Sustainability has a molecular basis that suggests a central role for chemistry in addressing today's challenges to Earth and societal systems, and this role requires educators to see chemical reactions 15 and processes as integral parts of dynamic and interconnected systems. Despite this prospect, few accessible resources are available for students and educators to facilitate systems thinking in chemistry for sustainability. We have developed an interactive digital learning tool (https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca) based on the Planetary Boundaries sustainability framework, that uses interactive visualizations to help users better understand Earth system sustainability 20 challenges and helps chemists and educators connect substances, reactions, and chemistry concepts to sustainability science. The tool highlights the fundamental role that chemistry plays in regulating the individual biophysical Earth system processes and in determining their control variables. It incorporates key features of a systems thinking framework by illustrating the dynamic interconnections among the processes and their control variables and demonstrates change of the 25 Earth system over time. Finally, the interactive tool provides educators with accessible entry points to support the integration of chemistry curriculum content with sustainability considerations.


The status of string theory is reviewed, and major recent developments-especially those in going beyond perturbation theory in the string theory and quantum field theory frameworks-are discussed. This analysis helps better understand the role and place of string theory in the modern picture of the physical world. Even though quantum field theory describes a wide range of experimental phenomena, it is emphasized that there are some insurmountable problems inherent in it-notably the impossibility to formulate the quantum theory of gravity on its basis-which prevent it from being a fundamental physical theory of the world of microscopic distances. It is this task, the creation of such a theory, which string theory, currently far from completion, is expected to solve. In spite of its somewhat vague current form, string theory has already led to a number of serious results and greatly contributed to progress in the understanding of quantum field theory. It is these developments which are our concern in this review.


This paper addresses the problem of Car Make and Model recognition as an example of within-category object class recognition. In this problem, it is assumed that the general category of the object is given and the goal is to recognize the object class within the same category. As compared to general object recognition, this problem is more challenging because the variations among classes within the same category are subtle, mostly dominated by the category overall characteristics, and easily missed due to pose and illumination variations. Therefore, this specific problem may not be effectively addressed using generic object recognition approaches. In this paper, we propose a new approach to address this specific problem by combining global and local information and utilizing discriminative information labeled by a human expert. We validate our approach through experiments on recognizing the make and model of sedan cars from single view images.


Infertility in men and women is a widespread global phenomenon. However, socio-cultural beliefs and practices have been associated with failed reproduction processes in Africa. The study specifically aimed at establishing socio-cultural beliefs and practices associated with infertility. Similarly, the study relied on a mixed method design which involves integratingboth qualitative and quantitative techniques. Thereafter, the data were organized, tabulated, interpreted and described. In particular, the study employed the use of semi-structured questionnaires to gather information from 200 respondents. In addition, six Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) comprising of 10-12 individuals and thirty six (36) Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) comprising 20 health officers/practitioners, 4 religious leaders, 4 herbalists and 8 Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) were conducted. The study disclosed that the concept of infertility has strong social, cultural and economic undertones. From the perspectives of childless couples, health practitioners, traditional birth attendants, herbalists and religious leaders, the respondents have limited knowledge about causes of infertility. In particular, infertility is given negative labels embedded in the community"s socio-cultural set up. In Kisumu County, children are quite vital and not predictive of the residents" experiences but also their future. The study recommends for a comprehensive education program within Kisumu County aimed at filling the existing knowledge gap about infertility and any myths associated with it. The study concludes that low level of knowledge is a threat to management of infertility in Kisumu county. Key words: Social-cultural, beliefs, Infertility, Kisumu County.


Recent trials with interferon, in particular those using pure, recombinant interferon, have provided us with improved data (compared with those obtained in early studies) and show that interferon does hold some promise as a therapeutic agent. When used in the treatment of viral disease, interferon has shown itself to be quite effective in reducing viral titres. While not as effective against cancer, interferon has limited tumour growth, reduced the appearance of metastases and led to a general improvement in patient condition in many cases. This article discusses some of the recent results obtained with interferon in the treatment of viral disease and cancer.


The SGP4 model is one of the analytical orbit models
applied for the orbit prediction using TLE orbit
information. For the orbit accuracy improvement, a
model conversion was performed to apply a more
precise model. Assuming that a TLE data set is the best
possible fit to the observation data, the orbital arc in a
specified time span was reconstructed from several TLE
sets. Using osculating elements of the SGP4 output as
measurements data, the orbit determination as well as
the orbit propagation were performed with the
numerical orbit model. The performance of this process
was assessed by a comparison with precise orbit
information. After the inherent model accuracy analysis
using the best-fitted TLE based on GPS data, the
process was applied to the publically available TLE,
where an accuracy improvement was achieved for some
objects. The same process was also successfully applied
to re-entry prediction calculations. The more advanced
process needs to be studied for a general application.


Steady-state cytosolic calcium (Ca2+i) concentration in a vascular smooth muscle cell is determined by Ca2+ influx and Ca2+ extrusion across the plasma membrane, yet no means for determining the absolute magnitude of these transmembrane Ca2+ fluxes in the basal state of the resting cell has been devised. We now report a method that combines fluorescence measurement of Ca2+i, 45Ca kinetics, and computer modeling to yield the basal plasma membrane Ca2+ flux in A7r5 vascular smooth muscle cells. Kinetic analysis of basal Ca2+i and Ca2+i transients following chelation of extracellular Ca2+ yields a unique value for the ratio of the rate constant governing Ca2+ pumping into the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) to that for plasma membrane Ca2+ extrusion (1.12 +/- 0.06). When this ratio was used to constrain the least-squares fitting of 45Ca efflux data from A7r5 cells, it was possible to determine unique values for the unidirectional, steady-state Ca2+ fluxes across both SR and plasma membranes. The basal unidirectional plasma membrane Ca2+ flux was 0.062 +/- 0.018 fmol . min-1 . cell, and the basal SR Ca2+ flux was 0.069 +/- 0.019 fmol . min-1 . cell-1. These results demonstrate, within the limitations of measuring the absolute value of Ca2+i, the feasibility of measuring previously unresolvable subpicoamp basal Ca2+ fluxes in intact cells under normal physiological conditions.


Primary liver cancer is one of the most common cancer worldwide. Beside hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), accounting for more than 80%, cholangiocarcinoma (CC) is the second most frequent primary malignant epithelial liver tumor. Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (HCC/CC) is a rare form of liver cancer with a frequency of 1%. Both, hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma, show a wide geographical variation with low-incidence areas in North America and Europe and high incidence areas in Africa and Asia. Whereas hepatocellular carcinomas develop by malignant transformation of hepatocytes, cholangiocarcinomas arise from the small intrahepatic bile duct epithelium. The UICC-TNM classification of malignant liver tumors is applied for both tumor entities. 70-80% of hepatocellular carcinoma occur in cirrhotic liver. In high incidence areas, such as Asia and Africa, HCC is strongly associated with chronic viral hepatitis B and C and liver cirrhosis. Nutritional factors, toxins and metabolic diseases contribute also to hepatocarcinogenesis. The etiology of cholangiocarcinoma remains unclear, most occur in absence of known etiological factors. But several risk factors including hepatolithiasis, liver fluke infection, and anatomical abnormalities associated with inflammation of the biliary tract have been described.


In this paper we attempt to demonstrate the strengths of Hierarchical Hidden Markov Models (HHMMs) in the representation and modelling of musical structures. We show how relatively simple HHMMs, containing a minimum of expert knowledge, use their advantage of having multiple layers to perform well on tasks where flat Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) struggle. The examples in this paper show a HHMM's performance at extracting higherlevel musical properties through the construction of simple pitch sequences, correctly representing the data set on which it was trained.


Abstract It is proposed to call all processes bringing water of any phase to the surface kata-hydrometeoric processes.Their classification includes, e.g., intercepted precipitation, dew and at least five forms of sorption. Specialemphasis is then given to some generally neglected sorptive processes. Sorptive water intake can be calculatedby using Hofmann's dew formulae if the relative humidity of the surface is supposed to be less than 100per cent. Soil, plants and water solutions have known sorptive qualities; the most important process inpractice is adsorption by dry clay. Field tests in India, Ohio, Nebraska and Texas show strong soil sorptionespecially on the late afternoons of sunny days. This sorption seems also responsible for fog prevention alongthe Gulf Coast on summer nights.


