors examined the beliefs, literacy knowledge, and proposed instructional practices of 121 first-grade teachers. Through teacher self-reports concerning the amount of instructional time they would prefer ...

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among parental bonding factors and the early onset of sexual behaviors and substance use. Significant differences were found in the levels of care among the parental status groups and among the ages of onset for alcohol use.

Many meta-analyses of comparative outcome studies found a substantial association of researcher allegiance (RA) and relative treatment effects. Therefore, RA is regarded as a biasing factor in comparative outcome research (RA bias hypothesis). However, the RA bias hypothesis has been criticized as causality might be reversed. That is, RA might be a reflection of true efficacy differences between treatments (true efficacy hypothesis). Consequently, the RA-outcome association would not be indicative of bias but an epiphenomenon of true efficacy differences. This meta-analysis tested the validity of the true efficacy hypothesis. This was done by controlling the RA-outcome association for true efficacy differences by restricting analysis to direct comparisons of treatments with equivalent efficacy. We included direct comparisons of different versions of trauma-focused therapy (TFT) in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). RA was measured from the research reports. Relative effect sizes for symptoms of PTSD were calculated. Random effects meta-regression was conducted. Twenty-nine comparisons of TFTs from 20 studies were identified. Initial heterogeneity among relative effect sizes was low. RA was a significant predictor of outcome and explained 12% of the variance in outcomes. The true efficacy hypothesis predicted the RA-outcome association to be zero; however, a substantial association was found. Thus, this study does not support the true efficacy hypothesis. Given findings from psychotherapy research and other fields that support a biasing influence of researcher preferences, RA should be regarded as a causal factor and conceptualized as a threat to the validity of conclusions from comparative outcome studies.

Background and Aims. Metabolic acidosis (MA) is a frequent and serious complication in HIV-infected patients. The aim of the study is to compare patients with and without MA associated with HIV. Methods. Patients were retrospectively studied involving all HIV-infected patients with blood gas analysis performed during hospital stay admitted to a single hospital between April 2004 and July 2006. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 10.0 for Windows. Results. Included in the study were 159 HIV patients, 72 cases (45.3%) with MA and 87 cases (54.7%) without. The comparison of both groups showed a mean arterial pH of 7.24 AE 0.08 vs. 7.44 AE 0.05, HCO 3 12 AE 5.7 vs. 21 AE 5.1 mEq/L, serum urea 81 AE 68 mg/dL vs. 39 AE 46 mg/dL and serum creatinine 2.7 AE 2.6 mg/dL vs. 1.2 AE 1.9 mg/dL in MA-HIV and non-MA-HIV, respectively (p !0.05). Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was being administered to 38 subjects (52.8%) in MA-HIV group and 45 (51.7%) in non-MA-HIV group (p 5 0.57). There was no association between the use of ART and MA. Mortality was higher in patients with acidosis (52.7 vs. 17.2%, p !0.0001). Conclusions. In the present study, MA was associated with acute kidney injury and increased mortality. There was no association between the use of ART and MA.

This paper addresses and implements a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) transceiver for Visible Light Communication (VLC) systems based on FPGA. A transceiver was implemented including a transmitter capable of driving an array of light emitting diodes (LED) and a Pseudo-Noise (PN) matched decorrelator. The receiver architecture uses a discrete FIR correlator for data synchronization and acquisition. In this paper, a novel and simple PN code with a 10 bit sequence length is developed. This code ...

Product manuals have been virtually ignored in published research despite their relevance to consumer satisfaction and marketplace safety. This study examines self-efficacy (perceptions of capabilities related to operating a product) and how it influences the effectiveness of and is also influenced by three safety message formats commonly used in product manuals (i.e., 1. safety messages presented in list format at

BACKGROUND: Consumers have different regional perceptions of tea quality. Objective evaluation based on biochemical data for different regions has been needed for a long time. Biochemical factors regulating this variation would help to remove regional disparities. This study was undertaken on CTC (crust, tear and curl) black tea to generate the biochemical data responsible for quality along with tea tasters' evaluation of three geographical regions of northeast India and to determine the reason for the variation.RESULTS: Brahmaputra valley teas had highest theaflavin (TF), thearubigin (TR), brightness (BR) and total colour (TC) and low crude fibre content (CFC) and total polyphenol (TPP). Brahmaputra valley and Dooars region teas showed high total soluble solid (TSS). Barak valley teas had highest CFC and low TSS, caffeine (CA), TF, TR and TC. Dooars region teas had high CA and TPP and low BR. Dooars region and Barak valley teas contained higher levels of residual catechin than ...

