This paper explores the needs and outcomes of adopted children with a particular focus on those in England and Wales. A review of recent relevant adoption literature identifies both large-scale meta-analyses of data and case study research, focusing on, children's physical growth, mental health, attachment and cognition. The review evidence suggests that despite the remarkable catch up experienced by some adopted children, those adopted in this country are exposed to more risk factors than in other parts of Europe and, therefore, require specific, carefully planned interventions to increase their chances of successful outcomes. Consideration is given to the role of educational psychologists with adopted children and their families and the distinctive contribution they can make.


BACKGROUND
Little information is available on the use of tools in intensive care units to help nurses determine when to restrain a patient. Patients in medical-surgical intensive care units are often restrained for their safety to prevent them from removing therapeutic devices. Research indicates that restraints do not necessarily prevent injuries or removal of devices by patients.

OBJECTIVES
To decrease use of restraints in a medical-surgical intensive care unit and to determine if a decision support tool is useful in helping bedside nurses determine whether or not to restrain a patient.

METHODS
A quasi-experimental study design was used for this pilot study. Data were collected for each patient each shift indicating if therapeutic devices were removed and if restraints were used. An online educational activity supplemented by 1-on-1 discussion about proper use of restraints, alternatives, and use of a restraint decision tool was provided. Frequency of restraint use was determined. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to examine nurses' perceptions of the decision support tool.

RESULTS
Use of restraints was reduced 32%. No unplanned extubations or disruption of life-threatening therapeutic devices by unrestrained patients occurred.

CONCLUSIONS
With implementation of the decision support tool, nurses decreased their use of restraints yet maintained patients' safety. A decision support tool may help nurses who are undecided or who need reassurance on their decision to restrain or not restrain a patient.


To many, if not most, of us, it would seem like "common sense that you do not go to jail unless there is a potential that your activities will cause harm to others...." It has certainly long been accepted that government should not resort to the criminal law to control behaviour unless that behaviour creates a real risk of harm. But what if the government thought otherwise? What if the government decided to criminalize recreational activities that posed a neglible risk of harm to society? What if the government decided to criminalize conduct which, for the vast majority of the public who engage in that conduct, poses no real risk of harm? Does the Charter offer any protection against unnecessary criminal laws? Does section 7 of the Charter include a "harm principle" that restricts the imposition of criminal prohibitions to conduct that causes at least some measurable harm to society? In the recent trilogy of cases dealing with a section 7 Charter challenge to the criminal prohibition on marijuana, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada decided that the "harm principle" was not a principle of fundamental justice. Despite the historical and widespread support for recognition of a "harm principle", the majority's decision wisely prevented the creation of a double-edged sword. In other words, constitutionalization of a "harm principle" could equally have led to challenges by public interest groups demanding that the government criminalize conduct that the group considers potentially injurious to society.
Did we even need a "harm principle" to be enshrined within section 7 of the Charter? Ironically, prior to the majority's decision in the trilogy of marijuana cases, the general balancing approach which the Supreme Court of Canada had recognized and applied, would have been reasonably well-suited to the task. Unfortunately, in the course of losing the battle to establish a firm footing for the "harm principle", the appellants in the marijuana cases seem to also have severely narrowed the scope of substantive review afforded by previously decided cases.


Since 2005 NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) has been evaluating how farmland biodiversity may be enhanced by habitat management options available under Environmental Stewardship, the English agri-environmental scheme. Under the Common Agricultural Policy UK farmers adopt basic 'cross compliance' environmental standards, including leaving 1-2 metre wide uncropped margins around arable fields. Under the Entry Level Scheme (ELS) tier of Environmental Stewardship, farmers can gain additional subsidy for installing 6-m-wide field margins of rough grasses to provide habitat for e.g. small mammals. However, few studies have examined how small mammals respond to agri-environment schemes in Britain (reviewed in Macdonald et al. 2007, Mammal Review 37), and the potential large-scale benefits of ELS margins remain untested.
Between 2005 and 2011 CEH compared small mammal communities on field margins across the 1,000 ha Hillesden estate, a typical lowland arable farm in Buckinghamshire. A randomised block experiment was established, with five replicate blocks of farmland each containing three areas of management (43-70 ha): (1) standard 'cross compliance' with conventional 1-2 m field margins; (2) a typical ELS regime where 1% of farmland was taken out of production and 6-m-wide grassy field margins were installed; (3) a trial 'ELS-Extra' treatment that took 5% of land out of production and installed 6-m-wide grassy field margins and flower-rich plots. Using Longworth live-trapping, we compared small mammal communities on conventional and grassy field margins between these treatments. Trapping was carried out on five morning and evening sessions over three days in autumn and spring, in four years of the six year period. We used two trap-lines totalling 22 traps on each treatment replicate, to see how the small mammal communities developed after margin installation. In total 13,200 traps were checked during the study.
The results were very encouraging (Broughton et al., in prep.). Over the study duration the number of species detected on the estate increased from one, wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), to include bank vole (Myodes glareolus), field vole (microtus agrestris), harvest mouse (Micromys minutus), common shrew (Sorex araneus), pygmy shrew (S. minutus) and water shrew (Neomys fodiens), with occasional house mouse (Mus musculus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicu) and weasel (Mustela nivalis). In autumn, generalised linear modelling indicated that average species richness was 44% greater on ELS and ELS-Extra field margins than on conventional cross compliance margins, with significantly greater abundance of bank and field voles. The average number of animals of all species in autumn was generally greater on the ELS/ELS-Extra margins, but this was not statistically significant and overall abundance also increased on cross compliance margins. Across the estate, the overall number of animals detected in autumn quadrupled within 3 years before stabilising at this higher level.
The modelling indicated a more complicated pattern in spring, with an increase in species richness across all treatments over time, and an increase in overall abundance on ELS/ELS-Extra margins but no change on cross compliance. This pattern was driven by declining numbers of wood mice that were largely replaced by bank and field voles, perhaps hinting at inter-specific competition.
In summary, these results indicated that installation of 6-m-wide grassy field margins led to substantial increases in the diversity and abundance of small mammals not only on those margins created under ELS, but also on surrounding conventional farmland. This implied a possible 'spill over' effect of ELS margins creating a reservoir of animals that dispersed into other areas. However, we found no additional benefit of the ELS-Extra treatment over standard ELS, suggesting that the 1% of farmland given over to ELS management was sufficient to achieve positive benefits at the farm-scale.


This paper estimates the impact of solar and wind power intermittency on wholesale prices, arbitrage opportunities and the profitability of storage. First, I use the short term randomness of wind and solar generation to estimate the hourly reductions in wholesale electricity market prices (merit-order effect) in Mexico. Second, since hydropower is already acting as battery storage by smoothing the hourly intermittency of wind and solar, I use lags to control for the reallocation, to estimate the appropriate dynamic merit-order effect and to project future wholesale prices for larger renewables capacities. Third, I use dynamic optimization to assess the profitability of energy arbitrage for a marginal storer. Storage profits based on market average wholesale prices for 2019 (10.6 GW of wind and solar) are lower than the levelized cost of batteries (LCOE). For the 2029 planned wind and solar capacities (30.9 GW), storage arbitrage profits would be within the range of its projected declining LCOE for a 4-hour battery. Nevertheless, for nodes with large price variances and not fully transmission congested, arbitrage storage would be within the range of the LCOE sooner by 2025 (25.4 GW). Pumped-storage hydro arbitrages power at a lower rate which make its profits lower than those of the batteries. The full value of storage can be larger if we consider other services (e.g. frequency regulation). Similar lessons will apply to grids/countries with increasing shares of renewables and non-dominant hydropower.


It is known that the elastic characteristics of polyamides change with increasing temperature; in particular, the Young's modulus decreases significantly. This fact is practically not taken into account in design calculations of metal-polymer plain (MP) bearings, operating under conditions of the boundary and dry friction. The purpose of the study was the analysis of the effect of temperature on the change of the Young's modulus and, accordingly, the contact strength and triboresource according to the developed method of calculating MP bearings. MP bearings with a bushing made of polyamide PA6 reinforced with glass or carbon-dispersed fibers were investigated. Quantitative and qualitative regularities of change of the maximum contact pressures and resource of the bearings at temperature increase under conditions of boundary and dry friction are established. The pressures in the bearing bushing made of PA6 + 30GF will be lower than for the bushing made of PA6 + 30CF. The resource of the bushing made of PA6 + 30CF will be significantly greater than for PA6 + 30GF. For thermoplastic polymers, the increase in temperature will have a useful practical effect due to the decrease in the rigidity of the polymer composites of the bearing bushing.


Reduced bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor (BMPR) expression and BMP signaling have been implicated in vascular cell proliferation and remodeling associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The low penetrance of the BMPR II disease gene in familial PAH suggests that additional genetic or environmental factors are involved in clinical manifestation of PAH. Smurf1 ubiquitin ligase, together with inhibitory SMAD 6/7, forms a negative feedback loop for the attenuation of BMP signals by downregulating BMPR and signaling molecules and, in addition, functions in the integration of MAPK/Ras mitogenic pathways. The present study found that Smurf1 was significantly elevated in pulmonary arteries of monocrotaline and hypoxia-induced PAH rats. In the pulmonary artery of hypoxia-exposed mice, elevation of Smurf1 and SMAD7 was correlated with reduced expression of BMPR II protein. Over-expression of Smurf1 in cultured cells induced ubiquitination and degradation of BMPR I and II whereas ligase-inactive Smurf1 reduced ubiquitination and elevated their protein levels, thus serving a dominant-negative function. Smurf1-induced receptor degradation was inhibited by both proteasomal and lysosomal inhibitors. Thus, Smurf1 reduces steady-state levels of BMPRs by ubiquitination and subsequent degradation involving proteasomes and lysosomes. Therefore, these results show that Smurf1 induction could be a key event for triggering downregulation of BMP signaling and causing vascular cell proliferation and remodeling in PAH and that abrogating Smurf1 function could be a strategy for PAH therapeutics.