The peculiar life history of the thymus gland in man is reflected in its topography, which is modified from time to time by different phases of its growth and involution and by changes in the neighboring structures and viscera. These changes in thymus topography begin during fetal life and are particularly striking at birth when the chest and its contained organs are greatly modified as respiration is established. The natal changes of the thymus have received comparatively little study, and the lack of information on this subject seems to have led to considerable confusion regarding the normal form and extent of the organ in early postnatal life. The following account is an attempt to trace in detail these early modifications in thymus topography with particular reference to the normal or usual conformation and relations of the structure in early infancy. This work was done in the Department of Anatomy of


Spatial data acquisition is a critical process for the identification of the coastline and coastal zones for scientists involved in the study of coastal morphology. The availability of very high-resolution digital surface models (DSMs) and orthophoto maps is of increasing interest to all scientists, especially those monitoring small variations in the earth's surface, such as coastline morphology. In this article, we present a methodology to acquire and process high resolution data for coastal zones acquired by a vertical take off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attached to a small commercial camera. The proposed methodology integrated computer vision algorithms for 3D representation with image processing techniques for analysis. The computer vision algorithms used the structure from motion (SfM) approach while the image processing techniques used the geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) with fuzzy classification. The SfM pipeline was used to construct the DSMs and orthophotos with a measurement precision in the order of centimeters. Consequently, GEOBIA was used to create objects by grouping pixels that had the same spectral characteristics together and extracting statistical features from them. The objects produced were classified by fuzzy classification using the statistical features as input. The classification output classes included beach composition (sand, rubble, and rocks) and sub-surface classes (seagrass, sand, algae, and rocks). The methodology was applied to two case studies of coastal areas with different compositions: a sandy beach with a large face and a rubble beach with a small face. Both are threatened by beach erosion and have been degraded by the action of sea storms. Results show that the coastline, which is the low limit of the swash zone, was detected successfully by both the 3D representations and the image classifications. Furthermore, several traces representing previous sea states were successfully recognized in the case of the sandy beach, while the erosion and beach crests were detected in the case of the rubble beach. The achieved level of detail of the 3D representations revealed new beach characteristics, including erosion crests, berm zones, and sand dunes. In conclusion, the UAV SfM workflow provides information in a spatial resolution that permits the study of coastal changes with confidence and provides accurate 3D visualizations of the beach zones, even for areas with complex topography. The overall results show that the presented methodology is a robust tool for the classification, 3D visualization, and mapping of coastal morphology.


We describe 53 solid organ transplant recipients treated with isavuconazole for fungal infections. Because its use in clinical practice, there is scarce data of its use in solid organ transplant recipients, where interactions with calcineurin inhibitors and mTOR and adverse drug events have limited the use of other triazoles. ABSTRACT Isavuconazole (ISA) is an alternative treatment for Aspergillus spp. and other fungal infections, but evidence regarding its use in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) is scarce. All SOTR who received ISA for treatment of a fungal infection (FI) at our center from December 2017 to January 2021 were included. The duration of the treatment depended on the type of infection. All patients were followed up to 3 months after treatment. Fifty-three SOTR were included, and the majority (44, 83%) were lung transplant recipients. The most frequently treated FI was tracheobronchitis (25, 46.3%). Aspergillus spp. (43, 81.1%); specially A. flavus (16, 37.2%) and A. fumigatus (12, 27.9%), was the most frequent etiology. Other filamentous fungi including one mucormycosis, and four yeast infections were treated. The median duration of treatment was 81 days (IQR 15-197). Mild gamma-glutamyltransferase elevation was the most frequent adverse event (34%). ISA was prematurely discontinued in six patients (11.3%) due to mild hepatotoxicity (2), fatigue (2), gastrointestinal intolerance (1) and myopathy (1). The mean tacrolimus dose decrease was 30% after starting ISA. Seven patients received ISA with mTOR inhibitors with good tolerability. Two patients developed breakthrough FI (3.8%). Among patients who completed the treatment, 27 (50.9%) showed clinical cure and 15 (34.1%) presented fungal persistence. Three patients (6%) died while on ISA due to FI. ISA was well tolerated and appeared to be an effective treatment for FI in SOTR. IMPORTANCE We describe 53 solid organ transplant recipients treated with isavuconazole for fungal infections. Because its use in clinical practice, there is scarce data of its use in solid organ transplant recipients, where interactions with calcineurin inhibitors and mTOR and adverse drug events have limited the use of other triazoles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article describing the safety regarding adverse events and drug interactions of isavuconazole for the treatment of fungal infections in a cohort of solid organ transplant recipients. Also, although this is a noncomparative study, we report some real world effectivity data of these patients, including treatment of non-Aspergillus fungal infections.


Students enter university with ideas about their future professions. In some disciplines, the profession and the nature of professional work are well understood, while in other areas, they are more opaque. The authors investigate the ways in which students develop a sense of identity with their profession, how the nature of the profession impacts on identity formation, how students engage with learning based on their professional expectations, and how their pedagogic experience leads towards their professional formation. The authors' investigations are in two parts: first, they carry out a critical review of recent thinking on the question, including its formulation into national policy documents in two countries, Sweden and Australia. Then they adduce empirical data from the research outcomes of two international studies, in which students were interviewed about their understanding and experience of professional work, and the way in which their learning contributed to the development of their professional identities. The authors conclude that professional identity formation is a relation between students' learning experience and the manner in which they anticipate or practise in professional working life.


We present a hierarchical partitioning of images using a pairwise similarity function on a combinatorial map based representation. We used the idea of minimal spanning tree to fi nd region borders quickly and effortlessly in a bottom-up way, based on local differences in a color space. The result is a hierarchy of partitions with multiple resolutions suitable for further goal driven analysis. The algorithm can handle large variation and gradient intensity in images. Dual graph pyramid representations lack the explicit encoding of edge orientation around vertices i.e they lack an explicit encoding of the orientation of planes, existing in combinatorial maps. Moreover with combinatorial maps, the dual must not be explicitly represented because one map is enough to fully characterize the partition.


Background Total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries have increased in recent years. Exercise programs and other interventions following surgery can facilitate the recovery process. With limited clinician contact time, patients with TKR have a substantial burden of self-management and limited communication with their care team, thus often fail to implement an effective rehabilitation plan. Objective We have developed a digital orthopedic rehabilitation platform that comprises a mobile phone app, wearable activity tracker, and clinical Web portal in order to engage patients with self-management tasks for surgical preparation and recovery, thus addressing the challenges of adherence to and completion of TKR rehabilitation. The study will determine the efficacy of the TKR platform in delivering information and assistance to patients in their preparation and recovery from TKR surgery and a Web portal for clinician care teams (ie, surgeons and physiotherapists) to remotely support and monitor patient progress. Methods The study will evaluate the TKR platform through a randomized controlled trial conducted at multiple sites (N=5) in a number of states in Australia with 320 patients undergoing TKR surgery; the trial will run for 13 months for each patient. Participants will be randomized to either a control group or an intervention group, both receiving usual care as provided by their hospital. The intervention group will receive the app and wearable activity tracker. Participants will be assessed at 4 different time points: 4 weeks before surgery, immediately before surgery, 12 weeks after surgery, and 52 weeks after surgery. The primary outcome measure is the Oxford Knee Score. Secondary outcome measures include quality of life (Short-Form Health Survey); depression, anxiety, and stress (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales); self-motivation; self-determination; self-efficacy; and the level of satisfaction with the knee surgery and care delivery. The study will also collect quantitative usage data related to all components (app, activity tracker, and Web portal) of the TKR platform and qualitative data on the perceptions of the platform as a tool for patients, carers, and clinicians. Finally, an economic evaluation of the impact of the platform will be conducted. Results Development of the TKR platform has been completed and deployed for trial. The research protocol is approved by 2 human research ethics committees in Australia. A total of 5 hospitals in Australia (2 in New South Wales, 2 in Queensland, and 1 in South Australia) are expected to participate in the trial. Conclusions The TKR platform is designed to provide flexibility in care delivery and increased engagement with rehabilitation services. This trial will investigate the clinical and behavioral efficacy of the app and impact of the TKR platform in terms of service satisfaction, acceptance, and economic benefits of the provision of digital services. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12616000504415; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=370536 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6oKES0Gp1)


Population declines of birds that breed in early-successional shrubland habitat are of great concern to conservationists throughout the northeastern United States. To help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of efforts to conserve these species and their habitats, we studied birds in temporary forest openings created through even-aged timber harvest, and permanent wildlife openings maintained through mechanical treatment and prescribed burning in the Northern Appalachians, USA in 2010 and 2011. We assessed the effects of treatment method, time since last treatment, and retained tree cover on shrubland bird abundance and habitat conditions. Burned and mechanically treated wildlife openings differed only in grass and fern cover. Both types of wildlife openings had more grasses and forbs, and less bare ground than silvicultural openings. Six out of 8 focal bird species were less abundant in silvicultural openings than in wildlife openings. In contrast, abundance of only 1 species differed between burned and mechanically treated wildlife openings. Silvicultural openings supported the same species as wildlife openings, indicating that this management option could be used in place of more costly wildlife opening management. However, because birds were more abundant in wildlife openings, maintaining the current population size of shrubland birds under a management strategy based entirely on silviculture would require a 50-300% increase in the area of silvicultural openings, depending on the species. Individual species peaked in abundance at different times post treatment, indicating that managers must maintain a range of early-successional conditions across the landscape to provide habitat for the entire suite of shrubland birds. Six species exhibited a negative relationship with the basal area of retained conifer cover, and 7 species with deciduous tree cover, indicating that the retention of overstory trees in openings reduced their utility to early-successional birds.


Summary

1
Changes in species' abundance and distributions caused by human disturbances can have indirect effects on other species in a community. Although ecosystem approaches to management are becoming increasingly prevalent, they require a fuller understanding of how individual behaviour determines interactions within and between species.

2
Ecological interactions involving krill are of major importance to many species within the Antarctic. Despite extensive knowledge of the ecosystem that they occupy, there is still incomplete understanding of the links between species and the effect of environmental conditions on these interactions. In this study, we extended a behavioural model used previously to understand the interactions between penguins and krill to determine the indirect effect of krill fisheries on penguin foraging success and behaviour in adjacent breeding sites.

