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The study aimed to assess and compare the values prevalent among the students and teachers of Universities in Bangladesh, Japan, USA and Germany. The sample consisted of 480 students and 236 teachers. The sample included 120 undergraduate students from Japan; 120 undergraduate students from Bangladesh; 120 undergraduate students from USA, and 120 undergraduate students from Germany. The faculty sample included 60 teachers from Japan, 60 teachers from Bangladesh; 60 teachers from USA, and 56 teachers from Germany. To identify the value preferences of the individuals a list of 10 values, pro-social, achievement, power over others, security, self direction, otherworldliness, fatalism, narcissism, inner directed, and conservative, based on previous values studies by Singh and Parek were prepared. The first five values were identified in previous studies as functional (Singh, 1975) and other five were identified as dysfunctional (Parek, 1988) in the context of national development of Asian cultures. The results revealed that Bangladeshi students held stronger preferences for values identified as functional values than for those identified as dysfunctional. Japanese students indicated stronger preferences for the values identified as functional values except narcissism. The American students indicated a preference for three of the five values identified as functional but also ranked narcissism and other worldliness as third and fifth preferred values respectively. German student showed a preference for functional values, except narcissism which they also ranked as third. Bangladeshi teachers' preferences for functional values were higher than dysfunctional values. Japanese teachers indicated a preference for functional values except narcissism. American teachers preferred functional values except other worldliness. German teachers' value preferences were also functional, except for narcissism which they ranked as fifth. Students and teachers in the four countries sampled indicate preferences for values identified as functional with few exceptions. This research suggests that value preferences among university students and teachers are more similar than different, suggesting a homogenizing effect (Boli, 2005) on human values. An English version of schedule for value preferences is appended. (Contains 4 tables)

In today's world, the ability to think computationally is essential. The skillset expected of a computer scientist is no longer solely based on the old stereotype but also a crucial skill for adapting to the future. This perspective presents a new educational challenge for society. Everyone must have a positive attitude toward understanding and using these skills daily. One thousand two hundred seven documents about computational thinking (CT) may be found while searching the Scopus database from 1987 to 2023. Data from Scopus were analyzed using VOSviewer software. This study educates academics by delving into the fundamentals of what is known about the CT of visual and quantitative research skills. This approach allows for a more in-depth look at the literature and a better understanding of the research gap in CT. This bibliometrics analysis demonstrates that (1) research on CT is common to all sciences and will develop in the future; (2) the majority of articles on CT are published in journals in the fields of education, engineering, science and technology, computing and the social sciences; (3) the United States is the most dominant country in CT publications with a variety of collaborations; (4) keywords that often appear are CT, engineering, education, and mathematics, and (5) research on CT has developed significantly since 2013. Our investigation reveals the beginnings and progression of the academic field of research into CT. Furthermore, it offers a road map indicating how this study area will expand in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Opaganib, an oral sphingosine kinase-2 inhibitor with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, was shown to inhibit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 replication in vitro. We thus considered that opaganib could be beneficial for moderate to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. The objective of the study was to evaluate the safety of opaganib and its effect on supplemental oxygen requirements and time to hospital discharge in COVID-19 pneumonia hospitalized patients requiring supplemental oxygen. Methods This Phase 2a, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted between July and December 2020 in 8 sites in the United States. Forty-two enrolled patients received opaganib (n = 23) or placebo (n = 19) added to standard of care for up to 14 days and were followed up for 28 days after their last dose of opaganib/placebo. Results There were no safety concerns arising in this study. The incidence of ≥Grade 3 treatment-emergent adverse events was 17.4% and 33.3% in the opaganib and placebo groups, respectively. Three deaths occurred in each group. A numerical advantage for opaganib over placebo was observed in in this nonpowered study reflected by total supplemental oxygen requirement from baseline to Day 14, the requirement for supplemental oxygen for at least 24 hours by Day 14, and hospital discharge. Conclusions In this proof-of-concept study, hypoxic, hospitalized patients receiving oral opaganib had a similar safety profile to placebo-treated patients, with preliminary evidence of benefit for opaganib as measured by supplementary oxygen requirement and earlier hospital discharge. These findings support further evaluation of opaganib in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transit is considered a sustainable mode of transport that can address automobile dependency and provide environmental, economic, and societal benefits. However, with typical temporal and spatial constraints such as fixed routes and schedules, transfer requirements, waiting times, and access/egress issues, public transit offers lower accessibility and mobility services than private vehicles and thus it