During recent years it has been found that milk sensitization is a relatively common cause of food allergy, and although more frequently observed in infants, it occurs in adults as well. Many of these milk sensitive persons are unable to take raw or pasteurized cow's milk but can well tolerate boiled, evaporated or dried cow's milk. In an endeavor to explain this better tolerance for heated milk, the present study was undertaken. The chemical and immunologic properties of milk have been extensively studied for many years. A complete review of the literature with a summary of the work done prior to 1921 is given by Wells and Osborne. 1 From milk, a complex protein-containing solution, four proteins have been isolated, which have been found to be chemically and immunologically distinct. Casein, a complex calcium salt containing phosphorus, occurs in a colloidal form and is readily separated from the whey proteins


In this paper we use multiple case studies and apply work system theory to them to better understand user satisfaction in each case. Based on the IS success model and the three case studies we conclude that beside the classic investigated objects information and technology as proposed by the IS success model also additional component of a work system influence user satisfaction. In particular we identified that work practices and also the relation between work practices, information and technologies have an influence on user satisfaction. We also revealed products/services and customers as potential drivers of user satisfaction and analyzed individual, environmental, strategical, and infrastructure characteristics as important contextual factors. Therefore, we suggest a work system success model for an extended understanding of user satisfaction that should better guide organizations when designing and implementing information systems.


This paper analyzes the relationship between trade policy and economic performance. The paper is divided in two fundamental parts. The first one uses a cross country data set to investigate the relationship between trade policy and productivity growth. It is found that countries that are more open to the rest of the world have experienced faster growth in total factor productivity than countries with high trade barriers. In the second part the recent Latin American experiences with trade liberalization reforms are investigated. It is shown that in the last few years the Latin American countries have gone from having one of the most distorted external sectors, to having very low degrees of protectionism. The extent of the liberalization efforts is documented and the effect on productivity and exports is investigated.


ABSTRACT Past and ongoing scandals in the business world provide justification for an increased emphasis on ethics and corporate social responsibility content in undergraduate business study, not as a separate course but integrated with other courses. The current paper presents a case history of the justification, planning, and practice of integrating ethics and corporate social responsibility material into the Principles of Marketing course at Bellarmine University, a small, historically Catholic, liberal arts university in the South. Relevant literature, the authors' experiences, both in the planning stages and after the new course design's initial offerings are discussed. Additional perspectives from the institution's President, Provost, and Dean of the Business School are presented, along with recommendations for other schools wrestling with how to address this issue. INTRODUCTION Through collaborative efforts among the marketing faculty of the business school and the philosophy department of the arts and sciences college at a small southern university the authors we were able to integrate informative and practical content on ethical and corporate social responsibility issues into the Principles of Marketing course. This was accomplished by: linking our effort to the mission statements of the university and business school, direct application of university goals and objectives to course outcomes, and, through the thoughtful and active support of the administration. The rationale and explanation of how this came to pass is recounted below. Periodically, stories of questionable, and at times criminal, business activity have risen to dominate the business press. Rite-Aid and Wal-Mart have been investigated for their charge-back policies that leave their suppliers confused and temporarily or permanently underpaid. Sears Roebuck's disregard for bankruptcy laws, debtors' rights, and creditor priorities led to a $63 million fine--the largest in U.S. bankruptcy law history, to name a few (Jennings, 1999). Stories of unethical business practices, and their consequences have also come to dominate the popular press. Recently, Time Magazine named three corporate whistleblowers as their Persons of the Year for 2002 (Lacayo & Ripley, 2002). The most widely reported story involving questionable business practices of recent history, and the one that has generated the most discussion beyond business professionals, is Enron. While the final chapter in that story has yet to be written, there has been widespread negative impact on employees as well as a large number of retirement plans. With the potential for criminal sentences and new Congressional legislation, the Enron scandal highlights once again the fact that organizations do not make decisions, individuals do. The Enron story also underscores the need for institutions of higher education to reexamine whether and how they address the subjects of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their curricula. Most of these scandals are not marketing transgressions per se. Fallout will likely involve public relations and affect future advertising and sales efforts for the firms. Because of this reality, an organization's ongoing marketing effectiveness is brought into play. While various alleged and admitted business actions may only be tangentially related to marketing, marketing's integrative nature and broad spectrum reach make it a natural area, both within the firm and in the curriculum, to link with ethical issues. Transactions between buyers and sellers are at the heart of marketing. Given the numerous temptations for buyers and sellers to act unethically, before, during, and after transactions, the Principles of Marketing course is both a logical, and an ideal location, for discussion of business ethics and their influences on decision-making. The accreditation agency for collegiate schools of business (AACSB International) has placed increased emphasis on teaching ethics to undergraduate and graduate business students (Silver & Valentine, 2000). …


The two key concepts developed in this article, 'hyper-dependence' and 'hyper-precarity', are aimed at drawing attention to the constitutive role of immigration law in shaping certain vulnerabilities in migrants' work relations. Immigration law is not merely concerned with controlling the entry and exit of migrants, but also creates personal legal statuses - some highly precarious - that shape their employment and residence in the host state. The two 'hyper' concepts seek to elucidate the most problematic features of Temporary Migrant Worker Programmes (TMWPs) currently found in a number of advanced industrialized, liberal democratic countries. Hyper-dependence refers to a particular tie of migrant workers to their employers as a requirement of their legal status. Hyper-precarity refers to the tenuous nature, in law and practice, of these workers' entitlements to employment protection, social rights, and transition to more secure residence status. In some circumstances both hyper-dependence and hyper-precarity can combine to give rise to extremely exploitative situations for migrants at work. This article explores possible normative constraints on states' design and implementation of TMWPs. It identifies two genres of normative interventions that may respond to the legal construction of hyper-precarity and hyper-dependence: first, the international human rights framework, and second, the discourse against forms of exploitation that could be regarded as 'unfree labour'. However, it is argued that neither of the discourses poses a fundamental challenge to host states' powers to create the precarious statuses of non-citizens admitted into their territory, nor do they tackle the complex realities of migrants' work relations on a continuum of exploitation.


The rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths caused are increasing. Studies have been reporting the inclining rate of psychological distress during the pandemic, which calls for attention to how the pandemic has impacted mental health outcomes. Coping strategies are helpful when it comes to predicting mental health outcomes. However, limited studies looked at coping strategies predicting mental health outcomes longitudinally. The study hypothesized that psychological distress would decrease during mid-pandemic and adaptive coping strategies such as active coping, acceptance, positive reframing, instrumental support, emotional support, religion, humor, and planning decrease psychological distress while maladaptive included denial and venting, behavioral disengagements, substance use, self-blame, self-distraction. Current study collected participants from social media platform and university students since April to June 2020 via online survey. A series of linear mixed models expressed the relationship between coping strategies and psychological distress during the pandemic. Results found statistical significance in denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, venting, humor, and self-blame as maladaptive ( p < .001). No coping strategies that associated with decreased psychological distress was found. However, exploratory results showed that acceptance, active coping, and positive reframing had different positive predictions on depression, anxiety, and stress. The study implies that coping strategies during a pandemic, alternative to denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, venting, humor, and self-blame, should be further explored. It also informs the need to appraise the situation before deploying certain coping strategies.


This report explains why road network asset managers are concerned with understanding and quantifying the remaining life of key components of road infrastructure assets, especially road pavements and bridges. The issues in estimating remaining life are reviewed. Current practices of the major road authorities in Australia and New Zealand in estimating remaining life of road pavements and bridges are discussed. Common terms such as design life, design period, useful life, economic life, functional life, and financial life are discussed. The report outlines the experience of the Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW in estimating the life of rigid pavements, and contains two case studies. University of Texas research findings on estimation of the remaining life of continuously reinforced concrete pavements are summarised. For bridges, this report discusses deterioration, highlights the need for standardisation in the approach to recording condition and maintenance history, and summarises recent bridge management initiatives by VicRoads. (a)