3
Increased fishing pressure offshore is predicted to reduce penguin food intake. Given the documented links between krill and penguins, this also leads to a prediction of decreased penguin survival and reproduction. Krill behaviour is predicted to cause stronger effects of krill fisheries than explained solely by the percentage of biomass removed. Environmental conditions that decrease krill growth rates or cause krill to spend time in deeper water are also predicted to increase the magnitude of the effect of fishing on penguin success. We show that changes in penguin foraging behaviour can be used to assess the impact of local fisheries on penguin reproductive success.

4
Synthesis and applications. These results demonstrate that an understanding of predator–prey interactions, indirect effects between species, and individual behaviour is imperative to our ability to manage populations. We describe a general method to use what is known about ecological and evolutionary processes with species-specific information to predict the response of organisms to novel situations. We further show how individual behaviour can be used to assess the impact of human disturbance on ecosystems.


The histidine kinase Hik33 plays important roles in mediating cyanobacterial response to divergent types of abiotic stresses including cold, salt, high light (HL), and osmotic stresses. However, how these functions are regulated by Hik33 remains to be addressed. Using a hik33-deficient strain (Δhik33) of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (Synechocystis) and quantitative proteomics, we found that Hik33 depletion induces differential protein expression highly similar to that induced by divergent types of stresses. This typically includes downregulation of proteins in photosynthesis and carbon assimilation that are necessary for cell propagation, and upregulation of heat shock proteins, chaperons, and proteases that are important for cell survival. This observation indicates that depletion of Hik33 alone mimics divergent types of abiotic stresses, and that Hik33 could be important for preventing abnormal stress response in the normal condition. Moreover, we found the majority of proteins of plasmid origin were significantly upregulated in Δhik33, though their biological significance remains to be addressed. Together, the systematically characterized Hik33-regulated cyanobacterial proteome, which is largely involved in stress responses, builds the molecular basis for Hik33 as a general regulator of stress responses.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Summary: CXR1002 is an ammonium salt of perfluorooctanoic acid. It has a unique pharmacokinetic, pharmacologic and toxicity profile and induces cell death in a wide range of human tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. CXR1002 causes an ER stress response, acts as a fatty acid mimetic, and binds to PPARs in both an agonistic and antagonistic manner. The aim of this study was to explore further its mechanism of action in vitro, and to determine its cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo. Methods: In vitro cytotoxicity of CXR1002 was determined using an ATP depletion assay, alone and and in combination with 12 other drugs in a panel of tumor cell lines. The mode of action was examined using microarray analysis (followed by analysis using the Ingenuity system), transactivation assays and western blots. Four CXR1002 xenograft studies (25 mg/kg p.o. 3x per week) were performed in nu/nu mice. Results: CXR1002 was cytotoxic to a wide range of human tumor cells, including pancreatic and ovarian carcinoma and sarcoma. The IC50 value was lower after 7 days vs 2 days exposure (range 229 - 625 μM vs 300 - >1000 μM), suggesting potency was linked to duration of exposure. IC50 values were comparable to the plasma concentrations achieved with a non-toxic dose in an on-going Phase I trial. Drug combination studies with 12 anti-cancer drugs in 11 human cancer cell lines indicated that CXR1002 was synergistic with other anti-tumor drugs, particularly doxorubicin, gemcitabine, geldanamycin, MAPK inhibitors and AKT/PI3K inhibitors, but it was antagonistic when combined with rapamycin. In transactivation assays CXR1002 was an agonist of PPARα, and to a lesser extent PPARγ, but it demonstrated antagonist activity against PPARδ, in the presence of bezafibrate. Microarray studies in the pancreatic cell line PANC-1 treated with an IC15 dose of CXR1002 showed 4996 gene changes. Representation analysis of the 4996 signature list identified a number of pathways that were over-represented, in particular, genes in the ER stress pathway, including the ATF family of transcription factors. Western blot analysis of PANC-1 cells using PCNA and cleaved PARP antibodies showed that PCNA was reduced and cleaved PARP increased 24 hr after treatment with 450 μM CXR1002, suggesting a pro-apoptotic/anti-proliferative outcome. CXR1002 was active in all 4 human xenograft (i.e. pancreatic, liver, prostate and colon) models examined with best absolute tumor volume as a % of control of 50.13%, 77.05%, 19.14% and 49.22% respectively. Conclusions: CXR1002 is a unique potential anti-cancer therapy that exhibits unique pharmacokinetics and a wide spectrum of biological activities. CXR1002 appears to act in part by its ability to induce ER stress. A Phase I human trial is on-going.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3566.


important subject must be fully investigated. It is certainly true that no authoritative pronouncement on this question can be made until much more evidence becomes available, and that valuable data would be derived from census inquiries. It was with the object of calling wider attention to the need for a complete and searching investigation of the causes -conomic, biological, and pathological-of the decline in the population that the earlier of the two letters was written. We are thlerefore grateful for the support given by the signatories of the second letter to the need for this investigation, even although they are of the opinion that the economic causes are of greater importance than the factor of involuntary sterility.-I am, etc., KENNETH WALKER, Chairman of the Subfertility Conference of the London, W.1. British Social Hygiene Council.


The main topic of this project is to do an energy study of the Mariners' Church, 'Sjomanskyrkan', placed in the Centralplan of Gavle, Sweden. This is an old building built in the late 1800's by the evangelic-lutheran missionaries and nowadays is used to realize different cultural activities such as concerts, meetings, workshops… Energy is one of the most important points in the actual society. The fact that common energy sources are being depleted and the use of these resources produces a lot of contaminants have brought some many international crisis and conflicts. A big use of oil fuels can influence the government behavior and condition its laws and regulations. Nowadays, the majority of the countries want to reduce their fossil energy sources dependency, e. g. Sweden designed an energy commission in 2005 to make a report on how these uses of petroleum, natural gas and 'fossil raw materials' can be reduced until 2020. This project wants to follow this direction, providing some energy savings through the investment and renewal of old public buildings. The aim of this project is to know how much and in which way this building uses the energy, locating its strong and weak points, and point out some different energy efficiency measures to improve the situation. First of all, an energy balance has been realized. In the part of the heat gains the total energy use is 274 MWh / year. On the other hand the energy losses give a quantity of 273 MWh / year. The differences between both are the losses by infiltration, 1MWh / year. Most of this energy is lost because of the transmission, about a 95% of the energy losses. The age of the building and its old materials are the main reason for this out of proportion percentage. That's why the main efficiency measures are referred to this part. After this first analysis, some efficiency measures have been carried out. The most important are referred to the structural elements like walls, windows, roof and floor. All of these procedures can save 45% of the energy losses. This is evidence that old buildings and this in particular, are really bad insulated and have a lot of heat leakages. Also some behavior recommendations are given, like maintenance works and lightning improvements.


The noise tolerance of new submicron logic families is becoming more and more important for the reliability of high speed architectures. A method for the evaluation of noise robustness must be defined to compare different topologies and help designers in the library cells optimization, The paper describes a methodology for the analysis of self induced noise tolerance based on the statistical simulation of noise sources. This method can be usefully applied in the study of parasitics due to interconnections crosstalk in digital design and to the substrate-coupling in ICs.


ABSTRACT Research Findings: Exuberant temperament, characterized by high approach and positive affect, is linked to socioemotional outcomes including risk of externalizing symptoms across development. Externalizing problems interfere with children's school readiness and lead to disruptive behavior in the classroom. While some moderating factors help identify which exuberant children are at risk and in which contexts they are at risk, few studies have identified early moderators that protect against maladjustment when children enter school. In the current study, we examined exuberant temperament in 124 toddlers and classroom behavior problems reported by kindergarten teachers. We also assessed the impact of maternal responsiveness at 24 months on the relation between exuberance and classroom behavior problems. As hypothesized, we found that higher exuberance predicted more behavior problems. In addition, maternal responsiveness moderated this association such that high responsiveness protected exuberant children from classroom behavior problems. Practice or Policy: These results expand our understanding of socioemotional risks for exuberant children and how these risks influence school readiness. We also find that maternal responsiveness during toddlerhood mitigates these risks, and our findings suggest that interventions for exuberant children at risk for behavior problems or poor school readiness should target parental responsiveness when children are toddlers.


Variations in the rate of embryonic malformations of the anchoveta Engraulis ringens in a spawning area off central–southern Chile were assessed. Eggs in stages of development subsequent to blastodisc formation were collected and preserved. Several severe malformations were identified and grouped by: (1) proliferation of disorganized tissue in early and late developmental stages; (2) irregular blastopore closure; and (3) notochordal deformation, of which the second had the highest incidence among the embryos. The average rate of malformation was 5.64%, a value close to that reported for other Clupeiformes and below the rate of 10%, indicating the influence of purely endogenous factors. The expected relationship between temperature variations and malformation rates was not observed, probably because the natural temperature range experienced by the embryos was above that at which severe malformation had previously been observed in the laboratory. The relationship between egg size and malformation rates over the spawning season was not determined; however, a relationship between egg size and malformation rates was detected among the samples from each sampling date, which suggests that malformations may be attributable to endogenous factors rather than to environmental factors acting directly on the eggs in the plankton.