Objective: Research has shown associations between college women's alcohol and/or drug consumption and the risk of sexual assault, but few studies have measured the various means by which sexual assault is achieved. Participants: The authors' Campus Sexual Assault Study obtained self-report data from a random sample of undergraduate women (N = 5,446). Methods: The authors collected data on sexual assault victimization by using a cross-sectional, Web-based survey, and they conducted analyses assessing the role of substance use. The authors also compared victimizations before and during college, and across years of study. Results: Findings indicate that almost 20% of undergraduate women experienced some type of completed sexual assault since entering college. Most sexual assaults occurred after women voluntarily consumed alcohol, whereas few occurred after women had been given a drug without their knowledge or consent. Conclusions: The authors discuss implications for campus sexual assault prevention programs, including the need for integrated substance use and sexual victimization prevention programming.

The majority of research on the psychosocial impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure for children has focused on IPV occurrence. The current study extended this research by examining three dimensions of IPV exposure: frequency, proximity, and severity, and tested whether these dimensions predicted variance in adolescents' psychosocial problems over-andabove that accounted for by IPV occurrence. Participants included 140 adolescents and their caregivers, who were recruited for an intervention involving maltreated youth placed in out-ofhome care. After controlling for IPV occurrence, exposure to community violence, and severity of maltreatment, results indicated a positive association between the multidimensional IPV index and youth report of psychosocial problems. There was also a trend for a positive association between the IPV index and caregiver report of psychosocial problems for boys. The study's results are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention researchers and child welfare agencies.

This study examined the relationship between sensory deficits and externalizing behavior problems in preschool children. Parents of 179 urban, Latino preschool children completed two parent-report measures, the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), as a checklist for sensory symptoms, and the Achenbach Checklist for Ages 1½–5 (CBCL/1½–5) to assess externalizing behavior problems. Measures were available in Spanish or English depending on the parent’s preference. Correlations were performed between the total sensory deficits scale of the SSP and the Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Externalizing Problems scales of the CBCL. Significant correlations were found between increasing levels of sensory deficits and increasing externalizing behavior problems. Correlations were also examined in subcategories of age, gender and socioeconomic status. Five-year-old children showed stronger correlations than 4-year-old children, while males showed stronger correlations than females, and the highest correlations were found in children of families reporting between $18,001 and $24,000 per year annual income. Findings suggest that Latino preschool children with externalizing behavior problems may suffer from delays in sensory development that impact their behavior. Clinical interventions should promote strategies that either reduce or increase environmental stimuli in accordance with the sensory abilities of the individual child.

To assess the impact of business students’ international experience during college on their post-graduation careers, the authors of this study surveyed alumni from The Kelly School of Business at Indiana University who were five to ten years into their careers. The goal of the research was to determine the impact of international experience on alumni’s career paths. In addition, the survey sought to compare the career paths of alumni who studied abroad to those who did not study abroad.

This study was an investigation of reading and spelling errors of dyslexic Arabic readers (n 1⁄4 20) compared with two groups of normal readers: a young readers group, matched with the dyslexics by reading level (n 1⁄4 20) and an age-matched group (n 1⁄4 20). They were tested on reading and spelling of texts, isolated words and pseudowords. Two research questions were the focus of this study: What are the reading and spelling profile errors of dyslexic native Arabic speakers? What is the effect of the Arabic orthography on these types of errors? The results of the reading error analysis revealed a clear contribution of the uniqueness of the Arabic orthography to the types of errors made by the three different groups. In addition, the error profiles of the dyslexic readers were similar to the error profiles made by the younger readinglevel-matched group in percentages and in quality. The most prominent types of errors were morphological and semiphonetic, which highlighted the contrib...

We give a proof of dynamical localization in the form of exponential decay of spatial correlations in the time evolution for the one-dimensional continuum Anderson model via the fractional moments method. This follows via exponential decay of fractional moments of the Green function, which is shown to hold at arbitrary energy and for any single-site distribution with bounded, compactly supported density.

An unknown quantum state ]P) can be disassembled into, then later reconstructed from, purely classical information and purely nonclassical Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlations. To do so the sender, "Alice, " and the receiver, "Bob, " must prearrange the sharing of an EPR-correlated pair of particles. Alice makes a joint measurement on her EPR particle and the unknown quantum system, and sends Bob the classical result of this measurement. Knowing this, Bob can convert the state of his EPR particle into an exact replica of the unknown state ]P) which Alice destroyed.