Fever is one of the main reasons for visits to paediatric emergency departments (ED). Although in most cases the underlying cause is self-limiting viral infections, 4 to 25 % of children visiting ED with fever develop serious bacterial infections (SBI), which are significant causes of childhood mortality, even in developed countries. Due to high number of patients visiting ED with febrile illness, rapid discrimination between children with and without possible SBI is challenging.This study aimed to improve early recognition of SBI in children who present to ED by assessing the diagnostic value of clinical signs at presentation, clinician's non-analytical reasoning, defined as "gut feeling" of serious illness and "sense of reassurance", and parental concern of different / more severe illness. Based on these variables, derivation and external validation of two clinical prediction models (CPMs) for SBI was performed, and the performance of a CPM based on clinical variables alone was compared to a model integrating clinical features together with variables of non-analytical reasoning. The models were derived from a dataset of 517 febrile patients presenting to the ED of Children's Clinical University Hospital (CCUH) in Riga, and externally validated in a dataset of 188 patients prospectively enrolled in six regional hospitals in Latvia.While the prognostic value of clinician's "gut feeling" as an independent variable for diagnosing SBI was limited, "sense of reassurance" was significantly predictive of absence of SBI, and the performance of the CPM 2 integrating the non-analytical variables with clinical features was superior in both derivation (Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) Area Under Curve (AUC) 0.783, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.727–0.839) and validation cohorts (ROC AUC 0.752, 95 % CI 0.674–0.830), when compared to the performance of the CPM 1, which was based solely on clinical variables (ROC AUC in derivation population 0.738, 95 % CI 0.688–0.788, in validation population 0.677, 95 % CI 0.586–0.767). Both CPMs had moderate ability to predict SBI in febrile children presenting to ED and acceptable performance in the validation cohort. A scoring system based on the superior prediction model was created to distinguish between patients with high or low risk of SBI, as well as to identify patients in diagnostic "grey area", in which the severity of manifestations of SBI and mild infections overlapped. Contrary to studies in primary care performed in other European countries, parental concern was not significantly predictive of SBI. Elements of fever-related anxiety were identified as factors influencig the level of parental concern and urging parents to present to healthcare early. A qualitative interview study including 34 parents of patients enrolled in derivation cohort revealed existing misconceptions regarding the possible negative effects of fever, which often were a result of unfulfilled educational and emotional needs when caring for a febrile child. This study suggests that educational intervention is necessary to reduce "fever phobia" in parents and to improve the diagnostic reliability of parental concern.


Transcriptional activation of the human CYP1A1 gene by halogenated and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is mediated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) complex, a ligand-dependent transcription factor. A competent AhR comprises at least two components following nuclear translocation and DNA binding, the AhR and the AhR nuclear translocator (Arnt) protein, whose combined action on human CYP1A1 gene transcription is shown to be dependent upon functional protein kinase C (PKC). In the present study, we examined the effects of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, a potent PKC activator, on the ligand-induced transcriptional activation of theCYP1A1 gene and cellular function of the AhR in human HepG2 101L cells. The 101L cells carry a stable transgene consisting of 1800 bases of 5*-flanking DNA and the promoter of the human CYP1A1 gene linked to the firefly luciferase structural gene (Postlind, H., Vu, T. P., Tukey, R. H. & Quattrochi, L. C. (1993) Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 118, 255–262). Pretreatment of cells with 12myristate 13-acetate enhanced ligand-induced CYP1A1 gene expression 2–3-fold. Inhibition of PKC activity blocked directly the transcriptional activation and the transactivation of the CYP1A1 gene, indicating a role for PKC in the AhR-mediated transcriptional activation process. However, the DNA binding activities of the in vitro activated and the induced nuclear AhR as measured by electrophoretic mobility shift analysis were not affected when CYP1A1 transcription was inhibited, indicating the actions of PKC to be a nuclear event that works in concert with or precedes AhR binding to the gene. These results illustrate that PKC is absolutely essential for the cellular andmolecular events that control induction of CYP1A1 gene transcription.


Public transportation business, including businesses that emphasize the sale of services. The definition of service is a performance appearance, intangible, and quickly disappear, more can be felt rather than owned, and customers more quickly participate actively in the process of consuming these services (Kotler, 1994: 464). According Schaars (in Tjiptono, 2000: 24) at essentially the purpose of a process is to create the passengers to feel satisfied, the creation of satisfaction is to provide the benefits of creating a harmonious relationship between companies and customers and create loyalty among customers and the company. Satisfaction itself is the assessment of a person after membendingkan expectations and reality (Day in Tjiptono, 2000: 89). This research is a non-experimental research that aims to determine the effect of Service Quality of
Public Transport Service User satisfaction. Independent variables: Quality of Service, Variable Bound: Passenger Satisfaction. The subject of this research are passengers of public transport as many as 100 people. Of scale was done on August 10, 2005. Data collection methods used are Likert scale. Ddata analyzed by regression analysis of predictors. Results of regression analysis that is "no influence on the service quality of public transport passenger satisfaction" that significantly (F = 145,464 and P = 0.000) and coefficient of determinant is equal to 59.7% It is suggested that the relationship between public transport companies should co-exist with the passengers, passengers want to be served as possible while the public transport company with a good quality service will bring a positive image for public transport company itself. If the relationship of mutual benefit both to the quality of service, then there will be satisfaction on each - both parties of course they will always be connected continuously.


Abstract This article pursues an innovative dimension of social entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector that keeps rural areas viable, so-called social farming. Social entrepreneurship appears as an essential driver in the European economy and it heads toward new opportunities mainly through its impact on social integration, economic sustainability, and fair society. Social farming and social farms can successfully respond to the challenge of social exclusion and lack of social services provision and other opportunities in rural areas through alternative therapeutic activities, sheltered working places or integrative educational activities in a farm environment. From this perspective, a social farm should correspond to the definition of a social enterprise. By introducing the basic frames of social entrepreneurship and social farming in general and in the Czech Republic, and by concentrating on fifteen Czech social farms, this paper presents an insight into this retro-innovative practice of social integration systems in the countryside. It mainly answers the question, whether social farming complies fully with social entrepreneurship stream, and it explores the role of the social farm in rural development by using semi-structured and in-depth interviews.


Four ONNO donor Schiff bases 2-(( E )-(2-(( E )-2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)ethylimino) methyl)phenol (H 2 L 1 ), 2-(( E )-(2-(( E )-2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)propylimino)methyl) phenol (H 2 L 2 ), 2-(( E )-1-(2-(( E )-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl) ethylideneamino)ethylimino)ethyl) phenol (H 2 L 3 ) and 2-(( E )-1-(2-(( E )-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylideneamino)propylimino) ethyl)phenol (H 2 L 4 ) were synthesized by the reactions of ethylene/propylene diamines with 2-hydroxy benzaldehyde/2-hydroxy acetophenone. The new compounds were characterized by FT-IR and NMR ( 1 H and 13 C) spectroscopic techniques accompanied by elemental, GC/MS and single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. These compounds were screened for various biological studies i.e. brine shrimp cytotoxic, antitumor and antibacterial activities The compound H 2 L 3 showed highest cytotoxic and antitumor activities with lowest LD 50 (14.27) and IC 50 values (18.90). All the compounds were highly active in protecting DNA against hydroxyl free radicals. Antibacterial studies had shown that these were inactive against Gram positive bacteria ( Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus) while active against Gram negative bacteria ( Enterobacter aerogenes , Bordetella bronchiseptica and Salmonella typhi) showing variable antibacterial activity.


Efforts to decentralise the pursuit of economic and social development have increased in recent years. The authors examine the rationale for establishing local development companies in areas of high unemployment and deprivation. The broad purpose is to establish a new style of organisation that combines attributes of the public and private sectors-to adapt and integrate economic and social services to meet local needs, to champion local interests in external arenas, and to act as enabling agents to promote local investment and development. These arguments are elaborated and illustrated with reference to one of Britain's most successful local development companies, Govan Initiative. The analysis reveals important strengths of the Initiative, including its action orientation, commitment to quality, and a local leadership role, but also certain weaknesses including its limited leverage over wider policies and resource flows. Local development companies need meaningful commitment from regional and national public organisations to fulfil their potential.


woman that this perinatal mortality rate would, by their own data, still mean a risk increased 28-fold over that in delivery by caesarean section, and I doubt whether many women would find a risk presented in this way very reassuring. But it is doubtful whether the authors are justified to use their figures for antenatal counselling purposes at all. It has to be recognised, for medicolegal as well as counselling purposes, that women for a "trial of vaginal delivery" and those who actually had a vaginal delivery represent overlapping but essentially different populations. Some women who deliver vaginally were not intended for a trial, and often were not even known to have a breech presentation, and many women who were planned to have a "trial" do not end up being delivered vaginally. Antenatal counselling must emphasise the increased risk for intrapartum intervention, but the onus of proof for advising a routine intervention such as elective caesarean section must lie with the advocates of such a policy. Unless solid data to the contrary emerge, I will continue to counsel women with a mature fetus presenting by the breech that, given proper antenatal assessment and selection, and with modern methods of obstetric management, there is no evidence of any increase in perinatal mortality associated with a trial of vaginal delivery.


Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of hospital-related health care costs. Hypercholesterolemia is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and both genetic and environmental factors affect cholesterol levels. Although the clinical symptoms and signs of elevated cholesterol levels in children do not occur until adulthood, arterial dysfunction and plaque formation begin much earlier. Thirty-six percent of US youth have a cholesterol level that is higher than normal (>170 mg/dL), with elevated low-density lipoprotein levels associated with atherosclerotic lesions and ultimate disease. Because the disease process begins in childhood and adolescence, early prevention in childhood is critically important. Currently, universal cholesterol screening of adolescents is the most cost-effective method of identifying individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia who need intensive and early preventive care.


Numerical weather, climate, or Earth system models involve the coupling of components. At a broad level, these components can be classified as the resolved fluid dynamics, unresolved fluid dynamical aspects (i.e., those represented by physical parameterizations such as subgrid-scale mixing), and nonfluid dynamical aspects such as radiation and microphysical processes. Typically, each component is developed, at least initially, independently. Once development is mature, the components are coupled to deliver a model of the required complexity. The implementation of the coupling can have a significant impact on the model. As the error associated with each component decreases, the errors introduced by the coupling will eventually dominate. Hence, any improvement in one of the components is unlikely to improve the performance of the overall system. The challenges associated with combining the components to create a coherent model are here termed physics–dynamics coupling. The issue goes beyond the coupling between the parameterizations and the resolved fluid dynamics. This paper highlights recent progress and some of the current challenges. It focuses on three objectives: to illustrate the phenomenology of the coupling problem with references to examples in the literature, to show how the problem can be analyzed, and to create awareness of the issue across the disciplines and specializations. The topics addressed are different ways of advancing full models in time, approaches to understanding the role of the coupling and evaluation of approaches, coupling ocean and atmosphere models, thermodynamic compatibility between model components, and emerging issues such as those that arise as model resolutions increase and/or models use variable resolutions.