Abstract This study includes research into using UV light to remove Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) from municipal sludge. The effectiveness of TiO2 as a photocatalyst on this UV application was also determined. Sludge samples that were taken from an urban wastewater treatment plant (UWWTP) were exposed to UV-C light in a specially designed setup. The total concentration of Σ12 PAH in the sludge, which was 1339 ng g−1 of dry matter initially, decreased by 2–77% after 24 h of UV application. The concentrations of some PAH isomers increased after the UV application, which revealed that isomer transformations could emerge due to the effects of temperature and photodegradation. UV light was found to remove 3-ring light compounds more effectively than 4–6-ring heavy compounds. A total PAH decrease of 77% was achieved by adding an amount of TiO2 equal to 0.5% of the dry weight of the sludge although the removal rate of PAHs from the sludge decreased when the TiO2 dosage was increased. It is possible tha...


The universe displays a three-dimensional pattern of hot and cold spots in the radiation remnant from the big bang. The global geometry of the universe can be revealed in the spatial distribution of these spots. In a topologically compact universe, distinctive patterns are especially prominent in spatial correlations of the radiation temperature. Whereas these patterns are usually washed out in statistical averages, we propose a scheme which uses the universe's spots to observe global geometry in a manner analogous to the use of multiple images of a gravitationally lensed quasar to study the geometry of the lens. To demonstrate how the geometry of space forms patterns, we develop a simple real-space approximation to estimate temperature correlations for any set of cosmological parameters and any global geometry. We present correlated spheres which clearly show topological pattern formation for compact flat universes as well as for the compact negatively curved space introduced by Weeks and another discovered by Best. These examples illustrate how future satellite-based observations of the microwave background can determine the full geometry of the universe.


Abstract Objective: To investigate the possible associations between the food environment and dietary intake in the Mexican population. Design: Four databases (PubMed, PsychInfo, Web of Science and SCIelo) were used to retrieve relevant articles using an open timeframe. Articles were reviewed if they contained a systematic measure (i.e. food checklist) of the food environment (e.g. food availability) and dietary intake. Setting: Urban and rural communities in Mexico. Participants: Population-based studies of Mexican communities. Results: Twenty studies that assessed at least one food environment level, and at least one dietary outcome, were reviewed. Findings from these studies showed that changes in the Mexican food environment seem to be associated with higher availability of energy-dense foods. Energy-dense foods can be linked to a high consumption in household, environment and community food environments. When both nutrient-dense and energy-dense foods were present, individuals were more likely to consume foods with added sugars, fats and salt options than nutrient-dense items. Conclusions: The various levels of the food environment (i.e. household, school, community) exposed participants to energy-dense foods. Although nutrient-dense foods were present in all three levels, individuals were more likely to consume energy-dense food items. Not all three levels of the food environment are well represented in the urban and rural settings. Most studies on the community food environment were done in rural areas, whereas most studies on the school food environment were done in urban settings. Additional rigorously designed studies are needed to document the relationship between the food environment and dietary intake in the Mexican population.


We propose an interactive design system for rapid crafting of planar mechanical characters. Our method combines the simplicity of sketch-based modeling with the ease of defining motion through extreme poses. In order to translate digital designs into fabrication-ready descriptions, our method automatically computes the mechanical structure that makes the characters move as desired. We achieve real-time performance by limiting the mechanical structure between pairs of components to simple building blocks that define, trim, and propagate their motion. By focusing on shape and motion, our system emphasizes the creative aspects of character design while hiding away the intricacies of the underlying mechanical structure. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach on a set of virtual designs and physical prototypes.


This paper explores power relations within a participatory health and social needs project that took place in a South Asian community in northern England. The project involved a number of different individuals and agencies, each of which began with a rather different combination of interests, agendas, resources, and power bases. Drawing on detailed observations made during the project, together with a series of evaluation interviews, we explore the ways in which these were continually re-negotiated, within a context of shifting power relations. We use a theoretical framework, derived from different interpretations of power and knowledge, and from Bourdieu's theories of cultural and symbolic capital, to unravel these processes of change. We find shifts in the balance of power over the course of a project are possible, but are often slow and rather limited, because of the self-perpetuating power of those holding symbolic capital to define and maintain the status quo. We conclude that community participation in health and social action research can never be a single event, but should be regarded as an ongoing, iterative process, which may extend far beyond the official bounds of the project itself.


Obesity is associated with multiple adverse health effects and a high risk of developing metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, there is a great need to identify circulating parameters that link changes in body fat mass with obesity. This study combines proteomic and metabolomic approaches to identify circulating molecules that discriminate healthy lean from healthy obese individuals in an exploratory study design. To correct for variations in physical activity, study participants performed a one hour exercise bout to exhaustion. Subsequently, circulating factors differing between lean and obese individuals, independent of physical activity, were identified. The DIGE approach yielded 126 differentially abundant spots representing 39 unique proteins. Differential abundance of proteins was confirmed by ELISA for antithrombin-III, clusterin, complement C3 and complement C3b, pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), serum amyloid P (SAP), and vitamin-D binding protein (VDBP). Targeted serum metabolomics of 163 metabolites identified 12 metabolites significantly related to obesity. Among those, glycine (GLY), glutamine (GLN), and glycero-phosphatidylcholine 42:0 (PCaa 42:0) serum concentrations were higher, whereas PCaa 32:0, PCaa 32:1, and PCaa 40:5 were decreased in obese compared to lean individuals. The integrated bioinformatic evaluation of proteome and metabolome data yielded an improved group separation score of 2.65 in contrast to 2.02 and 2.16 for the single-type use of proteomic or metabolomics data, respectively. The identified circulating parameters were further investigated in an extended set of 30 volunteers and in the context of two intervention studies. Those included 14 obese patients who had undergone sleeve gastrectomy and 12 patients on a hypocaloric diet. For determining the long-term adaptation process the samples were taken six months after the treatment. In multivariate regression analyses, SAP, CLU, RBP4, PEDF, GLN, and C18:2 showed the strongest correlation to changes in body fat mass. The combined serum proteomic and metabolomic profiling reveals a link between the complement system and obesity and identifies both novel (C3b, CLU, VDBP, and all metabolites) and confirms previously discovered markers (PEDF, RBP4, C3, ATIII, and SAP) of body fat mass changes.


DNA damage is a constant source of stress challenging genomic integrity. To ensure faithful duplication of our genomes, mechanisms have evolved to deal with damage encountered during replication. One such mechanism is referred to as DNA damage tolerance (DDT). DDT allows for replication to continue in the presence of a DNA lesion by promoting damage bypass. Two major DDT pathways exist: error-prone translesion synthesis (TLS) and error-free template switching (TS). TLS recruits low-fidelity DNA polymerases to directly replicate across the damaged template, whereas TS uses the nascent sister chromatid as a template for bypass. Both pathways must be tightly controlled to prevent the accumulation of mutations that can occur from the dysregulation of DDT proteins. A key regulator of error-prone versus error-free DDT is the replication clamp, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of PCNA, mainly by ubiquitin and SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier), play a critical role in DDT. In this review, we will discuss the different types of PTMs of PCNA and how they regulate DDT in response to replication stress. We will also cover the roles of PCNA PTMs in lagging strand synthesis, meiotic recombination, as well as somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination.


Many efforts have been devoted to system studies involving switched series compensation. While the majority of the interest has focused on thyristor switches, there has also been interest in advanced compensators involving other switching methods. In particular, a GTO controlled series capacitor (GTO-CSC) scheme was proposed by T.H. Ortmeyer et al. (see ibid., vol.8, p.1348-55, 1993). Snubber design and fault performance for the GTO-CSC is developed in this paper, and a feasible circuit design is proposed.


INTRODUCTION
Given the increasing prevalence of mental health problems in the general population, it is indispensable to use assessment tools aimed to assess the outcome of therapeutic interventions in order to refine the process of psychological rehabilitation.

METHOD
We describe the process of adaptation into Spanish and a first psychometric study of the Young Person's- Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE), an instrument designed to measure the outcome in terms of general distress of therapeutic interventions in young people (11-16 years). 104 adolescents participated in the clinical and 131 in the non-clinical samples.

RESULTS
Analyses showed good levels of acceptability, adequate internal consistency and acceptable test-retest stability, with moderately high correlations between administrations. In addition, the instrument yielded significant correlations with all dimensions of the Youth Self Report, the highest being between both total scores. Crucially, discriminated between clinical and non-clinical samples and showed a small effect of age but a larger effect of gender, with higher scores for females. The Principal Component Analysis replicates the original structure. Cut-off scores to calculate the reliable and clinically significant change are provided.

CONCLUSIONS
These results support initial use of the instrument though there are certain limitations that indicate the need for more research with larger and more representative samples, in which the psychometric properties of the instrument should be verified.


Trajectory data streams are huge amounts of data pertaining to time and position of moving objects generated by different sources continuously using a wide variety of technologies (e.g., RFID tags, GPS, GSM networks). Mining such amounts of data is challenging, since the possibility to extract useful information from this peculiar kind of data is crucial in many application scenarios such as vehicle traffic management, hand-off in cellular networks, supply chain management. Moreover, spatial data streams poses interesting challenges both for their proper definition and acquisition, thus making the mining process harder than for classical point data. In this paper, we address the problem of trajectory data streams On Line Analytical Processing, that revealed really challenging as we deal with data (trajectories) for which the order of elements is relevant. We propose an end to end framework in order to make the querying step quite effective. We performed several tests on real world datasets that confirmed the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed techniques.


