Earlier research has found that it is useful to distinguish situations in which students construct external representations on their own from situations in which they are expected to interpret already provided external representations. One type of representations that is particularly important for teaching mechanics is the free-body diagram. In this study, we investigated how inclusion of free-body diagrams into problem statements influences students' performance in solving mechanics problems. To that end two versions of a five-problem assessment instrument that only differed with respect to the inclusion/non-inclusion of free-body diagrams (FBDs) were administered to two groups of first year physics students. It was found that inclusion of free-body diagrams into the problem statements not only did not facilitate problem solving, but also impeded it significantly. Particularly large between group differences, in favor of the group not provided with FBDs, were detected for problems that required use of free-body diagrams showing resolution of forces into components. The results of our study indicate that consistency between internal and external representations of knowledge is a very important requirement for effective problem solving and effective learning of physics, in general. This consistency is most easily established when students use self-constructed external representations.

The Qur’an does not mention a lot of alcohol, but pedagogically it explains its gradual ban in a convenient way by pointing out that alcohol is not used in a “good” benefit. Say, “My Lord has only forbidden immoralities what is apparent of them and what is concealed and sin, and oppression without right, and that you associate with Allah that for which He has not sent down authority, and that you say about Allah that which you do not know (Chapter: Al-A’raf, verse: 33). The item (verses) of the Qur’an makes only one step in the prohibition of alcohol, but the verses are not listed nor are the examples of the alcohol prohibition. In fact, the Qur’an wants to make people give up alcohol, but the great difficulty is the fact that they have been united with him and what he’s become a habit and tradition. They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, “In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they should spend. Say, “The excess [beyond needs].” Thus Allah makes clear to you the verses [of revelation] that you might give thought”(Chapter: Al-Baqara, verse 219). Here it is quite clear that the “bad” benefit is actually alcohol and gambling.

Testimony psychotherapy is a brief individual psychotherapeutic method for working with survivors of state-sponsored violence. First described by a group of Chilean mental health professionals who were working with survivors of political violence during the Pinochet dictatorship it was further described by Agger and Jensen in their work with refugees in Denmark and with Holocaust survivors.  All groups report that testimony functions both in private and in public realm as a means for individual recovery and a means of bearing witness to historical truths.Although testimony approach is not strictly a clinical intervention, many have noted that it offers the survivor clinical benefits. This observation was confirmed in our study  of testimony psychotherapy with survivors from Bosnia and Herzegovina.As part of  research activities of the ‘Project on Genocide, Psychiatry and Witnessing’ of The University of Illinois at Chicago, dr Stevan Weine and I conducted a pilot clinical trial of testimony psychotherapy, at the same time creating oral history archives, and creating awareness in the community of Bosnian refugees of the importance of documenting the survivors’ narratives. In this work we were functioning as witnessing professionals, committed to helping individual survivor's recovery, but also to addressing the social and historical tragedy of genocide.. Because we saw testimony work from an interdisciplinary perspective, we also sought to create testimony documents that would move outside of the psychotherapeutic dyad and make connections with others in the scholarly, human rights, artistic, and survivors' communities.

Small modular district heating/cooling grids can be fed by different heat sources, including solar collectors, biomass systems and surplus heat sources (e.g. heat from industrial processes or biogas plants that is not yet used). Especially the combination of solar heating and biomass heating is a very promising strategy for smaller rural communities due to its contribution to security of supply, price stability, local economic development, local employment, etc. On the one hand, solar heating requires no fuel and on the other hand biomass heating can store energy and release it during winter when there is less solar heat available. Thereby, heat storage (buffer tanks for short- term storage and seasonal tanks/basins for long- term storage) needs to be integrated. With increasing shares of fluctuating renewable electricity production (PV, wind), the Power-to- Heat conversion through heat pumps can furthermore help to balance the power grid. The objective of the CoolHeating project, funded by the EU’s Horizon2020 programme, is to support the implementation of "small modular renewable heating and cooling grids" for communities in South-Eastern Europe.

The aim of this study was to show the trends of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in two analyzed periods at the Department of Neurology Tuzla, Bosnia and HerzegovinaPatients and methods. This retrospective study included 2363 patients with acute stroke who were hospitalized at the Department of Neurology Tuzla in the period from 2013 to 2015. Demographic data, types of stroke and mortality were analyzed in the three years period and compared with the previously analyzed period (2001-2005). The necessary data were taken from the standard history chart. The inclusion criterion was stroke confirmation with neuroimaging techniques. Results. Out of 2363 patients with acute stroke, there were 1186 (50.2%) women and 1177 (49.8%) men without statistical significance. The average age was 70 years. Ischemic strokes (IS) were statistically more frequent in the period 2013-2015 (p=0.02), while intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) was more common in the previously analyzed period (2001-2005) (p=0.0001). There was statistical significance in the distribution of certain types of stroke. The most frequent risk factors were hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes mellitus. The mortality for all types of stroke, and the total in-hospital mortality were lower in comparison to the previously analyzed period (2001-2005).Conclusion. Improved diagnostic procedures lead to a different distribution of stroke subtypes. In the three-year analysis period, the prevalence of ischemic stroke increased and the in-hospital mortality reduced. Adequate control of modifiable stroke risk factors may help to reduce the occurrence of stroke.

In this paper, we consider the nonlinear superposition operator F in lp spaces of sequences (1 ≤ p ≤ ∞), generated by the function f(s,u)=a(s) + arctan u or f(s,u) = a(s) - arctan u. We find out the Rhodius spectra σR(F) and the Neuberger spectra σN(F) of these operators and finally the radii of these spectra. The superposition operator generated by the function f(s,u) = a(s) ∓ arccot u appears to be a special case of above mentioned operator.