Sound regional policies are essential for balanced and sustained economic growth. The interaction of federal and regional policies with cross-regional structural differences affects human and physical capital formation, the business climate, private investment, market depth, and competition. This paper summarizes the main elements of Russia's fiscal federalism, describes the channels through which it operates, and assesses the effectiveness of regional transfers in reducing regional disparities. The results suggest that federal transfers to regions contributed to reducing disparities arising from heterogeneous regional tax bases and fiscal revenues. This allowed regions with initially lower per capita income to increase human and physical capital at higher rates. There is little evidence for transfers contributing to increased cross-regional growth synchronization. The results also suggest that federal transfers did not significantly improve regional fiscal sustainability, a conclusion that is supported by the lack of convergence in per capita real income across Russian regions in the last 15 years.


To probe for the involvement of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II in the regulation of insulin secretion, the effects of a specific inhibitor of this enzyme, KN-62, on secretagogue-stimulated insulin secretion, cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) rise, membrane depolarization, and nutrient metabolism were examined in HIT-T15 cells. KN-62 dose-dependently inhibited insulin secretion induced by a nutrient mixture (10 mM glucose, 5 mM leucine, and 5 mM glutamine) alone or combined with either the Ca(2+)-mobilizing receptor agonist bombesin or the cAMP-raising agent forskolin in intact cells. KN-62 did not affect Ca(2+)- or GTP analogue-induced insulin secretion from permeabilized cells, indicating an action at a step before exocytosis. The stimulating effects of nutrients on insulin secretion, [Ca2+]i, and membrane depolarization were potentiated by bombesin. Similarly, bombesin promoted a larger depolarization and [Ca2+]i rise in the presence of nutrients. This was associated with enhanced Ca2+ mobilization and the appearance of sustained [Ca2+]i elevation. The bombesin-induced membrane depolarization, like the nutrient effect, was inhibited by diazoxide, suggesting that this is due to closure of ATP-sensitive K+ channels. Bombesin elicited Ca2+ influx by both membrane potential-sensitive and -insensitive conductance pathways. KN-62 did not affect Ca2+ mobilization and only partially reduced Ca2+ entry during the sustained [Ca2+]i rise in bombesin-stimulated cells. When added before or during the stimulation, KN-62 dose-dependently inhibited nutrient- and KCl-stimulated [Ca2+]i elevation and Mn2+ influx (reflecting Ca2+ entry). The calmodulin antagonist CGS 9343B and the L-type Ca2+ channel blocker SR-7037 mimicked the inhibitory effect of KN-62 on stimulated insulin secretion and [Ca2+]i elevation. Membrane depolarization and nutrient metabolism (reduction of a tetrazolium derivative), however, were not altered by KN-62 treatment, indicating that the early coupling events from nutrient metabolism to closure of ATP-sensitive K+ channels remain operative. These results suggest that KN-62 and the calmodulin antagonist CGS 9343B inhibit Ca2+ influx by means of direct interaction with L-type Ca2+ channels, which, in turn, causes inhibition of stimulated insulin secretion. Thus, it appears that Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II is not involved in the regulation of insulin secretion.


Most mathematical models of plant disease epidemics ignore the growth and phenology of the host crop. Unfortunately, reports of disease development are often not accompanied by a simultaneous and commensurate evaluation of crop development. However, the time scale for increases in the leaf area of field crops is comparable to the time scale of epidemics. This simultaneous development of host and pathogen has many ramifications on the resulting plant disease epidemic. First, there is a simple dilution effect resulting from the introduction of new healthy leaf area with time. Often, measurements of disease levels are made pro rata (per unit of host leaf area or total root length or mass). Thus, host growth will reduce the apparent infection rate. A second, related effect, has to do with the so-called "correction factor," which accounts for inoculum falling on already infected tissue. This factor accounts for multiple infection and is given by the fraction of the host tissue that is susceptible to disease. As an epidemic develops, less and less tissue is open to infection and the initial exponential growth slows. Crop growth delays the impact of this limiting effect and, therefore, tends to increase the rate of disease progress. A third and often neglected effect arises when an increase in the density of susceptible host tissue results in a corresponding increase in the basic reproduction ratio, R(0), defined as the ratio of the total number of daughter lesions produced to the number of original mother lesions. This occurs when the transport efficiency of inoculum from infected to susceptible host is strongly dependent on the spatial density of plant tissue. Thus, crop growth may have a major impact on the development of plant disease epidemics occurring during the vegetative phase of crop growth. The effects that these crop growth-related factors have on plant disease epidemics spread by airborne spores are evaluated using mathematical models and their importance is discussed. In particular, plant disease epidemics initiated by the introduction of inoculum during this stage of development are shown to be relatively insensitive to the time at which inoculum is introduced.


Mutual funds vary greatly in their reliance on proxy advisory recommendations. Over 25% of funds rely almost entirely on Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommendations, while other funds place little weight on them. Funds with higher benefits and lower costs of researching the items up for vote are less likely to rely on ISS. These actively voting funds are less likely to vote in a "one-size-fits-all" manner, and they earn higher alphas, consistent with benefits from this allocation of resources. For the underlying firms, the presence of actively voting funds mitigates the influence of ISS and helps sway shareholder votes toward value-maximizing outcomes.


This study investigated differences in the type of and number of perceived barriers to engagement in physical activity experienced by adult women and men in the same geographical area, the relationship between the experienced barriers and stages of change in relation to exercise behavior, and identified barriers related to reported engagement in leisure‐time physical activity. Data were obtained from a population study by the National Institute of Public Health in two counties during 2000–2001. The sample consisted of 2709 females and 2212 men in the age groups 75, 60, 45, 40 and 30 years. Questionnaires measured barriers to engagement in physical activity, engagement in physical activity and readiness for engaging in physical activity (stages of change). Multivariate analyses of variance demonstrated significant age and gender differences in the perceptions of barriers at the various stages of change. The logistic regressions [estimated odds ratios (OR)] demonstrated that low scores for affective/cognitive and practical barriers were significantly associated with higher OR for engagement in physical activity for women, and low‐priority barriers and lower age were associated with higher OR for being physically active for men. The information from this study should be valuable for designing and tailoring both motivational strategies and interventions to fit targeted groups.


Abstract: One of the most common myths in the discipline of project management is the assumption that all projects are the same and can be managed with the same set of processes and techniques. In reality, however, projects differ and "one size does not fit all." Based on our previous research, we have learned that adapting the right approach to the right project is critical to project success; yet, very few organizations know how to distinguish among their project efforts. Furthermore, we have also learned that there is no universal framework that works effectively for all organizations. NASA's procedures suggest several distinctions among projects based on product lines and priority levels. These distinctions form a base for different approval processes. The next step will be to help managers actually manage different projects in different ways. The purpose of this research was to study several NASA programs and start identifying a framework that would work for project managers and teams in the NASA environment. We used four current projects as case studies to test the validity of potential frameworks, and have suggested an initial NASA-specific framework that could eventually lead to guidelines for tailoring project and program management to project type.


Background/introduction Identifying and assessing the risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) in young people is a fundamental role of sexual health clinics. The 'Spotting the signs' proforma developed by BASHH recommends assessing all those <18 yrs for risk factors. Aim(s)/objectives The aim of this audit was to review those <18 yr olds attending the GU clinic in Brighton assessed as medium or high risk to investigate the areas of concern, the appropriateness of interventions and follow up. Methods EPR records for all <18 yr olds between 1/4/14 and 31/10/14 were reviewed. Results 56 patients identified, 86 attendances. 36/56 (64%) were 16–17 yrs. 48/56 (86%) were female. 23/56 (41%) were seen in the Young Person's Clinic, the rest seen throughout the service. Concerns included: sexual assault/non-consensual sex 41%, drugs and alcohol 39%, difficulties at home/in care 37%, mental health 37% and partner age/coercion 11%. 20% had concerns in ≥ 3 areas. Interventions: 24/56 (53%) already had social work or other agency involvement, 27% were referred to agencies for the first time as a consequence of their visit to the clinic. Further clinic follow up was arranged in 33/56 (59%). All patients had a clear action plan. Discussion/conclusion This audit suggests that older young people (16–17 yrs) have significant risk factors; the same vigilance accorded to under 16's needs to be applied to this group. Sexual Health clinics are well placed to both recognise those at risk and provide ongoing support and referral.


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of preparing a draft Guidance for Industry document on the statistical aspects of carcinogenicity studies of pharmaceuticals for public comment. The purpose of the document is to provide statistical guidance for the design of carcinogenicity experiments, methods of statistical analysis of study data, interpretation of study results, presentation of data and results in reports, and submission of electronic study data. This article covers the genesis of the guidance document and some statistical methods in study design, data analysis, and interpretation of results included in the draft FDA guidance document.