Introduction: long-term results of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in Africa have been poorly informed. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of TARVC through 2 factors: mortality and follow-up loss. Methods: A descriptive, retrospective, longitudinal study was conducted in 1000 adults who began cART in 2004 and were followed until 2009 at "Esperanca" Hospital in Luanda. Results: The CD4 + count mean baseline of T lymphocytes was 147.1 cells/mm3. 46 % presented with clinical stage III or IV according to World Health Organization standards. The average age was 34.6 years. During 60 000 person-months followup (mean 34 months), 335 patients died, 153 lost follow up and adherence to treatment after 5 years was 51.2 %. The gross mortality rate was 7.9 (95 % CI 5.6 to 8.3) 100 person-years. A significantly shorter survival mean was detected in women (39.1 months vs. 42), in those with lymphocytes CD4 + count baseline below 200 cells/mm3 (27.3 months vs. 32.4), in those classified in advanced stages according to WHO standards (25.6 months vs. 31.7) and in those reaching both clinical and immunological criteria to start therapy (30.4 months vs. 33.7 immunological only). Conclusions: A good long-term adherence to treatment and clinical outcomes were observed. The relatively high mortality after 5 years presents a major challenge for better cART results and suggests the need to strengthen strategies to promote treatment adherence.


According to the current situation of acicular chip and high-frequency chattering of the NC rotary table while gear milling, rigidity and damping performances of the table were analyzed and the damping program of Coulomb friction was bring up. Online test of the gear milling cutting force can be used to establish dynamic model of circumferential vibration of the table with Coulomb friction. Then mechanism of restraining gear cutting chatter by damping of Coulomb friction and acicular chip generating mechanism were exposed. Furthermore, relationship between backlash and rotary rigidity of the table was also analyzed. A kind of floating apparatus with friction damping was designed to optimize circumferential damping of the table by adjusting Coulomb friction force, which reduces the influence of high-frequency chattering on gear milling. As a result, efficiency of gear milling was increased 1.5 times and the noise was reduced from 105dB to 91dB.


In this paper, an approach to map the Bluetooth and 802.11b standards specifications into an architecture and specifications for the building blocks of a dual-mode direct conversion receiver is proposed. The design procedure focuses on optimizing the performance in each operating mode while attaining an efficient dual-standard solution. The impact of the expected receiver nonidealities and the characteristics of each building block are evaluated through bit-error-rate simulations. The proposed receiver design is verified through a fully integrated implementation from low-noise amplifier to analog-to-digital converter using IBM 0.25-/spl mu/m BiCMOS technology. Experimental results from the integrated prototype meet the specifications from both standards and are in good agreement with the target sensitivity.


Background : Deposition of excess fat in the abdominal region is strongly associated with the metabolic disturbances thought to underlie many obesity related complications. Aim : To determine the prevalence of abdominal obesity using waist circumference inadolescents' girls attending a public secondary school in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and to identify some risk factors associated with occurrence of abdominal obesity in subjects studied. Methodology: A total of 1330 females aged between10 and 19 years were studied.  Data on biodata, dietary habits and measure of physical activity was obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Anthropometry was taken and overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity determined using Body mass index percentiles and waist circumference percentiles for age and sex respectively. Logistic regression was used to evaluate some physical and behavioural factors associated with the development of abdominal obesity. Results : Total of 20(1.5%) subjects had abdominal obesity. Mean age of girls studied was15.74±1.45 years while mean waist circumference was 72.26±7.17cm. Eighteen (90%) of subjects with abdominal obesity using waist circumference percentile were also overweight or obese using BMI percentile  estimation. Eighteen(7.5%) of all subjects with overweight or obesity had abdominal obesity compared to  only 2(0.2%) of those with normal weight. Physical inactivity, daily fruit consumption and watching of TV/Internet/Video games for =2hours /day were significantly associated with development of abdominal obesity. Conclusion : Prevalence of abdominal obesity was low in this study compared to other studies; reduced physical activity and sedentary lifestyle identified as significant risk factors in these subjects as reported in other studies. Keywords : Abdominal obesity, Adolescents, Girls, Risk factors


Energy production within a cell involves many coordinated chemical pathways. Most of these pathways are combinations of oxidation and reduction reactions. Oxidation and reduction occur in tandem. An oxidation reaction strips an electron from an atom in a compound, and the addition of this electron to another compound is a reduction reaction. Because oxidation and reduction usually occur together, these pairs of reactions are called oxidation reduction reactions, or redox reactions.


At least for some theological interpreters of his novels, Nikos Kazantzakis stands out as a spiritual frontiersman grappling in his own searchingly honest way with intense problems of the spirit. The main theological problem in his work is his assertion that we are "saviors of God." Insofar as he struggles to understand "God," a theological reading of his work is appropriate. Although many scholars claim that Kazantzakis was an atheist, it is possible to interpret his creative writing as the anguish of an "antitheist" in search of a credible ontology of God. This is evidenced in Kazantzakis's own theistic vision, which may be termed "relational," which means that deity and the world are striving ceaselessly to surpass earlier stages of their own development. In this view, salvation is understood as a dialogical process. God "panentheistically" embraces the creative advance, setting us free, and we, by plunging deep within ourselves, liberate the divine. This way of picturing God is strikingly similar to process-relational theology, a major trend in Christian theology over the past half century.


The theory of the competitive firm under price uncertainty is used to develop a money metric of a producer's willingness to pay for additional information. This concept is extended to the market by formulating ex-ante and ex-post measures of the value of a rational expectations forecast. The empirical feasibility of these measures are demonstrated by application to a simple two equation model of an agricultural market.


The task of the veterinarian in modern pig keeping developments is stressed. The relationship between zootechnics and pig health programmes is illustrated in eight examples in the fields of breeding. nutrition, housing and management. By comparing data on herds at regular intervals, "probleem-herds" may be traced and special attention can be paid to these herds. This approach was practised by several years in the province of North-Brabant.


The study was aimed at assessing the growth, production, and quality of spinach (Amaranthus tricolor L.) given various rates of chicken manure and potassium nitrate (KNO3). A completely randomized design with two factors was used. The first factor was levels of chicken manure, namely 0 g, 50 g, 100 g, and 150 g per polybag. The second factor was levels of potassium nitrate (KNO3) fertilizer, namely 0 g, 0.25 g, 0.5 g, and 0.75 g per polybag. Results showed that chicken manure application significantly affected plant height on 14 days after planting (DAP) and number of leaves on 14 and 21 DAP. Potassium nitrate application gave significant effects on number of leaves on 21 DAP. Chlorophyl content of spinach leaves given by 150 g chicken manure per polybag increase at low dosage of KNO3 (0.25 g per polybag). Combination treatment of 150 g chicken manure and 0.75 g KNO3 fertilizer per polybag gave better effects on biomass fresh weight, shoot dry weight, and root dry weight than other treatment combinations.


: The luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of mouse peritoneal macrophages during phagocytosis of opsonized zymosan was studied by using specific active oxygen scavengers and metabolic inhibitors. Extracellular hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion were shown to contribute immensely to the induction of the chemiluminescence. The role of the hydroxyl radical was rather insignificant, whereas singlet oxygen was not involved in this process. The interaction between luminol and peroxide was shown to be peroxidase-dependent. An inhibitory analysis revealed that the interaction between luminol, peroxide and superoxide anion obeyed a hybrid enzyme-free radical mechanism.


In recent years, due to rapid changes in society, and climate change, cities have experienced difficulties in predicting various types of upcoming hazards and stresses. Uncertainties about the nature and extent of risks are increased especially when it comes to cities where interactions exist among various elements including human, society, economy, and culture. Considering limited prediction on inherent crises and difficulties in reaction plans, resilience strategy should be implemented prior to prevention strategy. The purpose of this study is to compare urban resilience levels of comprehensive plans for metropolitan areas with a population of over 1 million. Resilience measurements of capacity of resistance, adaptation, and recovery from external shocks and stresses will be applied to evaluate the level of urban resilience of cities in Korea. For the method of the study, it defined concepts of urban resilience through literature review, and derived indexes for urban resilience using preceding researches and case studies. Then, it developed detailed assessment indexes for evaluation of urban resilience level, and, finally, it evaluated and compared urban resilience level of comprehensive plans, using derived assessment indexes. As a result of the study, it suggested 56 assessment indexes and checklists in 8 sectors including land use plan, urban and residential environment, infrastructure, and more. The result of this study can be used as a base data for the future comprehensive plans when developing resilient cities.