The main purpose of this research paper is to explore and understand the nature of association and the possible existence of a short run and long run relationship between US Dollar, EURO, British Pound and Japanese Yen. To find out the relationship among currencies USD/INR, EUR/INR, GBP/INR and JPY/INR pairs are considered. The main idea is to know how these selected indicators are related to each other. The daily basis 2781 observations for all four variables from year 2007 to 2018 are taken into consideration. Data are collected from website of Reserve Bank of India. The stationarity of time series is checked and differentiated as per requirement. Johansen co-integration test to know the long run relationship between variables is used. The result shows that there is no co-integration equation among the variables. The short run relationship is examined with help of Vector Auto-regression (VAR) model and the short run relationship within different lags of variables has been identifi...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and is influenced by both genetic determinants and smoking. We identified genomic regions from 56 lung-tissue gene-expression microarrays and used them to select 889 SNPs to be tested for association with COPD. We genotyped SNPs in 389 severe COPD cases from the National Emphysema Treatment Trial and 424 cigarette-smoking controls from the Normative Aging Study. A total of 71 autosomal SNPs demonstrated at least nominal significance with COPD susceptibility (p ¼ 3.4 3 10 À6 to 0.05). These 71 SNPs were evaluated in a family-based study of 127 probands with severe, early-onset COPD and 822 of their family members in the Boston Early-Onset COPD Study. We combined p values from the casecontrol and family-based analyses, setting p ¼ 5.60 3 10 À5 as a conservative threshold for significance. Three SNPs in the iron regulatory protein 2 (IREB2) gene met this stringent threshold for significance, and four other IREB2 SNPs demonstrated combined p < 0.02. We demonstrated replication of association for these seven IREB2 SNPs (all p values % 0.02) in a family-based study of 3117 subjects from the International COPD Genetics Network; combined p values across all cohorts for the main phenotype of interest ranged from 1.6 3 10 À7 to 6.4 3 10 À4. IREB2 protein and mRNA were increased in lung-tissue samples from COPD subjects in comparison to controls. In summary, gene-expression and genetic-association results have implicated IREB2 as a COPD susceptibility gene.

Child maltreatment and substance abuse are both international public health priorities. Research shows that child maltreatment increases the risk for substance use and problems. Thus, recognition of this relationship may have important implications for substance demand reduction strategies, including efforts to prevent and treat substance use and related problems. Latin America and the Caribbean is a rich and diverse region of the world with a large range of social and cultural influences. To date, relatively little work has addressed the link between child maltreatment and substance use in the region. A working group constituted by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in June, 2010 identified this area as a priority area for a multinational research partnership. This paper summarizes existing information on drug use and child maltreatment in six participating countries, Colombia, El

Like our previous work with imidazolium-and phosphonium-based ionic liquids, we report diffusivities over a range of viscosities (71-532 cP) and develop a predictive diffusivity correlation. Reported are the permeability, solubility, and diffusivity data for nine gases in nine ammonium RTILs liquids at 30 • C, as determined with a lag-time technique. The gas solubilities and diffusivities of the ammonium RTILs are of the same magnitude as those for the phosphonium and imidazolium RTILs. The ammonium RTILs used, in this study, included cations with both N-alkyl groups and branched alkyl groups. We also report on ammonium-based RTILs derived from quaternary ammonium surfactants. These surfactantsderived ammonium-based RTILs offer a relatively inexpensive alternative to imidazolium-based RTILs. We compare and contrast the thermodynamic (solubility) and transport (diffusivities) phenomena in the ammonium-based RTILs with both the imidazolium and the phosphonium RTILs in the context of being working fluids in a chemical process. From this comparison came certain "universal" trends for diffusivity in RTILs. Specifically, diffusivity scales roughly with the inverse of the square-root of viscosity and inversely with solute molar volume to the power of 1-1.3. This means that diffusivity, in RTILs, is less dependent on viscosity, and more dependent on solute size than predicted by the conventional Stokes-Einstein model. The gases tested were carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, methane, ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, butane, and 1,3-butadiene.

Even though marks in different subjects are substantially correlated, the corresponding self-concepts often display a very weak association. The ''InternaleExternal Frame of Reference Model'' (I/E-model; Marsh, H. W. (1986). Verbal and math self-concepts: an internal/external frame of reference model. American Educational Research Journal, 23, 129e149) explains this finding: social comparisons (resulting in positive correlations of the self-concepts) and dimensional comparisons (resulting in negative correlations of the self-concepts) are confounded. A rarely tested hypothesis derived from the I/E-model is that the dimensional comparison process only affects the self-concepts, if the students achieve differently in the corresponding subjects. In a sample of N Z 1508 students (grades 7 and 8), low correlations of the self-concepts for four subjects could be observed only in students displaying different school-marks in the corresponding subjects. In students who have the same marks in different subjects, the self-concepts showed a substantial positive correlation.

A novel experimental technique to measure static pressure fluctuation was applied in order to evaluate velocity-pressure correlation in a turbulent mixing layer. The developing region of the mixing layer was found to be out of equilibrium state, indicating the oscillatory velocity fluctuation due to vortex shedding and remarkable production of turbulence. The contribution of pressure-related terms in the transport equation of the Reynolds stress is found to be well captured by the present method. A simple model for pressure diffusion by Lumley gave a satisfactory approximation when the flow approached the self-similar state. However, the analogy between pressure diffusion and turbulent diffusion becomes weaker when the flow exhibits characteristics which are not found in the equilibrium state.