Success in electronic commerce relies greatly on customer's trust. While other studies have examined various factors affecting the online trust, a few have researched on the effects of risk awareness and website reputation together on purchase intention through online trust. The current study attempts to fill the gap. 300 samples of web-based shopping participated in online questionnaires using a quota sampling technique. Based on the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the measurement is valid and reliable. Using the structural equation modeling technique, we confirmed the significant effects of the risk awareness and the website reputation on the online trust which further contributed to the purchase intention. The relationship between the risk awareness and the website reputation is also confirmed positive. In addition to extending theoretical insight into the antecedents and the consequence of the online trust, web-based vendors may adopt the findings to adjust their online stores to raise customer's trust and ultimately increase the possibility of the purchase.


At the end of his review of my latest book Staat van verwarring. Het offer van liefde, Emanuel Rutten poses some critical remarks in regards to my interpretation of eros. In my response, I will show that Rutten neglects several central motives in my understanding of the relationship between eros and philia. The core issue of my book - the (post-)modern confusion in love and relationships - is not the inner tension that we experience between communal being and transgressive being. In fact, I intend to criticize this way of thinking (of postmodern philosophy) and interpretations that associate eros with, what I call, a tradition of 'split ontology' (Freud, Heidegger a.o.). The loss of control in sexual extremism and in kicks is not a real loss of subjectivity, but rather its confused manifestation. Eros implies the abolition and elevation of subjectivity by surrendering oneself to the beloved and shaping a communal life. In my view, eros should be distinguished from lustful desire (epithumia) and its boundless sexual manifestations wherein people lose themselves. Eros can refer to sexual intercourse, but lust as such is not its main goal. Instead of focusing on the transgressive manifestations of sex, I start with pointing out the transformative nature of eros: the death of the natural individual (and its subjectivity) and its resurrection in a higher state of being, in community with someone else. This kind of communal transformation - which can indeed take place in an erotic sexual practice - requires rituals or shared forms between lovers. The central issue of my book is the lack of and the confused need for transformation and shared forms of communal being (of men and women) in our virtual consumer society of 'siblings', particularly in relation to our bodily nature. This is the reason I believe there to be a rise in popularity of bdsmerotica in popular culture, for example in books like Fifty Shades. In its dynamic form, eros has a teleological structure. The lover is dedicated toward the (beautiful) fulfilment or flourishing of the person whom he loves and finds his own fulfilment in this dedication. To clarify this notion of dedication, I introduce the 'Apollonian' concepts of discipline, concentration, attention and creativity, which also apply to sexuality. In fact they are essential to erotic practices like tantra. Instead of focusing on transgression, I stress the 'temporal difference' between philia and eros: philia is more static and is related to daily life, the people with whom you are familiar, the groups to which you belong ... Eros belongs to the adventurous side of life and is related to the significant others to whom you are attracted and with whom you become involved, without knowing exactly what will happen and how it will change you. As such, eros is first and foremost place atopic with respect to one's own life in relation to the other. This does not mean, however, that it always opposes a social order! Nevertheless, the kinds of surrender and bonding that are necessary for an erotic transformation are at odds with the ideal of individual autonomy and the dominance of subjective experiences and kicks in our virtual consumer society. In this sense, we are not living in very erotic times ...


Soybean aphids, Aphis glycines Matsumura, and soybean cyst nematodes, Heterodera glycines Ichinohe, are economic pests of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., in the north‐central United States. Combined, these pests may account for 20–50% of yield reductions in a soybean crop. Only limited information is available concerning the interaction of these two pests on soybean production. During the summers of 2006 and 2007, we conducted a field‐experiment near Urbana, IL, to evaluate the effect of resistant and susceptible soybean lines on the development and reproduction of both pests in combination with each other. We also examined how each pest, as well as their interaction, affected the yield of susceptible and resistant soybean lines. Soybean plants grown within caged plots were infested with soybean aphids and soybean cyst nematodes; cumulative aphid days and soybean cyst nematode egg densities were determined at the end of each growing season. Soybean aphids were able to survive on all four soybean lines in both years of this study; however, aphid‐resistant lines generally had fewer cumulative aphid days than aphid‐susceptible lines. Likewise, nematode‐resistant lines typically had fewer eggs than nematode‐susceptible lines. During both years, we failed to observe a significant interaction between these two pests on the reproduction of one another. Yield data from 2006 was inconclusive; however, results from 2007 suggest that yield‐loss when soybean aphids and soybean cyst nematodes occur jointly is not significantly greater than when these two pests occur independently. The relationship between these two pests, and our inability to observe an interaction, are discussed.


A fructose diphosphatase-phosphofructokinase substrate cycle has been reconstructed in vitro to provide a system that recycles fructose 6-phosphate and hydrolyses ATP to ADP and P(i). The concerted actions of glucose phosphate isomerase, phosphofructokinase, aldolase and triose phosphate isomerase catalysed the loss of (3)H from [5-(3)H,U-(14)C]glucose 6-phosphate. This was used as the basis of a method for the estimation of the fructose diphosphatase-phosphofructokinase substrate cycle. For the reconstructed cycle, the rate of decrease of the (3)H/(14)C ratio in [5-(3)H,U-(14)C]hexose 6-phosphate was proportional to the rate of fructose 6-phosphate substrate cycling. A detailed theoretical treatment of this relationship is developed, which enables the rate of substrate cycling to be determined in vivo.


Informed price setting in private psychiatric hospitals is based on many factors, including accounting cost, economic cost, mission, long-term plans, and competition. Because no single cost accounting method yields the "right" price without the input of judgment and the consideration of other factors, several appropriate and useful methods of cost accounting should be considered. And because various approaches to price setting carry varying degrees of risk, informed price setting must evaluate them all.


The aim of this study was to design and explain a social entrepreneurship model in the field of health. In the present descriptive-correlational study, the statistical population of the qualitative section of the health and health sector experts consisted of all the employees of the health area. The qualitative sampling was purposeful judgments. The sampling of a small, simple random sample with Morgan's table consisted of 290 health workers. In order to collect data, Delphi method was used in qualitative section and a questionnaire was used in the quantitative section. Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages) and inferential methods (Pearson's correlation coefficient and factor analysis) were used to analyse data. SPSS 16.0 and Amos 8.5 software programs were used. The results of this research indicated that different aspects of financing, promoting entrepreneurship level awareness and identifying entrepreneurship opportunities have a positive and significant effect on social entrepreneurship in the field of health. In conclusion, by enhancing and appropriate financing arrangements, one can promote the level of entrepreneurial consciousness and identify entrepreneurial opportunities that are in fact the gate to enter entrepreneurship.


The helath condition of rotor has been greatly concerned in rotating machinery. But for the lack of information, it is very difficult to judge the actual conditon. Based on the fuzzy and grey characteristics between faults and symptoms, a new method integrated with fuzzy clustering and grey relation analysis was put forward to identify the condition of rotor system. Firstly, eight features, such as average value, peak-peak value, variance value, virtual value and etc., were extracted from the vibration signal of rotor system. Then, fuzzy C-means algorithm was used to cluster forty samples into 4 clusters, meanwhile, the clustering center was acquired and regarded as standard pattern matrix. Finally, the grey relation degree was calculated between pattern to be inspected and the standard pattern matrix. Using this method, the unbalanced conditions of rotor system was precisely identified, which shows that the integrated method is valid and practicable.


Organic livestock farming is one among various farming systems that is close to nature and ethics. The use of veterinary drugs and synthetic products in conventional animal farming is continuously increasing the threat to human health. Organic livestock farming not only proves to maintain health and welfare of animals but is also playing significant role in providing benefits regarding health of consumers, profit to producers and sustainability of the environment. Certified organic animals are mostly reared by feeding on pastures, fully organic nutrition is provided that is grown and processed by avoiding the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Animals are reared without the use of any genetic modifications and antibiotics or artificial hormones are allowed only when no other option is available that too to a limited extent. The demand for organic livestock products is increasing tremendously with attendant expansion of organic livestock product markets. The presence of the developing countries like Brazil and Argentina in exporting the organic livestock products provides welcome opportunities for the other developing countries like India. In order to increase export of organic livestock products and develop strong domestic markets a lot of challenges must be overcome by the developing countries. Organic livestock farming has a greater demand and scope in present global scenario due to more focus towards sustainability. Despite its benefits there are many debatable questions like circulation of disease organisms, use of medicines and management, etc. regarding organic livestock farming in which further research and re-consideration is needed.


Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to cool the simple liquid TPI4P/2005 water at 350 K to 100 K. We find that structural changes of the system cause dynamic and thermodynamic anomalies. A strong increase in the number of tetrahedral oxygen atoms and combinations of these atoms lead to water's a phase transition from a simple liquid form into a supercooled one or ice at T I = 200 K. In the initial stage, small patches containing tetrahedral oxygen atoms connect together to yield large clusters. The rapid drop in the number of clusters and the speedy growth in the size of the largest cluster lead to water's exhibiting anomalously dynamic behaviors at temperatures around 279 K. Our results also show that water is very stable in its supercooled or ice state, exhibiting no change in the mean squared displacement, light oscillation in the number of the clusters and in the size of the largest cluster.