ABSTRACT Despite a recent shift in the allocation of parenting time arrangements following divorce, there is no clear consensus regarding the effects of shared parenting on children's adjustment in high-conflict families. We propose key questions and methodological options to increase the ability of results from well-designed empirical studies to inform practice and policy. We review 11 studies of relations between parenting time and parenting quality with children's adjustment in high-conflict divorced families. Despite heterogeneity of methods used across the studies, some tentative conclusions can be made based on findings of multiple studies. Higher levels of shared parenting were related to poorer child adjustment in samples with high conflict many years following the divorce, but typically not in samples that assessed conflict during the divorcing process or in the 2 or 3 years following the divorce. There is also evidence that the effects of shared parenting on child adjustment in the presence of high conflict differs by gender, and that high quality of parenting by at least 1 parent is associated with better child adjustment in high-conflict divorces. Implications for policy and practice are discussed as well as directions for research to strengthen the knowledge base to inform policy.


The Web has become a worldwide repository of information which individuals, companies, and organizations utilize to solve or address various information problems. Many of these Web users utilize automated agents to gather this information for them. Some assume that this approach represents a more sophisticated method of searching. However, there is little research investigating how Web agents search for online information. In this research, we first provide a classification for information agent using stages of information gathering, gathering approaches, and agent architecture. We then examine an implementation of one of the resulting classifications in detail, investigating how agents search for information on Web search engines, including the session, query, term, duration and frequency of interactions. For this temporal study, we analyzed three data sets of queries and page views from agents interacting with the Excite and AltaVista search engines from 1997 to 2002, examining approximately 900,000 queries submitted by over 3,000 agents. Findings include: (1) agent sessions are extremely interactive, with sometimes hundreds of interactions per second (2) agent queries are comparable to human searchers, with little use of query operators, (3) Web agents are searching for a relatively limited variety of information, wherein only 18% of the terms used are unique, and (4) the duration of agent-Web search engine interaction typically spans several hours. We discuss the implications for Web information agents and search engines.


The validity of death certification of stroke was studied in the general population cohort at Framingham, MA. During the last 30 years, 5106 people aged 30 to 62 and free of CHD and stroke at entry have been followed for the development of cardiovascular disease including stroke. Of the 280 decedents with certified stroke 113 (40% false negative rate) had no mention of stroke on the death certificate. THe false negative rate increased significantly with increasing age at death and increasing interval from last stroke to death. Among the 216 certificates listing stroke there were 46 false positives (21%). Analysis by type of stroke disclosed marked over-reporting of cerebral hemorrhage and under-reporting of cerebral embolus. This comparison of prospectively collected data to death certificates should raise questions about the accuracy of studies dependent on ths source of information.


Recent advances in single cell and single channel recording techniques have lead to the generation of more accurate descriptions of cardiac muscle cell ion channel kinetics and the development of a new mathematical model of its action potential, the Luo and Rudy model. In order to study the propagation, effects of drugs by spatial simulations, it is first necessary to develop a means to control some characteristics of action potential given by this model. Presented here are the results of computer implementation, validation, and controllability experiments of the Luo-Rudy model of cardiac action potential.


In this paper, we present the use of silver nanoparticles coated silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements with emphasis on the use of obliquely instead of vertically aligned SiNW arrays. The obliquely aligned SiNW arrays were fabricated on Si(111) substrate, and the SiNWs were coated with silver nanoparticles with sizes in the 20-40 nm range. The results showed that with the use of obliquely instead of vertically aligned SiNW arrays, the Raman enhancement factor (REF) is increased by more than one order of magnitude and can reach 10 14 when malachite green is used as test sample. The mechanism causing the improvement of the REF is also discussed.


This paper focuses on the challenges of creating a scalable network-attached storage (NAS) filer with hundreds of nodes on top of the IBM General Parallel File System™ (GPFS™). The filer is created as a multiheaded data exporter over Ethernet and uses the Common Internet File System (CIFS) as implemented by the Samba open-source project and a Network File System (NFS) protocol server. Special focus is given to ensure the consistency of data in an efficient manner for applications that have complex access patterns from a large number of nodes. Also considered are the challenges of providing an extremely high-performance facility for exporting data in parallel and the demands of storing very large amounts of data. Introducing new aspects of storage management--such as storage pools and fle sets as they are implemented in current file systems--into NAS appliances enables the management of large amounts of data in a single namespace.


The ecological traits of organisms may predict their genetic diversity and population genetic structure and mediate the action of evolutionary processes important for speciation and adaptation. Making these ecological-evolutionary links is difficult because it requires comparable genetic estimates from many species with differing ecologies. In Amazonian birds, habitat association is an important component of ecological diversity. Here, we examine the link between habitat association and genetic parameters using 20 pairs of closely related Amazonian bird species in which one member of the pair occurs primarily in forest edge and floodplains and the other occurs in upland forest interior. We use standardized geographic sampling and data from 2,416 genomic markers to estimate genetic diversity, population genetic structure, and statistics reflecting demographic and evolutionary processes. We find that species of upland forest have greater genetic diversity and divergence across the landscape as well as signatures of older histories and less gene flow than floodplain species. Our results reveal that species ecology in the form of habitat association is an important predictor of genetic diversity and population divergence and suggest that differences in diversity between floodplain and upland avifaunas in the Amazon may be driven by differences in the demographic and evolutionary processes at work in the two habitats.


In this work, both planar and textured, industrial scale (156 mm × 156 mm) single-crystalline silicon (Si) solar cells have been fabricated using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods as antireflection coating (ARC). ZnO nanorods were grown in a few minutes via hydrothermal method within a commercially available microwave oven. Relative improvement in excess of 65% in the reflectivity was observed for both planar and textured Si surfaces. Through ZnO nanorods, effective lifetime (τeff) measurements were presented to investigate the surface passivation property of such an ARC layer. ZnO nanorods increased the τeff from 9 to 71 μs at a carrier injection level of 1015 cm−3. Increased carrier lifetime revealed the passivation effect of the ZnO nanorods in addition to their ARC property. 33% and 16% enhancement in the photovoltaic conversion efficiency was obtained in planar and textured single-crystalline solar cells, respectively. Our results reveal the potential of ZnO nanorods as ARC that can be deposited through simple solution-based methods and the method investigated herein can be simply adapted to industrial scale fabrication.


Threatening situations, in which people fear negative outcomes or failure, evoke avoidance motivation. Avoidance motivation, in turn, evokes a focused, systematic and effortful way of information processing that has often been linked to reduced creativity. This harmful effect of avoidance motivation on creativity can be problematic in financially turbulent times when people fear for their jobs and financial security. However, particularly in such threatening times, creativity may be crucial to innovate, adapt to changing demands and stay ahead of competitors. Here, I propose a theoretical framework describing how different types of constraints in the workplace affect creative performance under approach and avoidance motivation. Specifically, under avoidance motivation, constraints that consume or occupy cognitive resources should undermine creativity, but constraints that channel cognitive resources should facilitate creativity. Understanding the impact of different types of constraints on creative performance is needed to develop strategies for maximizing creativity in the workplace.


Chronic fatigue (CF) is a common reason for consulting a physician due to affecting quality of life, but only a few effective treatments are available. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of subcutaneous injection of the human placental extract (HPE) on medically indescribable cases of CF and safety in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. A total of 78 subjects with CF were randomly assigned to either a HPE group or a placebo group. Subjects in the HPE group were treated with HPE three times a week subcutaneously for 6 weeks, whereas those in the placebo group with normal saline. Then, the fatigue severity scale (FSS), visual analog scale (VAS) and multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI) were measured in both CF group and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and idiopathic chronic fatigue (ICF) subgroup. The FSS, VAS and MFI score at baseline were not different between the HPE and placebo group in total subjects with CF. In CFS group, the FSS (p=0.0242), VAS (p=0.0009) and MFI (p=0.0159) scores measured at the end of the study period decreased more in the HPE group than in the placebo group when compared with those at the baseline. There were no significant differences between the HPE group and placebo group in the mean change from baseline in FSS, VAS, and MFI in subjects with ICF during the study period. The subcutaneous injection of HPE was effective in the improvement of CFS.


While environmental rights have largely been situate within the public law realms of statute and constitutional provisions, tort constitutes an important complementary tool for protecting environmental entitlements. Aboriginal peoples face system barriers to accessing the protections provided by tort law, in particular the law of nuisance and trespass. This Article argues for an application of tort law that is sensitive to the formal and substantive equality rights of Aboriginal peoples in the area of environmental protection.


This article assesses whether the EU Treaty freedoms - the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital - should be considered as fundamental rights which are hierarchically equal to other fundamental rights. It uses the political philosophy of John Rawls to assess why we should attach priority to certain rights and which rights should therefore be considered fundamental rights. On this basis it is argued that we should recognise two main types of fundamental rights, namely basic rights and liberties associated with Rawls' first principle of justice and the rights associated with the principle of fair equality of opportunity. This is followed by an analysis of the interpretation that the European Court of Justice (CJEU) gives to the Treaty freedoms. On the basis of the normative framework, it is argued that the Treaty freedoms can be seen as fundamental rights insofar as they embody the value of equality of opportunity. Nonetheless, the CJEU increasingly seems to rely on a broader market access approach rather than an equal treatment approach in interpreting the Treaty freedoms. It is argued that where equal treatment is not at stake, the Treaty freedoms should not be seen as fundamental rights. Therefore, in cases where there is a conflict between a fundamental right and a Treaty freedom the CJEU should carefully distinguish between these two different interpretations of the Treaty freedoms. In cases where it is merely market access that is at stake, the CJEU should regard the protection of fundamental rights as more important, and be very careful in allowing a restriction of fundamental rights in order to protect the exercise of the Treaty freedom. On the other hand, in cases where the Treaty freedoms can be seen as protecting equality of opportunity and where they conflict with other fundamental rights, the Court is justified in construing the conflict as a right-right conflict in which a fair balance has to be sought.