is considered a less attractive mode to many prospective users. To improve the performance of transit and in turn to increase its usage, a broader understanding of the daily activity-travel patterns of transit users is fundamental. In this context, this study analyzed transit-based activity-travel patterns by classifying users via Latent Class Analysis (LCA). Using data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, the LCA model suggested that transit users could be split into five distinct classes where each class has a representative activity-travel pattern. Class 1 constituted employed white males who made transit-dominant simple work tours. Class 2 was composed of employed white females who made complex work tours. Employed white millennials comprised Class 3 and made multimodal complex tours. Transit Class 4 were non-white younger or older adult groups who made transit-dominant simple non-work tours. Last, Class 5 members made complex non-work tours with recurrent transit use and comprised single older women. This study provided insights regarding the variations of activity-travel patterns and the associated market segments of transit users in the United States. The results can assist transit agencies in identifying transit user groups with particular activity patterns and to consider market strategies that can address their travel needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to recent research, depression and stress, are the most common root causes of deprived mental health nevertheless with the contemptible cure. According to a randomized controlled, twenty-five percent of America natives are found to be victimized of this mental illness and interestingly the study comes out with an amazing fact that the illness is found to improve through physical exercise and workout. As the neuroplasticity, is the ability of human brain that helps to adapt the condition in different dimensions. It alters the functional capability of mind leading to high learning skills. However human and animal research studies reveals that physical activity facilitates neuroplasticity of brain structures and also results in enhanced intellectual activities along with mood elevation. Physical exercise support the brain to direct the neurotransmitters responsible for controlling the human mood. As recent studies claim that physical exercise have supportive psychological benefits. Outcomes of cross-sectional studies showed antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of aerobic exercise training and also provide protection against harmful consequences of stress and apprehension. The study was conducted to analyze the upshots of physical exercise on mood. For the purpose of questioning, interviews were conducted the population regularly going to fitness centers. The population was of age from 18 to 40 years including both genders and the after effects of physical work out, that they shared, in terms of relaxation and mood elevation, was actually the outcome of the study. Majority of population showed a positive response for exercise as they experienced the high feeling of cheerfulness and relaxation, that helped them to overcome stress and anxiety. The outcome of study strongly supported the phenomenon of brain neuroplasticity as stress-free environment promotes and supports the intellectuality and learning capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a different viewpoint to the article "Sizing the Emerging Global Labor Market," written by Diana Farrell et al. in this issue of Perspectives. The article and the important report Farrell and her colleagues at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI 2005) completed in late 2005 provide much food for thought regarding offshoring of service jobs. The accompanying article gives only a flavor of the results, while the report contains the most detailed micro-level analysis available of the employment impacts of offshoring upon specific sectors. In contrast to the report's rather muted conclusion regarding the dimensions and implications of services offshoring, a more comprehensive reading suggests a profound transformation of the employment and wage structure for many college-educated Americans is underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The complement system plays a vital part in innate immunity. • Complement plays a role in the development of several ocular diseases. • Numerous complement-targeting therapies are in development for dry age-related macular degeneration. • The outer blood–retinal barrier limits access to some therapeutic agents. • Gene therapies have the potential to provide one-time, localised treatment. The complement system is involved in the pathogenesis of several ocular diseases, providing a rationale for the investigation of complement-targeting therapeutics for these conditions. Dry age-related macular degeneration, as characterised by geographic atrophy (GA), is currently the most active area of research for complement-targeting therapeutics, with a complement C3 inhibitor approved in the United States earlier this year marking the first approved therapy for GA. This review discusses the role of complement in ocular disease, provides an overview of the complement-targeting agents currently under development for ocular conditions, and reflects on the lessons that can be learned from the preclinical investigations and clinical trials conducted in this field to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Disparities in some characteristics of breast cancer patients and their survival data for six randomly selected states in the US were examined.Materials and Methods: A probability random sampling method was used to select the records of 2,000 patients from each of six randomly selected states. Demographic and disease characteristics were extracted from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. To evaluate relationships between variables, we employed a Cox Proportional Regression to compare survival times in the different states.Results: Iowa had the highest mean age of diagnosis at 64.14 years (SE = 0.324) and Georgia had the