The attempt to overcome the limitations of the commonly used anti diabetic drugs in order to combat diabetes mellitus effectively has drawn the attention of researchers to ascertaining the possible use of spices in the prevention and management of this metabolic syndrome. Different extracts of ginger have been reported to exert hypoglycemic effect but for proper application of this concept there is need to understand the mechanisms of action of this effect especially in type 2 diabetes. This study hereby determined the effect of raw and cooked ginger juice on pancreatic amylase activity in normal and high fat diet-induced diabetic rats as it affected the acute and chronic postprandial blood glucose. Eleven weeks old male albino rats (63) were divided into seven groups and treated thus: NSnormal (negative) control, NRnormal rats given raw ginger juice, NCnormal rats cooked ginger juice, DSdiabetic control group, DRdiabetic rats given raw ginger juice, DCdiabetic rats given cooked ginger juice and DDdiabetic rats given Metformin ( an anti diabetic drug). The normal and diabetic groups were fed normal rat pellets and high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks respectively after which the extracts were administered orally for 4 weeks. The acute and chronic effect after starch and extracts load were determined, The pancreatic amylase activity was determined using Abnova Amylase Activity Assay kit. Data were expressed as mean standard deviation while ANOVA and LSD were used in comparison. The HFD( High Fat Diet) protocol rendered the animals diabetic (Fasting Blood Glucose > 170mg/dl) while the extracts increased hepatic blood glucose significantly (p<0.05) after starch load in the chronic effect. I n the normal groups raw extract increased pancreatic amylase activity (PAA) by 1.1% but the cooked extract reduced it by 25%. Raw, cooked extracts and the drug reduced the PAA by 17, 36 and 49% respectively in the diabetic groups though this did not alter glucose output into the blood in the chronic effect. Since glucose output into the blood was not influenced by the change it the PAA(Pancreatic Amylase Activity) , the intermediate absorption process could be a probable interfering determining factor.


Twenty patients with duodenal ulcer, clinically diagnosed, were treated. Radiologic and endoscopic controls were carried out. Following a random scheme, a group of ten patients was treated with conventional cimetidine and a group of ten with cimetidine of sustained release. The authors consider that cimetidine of sustained release offers the advantage of minor doses and major facility of administration. Similar results were therapeutically obtained.


Abstract Cities have become crucial actors for the global governance of climate change. Their increased activity in this field is reflected by the rising number of adoptions of local climate strategies in an original sample of 274 European cities from 1992 to 2009. Using event history analysis, I find that this spread is promoted by transnational municipal networks (TMNs) successfully deploying strategies for governance by diffusion, their impact exceeding that of most alternative explanatory factors cited in the literature. Given their capacity to foster the spread of climate policy innovations among cities, TMNs can thus be expected to play a decisive role in a climate governance system that is becoming increasingly fragmented, polycentric, and transnational.


Glaciomarine sedimentation processes in the Weddell Sea are mainly influenced by interglacial-glacial inland ice sheet and ice shelf dynamics, and their impacts on thermohaline circulation, glacigenic sediment input and sediment redeposition. The different processes are documented by distinct sediment facies associations on the shelf, the continental slope, and in the abyssal plain.Especially during glacial times and advanced inland ice sheets, large amounts of sediments were transported to the shelf edge by ice and deposited on the continental slope by gravitational processes. This process contributed to the build-up of the large Crary Fan in the southeastern Weddell Sea. Lobes of debris-flow deposits dominate the upper slope. Canyons and associated levees are present on the lower slope and stretch out to the abyssal plain. Turbidity currents and contourites have shaped this channels and sediment ridges mainly during glacial times. High sedimentation rates, lamination, low dropstone content, and lacking bioturbation qualify these sediments for high-resolution studies of East Antarctic Ice Sheet variations and related environmental changes.We mapped large areas with sub-bottom echosounding (Parasound System) and together with data from high-resolution reflection seismics several large-scale sedimentary structures could be distinguished and their genesis studied. The Weddell Sea abyssal plain is filled up by well-sorted distal silty turbidites intercalated with hemipelagic fine-grained sediments. Meandering channels form the conduits for turbidity currents. Levees are low and more symmetrical than at the lower continental slope, because of lacking contour currents in the central basin. A up to 10m thick slurry-flow (megaturbidite) covering an area of more than 60.000km2 was mapped with the Parasound System and recognized in a sediment core on the abyssal plain of the central Weddell Sea more than 770km away from the continental slope. Approximately 500km3 material was deposited during this mass-flow event. Parasound data indicate that other slurry- or mass-flow deposits have filled up at least parts of the Weddell Sea abyssal plain.


Introduction: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of water exercises on the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis. Methods: 30 multiple sclerosis patients (40-65 years old) were selected by available sample. They were divided into control and experimental groups. The instrument was the Quality of Life Questionnaire (SF-36) in this study. The experimental group participated in 6 weeks of water exercises. The water exercises were held 3 sessions in every week. The every session lasted 60 minutes. The data were analyzed by ANCOVA. Results: The results showed that water exercises had no significant effect on the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis. Those only had a significant effect on the pain subscale and reduced it. Conclusion: It seems that water exercises can be used as a complementary therapy alongside drug therapy in patients with multiple sclerosis.


The article focuses on the three-year project being undertaken by Northumbria University in Northumbria, England and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (ANRH) named as AC+erm. The AC+erm project is a qualitative study composed of three main phases including a comprehensive Systematic Literature Review, an investigation of the three aspects of designing an architecture for electronic records management (ERM), and distribution of findings. The primary data from selected experts are gathered through the Delphi technique 8 , developed by the Rand Corp. in the U.S., to formulate an opinion on the research topic. Further, it provides short analysis of the issues associated with Web 2.0 and cloud computing technologies..


In contemporary societies time distinctions are being reconfigured. Although in modernlife
technology enables new forms of social activities and entertainments and the
possibility to experience them day and night, night has been known and experienced
differently in various cultures and in different time periods. Discussions of the city at night
are dominated by the framework and experience of Western Europe, the USA and
Australia. However, night-life in other places could be different and in order to achieve an
in-depth understanding of the concepts of a night-time economy and a 24-hour society it is
important to study night-life in various parts of the world.
In this thesis Mashhad is investigated as a 24-hour city in Iran. Night-life in Iran, as a
Middle-Eastern country, is different from the available literature as a result of various
social and cultural factors. In Iran, because of religious discipline, there are no pubs, bars,
casinos or clubs. However, cities work at night with a continuity of their day-time
activities. Mashhad, as one of the holiest cities in Shiite Islam with the shrine of Imam
Reza located at its centre, is visited annually by over 25 million pilgrims. The large
number of visitors and the shrine are characteristics of the city and its 24-hour activity.
Boundaries between day and night in Mashhad are less clear cut and night-life includes all
kinds of activities including religious, business, recreational, social or commercial.
However, the Regeneration and Reconstruction Plan of Imam Reza's Shrine Area, started
in 2001, is threatening the 24-hour features of the shrine area by attempting to modernise it
in order to attract and accommodate more pilgrims. This study aims to investigate how to
improve nightlife by considering the impact of urban design. It studies the night-life of the
shrine area in Mashhad through a multi-method approach and investigates the impact of
recent urban design interventions. In addition, a series of guidelines are proposed for
revitalisation of the shrine area whilst keeping and supporting its local active night-life.
This study fills a part of the gap in the literature of a 24-hour society and night-time
economy through investigating a less-studied type of 24-hour society in a context that has
not been considered previously and is helpful in redefining the ideas which have been
formed because of this gap. By investigating the interconnections between the temporal
structure of cities, their spatial form and mass pilgrimage this study argues that social,
cultural, economic, political and climatic factors are all important in the formation of
night-life in a city and highlights the possible threats to the night-life of cities that might
result from urban design approaches that ignore a local context. It also shows that the
social and temporal habits of the people who shape a city's night-life are a product of the
discussed factors which may change through time. By emphasising the importance of the
local night-time economy in the formation of 24-hour societies, the findings of this study
highlight the necessity of considering the night-life of urban areas in regeneration plans.
These findings have direct policy relevance in the regeneration plan of the shrine area in
Mashhad and are helpful for regeneration plans of similar cases with local active night-life.


Global warming is a well-known, worldwide concern, most probably caused by
increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere,
due to human activities. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) offers the opportunity to
reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide capture
with a regenerable solvent is considered a mature technology and already successfully
applied as CO2 removal technology in industrial applications. In order to make this
technology more economical for post-combustion capture, especially in the power-sector,
solvents which require less energy and lead to lower solvent loss- and corrosion rates in
this application are needed. In this thesis, the development of improved, energy efficient
amine based solvents is targeted, through experimental (screening) work and by a further
understanding of the role of molecular structure on the solvent absorption properties for
amine-based solvents in a CO2 absorption process.
Various molecular structural effects like carbon chain length, steric hindrance, functional
groups and different configurations of cyclic amines have been investigated by quantum
mechanical calculations. Furthermore, solvent screening experiments for CO2 absorption
and regeneration were performed to identify above-mentioned molecular structural
effects. 1,6 Hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and 1,6 Hexanediamine, N,N' dimethyl
(HMDA, N'N') were identified as a potential solvent for CO2 absorption in this study.
Solubility experiments for CO2 absorption were performed for 0.5, 1 and 2.5 mole/L
aqueous solutions of HMDA at 20, 30 and 40°C. CO2 absorption kinetics for aqueous solutions of HMDA and HMDA, N,N' were determined at concentrations ranging from
0.5 to 2.5 mole/L and temperatures from 10 to 30°C. Based on above experiments, new
solvent formulations for CO2 recovery from flue gas were tested in a continuous flow
pilot plant located at Shell Technology Centre, Amsterdam. The two most promising
solvents tested in this study showed attractive properties for CO2 removal from flue gas
and an almost 50% reduction in energy consumption, when compared to the commonly
used MEA solvent. This work is expected to benefit the development of even better
solvents for CO2 capture in the future.