We present on-going work on the automated ontology-based detection and recognition of characters in folktales, restricting ourselves for the time being to the analysis of referential nominal phrases occurring in such texts. Focus of the presently reported work was to investigate the interaction between an ontology and linguistic analysis of indefinite and indefinite nominal phrase for both the incremental annotation of characters in folktales text, including some inference based co-reference resolution, and the incremental population of the ontology. This in depth study was done at this early stage using only a very small textual base, but the demonstrated feasibility and the promising results of our small-scale experiment are encouraging us to deploy the strategy on a larger text base, covering more linguistic phenomena in a multilingual fashion.


Dystonia is a neurological disorder characterized by abnormal involuntary movements that are prolonged and often cause twisting and turning. Several genetically modified worms, fruit flies, and rodents have been generated as models of genetic dystonias, in particular DYT1, DYT11, and DYT12 dystonias. Although these models do not show overt dystonic symptoms, the rodent models exhibit motor deficits in specialized behavioral tasks, such as the rotarod and beam‐walking tests. For example, in a rodent model of DYT12 dystonia, which is generally stress triggered, motor deficits are observed only after the animal is stressed. Moreover, in a rodent model of DYT1 dystonia, the motor and electrophysiological deficits can be rescued by trihexyphenidyl, a common anticholinergic medication used to treat dystonic symptoms in human patients. Biochemically, the DYT1 and DYT11 animal models also share some similarities to patients, such as a reduction in striatal D2 dopamine receptor and binding activities. In addition, conditional knockout mouse models for DYT1 and DYT11 dystonia demonstrate that loss of the causal dystonia‐related proteins in the striatum leads to motor deficits. Interestingly, loss of the DYT1 dystonia causal protein in Purkinje cells shows an improvement in motor performance, suggesting that gene therapy targeting of the cerebellum or intervention in its downstream pathways may be useful. Finally, recent studies using DYT1 dystonia worm and mouse models led to a potential novel therapeutic agent, which is currently undergoing clinical trials. These results indicate that genetic animal models are powerful tools to elucidate the pathophysiology and to further develop new therapeutics for dystonia. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society


The linearization coefficient $\mathcal{L}(L_{n_1}(x)\dots L_{n_k}(x))$ of classical Laguerre polynomials $L_n(x)$ is known to be equal to the number of $(n_1,\dots,n_k)$-derangements, which are permutations with a certain condition. Kasraoui, Stanton and Zeng found a $q$-analog of this result using $q$-Laguerre polynomials with two parameters $q$ and $y$. Their formula expresses the linearization coefficient of $q$-Laguerre polynomials as the generating function for $(n_1,\dots,n_k)$-derangements with two statistics counting weak excedances and crossings. In this paper their result is proved by constructing a sign-reversing involution on marked perfect matchings.


A novel photoelectrochemical biosensor incorporating nanosized ZnO semiconductor crystals with enzyme to enhance photochemical reaction has been investigated. In this work, the ZnO nanoparticles and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were immobilized on Pt electrode by chitosan (CHI) via layer-by-layer technique (LbL) to fabricate a biological-inorganic hybrid system. Micrographs of (ZnO/CHI/AChE) films were obtained by scanning electron microscope, and photoelectrochemical properties of the resulting biosensors were measured by a three electrodes system and an ultraviolet lamp. Under ultraviolet light, the photo-effect of the ZnO nanoparticles showed enhancement of the biosensor to detect pesticide. Based on the inhibition of organophosphate pesticides on the AChE activity, using malathion as a model compound, the inhibition of dimethoate was proportional to its concentration ranging from 0.25 to 1.50 and from 1.75 to 10.00 μM, with a detection limit of 10 nM estimated at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The developed biosensor exhibited good reproducibility and acceptable stability, thus providing a new promising tool for analysis of enzyme inhibitors.


This letter addresses the problem of symbol error probability (SEP) analysis for maximum likelihood (ML) detection in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiplexing systems. A new analytical method is presented based on the total probability theorem. The effects of imperfect channel estimation and power allocation scheme are investigated. The accuracy of the proposed method is demonstrated by Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that the analytical results match quite well with the simulation ones irrespective of the signal-to noise- ratio (SNR).


In last decade, there has been explosive growth in vehicular sector and the number of vehicles flying on the road in all the parts of the country. For the better management of vehicular traffic, it is necessary to keep track of vehicles on the basis of their number plates. The proposed project suggests an automated way of parking toll collection based on the number plates of the vehicle and the time for which the vehicle is parked in the parking lot. This work deals with the problem from field of artificial intelligence, computer vision (image processing) and neural networks in the construction of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (ANPR).This problem includes mathematical principles and algorithms, which ensures a various processes to carry out the steps for the product. The acquisition of the image takes place with any camera with capability of capturing image with good quality. The emphasis of this paper is on the localization of number plate using contours tracing technique along with edge detection and sharpening of edge using Canny's edge detection algorithm. Moreover, we focus on this paper a new algorithm based on artificial neural network (ANN) is used for recognition of number plate characters. This paper makes use of various algorithms in each category from number plate detection to actual recognition of characters which enhances the performance of the system up to the maximum extent possible with less efforts and use of computational resources.


The spectrum of nitrous oxide has been measured with a high-resolution grating spectrometer in the region from 2395 to 3510 cm−1. Long absorbing paths were used in a heated cell, so that it was possible to observe many of the weaker bands, including those with lower vibrational levels ν2, 2ν20, 2ν22, and ν1. Accurate values of the rotational constants have been obtained, including the l-type doubling and variations with v and l of the centrifugal stretching constant. These have been correlated with other data to obtain improved values of the molecular constants, with particular attention to the Fermi interaction. Other weak interactions are observed and discussed.


The poor performance and inefficiencies of the construction industry are well recognized and documented. Through a variety of combined industry and government initiatives there has been a continual expression in the UK over the last decade of the urgent need to address the fragmented nature of the industry to improve its performance. A major challenge is for education and industry stakeholders to create closer and more effective relationships with each other to facilitate greater mutual understanding. 'Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education' (ACBEE) is a sponsored initiative designed to encourage the closer working together of industry, education and professional bodies to provide more relevant training and education. This paper introduces ACBEE, along with an evaluation framework for measuring the performance of engagements at various levels. This is followed by an analysis of the application of this performance measurement framework through case studies of industry–education engagement. A number of case studies were identified as operating at the grades of 'strategic alliance' and 'partnership' (as classified in the ACBEE evaluation framework). The analysis of these cases focuses on the drivers behind and the purpose of the engagement, and how these are aligned with the business strategy of the collaborating organizations and measurement of the activity. Evidence of meeting the explicit business needs and strategic objectives and the contribution to good practice knowledge are also discussed.


Despite the increasing rates of substance use by women, they continue to be underreported in substance use services. Factors related to women's relationships, family responsibilities, and stigma may provide insight into some of the barriers encountered by women. This study compared men and women on general and women-predominant barriers. In addition, this study investigated whether these barriers differed among individuals who use opioids compared to those who use other substances only. In total, 100 self-identifying men and women were recruited from a substance use service in Ontario. Participants completed a questionnaire package which measured demographic information, substance use, mental health and barriers. Although men and women encountered similar general barriers, women experienced significantly more women-predominant barriers. In addition, women reported higher levels of perceived stigmatization compared to men. Barriers did not differ among individuals who used opioids compared to other substances.


The equilibrium nitrogen solubility in the CaO-SiO2 system was studied by a slag-gas equilibration technique, in graphite crucibles at 1823K under a CO-N2 atmosphere. The nitrogen content of the slags was determined by the Kjeldahl method. A reliable technique was used to obtain an initial nitrogen content in the master slags, from the addition and pre-melting of silicon nitride. Reduction of silica by graphite was found to occur during the equilibration experiments, resulting in compositional changes of the slags. The results were extrapolated to equilibrium by kinetic evaluation of the data. The nitrogen solubility showed good agreement with the result of Suito and Sano, while Fruehani?½s results were lower. However, the results of the present study do not support the maximum nitrogen solubility values found by Sano.


Increasing globalization, if properly exploited, can provide interesting opportunities for regional economies. Nevertheless, when they are not managed with a far-sighted approach, regions, and particularly those at an intermediate level of development, can lose their comparative advantages compared with regions of developing countries. Innovation is the main instrument for improving and ensuring competitiveness to enterprises and growth opportunities to local economies. The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of public policies in reinforcing regional innovation systems and the role of regional innovation agencies. With this in mind, we describe the policies implemented by the "Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation" of Apulia, a region in Southern Italy, highlighting its main strengths and weaknesses.


We report on initial observations made by the Langmuir Probe and Waves relaxation soundingexperiment on board the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission. These measurements yield the ionospheric thermal plasma density, and we use these data here for an initial survey of its variability. Studying orbit‐to‐orbit variations, we show that the relative variability of the ionospheric plasma density is lowest at low altitudes near the photochemical peak, steadily increases toward higher altitudes and sharply increases as the spacecraft crosses the terminator and moves into the nightside. Finally, despite the small volume of data currently available, we show that a clear signature of the influence of crustal magnetic fields on the thermal plasma density fluctuations is visible. Such results are consistent with previously reported remote measurements made at higher altitudes, but crucially, here we sample a new span of altitudes between ∼130 and ∼300 km using in situ techniques.


