A novel index in healthy infants and children — subarachnoid space: ventricle ratio

Background: The subarachnoid space (SAS) and ventricular width (VW) in normalinfants and children were studied with ultrasonography to provide the objectivemeasurement and define a normal range for these measurements. The additional aim was to determine the stable ratio as a SAS/VW.Materials and methods: A total of 100 healthy subjects, including 48 males and52 females, were studied. The cases were divided into 3 age groups: 0–6 months(n = 65), 7–12 months (n = 24) and > 13 months (n = 11). Transfontanel ultrasonography was performed in all the cases. SAS, VW and the SAS/VW ratios were calculated. The study was approved by the ethical committee. All parents wereinformed about the sonographic examination and their approvals were taken.Results: SAS was calculated as 3.1 (0.5–6) mm and VW was calculated as 3.6(1.3–5) mm. SAS/VW ratio was 0.9 ± 0.3. There was no statistically significant difference among SAS, VW and SAS/VW ratios in 3–97 percentile group (p > 0.05).Conclusions: Ultrasonography can be used as a practicable and reproducible modalityin the measurement of SAS and VW in healthy children. It is a non-invasivemethod and allows for serial follow-up. SAS/VW ratio can be used as an index inhealthy children

On non-local variational problems with lack of compactness related to non-linear optics

We give a simple proof of existence of solutions of the dispersion manage- ment and diffraction management equations for zero average dispersion, respectively diffraction. These solutions are found as maximizers of non-linear and non-local vari- ational problems which are invariant under a large non-compact group. Our proof of existence of maximizer is rather direct and avoids the use of Lions' concentration compactness argument or Ekeland's variational principle.Comment: 30 page

Preservice Teachers' Beliefs, Attitudes, and Motivation about Technology Integration

The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a framework, along with Self-Determination Theory, to examine preservice teachers' motivation to include technology in their future teaching. We modified instruments to measure theoretical constructs to be applied to plans for the use of technology. Measured were: perceived behavioral control, attitudes toward technology use, perceived social norms, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and amotivation. One hundred and fourteen preservice teachers completed the instrumentation and 67 completed a pre/post activity and reflective task concerning their attitudes and beliefs on technology, technology integration, and its role in the classroom. The best single predictor of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was positive attitudes toward technology use. For amotivation, the best predictors were negative attitudes toward technology use and negative social norms. The pre-post activity demonstrated that participants struggled to design meaningful technology integration activities.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

A Performance Analysis on Pressure Loss and Airflow Diffusion in a Chamber with Perforated V-Profile Diffuser Designed for Air Handling Units (AHUs)

Outlet cross-sectional area of fans used in air handling units is smaller than cross-sectional area of chambers which are located next to the fan. In order to ensure efficiently operating of the air handling units, it is required that the air flows through a perforated diffuser to create a uniform air diffusion from fan outlet to following chamber with a minimum pressure loss and uniform velocity distribution. In this concept, numerical simulations and experiments were performed for the chamber with perforated V-profile diffuser, which is often used in air handling units because of its simple geometry and easy manufacturing. Pressure losses were firstly obtained experimentally for different air velocities in the chamber. Then a performance analysis on the air flow diffusion and pressure losses inside chamber with perforated V-profile diffuser for different geometric parameters such as entry length, apex angle, geometry and pattern of hole, plate thickness, porosity and surface roughness has been carried out numerically. It is seen that the experimental results validated with the numerical turbulence model results

Stable directions for small nonlinear Dirac standing waves

We prove that for a Dirac operator with no resonance at thresholds nor eigenvalue at thresholds the propagator satisfies propagation and dispersive estimates. When this linear operator has only two simple eigenvalues close enough, we study an associated class of nonlinear Dirac equations which have stationary solutions. As an application of our decay estimates, we show that these solutions have stable directions which are tangent to the subspaces associated with the continuous spectrum of the Dirac operator. This result is the analogue, in the Dirac case, of a theorem by Tsai and Yau about the Schr\"{o}dinger equation. To our knowledge, the present work is the first mathematical study of the stability problem for a nonlinear Dirac equation.Comment: 62 page

Environmental Education in Serbian Primary Schools: Challenges and Changes in Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Teacher Training

The protection of human health and the preservation of the environment are topics that form anintegral part of the primary school curriculum in Serbia. However, research studies have shown thatstudents do not have enough knowledge to contribute to the development of a healthy lifestyle andenvironmental awareness. The latest changes in school policy and curricula confirm that the relevanceof environmental education has been recognized, but changes in school practice are yet to come. Thisarticle discusses the challenges encountered in the implementation of the intended curriculum andoffers suggestions for changes to the curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher training in order to enhanceenvironmental educationThis is the peer-reviewd version of the artivle: Stanišić, Jelena, и Slavica Maksić. 2014. „Environmental Education in Serbian Primary Schools: Challenges and Changes in Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Teacher Training“. Journal of Environmental Education 45(2):118–31. doi: 10.1080/00958964.2013.829019.Related to published version: [ http://ipir.ipisr.org.rs/handle/123456789/240

An evaluation of three DoE-guided meta-heuristic-based solution methods for a three-echelon sustainable distribution network

This article evaluates the efficiency of three meta-heuristic optimiser (viz. MOGA-II, MOPSO and NSGA-II)-based solution methods for designing a sustainable three-echelon distribution network. The distribution network employs a bi-objective location-routing model. Due to the mathematically NP-hard nature of the model a multi-disciplinary optimisation commercial platform, modeFRONTIER®, is adopted to utilise the solution methods. The proposed Design of Experiment (DoE)-guided solution methods are of two phased that solve the NP-hard model to attain minimal total costs and total CO2 emission from transportation. Convergence of the optimisers are tested and compared. Ranking of the realistic results are examined using Pareto frontiers and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution approach, followed by determination of the optimal transportation routes. A case of an Irish dairy processing industry’s three-echelon logistics network is considered to validate the solution methods. The results obtained through the proposed methods provide information on open/closed distribution centres (DCs), vehicle routing patterns connecting plants to DCs, open DCs to retailers and retailers to retailers, and number of trucks required in each route to transport the products. It is found that the DoE-guided NSGA-II optimiser based solution is more efficient when compared with the DoE-guided MOGA-II and MOPSO optimiser based solution methods in solving the bi-objective NP-hard three-echelon sustainable model. This efficient solution method enable managers to structure the physical distribution network on the demand side of a logistics network, minimising total cost and total CO2 emission from transportation while satisfying all operational constraints