The manner that young people and adults are communicating with each other is rapidly changing in society that is, in part, driven by the latest technology. As a youth-driven program, we must engage in new strategies and methods by which we communicate with youth members, volunteers, families, and the community at large. Social and mobile media are a growing and popular venue for much of our target audience and youth development practitioners must learn how to leverage these networks to create positive youth development in online environments. If we ignore and don't engage in the opportunity to be connected to youth online, then youth are left to make their own paths online and set the online norms. As youth organizations, we also must seize the opportunity to be online mentors and use the resources that are available and being used by our target populations.


This thesis examines the phenomenon of Sir Walter Scott's extraordinary Victorian popularity. Focussing on criticism of his Waverley Novels between 1832 - the year of his death - and the end of the century, the thesis plots the development and terms of Scott's eminence. An introductory chapter sets out principal areas of study, being followed by a section leading up to 1832. Then follow analyses of critical work on Scott by, respectively, Harriet Martineau, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Bagehot, John Ruskin, Leslie Stephen, Richard Hutton and Julia Wedgwood.

The thesis concludes with an epilogic section covering critics of the late nineteenth century, including Frederic Harrison and Andrew Lang. In each instance the context of each critic's wider work figures prominently. The thesis contends that large elements of Scott's achievement received relatively little attention in Victorian criticism. These are Scotti,s Enlightenment interests in speculative history and detailed, almost sociological, methods of composition, as well as the 'experimental' character of his work. By contrast, much was made in criticism of what may be summarised as his 'health' and 'beneficial effects'.

It is claimed that the construction of such consensual critical notions about the merits of Scott's very popular work had a great deal to do with the buttressing and underpinning of some Victorian attitudes. While these varied with critics' own preoccupations - and Scott's 'malleability' is remarkable - Scott's role was so significant in Victorian culture that his employment, within what was still a relatively eclectic and formally undisciplined critical practice, constituted significant ideological manoeuvring.

Specifically, Scott's remit in Victorian criticism was most usually to represent and validate some kind of opposition to the present. This both excluded much of his achievement, and also narrowed the terms of his appraisal so as to permit a revealing coalescence of literary with social, political and even racial arguments. This thesis traces the increasing definition of such a pattern within Victorian criticism of the Waverley Novels.


Objective To determine, using face-to-face diagnostic interviews, the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMD) in a cohort of adult Indigenous Australians, the cultural acceptability of the interviews, the rates of comorbid CMD and concordance with psychiatrists' diagnoses. Design Cross-sectional study July 2014–November 2016. Psychologists conducted Structured Clinical Interviews for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) (n=544). Psychiatrists interviewed a subsample (n=78). Setting Four Aboriginal Medical Services and the general community located in urban, regional and remote areas of Southern Queensland and two Aboriginal Reserves located in New South Wales. Participants Indigenous Australian adults. Outcome measures Cultural acceptability of SCID-I interviews, standardised rates of CMD, comorbid CMD and concordance with psychiatrist diagnoses. Results Participants reported that the SCID-I interviews were generally culturally acceptable. Standardised rates (95% CI) of current mood, anxiety, substance use and any mental disorder were 16.2% (12.2% to 20.2%), 29.2% (24.2% to 34.1%), 12.4% (8.8% to 16.1%) and 42.2% (38.8% to 47.7%), respectively—6.7-fold, 3.8-fold, 6.9-fold and 4.2-fold higher, respectively, than those of the Australian population. Differences between this Indigenous cohort and the Australian population were less marked for 12-month (2.4-fold) and lifetime prevalence (1.3-fold). Comorbid mental disorder was threefold to fourfold higher. In subgroups living on traditional lands in Indigenous reserves and in remote areas, the rate was half that of those living in mainstream communities. Moderate-to-good concordance with psychiatrist diagnoses was found. Conclusions The prevalence of current CMD in this Indigenous population is substantially higher than previous estimates. The lower relative rates of non-current disorders are consistent with underdiagnosis of previous events. The lower rates among Reserve and remote area residents point to the importance of Indigenous peoples' connection to their traditional lands and culture, and a potentially important protective factor. A larger study with random sampling is required to determine the population prevalence of CMD in Indigenous Australians.


Because of the close proximity of D. melanogaster gene CG11327 and the gene for a thrombospondin homologue (DTSP), the relationship between transcription of the two genes has been investigated. As part of this study, the cDNA sequence of gene CG11327 was determined, and structural features of the encoded protein were characterized. The CG11327 open reading frame specifies a polypeptide of 475 amino acid residues, molecular weight 53,666. The highly acidic protein has an aspartic acid+glutamic acid content of 23.2%. Weak similarities to other proteins suggest that it may function as a transcription factor or structural protein of the cell cycle. The existence of overlapping transcripts was found to be a significant feature of transcription of gene CG11327 and the DTSP gene. The 3′ end of the DTSP gene overlaps the 5′ end of gene CG11327 by at least 177 bp, and the region of overlap includes exon 13 and the 3′ UTR of the DTSP gene.


Pressure sensing is one of the earliest applications of MicroElectro-Mechanical-Systems MEMS. Changing the pressure sensing element (such as capacitive and optical) size to the microscale has created opportunities to reduce power consumption and production costs of pressure sensors while increasing their sensitivity. However, current technology struggles with reducing the complexity of using pressure sensors in applications where measuring the amount of pressure is not as important as a threshold value for an action to occur. Examples of this complexity are the extra circuitry, controllers, and/or decision units that are needed to trigger an alarm in a car for low air-pressure in the tire, or to trip an HVAC compressor if the refrigerant pressure is lower than a threshold value. In this work, we propose a novel tunable smart threshold MEMS pressure sensor for such applications. The activation of subharmonic resonance (twice-natural frequency) for cantilever-based MEMS due to AC and DC electrostatic excitation is used to trigger the sensor at a specific threshold pressure value. This sensor can be easily tuned to trigger at different threshold pressure values by simply adjusting the AC or DC voltage values.


The effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) depends not only on that of artemisinin but also on that of partner molecules. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of mutations in the Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, and Pfmdr1 genes from isolates collected during a clinical study. Plasmodium genomic DNA samples extracted from symptomatic malaria patients from Dogondoutchi, Niger, were sequenced by the Sanger method to determine mutations in the Pfdhfr (codons 51, 59, 108, and 164), Pfdhps (codons 436, 437, 540, 581, and 613), and Pfmdr1 (codons 86, 184, 1034, and 1246) genes. One hundred fifty-five (155) pre-treatment samples were sequenced for the Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, and Pfmdr1 genes. A high prevalence of mutations in the Pfdhfr gene was observed at the level of the N51I (84.97%), C59R (92.62%), and S108N (97.39%) codons. The key K540E mutation in the Pfdhps gene was not observed. Only one isolate was found to harbor a mutation at codon I431V. The most common mutation on the Pfmdr1 gene was Y184F in 71.43% of the mutations found, followed by N86Y in 10.20%. The triple-mutant haplotype N51I/C59R/S108N (IRN) was detected in 97% of the samples. Single-mutant (ICS and NCN) and double-mutant (IRS, NRN, and ICN) haplotypes were prevalent at 97% and 95%, respectively. Double-mutant haplotypes of the Pfdhps (581 and 613) and Pfmdr (86 and 184) were found in 3% and 25.45% of the isolates studied, respectively. The study focused on the molecular analysis of the sequencing of the Pfdhfr, Pfdhps, and Pfmdr1 genes. Although a high prevalence of mutations in the Pfdhfr gene have been observed, there is a lack of sulfadoxine pyrimethamine resistance. There is a high prevalence of mutation in the Pfmdr184 codon associated with resistance to amodiaquine. These data will be used by Niger's National Malaria Control Program to better monitor the resistance of Plasmodium to partner molecules in artemisinin-based combination therapies.


In the Tudor times in England medicine was influenced by Renaissance and ideas of humanism. Medical humanists were searching for and discovering genuine ancient manuscripts in the interest of establishing a "pure" classical terminology and achieving an elegant Latin style uncontaminated by Arab intermediaries. The theory of disease, diagnosis and treatment were all dominated by Galen and his theory of humours. Advances in anatomy and physiology did not bring about any change to the status quo. Apart from university-trained doctors, medical skills were offered by surgeons, apothecaries and various quacks, empirics and mountebanks. There was a selection of medical books translated into and written in the vernacular English they could choose from, apart from books written in Latin and translated into it.


Farming of the freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) in rice fields is widespread in southwest Bangladesh. It plays an important role in the economy of the country, earning foreign exchange, increasing food production and providing opportunities for employment. This paper provides an overview of the sustainability of prawn farming in rice fields in southwest Bangladesh. It concludes that integrated prawn-fish-rice farming can help Bangladesh keep pace with current demand for fish and rice, and enhance economic development through exports of prawns. However, while prawn farming in rice fields has huge potential, there are environmental consequences. Some of these may eventually reduce productivity of the prawn–fish–rice farming system itself; others are the inevitable consequence of an expanding human population sequestering all available resources to itself.