Whether the Ganges river in Varanasi (India) is pristinely pure or heavily polluted depends on by whom it qualities are defined, the Brahmin religious specialists in the city or the science oriented environmentalists. While the controversy continues, some Hindu religious leaders are searching for ways to adjust their respective traditions to the environmental paradigms, an initiative that reflects a larger global religious trend. In this study the environmental positions taken by Brahmin religious specialists in the city are briefly outlined. Irrespective of their position with regard to the new environmental agenda, the religious specialists are guided by a common concern to preserve the ritual domains at the riverbanks in the city. The study mainly focuses on a ritual domain at the urban riverfront where local residents gather to bathe. Among these residents the question of the qualities of the Ganges is not so much a matter of taking up positions as trying to make sense of yet another troubling aspect of everyday life. In this setting the environmental problems at the Ganges is commonly perceived as a problem of local governance. Firstly, everyday perceptions and practices at the riverside are outlined through a discussion of the role of purity, honour and gender in the structure of the ritual domain. Secondly, some key practices (the Ganges bath, purification) and perceptions (the qualities attributed to the Ganges) in this setting are discussed from the perspective of religious change. The examination shows that the structure of the ritual domain relies not only on the concept of purity, which in certain contexts is a rather flexible notion, but is also upheld by the more widely accepted definitions of honour and gender. To the extent that the specific ritual domain that has been studied here can be seen as representative for other similar sites along the urban riverfront in Varanasi, the following observations can be made. The ritual domain that the Brahmin religious specialists search to preserve is challenged not only by those who take up a science-oriented environmental position, but also by everyday visitors at the riverbanks who want to redefine the site as a public space. Furthermore, its position is weakened by a tendency towards de-ritualisation among the young. The question of environmental awareness and religious change has been raised in the context of laymen's perceptions and practices at the riverbanks. Change was examined by means of concepts from theories of the secularisation of religion. Age group was used as a time dimension. The examination indicates that religious change is taking place. A common trait among young men at the site is that they tend to simplify their ritual acts, and readily incorporates the view that the Ganges is polluted, although their definitions of pollution may vary. With regard to other aspects such as value pluralism and privilege of interpretation, the tendencies among the young vary, and caste and education may be significant for these variations. As these two dimensions co-vary, it is difficult to determine which may be the most significant dimension. Education seems to be a significant dimension for environmental perceptions. The question of possible correspondences between environmental and religious perceptions has also been examined, but no clear tendency was found.


Strongyloidiasis, a chronic helminth infection caused by the parasitic nematode Strongyloides stercoralis, has various clinical manifestations. Although rare, duodenal obstructions and venous thromboembolism are possible complications of strongyloidiasis. This paper presents the case of a 47-year-old Vietnamese male with a history of right lower limb edema, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal discomfort lasting for four months. Venous Doppler ultrasound detected a thrombus in the right femoral vein, while an abdominal CT scan revealed a mass lesion suggestive of a lower bile duct tumor. Esophageogastroduodenoscopy showed a friable duodenal cap mucosa with multiple ulcers and edematous mucosa of the second part of the duodenum that caused a partial lumen obstruction. The final histological examination of the biopsy specimen revealed chronic duodenitis with larvae consistent with Strongyloides stercoralis. The patient was treated with Ivermectin for two weeks and anticoagulation therapy for three months. After treatment and a six-month follow-up, the patient's gastrointestinal symptoms and leg swelling resolved completely. This is the first documented case of a patient in Vietnam with strongyloidiasis who presented with venous thromboembolism and duodenal obstruction.


Algorithms for online learning typically require one or more boundedness assumptions: that the domain is bounded, that the losses are Lipschitz, or both. In this paper, we develop a new setting for online learning with unbounded domains and non-Lipschitz losses. For this setting we provide an algorithm which guarantees $R_{T}(u)\le \tilde O(G\|u\|\sqrt{T}+L\|u\|^{2}\sqrt{T})$ regret on any problem where the subgradients satisfy $\|g_{t}\|\le G+L\|w_{t}\|$, and show that this bound is unimprovable without further assumptions. We leverage this algorithm to develop new saddle-point optimization algorithms that converge in duality gap in unbounded domains, even in the absence of meaningful curvature. Finally, we provide the first algorithm achieving non-trivial dynamic regret in an unbounded domain for non-Lipschitz losses, as well as a matching lower bound. The regret of our dynamic regret algorithm automatically improves to a novel $L^{*}$ bound when the losses are smooth.


Fast microprocessors exploit instruction level parallelism and high clock frequency. On the other hand, power dissipation is reduced by lowering the supply voltage and consequently increasing the clock cycle time. This paper presents a DSP architecture which targets a simple, low-cost and ultra-high frequency implementation, showing that this choice leads to high power efficiency in terms of dissipation with constrained performance. The design reduces the cycle time by a combination of instruction set as well as microarchitecture design choices. The architecture performance is extensively evaluated by means of instruction level simulation of standard DSP benchmarks and cycle time estimation. A theoretical analysis of the power efficiency is also provided.


Motivated by emerging self-sustained low-power applications, an integrated power supply solution with a reconfigurable step-up/down switched-capacitor power stage and a dual-loop adaptive gain-pulse control is presented. It makes use of a reconfigurable power stage structure to implement variable gain ratios that provide efficient voltage conversion within wide input/output voltage and power ranges. It also employs an interleaving regulation scheme to significantly reduce the input inrush currents and the output voltage ripples with fast transient response. Design strategy, system optimization, and circuit implementation are addressed in detail. The converter was designed with a standard 0.35-mum digital CMOS n-well process. With an input voltage ranging from 1.5 to 3.3 V, the converter achieves variable step-up/down voltage conversion with a maximum load current of 90 mA. The maximum efficiency is 88%. The converter responds to a 70-mA load-current step change within 4.6 mus, while it robustly operates under a 1.8-V input supply variation. The design can be easily extended and reconfigured for different operation and application scenarios.


The groundnut, Arachis pintoi, was grown as a ground cover with bell pepper, Capsicum annum cv. Tropical Irazui to determine its effects on reducing numbers of the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), and associated gemini virus diseases. In 1996, whitefly population levels were relatively low and no differences in the numbers of whiteflies per plant were detected during the initial two observations. Although the number of whiteflies never surpassed 2.7 per plant in 1996, at the final observation, approximately four times as many whiteflies were observed on bell pepper plants grown without ground cover than on plants with cover. Whitefly numbers were higher in 1997 and reached a maximum of 8.10 per plant in plots without A. pintoi. The greatest number of B. tabaci in the 1997 plots with the ground cover was only 0.38 per plant on the final observation date. Disease onset was earlier and frequency was greater in plants without cover. At the final sample date in 1996, 81.5% of the plants grown without cover were diseased while only 52.6% of the plants with ground cover expressed symptoms. This difference was more pronounced at the last sample date in 1997 when 39.0 and 4.5% of the plants expressed symptoms in plots without and with A. pintoi, respectively. On different dates, 50 samples were taken from plots of A. pintoi to determine the presence of whitefly on foliage of the ground cover. Only one whitefly was found on one of the samples taken. Accumulative yields at the conclusion of the 1996 study were 5.11 and 1.35 kg plant -1 for plants with ground cover and without ground cover, respectively. A similar trend was observed in 1997 when yields were 1.64 and 0.82 kg plant-1 in plots with and without A. pintoi, respectively.


Is the application of international law unjust in prominent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union?

In answering this question the thesis explains that Justice comprises both legal certainty, which seeks clear rules to govern future conduct, and [j]ustice, which seeks the correct outcome in an individual case. There is a frequent tension between these aims. Moreover, there is not an accepted model of Justice which resolves how to balance legal certainty and justice. Any loss in one aspect may be justified by a gain in the other. On this basis the analysis of legal certainty and justice is divided in the thesis.

Legal certainty can be measured objectively, but the appropriate level of legal certainty which any legal system should achieve is contested. It is argued that legal certainty in internal case law - case law not applying international law - is the appropriate measure of legal certainty in external case law - case law applying international treaty and customary international law. This is implicit in scholarship and has been expressly approved by the Court itself. The thesis will identify that external case law is les certain than internal case law.

[j]ustice cannot be measured objectively and is contested in its substantive or 'thick' form. However, formal, or 'thin' justice, which is encapsulated in the obligation to treat like cases alike and unalike cases unalike to the extent of their unalikeness, is widely accepted. Accordingly, the thesis compares internal case law, which reveals strong and consistent conceptions of justice across EU law, to external case law. It identifies differing justice conceptions in external as copared to internal case law.

Based on a 'thin' model of justice these justice modifications must be accounted for based on the context of applying international law; the extent of the unalikeness. It will be identified that unalikeness in the context of applying international law cannot account for the justice modifications in external case law and a fortiori the lower levels of legal certainty.

Accordingly, this thesis endeavours to show that the application of international law in prominent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in unjust.