lowest at 57.97 years (SE = 0.313). New Mexico had the longest mean survival time of 189.09 months (SE = 20.414) and Hawaii the shortest at 119.01 (SE = 5.394) months, a 70.08-month difference (5.84 years). Analysis of stage of diagnosis showed that the highest survival times for Whites and American Indians/Alaska Natives were for stage I cancers. The highest survival times for Blacks varied. Stage IV cancer consistently showed the lowest survival times.Conclusions: Differences in breast cancer characteristics across states highlight the need to understand differences between the states that result in variances in breast cancer survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Chronic HCV infection is often considered a contraindication for receiving a heart transplantation. Methods From the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, we selected all adults with and without HCV infection who underwent a single-organ heart transplantation in 1995-2013; the mortality status was updated in September 2015. Results A total of 32 812 heart transplant recipients were included; N=756 (2.30%) HCV positive. Post-transplant patients were discharged alive at similar rates regardless of their HCV status ( P=.10). Despite this, mortality in HCV+ heart transplant recipients was consistently higher throughout post-discharge follow-up ( P<.002). In multivariate survival analysis, being HCV+ was independently associated with a higher post-transplant mortality: adjusted hazard ratio 1.35 (1.16-1.56), P<.0001. Other predictors of lower post-transplant survival included being obese at transplant and pre-transplant history of comorbidities (type 2 diabetes, COPD, hypertension) (all P<.05). No association of HCV infection with graft loss rates or time to graft loss was found (all P>.23). Conclusion Chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with a significantly increased post-transplant mortality in heart transplant recipients. The introduction of new direct-acting antiviral agents may provide a treatment option for HCV pre- or post-heart transplantation which could have a positive impact on patients' survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES : To provide descriptive information on behavioral health (BH) productivity and billing practices within a pediatric primary care setting. METHODS : This retrospective investigation reviewed 30 months of electronic medical records and financial data. RESULTS : The percent of BH provider time spent in direct patient care (productivity) was 35.28% overall, with a slightly higher quarterly average (M  =  36.42%; SD  =  6.46%). In the 646.75 hr BH providers spent in the primary care setting, $52,050.00 was charged for BH services delivered ($80.48 hourly average). CONCLUSIONS : BH productivity and billing within pediatric primary care were suboptimal and likely multifactorially derived. To promote integrated primary care sustainability, the authors recommend three future aims: improve BH productivity, demonstrate the value-added contributions of BH services within primary care, and advocate for BH-supporting health care reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two main questions. First, it seeks to establish whether the stylized facts of the 'great moderation' that have been documented for the UK and US economies can be found for the Euro area. Second, it explores possible explanations for any changes that have occurred in the volatility of Euro area output fluctuations. In examining why business cycles have moderated, much of the existing literature has tended to concentrate on a few key factors. These include shifts in the structure of the economy, improved monetary policy and a 'good luck' factor. This paper, however, follows a relatively new branch of the great moderation literature by focusing on whether international business cycle linkages have changed in a way that may have perpetuated the dampening in Euro area output fluctuations. The results show Euro area output fluctuations to have significantly reduced in variability over the last quarter of a century. The results go on to highlight that, although Euro area cycles differ little from rest of the world cycles, the moderation in Euro area output fluctuations is only marginally due to changes in international business cycle linkages and smaller international and domestic shock variances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the time-varying time series processes of the interaction between government fiscal deficits, the current account balance and the real exchange rate for the U.K. and U.S. economies. This is achieved in a novel way by estimating a time-varying vector autoregression model that allows for time variation in the stochastic variance and autoregressive parameters. This paper finds that, contrary to results reported in the recent literature, government deficit shocks worsen the U.S. current account balance. In contrast, results based on the historical time series for the U.K. show evidence of fiscal deficits having actually improved the current account balance. However, in commonality, the time-varying estimates show that the impact of fiscal deficits on the U.K. and U.S. current account balance has fallen in magnitude over the past 20 years. The time-varying variance decomposition results illustrate that fiscal deficit shocks played a key role in driving U.K. current account and real exchange rate fluctuations throughout the 1980s. In contrast, fiscal deficit shocks have been a small factor in the variation of U.S. current account and exchange rate fluctuations over the past 25 years. The time-varying results in this paper do not support the view that future fiscal deficit reductions alone can eliminate U.K. and U.S. current account imbalances. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this research, correlation and regression analysis are performed to determine the degree of the relations among the GCC countries and the United States. The results show that Saudi and Arab Emirates market among all GCC markets significantly influence the other GCC markets and there is no relationship found among the GCC markets and the United States. It is also found that the United Arab Emirates is the leading market, as opposed to the previous study's findings of Saudi Arabia as the leading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through interaction with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army�s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, and Virginia Commonwealth University, the E-Health Training Center (ETC) was established in Pakistan. The ETC was linked to areas around the countryside for interactions. This network was used with an effective curriculum, developed for deployment in post-disaster areas in Pakistan. This has led to a more structured national program in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the articles published in on-line D-Lib magazine for authorship trend, contribution of teaching and professionals, country-wise contribution, degree of collaboration and productivity within different facets of digital /electronic libraries. The study carried out for this paper found that collaborative research is given priority over solo research. The degree of collaboration is found to be 0.66. The study further reveals more contribution from teaching community compared to professionals. Country-wise distribution reveals that most of the contribution comes from the USA and Germany while facet-wise distribution of articles depicts that most of the articles cover digital libraries and preservation followed by metadata /cataloguing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent article brought together the health benefits of unionization and working under collective agreements. It was noted how Canadian health promotion texts, reports and statements made no mention of unionization and working under collective agreements as promoting health. This was seen as a significant omission and reasons for this were considered. In this article this analysis is extended to consider how contributors to the flagship health promotion journal Health Promotion International (HPI) conceptualize unions, unionization and working under collective agreements as promoting health. Of 2443 articles published in HPI since its inception, 87 or 3.6% make mention of unions, unionization, collective agreements or collective bargaining, with most saying little about their promoting health. Instead, 20 make cursory references to unions or merely see them as providing support and engagement opportunities for individuals. Forty-five depict unions or union members as involved in a health promotion programme or activity carried out by the authors or by government agencies. Only 33 articles explicitly mention unions, unionization or collective agreements as potentially health promoting, representing 1.3% of total HPI content since 1986. We conclude that the health promoting possibilities of unionization and working under collective agreements is a neglected area amongst HPI contributors. Reasons for this are explored and an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report on the importance of collective bargaining is drawn upon to identify areas for health promotion research and action., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The extraordinary successes and refinement of modern telemedicine applications in recent years have been diminished somewhat by the anachronistic licensure laws of the 50 state jurisdictions that limit the practice of medicine to specific state geographic boundaries. This approach is deficient when applied to telemedicine because, with the advent of the Internet and modern technological advances, differences in space and time are rendered nearly meaningless. It is recommended in this paper that the practice of telemedicine be handled differently than the practice of face-to-face medicine, as related to licensure. Although it may be argued persuasively that a national licensure model for telemedicine should be advanced, the political and constitutional hurdles may be too great to overcome. It is therefore recommended that a voluntary, regional geographic approach be instituted by jurisdictions already demonstrating a commonality of interests, such as through the Southern Governors' Association or the Western Governors' Association. The benefits to be derived from this approach would include improving access to healthcare and medical specialists, enhancing the quality and timeliness of care, cutting medical costs by moving information instead of people, securing patients' access to medical records and information, and facilitating commercial export of American telemedicine services.

ADVANTAGE Pd-103 brachytherapy source has been recently introduced by IsoAid for prostate permanent implants. Dosimetric characteristics (Dose rate constant, radial dose function, 2D-, and 1D-anisotropy functions) of this source model have been determined using both theoretical and experimental methods, following the updated TG-43U1 protocol. Derivation of the dose rate constant was based on recent NIST WAFAC calibration performed in accordance with the 1999 Standards. Measurements were performed in Solid Water using LiF TLD chips and the theoretical calculations were performed in Solid Water and liquid water phantom materials using PTRAN Monte Carlo code. The results of the Monte Carlo simulation have shown a dose rate constant of 0.69 cGyh(-1) U(-1) in liquid water and 0.67 cGyh(-1) U(-1) in Solid Water medium. The measured dose rate constant in Solid Water was found to be 0.68+/-8% cGyh(-1) U(-1), which is in a good agreement (within +/-5%) to the Monte Carlo simulated data. The 2D- and 1D-anisotropy functions of the ADVANTAGE Pd-103 source were calculated for radial distances ranging from 0.5 to 5.0 cm. Radial dose function was determined for radial distances ranging from 0.2 to 8.0 cm using line source approximation. All these calculations are based on L(eff) equal to 3.61 cm, calculated following TG-43U1 recommendations. The tabulated data for 2D-anisotropy function, 1D-anisotropy function, dose rate constant and radial dose function have been produced for clinical application of this source model.