The seroepidemiology of the defective adenovirus-associated satellite viruses was studied by use of a neutralization test that has been shown to be much more sensitive than the complement-fixation (CF) test. Less than 25% of the subjects in any age group were positive for any type of satellite virus CF antibody. The neutralization test revealed serological evidence of satellite infection in almost 80% of the subjects in some age groups. Studies of geometric mean antibody titers by neutralization showed that antibody against type 1 and the type 2-3 complex reached peak levels at 2 to 3 years of age; antibody against types 2 and 3 reached mean titers of 500 to 800, whereas mean antibody levels of only 200 were found for type 1. Type 4 antibodies were rarely noted in human sera. In a companion study in monkeys, monospecific responses to types 1 and 4 were found only in rhesus and green monkey sera, respectively. These data suggest that the type 2-3 complex may be the only naturally occurring satellite serotype which infects man and that antibodies noted against types 1 and 4 may be the result of cross-reactions. No satellite viruses were isolated from throat or rectal swabs of 100 children between 6 months and 3 years of age. However, the patterns of adenovirus and enterovirus isolations from these specimens were typical of previous studies in this laboratory.


The feasibility of the parameter estimation on the basis of the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) for a practical simulation involving model errors was investigated. The three-dimensional flow and thermal simulations for the engine compartment of a test excavator were simulated, and several unknown temperatures used for boundary conditions were estimated with the method. The estimation method was validated in two steps. First, the estimation method was tested with the influence of the model errors removed by virtually creating true values with a simulation. These results showed that the proposed parameter-estimation method can successfully estimate surface temperatures. They also suggested that the appropriate ensemble size can be evaluated from the number of unknown parameters. Second, the estimation method was tested under a practical condition including model errors by using actual measurement data. Model errors were statistically estimated using prior obtained error data concerning other design configurations, and they were added to the observation error in the EnKF. These results showed that taking model errors into account in the EnKF provides more-accurate parameter-estimation results. Moreover, the uncertainty of an estimated parameter can be evaluated with the standard deviation of its distribution.


The major limitation of classic biphasic ionic liquid (IL) catalysis is the heavy use of solvent IL, which not only violates green chemistry principles but also even worsens catalytic efficiency. So it has always been a challenge how to use IL more efficiently, economically, and greenly to construct highly effective and long term stable IL catalytic system. In this work, we synthesized a class of room temperature phosphine-functionalized polyether guanidinium ionic liquids (RTP-PolyGILs) by a convenient ion exchange reaction of polyether guanidinium ionic liquids (PolyGILs) with phosphine-sulfonate ligands based on the concept of the integration of both phosphine ligand and IL. The resulting RTP-PolyGILs existed as liquids at room temperature and possessed dual functions of both phosphine ligand and solvent IL, so they could both form catalysts by complexing with transition metals and act as catalyst carriers, thus achieving the integration of phosphine ligands with ILs both in structure and properties. Based on the unique properties of these multi-functional integrated RTP-PolyGILs, we constructed a highly effective homogeneous catalysis-biphasic separation (HCBS) system for Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation of higher olefins using only a catalytic amount of RTP-PolyGILs (equivalent to 0.025–0.4 mol% of 1-alkenes). Our HCBS system could be flexibly regulated with regard to catalytic performance (activity and linear selectivity) by changing the structure or type of the sulfonated ligand anion on RTP-PolyGILs. Specifically, it presented the TOF value of 3000–26000 h−1 and linear selectivity of 68%–98% (corresponding to the l/b ratio of 2.2–37.5) with a total turnover number (TTON) of 11000–45000 and an extremely low Rh leaching in only 0.02–0.4 ppm. Therefore, the HCBS system can effectively combine the advantages of both homogeneous (high activity, and good selectivity) and biphasic catalysis (easy catalyst separation). We additionally extended the application of the HCBS system to the hydrogenation of olefins to demonstrate the universality of the RTP-PolyGILs in catalytic reactions.


A focused study of effectiveness of Disaster Management, especially in India, where about 22,782 lives have been lost and more than 349,590 people have been affected in Lathur and Bhuj regions (Deulgaonkar 1997; GOI 2002), to
explore the possibilities of links between pre- and post-disaster issues, is undoubtedly a significant issue of research. This study is an in-depth empirical investigation of the effectiveness of Earthquake Risk Management (EQRM) in
these two affected areas Purpose: The research focuses on Latur and Bhuj, the two regions hit by earthquakes in 1993 and 2001 respectively. Both these earthquakes caused
extensive damage to the property and life. This study has drawn perceptions of victims, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government officials in both these places, and perception-response of prospective architects to disaster managemenUearthquake risk. Based on these perceptions, in-depth analysis has been undertaken to investigate the response pattern in order to identify the gaps between the service provided and the service received, and draw implications and also make suggestions to improve the quality of service. The purpose of the study includes development of a metric and a model interlinking Pre-earthquake and Post-earthquake Risk Management issues. Architectural perspective with specific reference to mitigate the effects of disaster has also been a purpose of
this study so as to make recommendations with justifications.
Design Method: Interviews, field studies, and literature review on the two major earthquake events sought from reliable sources were the foundation of this
research. Expert opinion of scholars knowledgeable in the field of disaster/earthquake risk management was also sought whenever necessary. The empirical study was undertaken based on the responses received from victims &
community leaders, NGOs, government officials and prospective architects (sample size - 811) through a self-administered questionnaire specifically developed and validated for this research. Factor Analysis was undertaken to reduce the variables to the required number of dimensions. Hypotheses were formulated to answer specific research questions related to investigate the existence of significant relationships. Statistical methods included descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and gap analysis Findings: The variables related to the pre- and post-disaster issues were identified. The empirical study and the analysis identified the gaps (between expectations of victims and the perception about service provided) that needed to be filled through evolving a system of administration and control. The key revelation of the study included non-conformance in satisfying the Non-structural
measures, Risk analysis, Built environment, Preparedness, and Efficacy. The hypothesis testing revealed that there is a significant difference in some of the perceptions of Service Providers and Receivers. The architectural perspective to study the pre- and post-disaster issues has emerged out based on the study. Drawing of the inferences, development of a correlation model covering specific
pre- and post-Earthquake Risk Management (EQRM) dimensions, and recommendations to improve service have also been the result of the findings.
Contributions: The contribution includes the development of a self-administered metric specifically prepared to measure effectiveness of pre- and post-EQRM issues, a correlational model interlinking Pre-earthquake and Post-earthquake
Risk Management issues, and the architectural perspective on the EQRM. Further, the findings have led to the development of a conceptual EQRM Effectiveness Model. The recommendations made in this research are very
significant in the sense that they could potentially influence government policies and programs


The increasing demand of internet services is pushing cloud services providers to increase the capacity of their data centers (DC) and create DC federations, where two or more cloud providers interconnect their infrastructures. As a result of the huge capacity required for the inter-DC network, the flexgrid optical technology can be used. In such scenario, applications can run in DCs placed in geographically distant locations, and hence, multicastbased communication services among their components are required. In this project, we study two different approaches to provide multicast services in multilayer scenarios assuming that the optical network is based on the flexgrid technology: (1) establishing a point-to-multipoint optical connection (light-tree) for each multicast request, and 2) using a multipurpose virtual network topology (VNT) to serve both unicast and multicast connectivity requests. When that VNT is not able to serve an incoming request as a result of lack of capacity, it is reconfigured to add more resources. A control plane architecture based on the applications-based network operations (ABNO) one, currently being standardized by the IETF, is presented; workflows are proposed and PCEP extensions are studied for the considered approaches. The experimental validation is carried-out on a testbed setup connecting Telefonica, CNIT, and UPC premises.


Successful progression through the cell cycle requires spatial and temporal regulation of gene transcript levels and the number, positions and condensation levels of chromosomes. Here we present a high resolution survey of genome interactions in Schizosaccharomyces pombe using synchronized cells to investigate cell cycle dependent changes in genome organization and transcription. Cell cycle dependent interactions were captured between and within S. pombe chromosomes. Known features of genome organization (e.g. the clustering of telomeres and retrotransposon long terminal repeats (LTRs)) were observed throughout the cell cycle. There were clear correlations between transcript levels and chromosomal interactions between genes, consistent with a role for interactions in transcriptional regulation at specific stages of the cell cycle. In silico reconstructions of the chromosome organization within the S. pombe nuclei were made by polymer modeling. These models suggest that groups of genes with high and low, or differentially regulated transcript levels have preferred positions within the S. pombe nucleus. We conclude that the S. pombe nucleus is spatially divided into functional sub-nuclear domains that correlate with gene activity. The observation that chromosomal interactions are maintained even when chromosomes are fully condensed in M phase implicates genome organization in epigenetic inheritance and bookmarking.


ABC50 is an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) protein, which, unlike most ABC proteins, does not possess membrane-spanning domains. ABC50 interacts with eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2), which plays a key role in translation initiation and its control. ABC50 binds to ribosomes, and this interaction requires both the N-terminal domain and at least one ABC domain. Knockdown of ABC50 by RNA interference impaired translation of both cap-dependent and -independent reporters, consistent with a positive role for ABC50 in the function of eIF2, which is required for both types of translation initiation. Mutation of the Walker box A or B motifs in both ABC regions of ABC50 yielded a mutant protein that exerted a dominant-interfering phenotype with respect to protein synthesis and translation initiation. Importantly, although dominant-interfering mutants of ABC50 impaired cap-dependent translation, translation driven by certain internal ribosome entry segments was not inhibited. ABC50 is located in the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm but not in the nucleolus. Thus, ABC50 is not likely to be directly involved in early ribosomal biogenesis, unlike some other ABC proteins. Taken together, the present data show that ABC50 plays a key role in translation initiation and has functions that are distinct from those of other non-membrane ABC proteins.