This study assessed how the displacement patterns and feeding station used can be affected by sward heights of 4, 8, 12 and 16 cm. A randomized complete design was used with two replication in time and space. The animals were evaluated by 45- minute grazing tests, to determine the number of bites, number of feeding stations and number of steps using counters, except for number of bites, which was registered by the IGER Behaviour Recorder device. A positive correlation was observed between sward height and herbage mass, and negative correlation between sward height and herbage bulk density. Differences between female calves and ewes were observed in all variables evaluated. The number of feeding station per minute decreased quadratically with increasing sward height. The number of bites per feeding station and time per feeding station increased quadratically with increasing sward height and were affected negatively by the lower herbage bulk density in the upper strata of the higher sward heights. Female calves, at 12 cm sward height, carried out more bites per feeding station and remained longer at each feeding station. The same behaviour was observed for ewes at 8 cm sward height. As less feeding stations were used, as a response to the previous variables, the animals walked more with slower steps. Thus, at sward heights between 8 and 12 cm the animals remained more time grazing each feeding station and covered longer distances searching for new grazing sites.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques have recently become an important research field for enhancing the performance of in-home Power Line Communication (PLC) systems by exploiting the additional Protective Earth wire. The development of such systems requires an accurate description of the propagation channel. This paper presents a statistical model for the MIMO PLC channel, based on an extensive set of MIMO channel measurements performed in five houses. In this model, the Phase-Neutral link is described as a multipath channel with frequency variable attenuation, following a formalism first proposed by Zimmermann and extended statistically by Tonello. The full channel matrix is obtained by suitably modifying the path phase. The resulting channel matches our experimental measurements, and reproduces the correlation observed in the measured MIMO channel matrix.

This work shows the experimental data of excess properties at several temperatures and the vapor–liquid equilibria (VLE) obtained for four binary systems of alkyl methanoates (methyl to butyl) with decane, all measured at constant pressure of 101.32kPa. The isobaric VLE data were thermodynamically consistent according to the Fredenslund test and did not present an azeotrope. The experimental data of HmE

Variations in extended hopane distributions are now routinely applied in assessing anoxia in ancient marine sediments and for oil-source correlation studies. Current parameters based on the extended hopanes focus on the predominance of the C~S 17a homologues (22s + R isomers), and thus reveal little information on the overall distribution. We present here a new method of characterising extended hopane distributions, using a combination of a CX:C&X ternary diagram, and a hopane odd/even predominance parameter (HOEP). This allows the distinction of virtually all extended hopane distributions.

Background: Acute anterior myocardial infarction (MI) caused by proximal occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD), is associated with unfavourable outcome and should be recognized by simple noninvasive methods like the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). Methods: In a prospective post-hoc DANAMI-2 substudy we compared two pre-specified ECG patterns to determine the level of LAD occlusion. The ECG findings were correlated to coronary angiography from the acute phase. The impact on clinical outcome of ECG and angiographic signs of proximal versus distal LAD occlusion was studied. Results: In 146 patients without confounding factors on the ECG, either ST-elevation ≥ 0.5 mm in lead aVL or any ST-elevation in lead aVR in association with precordial ST-segment elevation in at least two contiguous leads (including V 2 , V 3 or V 4 ) had a sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 49%, positive predictive value of 85% and negative predictive value of 71% to predict a proximal LAD lesion. Surprisingly, ECG or angiographic signs of lesion proximality were not associated with worse outcome at 30 day or 2.7 year follow-up. Conclusions: The site of occlusion in the LAD could be reliably predicted by 12-lead ECG in patients with acute anterior MI. The prognostic significance of the level of occlusion in the LAD in the modern era of acute ST-elevation MI treatment should be reassessed.

Objective: To examine whether age of first use or frequency of use of cannabis is associated with anxiety and depression (AD) in young adults, independent of known potential confounders, including the use of other illicit drugs. Method: A cohort of 3,239 Australian young adults was followed from birth to the age of 21 when data on AD were obtained from sample members along with information on their use of cannabis at 21 years. Potential confounding factors were prospectively measured when the child was born and at 14 years. Results: After controlling for confounding factors, those who started using cannabis before age 15 years and used it frequently at 21 years were more likely to report symptoms of AD in early adulthood (odds ratio 3.4; 95% CI 1.9Y6.1). This association was of similar magnitude for those who had only used cannabis and those who reported having used cannabis and other illicit drugs. Conclusion: The relationship between early-onset and frequent use of cannabis and symptoms of AD is independent of individual and family backgrounds.